Death Ray Weekly - 3/24/09

The Secret Asian Man Himself - Tak Toyoshima
By Jay

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of asking the multi-talented creator of Secret Asian Man Tak Toyoshima about his comic strip and projects to come. Enjoy...

With the Seattle Post-Intellinger & other papers throughout the U.S. going strictly to an online basis are you concerned at all with the state of comic strips? Do you see a future where they will strictly be online only or only in the bigger newspapers?
I'm in a unique situation where I'm on both sides of the fence. On one hand I'm a comic strip artist trying to get into papers. On the other hand I'm a creative director for a weekly paper. So I get to see both sides of the fence. No doubt newspapers are hurting and few if any have figured out how to successfully translate their paper to a successful online entity. Readership is increasingly going to the web, paper subscriptions are down and editors are gutting their newsroom staff.

I'm definitely concerned with the state of comics in newspapers. Major alt-weekly chains have cut all syndicated content across the board and dailies are cutting comics to increase ad space and have even resorted to shrinking paper size. What I'm not concerned about is the state of the comic strip. There are thousands of comics on line. Many are pretty bad but the point is that the comics art form is doing amazingly well. But doing well on line doesn't usually equate making money. There are a few smart comic guys out there who are doing OK by providing their content for free but making money on merchandise and book sales. I think this whole newspaper situation will force us all to think a lot more critically about how to take capitalize on the benefits of the internet as well as other non-traditional means of making money.

I don't think newspapers will go away for quite some time so for the immediate future I see comics still continuing in them. It's the bigger papers that tend to have a little more money to pay for syndicated content so that future is already here. Will everything eventually go on line? Who knows. Part of me would love to see that but there are an awful lot of people who don't have the luxury of owning a computer and are without internet access who will suffer not being able to walk to the corner and get the news for a quarter. And don't get me started on TV news...People need to read more, not become mindless blobs in front of their TVs. They should be intelligent blobs in front of newspapers.

How does this effect the way you go about making Secret Asian Man if at all? Since this is your 10th year drawing Secret Asian Man do you foresee a time when you might end its run whether due to lack of publications or your own self interest?
It doesn't. I tend to put my head down and go to work. I'm cognizant of what's going on but I don't let it steer my creative energy. Good is good and people will recognize that. If at some point I'm working away and look up to see absolutely no one wanting to read the strip then I'll just start wearing my underwear on my head and drawing on the walls for my own pleasure and my neighbor's horror.

Seeing as how Secret Asian Man can have "touchy" subject matter such as race perception, what if any are some of the negative feedbacks you've recieved? Or positive? How do you deal with them & do you ever take it personally since you've put so much time & effort into it?
I've received my fair share of both over the years. In the early years the negatives were pretty hateful. The strip was a lot more venomous and got a lot of people's undies in a bunch. I get a good deal of people who want to set me straight and tell me how wrong I am. Sometimes they do it in a nice way like they're just passing along some useful info. Others like to needle their points and try to make me feel stupid. I'd be lying if I said I didn't take it personally at all but for the most part it doesn't bother me. Nowadays I enjoy the criticism more than the fan mail. Criticism always makes me think twice about my work.

Do you have a personal favorite strip from Secret Asian Man? ( I loved the St Pattys Day strip!)
I can't nail down a singular favorite but there are some recent story arcs that I enjoyed working on. Like the arc about Sam's friend Richie (curly red haired white guy) discovering that he has family in Africa and therefore considers himself an African American. I also have a few upcoming story lines that will flesh out certain characters more. Those are becoming the more enjoyable ones, not necessarily the punch line gag strips.

How did growing up in Manhattan influence the subject matter of Secret Asian Man?
I grew up in Tribeca which neighbors Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown. My elementary school was about 99% Chinese. I blended in very well visually but I always knew that I was different because I was Japanese. NYC is just a melting pot that you can't help but to have a more open mind about different cultures. At the same time there are plenty of opportunities for conflict and tension. Fights between Italian kids and Chinese kids happened a lot in my neighborhood. But through it all I think I managed to keep a balanced perspective. In high school there were some groups that separated according to race but I was the kid who would go back and forth between all of them. I didn't see any one of them as more desirable to hang out with than another.

How is the Manhattan of today different from when you grew up? Better or worse?
I've lived in Boston for more than half my life now so I've definitely lost touch with the scene on the ground in NYC but I do visit with my family and my sense of it is that it's a much safer place in terms of muggings and gang violence. But it also seems a lot more sanitized. I remember when I heard about a Disney store coming to Times Square right near where there used to be a row of porno theaters. I just thought it was weird. Even my mom said she misses the seedy character NYC used to have.

Do you think that in another 10 years you'll still be doing Secret Asian Man? If so what do you imagine the subject matter to be?
I think so. Sam's life is pretty much my own and I plan on being around in 10 years. I like to think the strip will grow with me. In the first 10 years I went from a lot of angst and ranting to a more rational and thought out approach. It's easy to piss people off (and fun!) but at some point you have to move on and be constructive. It's fun learning about Asian American history as I go. There's a lot more than you'd think and it's fun to be able to pass that info along to people who may otherwise never come across that kind of info. The trick is to not make it boring and preachy.

With the arrival of Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology in stores April 15th how excited are you and how did you get involved?
It's a very exciting project that I almost didn't take part in so I'm glad everything worked out the way it did. A while back I was contacted by (I think) Parry Shen about getting involved with this comic project he was putting together. It sounded interesting but because of terms in my contract with United Features I felt like it would be a hassle so I declined. A few months later Jeff Yang got in touch with me about Secret Identities again. This time I was a little more anxious to jump on board. And then I heard what the assignment would be: to interview Larry "GI Joe" Hama and draw an illustrated version of the interview. I immediately got in touch with UFS and pressed hard to get involved and everything worked out.

Were there any contributors to Secret Identities of whom you admired or were excited to be working with?
The aforementioned Larry Hama was great to work with. I had met Greg Pak a little while back so it was nice to be involved in a project with him. Also to work with Jeff Yang was a lot of fun. Bernard Chang is a veteran in the comic book field and deserves a lot of respect. Cliff Chiang is a little newer but has an amazing style. There are even some actors involved with the project: Sung Kang, Kelly Hu, Yul Kwon and, of course, Parry Shen. It was also exciting to see who gave the book feedback like Jim Lee(!), Margaret Cho and Walt Simonson.

What inspired you to do comic strips rather than drawing on any other level such as comic books or animated TV?
I actually worked on comic books for about 5-6 years before doing the strip. I was mainly an inker for New England Comics' The Tick. I also did a few small inking jobs for Marvel, Disney and some other independent comic companies. I also self published a comic called The Couch. Animated TV is a whole different world, I think. I'm curious to look into it but I have the expectancy of it being less fun than sitting down and drawing comics.

Who or what inspirations have you had through your career such as parents, artisits, or writers?
My dad is a retired artist from Japan. Part of the neo-dadaist movement there so I suppose the house was art friendly. My brother and I were allowed to draw on the walls. He is definitely an inspiration to me. My brother used to draw a lot too and when we were kids we'd draw a lot. We made comics together and drew out our characters when we played Dungeons and Dragons. And of course my mom, who is also artistic (clothing design) was always there to keep me on the straight and narrow.

There are a lot of artists in the comics/illustration world that I look up to. Frank Frazetta, Frank Miller, Geoff Darrow, Mike Mignola, Bernie Wrightson, Sam Kieth, Stan Sakai, Tezuka Osamu, Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Toriyama, Jamie Hewlett...I could literally go on all day.

I'm not the biggest reader in the world but I'm trying. I like William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Tolkien, Neal Stephenson. I used to like Kurt Vonnegut a lot too. I guess I like the sci-fi/fantasy stuff. I've also been reading some AA history and cultural studies stuff like Frank Wu's "Yellow".

Whether its a book, comic, or manga what are you reading now? What are some titles you have read that you would suggest?
My comic book reading has become virtually non existent so in terms of stores I can recommend I can't say that I can. I still look at the pretty pictures though! James Jean is one of my favorite cover artists (although I guess he just retired from comics).

What do you think of the success of Asian directors such as Ang Lee and the somewhat controversial Takashi Miike? (who I love but missed at NYCC this year!)
I totally missed Miike at NYCC as well. Suck! I think their success is great but in the end I'll always support a work because I like it or think it's good, not because it was made by an Asian. Ang Lee is kinda hit or miss. Miike is always a freak so chances are I'll always like his movies. Guys like Justin Lin are in Hollywood working on movies that many wouldn't call great works of art but a good part of their success is that they may be able to give more Asian Americans better roles in films.

Since you're out of the Boston area and we're out of Connecticut are there any local area events you will be appearing or speaking at? If not local where else?
Locally there will be a string of events to help promote Secret Identities. It's still in the planning stages but will probably happen around the 3rd week of April after the book is released. We're planning a book signing, some workshops and maybe some visits at local schools.

I'll be showing some original art at Swarthmore College this month. Not sure on the details of exactly where on campus they will be but it's part of their Asian American month celebrations.

Other than that I'm just coming back from San Francisco where I'm showing artwork along with some other artists at the National Japanese American Historical Society as part of the Many Faces of Manga exhibit. I also received an award by the NJAHS at their annual awards dinner.