Saturday, January 8, 2011

Gene Luen Yang


Our low residency session here at Hamline is in full swing, and today we had a marvelous presentation by Gene L. Yang, author of American Born Chinese and other graphic novels and comic books. He talked quite a bit about his writing process and the things he focused on while crafting his stories. Character, page turns, arc--all of it just as important to a comic book and graphic novel as it is to a picture book or traditional middle grade novel. The lecture hall was buzzing with excitement.

Marsha Wilson Chall, one of our faculty members, reminisced about buying comic books as a child, and whether that had any influence on her becoming a picture book author. I too remember trips to the drugstore to buy comics. Maybe a fascination with Archie and Veronica is the real reason I turned to writing YA fiction.

3 comments:

  1. Tin-Tin (the Belgium comic by Herge, about the young detective, with his dog Snowy) was definitely a huge influence on me then and now. Not only is he why I became a picture book person, but he is why I will always have a dog.

    Sorry I'm not there to reap the benefits with you all. Thanks for the update, Marsha!

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  2. Keep the updates coming! I'm missing the residency and all the students and faculty!

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  3. Gene knocked that lecture out of the park. Very, very impressed.

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