Identity, Asian Am Iron Fist, and Jeremy Lin: An EPIC Interview with Jerry Ma
This is an ongoing series where I interview API comic writers and artists with questions that dig a little deeper into who they are, how they got into comics, and what their thoughts are on API identity in the comic book industry.
Quick Bio: Jerry Ma is a comic artist who has self-published and been involved in several big comic projects including Secret Identities, Shattered, and Burn. His work has been shown at the MOCA museum in New York, JANM museum in Los Angeles, The Smithsonian Museum, and has been published in a few different books. In addition, he’s made some awesome shirts and pins!
What inspired you to pursue a career in art and comics? You know I have to ask this…what did your parents/family think of this choice?
My family actually owns a art supply store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And my mother is a writer and painter. So the “arts” have always been in my family. Both my parents have always told me that when I was just a little child that I was drawing all over our walls in the house. It drove them crazy, but gave them a clue as to what I was going to end up doing.
That being said, they weren’t very thrilled at the idea of my going to art school for college. There was a lot of shouting and arguing and even my high school art teach, Joan DiTieri, coming over to our house multiple times trying to convince my parents to let me pursue a education and career in the arts.
How has your art style changed over the years? Who/what influences you?
I’m not sure “how” my art has changed. I’d like to think I’ve improved??? But even now, the second I’m done with a piece…I look at it the next day and only see all my mistakes.
As for influences…there really are so many. Macross, the Shaw Brothers, Bruce Lee, Travis Charest, Jim Lee, John Byrne, Walter Simonson, Cliff Chiang, Geof Darrow, John Paul Leon, Tommy Lee Edwards, Bernard Chang, Andy Macdonald, Ken Knudtsen, Mucha, Lane Smith, Jeremy Lin, Yao Ming…seriously, the list goes on and on. I will say when I first saw Macross…which was way back when I was 9 or 10 years old…it just blew my mind…wide open.
We shared a conversation the other day about how growing up, there weren’t many Asian Americans in comic books. Of the few present at the time, did you have a favorite? Why?
I mean….to me….maybe it was just wishful thinking or just plain stubbornness…..but I always just pretended Snake Eyes and Iron Fist were Chinese. They just HAD to be.
They were both so cool, mysterious, tough, disciplined, NOT a sidekick. They were both leading males if you will. And they were both just like the guys I was watching on tv. At the time, I was addicted to the Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theatre programs….which were all Shaw Brothers Films. And both Snake Eyes and Iron Fist were basically American superhero versions of what I was watching there. So I just gave myself a little wiggle room and pretended they were like me.
Your graphic short story “Burn” received a LOT of love. In fact you credit it for starting your indie comics studio Epic Proportions. How did Burn come about and what were your takeaways from that experience, especially the fan-dom you got from that? Also…it’s really hard to find Burn anywhere. Where can we find it nowadays?
Ha…Burn….did it get a lot of love??? Burn started off when I was back in college. My brothers and I were always talking about how we wanted to do a story with cool Asian American characters. We wanted these characters to reflect what we loved about all those kung fu movies we were addicted to, but also give the reader characters in our present time. We didn’t want to do anything stereotypical. These weren’t martial artists or tech nerds. These were just tough street kids trying to make it in a tough urban jungle.
As for where to find it. I mean…it’s been a while. I highly doubt any place still carries it. It came out back in 2001! I don’t even bring them to comic conventions with me anymore! But believe it or not, a few people still do come up to me asking me about it. Every once in a while, if and when people ask me politely I just bring a few copies with me to the conventions…and just give them away.
Even though there was plenty of support from communities of color for an Asian American Iron Fist, Netflix went forward casting a white guy. Honestly it seemed like a “safe” enough move for them! What do you feel needs to happen to have positive Asian American representation in the Hollywood comics world (tv and movies)?
This is a really tough question to answer. I do think Asian Americans have come a long way in Hollywood. But that by no way means we as a people are where we need to be in the public eye. I mean…did you see the Oscars???
Thank god Jeremy Lin tweeted what he did, or I would have never have known how we were the butt of all those jokes. It honestly hurt my feelings when I saw/read about that.
My partner in crime Keith Chow has done a LOT of work on why Iron Fist would have been Asian American. Keith is the founder of Nerds of Color, and has been fighting the good fight for a long time on that one.
I understand that in the comic Danny Rand (Iron Fist) is Caucasian. It’s just a shame that he could have been a Asian American learning about the wonders of K’un L’un. I don’t think anyone really understands what it’s like being an Asian American. In America we’re Asian. In Asia we’re American. It’s a much tougher background to have than people realize.
You took part in the epic Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, the first-ever graphic novel collection of original Asian Am stories, as well as the follow-up Shattered. After doing all that, what are some thoughts/lessons learned about Asian Ams in comics?
The first thing I learned immediately was that I was not alone. For a long long time, I just felt like nobody understood where I was coming from and why it was so important for me to tell stories with Asian American heroes. Through Secret Identities and Shattered, I’ve gained many friends for life. So just a quick shout out to my partners Jeff Yang, Parry Shen and Keith Chow.
You shared a neat preview book for Legend. What is it and how do we throw money at it?
Haha…well, Legend is just the project I’m working on right now. I’ve self published a few books like Burn, and worked with others on projects like Secret Identities. Legend will give me the opportunity to rely on nobody else but myself. And I can’t wait for it to come together. I’m currently targeting a October Kickstarter campaign though. I’m hoping to get the first chapter complete before I do the campaign for it.
The best way of finding out where I am with it would be just by going to my website: www.epicprops.com Or just checking me out on Facebook/ twitter/ instagram.
