| Title | : | The Good Asian, Vol. 1 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1534320946 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781534320949 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 128 |
| Publication | : | First published September 28, 2021 |
Following Edison Harki, a haunted, self-loathing Chinese-American detective on the trail of a killer in 1936 Chinatown, THE GOOD ASIAN is Chinatown noir starring the first generation of Americans to come of age under an immigration ban, the Chinese, as they're besieged by rampant murders, abusive police, and a world that seemingly never changes. Collects THE GOOD ASIAN #1-4, plus covers by SANA TAKEDA, ANNIE WU, JEN BARTEL, DAVE JOHNSON, and more.
The Good Asian, Vol. 1 Reviews
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The Good Asian is a 2022 Eisner-nominated title, which is why I read it. This is the first volume of a comics series written by Pornsak Pichetsote, a Thai-American, and illustrated by Alexander Tefenkgi, of French-Vietnamese-Djiboutian descent. Deeply researched, its story depends on historical truths about immigration policy in the U.S., particularly with respect to Chinese-Americans living in Chinatown in the thirties. We What was it like then and there to be Chinese? Featuring the only Chinese-American cop on the San Francisco police force, Edison Hark--a detective--assigned to Chinatown. What’s it like for a Chinese cop in Chinatown in 1936? Well, it’s complicated.
In 1882, as anti-Chinese riots erupted across the country, the U.S. passed a ban on Chinese immigrants, The Chinese Exclusion Act, blaming Chinese-Americans for the 1874 Depression (they were reportedly willing to work for pennies, so were unjustly blamed for driving down wages); in 1924 the act was expanded to include other Asians and Arabs. So we learn this background in some early panels and throughout the volume and then much more--with references--in an elaborate and useful appendix.
The story is noir in, as we learn from various sources, "the classic tradition of Chandler and Hammett," but with an updated eye to racism and historical accuracy. And you know, it is only in the last decade that we have had comics It also acknowledges that Chinese Americans in Chinatown had its corruption, its gangs. There’s a killer nicknamed Hatchetman (yup, this is how he does it) maybe named Hui Long (not Huey Long, the politician from Louisiana).
Hark, originally from Honolulu, was brought in by a rich white guy who had a relationship with his upstairs maid, Lily Chen, who disappeared. Hark agrees to find her but discovers in the process that his mother didn’t just die, she was murdered, and the plot, as they say, thickens. Hark is not a saint; he is in a tough political position, distrusted by both whites and Chinese. He likes white women. Lily Chen liked white guys. White American notions of power and beauty complicate life for some Chinese Americans. So I like the complexity of this. It's not simply either-or, or right/wrong.
A couple things:
*I like it that Hark’s into drawing (echoing some characters in Ed Brubaker-Sean Phillips crime comics).
*I like it that in addition to The Hathetman there are other noir characters: The Bogeyman, and the Bing Hip Tong gang.
I appreciate the very useful appendix where we learn of the 1790 Naturalization Act offering citizenship to free white persons of character, though excluding Native Americans, blacks and Asians. A very long and complicated and never completely innocent relationship between white Americans and people of color.
I had a hard time following the story at some points. I wonder whether the team wants to tell a crime story or talk about racism. It doesn't have to be one or the other, of course, but since this is a comics series, I prefer the history to be more in the background so the tale can tell itself. Sometimes the historical work helps, sometimes it slows things down. I am revising this review one day after I read and reviewed it because I am reading a noir novel, Tardi's The Bloody Streets of Paris that is set during 1941-45, the German Occupation of Paris. It's about fascism, anti-semitism, corruption, an ugly story, but these important historical topics emerge fluently out of a better and clearer and more entertaining story than I am encountering in The Good Asian--so far. Pichetsote, read Tardi! And Brubaker and Phillips, for how to tell great stories that also happen to be about racism.
So I liked a lot of this, and I'm maybe interested in how it turns out. I like the historical frame and the anti-racism, and the art is great. But I am hoping that in subsequent volumes we can focus on the story, now that we know the background. There seem to be nods to Brubaker and Phillips, in the art and the story, but in the comparison this volume fades a bit. I'll probably read on, in part because of all the critical attention and great press. -
A noir detective story set in 1930s San Francisco Chinatown, told from the perspective of an ethnically Chinese cop, it works better as historic fiction than it does as a mystery.
The insights into the horribly racist laws invented to keep the new immigrants down, is very interesting, although it maybe is not as well integrated into the narrative as you'd want.
The mystery is all over the place, with dead ends and sidesteps a-plenty, making the whole feel slowmoving and in the end unsatisfying, even knowing it ends on a cliffhanger.
I liked the art and especially the colouring, creating a lot of noir-ish atmosphere.
I'm not so sure I'd read a second volume, to be honest.
(Picked up an ARC through Edelweiss)
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The detective story gets lost in the need to tell of the racism and injustice Chinese immigrants went through in the 1930's. There's a lot of interesting historical tidbits about how the U.S. government passed laws specifically against those of Chinese ancestry and then the larger Asian population. The art and coloring very much added to the noirish setting.
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A noir story that blends the history of America’s anti-Asian attitudes with a compelling a mystery-detective narrative.
The story really picks up from issue #2 as the first issue didn’t hook or grip me into the comic. It’s well-written but the art within is even better at establishing the tone and setting of the narrative. At times, the book felt conflicted with whether it wanted to tell a story about race-social issues or a noir detective story. However, the characters are interesting especially as the layers of their character begins to peel slowly as the narrative progresses. Plus, the way Pornsak handles the noir genre whilst adding originality is impressive.
The issue I have with this collected edition is that it’s only contains issues 1 to 4. This is since, issue 4 has a very unsatisfactory ending to a collected volume with its cliffhanger. I acknowledge that cliffhangers are used in comics and even within volumes but generally in a collected volume, there is some sort of satisfactory mini-arc that is resolved. Perhaps, Pornsak needed the revenue that a volume would generate earlier but this would have a lot less sour of an after-taste if the volume contained a few more issues within it; to make it feel like a volume rather than just a collection of collected comic issues. However, if you like comics that are written for the issue rather than the graphic novel, you may like this.
Also, the author notes at the end of the issue are incredible. As someone who has studied History at University, it’s really impressive to read his historical context pages. This is because it’s informative, concise and well-written. It’s so good that the historical context pages are sometimes just as interesting as the fictional tale or even more interesting.
All in all, it’s somewhat difficult to recommend this without reading Volume 2, due to Volume 1 feeling incomplete. It’s excellent if you want to read a unique noir comic book. Hopefully, Volume 2 completes the set-up seen in Volume 1 and it lands on its feet as a complete narrative. -
A historical fiction for which the historical end notes are much more interesting than the flat and dreary crime noir mystery that makes up the majority of the book. A Chinese American police detective from Honolulu, Edison Hark, has been called to San Francisco by the son of a white millionaire who has fallen into a coma out of despair over the disappearance of the Chinese maid with whom he has a relationship. In the course of his investigation, Hark also gets mixed up in the possible return of tong violence and the racist backlash that could possibly ignite in the police and white communities around Chinatown.
Hark's voice-over narration is dour, cynical, and full of self-loathing. It just ground me down and made me care less and less as the story progressed. There's a cliffhanger ending, and the concluding volume comes out in a few months, but I'm not sure I'll bother. -
Yet another important story concerning race, in the vein of Bitter Root which I also read relatively recently and gave top marks. The Good Asian being a noir crime story, it is naturally quite different from the aforementioned steampunky modern fantasy, but nevertheless they still tackle many of the same kinds of themes, and social and historical issues - in a very real, yet engaging way.
Again, as with Bitter Root, I was very thankful to find this came with supplementary reading, on the history and context of the material.
Is it a perfect story? No. Could it have been slightly better and/or more clear? Yes. Was it still very good? Absolutely. Would I throw this at anyone even remotely interested in comics and call it required reading? Most definitely.
Looking forward to continue reading. -
A really solid noir mystery featuring an Asian-American cop in a time when they basically didn't exist. It doesn't sugarcoat the struggles faced by non-whites at the time which I'm sure will annoy some readers, although considering the resurgence of hate towards Asians in the past couple of years it feels very timely.
The art suits the style perfectly, it's moody and dark but with a pleasant style that reminds me of Sean Phillips' work. Although I could just be thinking that because this reminds me of the kind of book he and Ed Brubaker create.
It's great to encounter a new book I'm genuinely excited by. -
Incredibly choppy dialogue and narration and despite the decent artwork there was very little synergy between the textual and visual storytelling. It's evident how much research went into representing 30s San Francisco and the struggles of the Asian ethnic minorities authentically, but such efforts do not warrant a good book automatically on their own.
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So this detective story is set in the 1930s back when America was super racist. It was crazy how these laws against Asians were being passed to keep them down. During all of this, we follow an Asian detective trying to crack a missing persons case. As we follow our detective on the case, more mysteries pop up. Like who the missing person may have been related to, the mystery of a particular hatchet man and some new revelations dealing with people our Detective grew up with. Book ends on a big cliff hanger and I will definitely read the next volume to see what happens.
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When a books credits include a historical advisor you can be pretty sure the learning moments may outweigh the story.
That's what happens here..
It's a 1930s crime-noir story involving the not so good Chinese experience of the era.
The story branches off a few times...and may feel more satisfying in further volume/s?? -
Noir detective stories mostly don't keep my attention or interest well, and this story wasn't an exception. I did appreciate the research and unflinching honesty of the portrayal of the time period in regard to Asians and Asian Americans. The main character is clearly heavily conflicted about where his loyalties should lie and the cost of having a job that often victimizes people of his own demographic. While there are a number of very different female characters that I kept separate well, there are a few secondary male characters I couldn't keep straight by name.
I read this a second time and my re-read was definitely beneficial. I noticed more details and more nuances and references in the story. One chapter was from the point-of-view of a Chinese woman who briefly helps Detective Hark. Seeing his choices from her point of view definitely hit home some of the conflicting choices Hark has to make as an officer. I also really appreciated the interior design of the book more this time, like the gold used on the issue covers. I am more like to read volume 2 after this re-read. -
Very hard to like main character, though that is on purpose. Still very good, and a unique tale.
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This series certainly earns its reputation in terms of relevancy and historical context.
With all of the Noir tropes, this one feels unique by going into the post-Chinese immigration bans. I mean our main character doesn't even refer to himself by his birth name. That's despite the fact that he doesn't go by any name other than Edison because he settled into a lie he thrived in. But it's barely doing him or any other Chinese American any favors. The Chinese people see him as a race traitor, and his White American colleagues see him more as a pet with a special owner.
In fact the look into how the bans, repeals, and the efforts to get people to America anyway; it paints a somber picture on trying to find a better life. Between all of the risks, there are times when keeping your head down feels smothering but necessary. But doesn't this just mean waiting for things to get better when bad things keep happening? Some people like Ed's more racist detective colleague practically thrives on the Chinese people he can dominate. Just look at the villain of this series, a clear Red Scare stand-in using superstition to his advantage. -
A Chinese-American police detective--unheard of in 1936 San Francisco--tries to find a missing young woman for his wealthy white step-brother. Meanwhile, a possibly-fictional, axe-wielding Chinese boogeyman begins killing people in Chinatown, raising the danger profile of Chinese immigrants and threatening to trigger a new wave of anti-Chinese riots.
Never have I read a book with such a blisteringly loaded title. It's spot on and imparts a ton of setting and theme before the cover is even opened.
Plotting, dialogue, colors, it's not bad. And I appreciate the way the illustrator uses symbols to bridge scene transitions and art to depict the detective protagonist's hyperobservancy.
I will note that Pichetshote has some problems with clarity. Brubaker's better at keeping disparate noir plot threads from coming unraveled. -
I don't know how I feel about this - I love that this is representation for Asians in a time period and genre that they typically aren't represented in, but the actual story was lacking. This does have a cliffhanger that I want explained, but the characters I'm mixed on.
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Comic? Yes
History? Yes
Blend of Comic and History should be a win-win, but this...isn't.
Maybe it's the lazy 'default racist' setting so many of the characters are given, but even the presence of well written endnotes pointing out real places and things mentioned, relevant to, or pictured in the story were unable to rescue it from mediocrity. -
Pretty good detective story. The Good Asian is a great comic book noir story. It is filled with all the tropes you'd expect from a noir style mystery but the added bonus is the writer's knowledge of the Chinese American experience during the 1936. I thought the dialogue was handled well and the artwork worked well with the mood of the story. The covers were really top notch for this series and really aided the book in giving it the 30s feel. Ultimately it was the main protagonist, Edison Hark , that really steals the show in this gritty mystery. I loved the fact that there was some grit and imperfection to the character. You could really feel his inner turmoil in trying to help his fellow China men & women but having to surrender to the racist status quo of the 1930s. I always enjoy reading a good noir book and this was pretty good and hopefully we will get a volume 2. Here are a few noir style comics I'd suggest readers checkout:
Kill or be Killed, Vol. 1,
Joe Golem: Occult Detective, Vol. 1: The Rat Catcher and the Sunken Dead,
Four Eyes, Vol. 1: Forged in Flames,
The Shadow Hero Omnibus, &
Batman: The Long Halloween -
The Good Asian is a fantastic noir book with a lot on its mind and the guts to go for it. Edison Hark, in the tradition of noir protagonists, is a deeply-flawed individual with enough charm and sympathetic qualities to make you root for him. The series explores racial tensions in 1930s San Franciso with maturity and care, having each character respond differently to the hand society dealt them. Pichetshote did an enormous amount of research and it shows. The mystery anchoring the story is fascinating to follow, and when you throw murder into the mix it gets even better. Hark has interesting, complex relationships with everyone he meets, and each character has something valuable to contribute. I love Tefenkgi's pencils and inks, especially mixed with Loughridge's colors, which can be dark/moody or bright/vibrant depending on the needs of the scene.
I think the volume as a whole would have benefitted from including the fifth issue. I understand they wanted to leave things off on a huge cliffhanger, but I personally believe the ending of issue five is just as tense and would work as well. Issue five also provides some answers that would benefit the volume as a whole. While this is a noir detective book with a series-long mystery, ending on issue four probably provides too little answers for the casual reader's tastes. I also think issue three halts the book's pacing a bit. I respect Pichetshote and co. for wanting to include another perspective, but since it happens over halfway through the volume and the reader is still only working off of breadcrumbs of evidence, it does slow things down a bit.
While I have minor complaints, The Good Asian volume one is a must-read for comic and noir fans, and I suspect even casual readers will enjoy it. When it comes to the best comics of 2021, The Good Asian is easily a contender. Do yourself a favor and check it out. -
Compelling artwork and a killer premise go a long way toward making this work as well as it does. The setting is rich and packed with nasty, complex undercurrents of racism, privilege, violence, male rage, and more, and Pichetshote is hellbent on mining it for all its worth. And for the most part, it works! I love how his protagonist is shady and often unpleasant, the kind of guy you don't like but can't help but follow around. Tefenkgi and Loughridge's art is striking, too, and captures the pervading griminess of the setting really well. I also love how murky the moralities at play in the comic are and how, despite the obvious examples of The Bad Guys™️, very few good people are given a spotlight. It makes for a complicated narrative I never knew what to expect from.
That unpredictability is a double-edged sword, though, because as labyrinthine as the noir and mystery is, most of it feels disjointed. I'm sure Pichetshote has an endgame in mind, but there's an intentionality to the breadcrumb trail of clues that I felt was lacking. There's a good mystery being developed, but it gets lost in tangents and monologues that don't seem to be driving toward anything, which left me feeling a little confused, albeit never bored. I'm on board for at least another volume, especially considering how this one ends. But I hope the story is able to find a clearer sense of direction and alignment, as that will help its already strong foundations work even better. -
Individual issue reviews:
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4
Total review score: 3.375 -
If you love this story and world, would recommend getting the single issues rather than the trade. There are a bit more notes and writeups by Pichetshote that won't be in any of the trades. These add more depth to the story.
The art style is perfect for this story and race context aside, its nice to get a noir comics story that isn't wrapped up in the supernatural (not that there is anything wrong with those stories, it just seems like that is the norm). -
The only thing keeping this from being 5 stars is that the main character had amazing perceptions at the beginning that did not continue in the book. I found that a disappointment but outside of that, wow, what a fantastic story.
After rethinking, 5 stars. Brilliant book. -
It's the 1930s, and Edison Hark is the only Chinese cop on the force policing San Francisco's Chinatown. Early on, when he busts an opium addict, he tells the man's family that if the Chinese want the authorities to stop treating them like dirt, they should stop giving them reasons to do so. Privately, he knows it's never that simple, as witness the endless aggro and slurs he has to face – and it's not just whites, but the Chinese community too, who are prone to assuming his badge must be fake. He's only in this privileged yet corrosive position thanks to his family association with the tycoon Carroway, whose own family emerged from an earlier generation of racism – "Father was Irish when that meant 'job-stealing trash'". But now old man Carroway is dead, and an already constricted accommodation is looking ever shakier. Every scene provides some new tangle of the doubled identity, whether it's Hark bridling when he meets someone else trying to play the well-assimilated part, or the addition of a female narrator to the mix, which brings a whole additional layer of complications as regards what it means to be a 'good Asian'. All of this wrapped around and threaded through a classic noir plot, with bodies dropping and bits chopped off, leading to rumours of the return of a legendary hatchet-man not seen since the police busted the Tongs years previously. The art catches the mean streets, the microexpressions, and the little details Hark notices, which a crime story needs to come off on the page; an appendix summarises the various hateful pieces of legislation which form the bedrock for this whole situation. Of these, the Chinese Exclusion Act looms largest, as America's first effort to essentially outlaw a whole race, yet somehow it's not even the most shocking among them; consider the double-edged Naturalization Act of 1870, taking away Chinese-Americans' citizenship even as it was opened to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent", or the 1920 Cable Act whereby an American woman who married a Chinese man ceased legally to be an American woman.
(Edelweiss ARC) -
Cool book, I liked it a lot. Interesting story and setting, good noir mystery. I had to read it closely sometimes, to slow down a bit, which I (usually) like. Good art, primarily Western style but with some manga-influenced details, especially for example the last panel of the first issue/chapter.
There are some minor problems in both the writing and the art.
In a few spots the characters are too quick to anger and insults, unbelievably so. And at least once it was obvious that the writer, Pornsak Pichetshote, had a morsel from his research that he really wanted to include and it didn't come off as seamlessly as he probably hoped.
I liked most of the art but there was one detail that bothered me: the artist drew a hatch in a sidewalk with rigid handles sticking up from the doors, creating an obvious significant tripping hazard. I don't understand why an artist would draw something like that. And then a few pages later the artist drew the same hatches with the handles at least twice as big as in the first drawings. Sure, overall quite minor, but I found it distracting.
I appreciated the pages of immigration history added at the end. -
"You don't have to look hard to find a Chinaman acting perfect. 'Cuz their folks gave up too much to accept less. And America'll use any excuse to see you as the problem. For yellow folk, chasing perfect's normal—it's the ones who get there you have to be wary of. The perfect smile. Posture. Part in their hair.... perfection takes sacrifice, so you have to be suspicious of anyone sad enough to go through with it."
* * *
"Sorry... I know I'm a chatterbox, I know it doesn't help. Baba says that's my problem. Because a good chinese woman is 'the family backbone'. Strong and quiet. Americans get to be strong and loud. But I'm tired of being strong and quiet. I don't know how to be strong and quiet. I think about everything baba gave up for me, and... I just want him to be happy. But some days, I don't know how without making me miserable. And it feels like every choice I have..."
"Means betraying someone. And you don't now when that started. But every day it gets worse." -
My friend Melissa recommended this to me a while ago, and I finally got around to it since the library has volume one. I'll definitely be picking up volume two!
The Good Asian is a noir set in 1930s San Francisco Chinatown, following Honolulu cop Edison Hark who's come to the mainland at the request of an old family friend. As the last decade before the Chinese Exclusion Act dropped, tensions run high, and an American-born generation struggles with xenophobia from the country of their birth. A lot of the historical background is in my wheel house, but I love setting this in the 1930s (as I feel like a lot of historical fiction about Chinese Americans skews towards late 1800s or post-1965). My own great-grandmother came in the 1920s, so it's startling to consider that Yeh-yeh would've been the age of one of the kids Edison talks to.
The creators definitely did their homework, and I'll be seeking out more of their work. -
Asian American Noir with a healthy dose of oft forgotten history worked into the narrative. The first 7 pages are quite the introduction- framing the San Francisco 1936 backdrop and starting in an overcrowded barrack for Chinese immigrants on Angel Island. With the historic framework set, the detective work of Honolulu’s, Edison Hark, starts to unfold. Hark has a very Sherlock Holmes eye for detail in his approach and I love how the panel work shows his hawkeyed observation of clues. The color palette is dark and moody, just as you’d expect for a noir piece. Should be an interesting series to follow.
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Polar noir parfait, écrit par un americano thaï et dessiné par un franco africain. Déjà tout un programme en soi !
L'histoire est absolument passionnante et le trait parfaitement adapté, dans une veine qui peut faire penser à un cocktail influencé par Franck Miller, Howard Chaykin ou encore Dawin Cooke. On découvre des trouvailles graphiques très nombreuses, un régal !
