By Jacob Cordas — Noir always made me feel at home. It’s partially a mechanical element, the more you watch and read the easier the mysteries fit together. Noir rewards your constant consumption creating a puzzle solving feedback loop that feels like home. But if that was all it was, it would quickly grow stale. The other and far more enduring element is its deceptive progressivism often disguised as much as the truth is. This is a genre that at once created stereotypes of women while at the same time served as, “one of the few periods of film in which women are active, not static symbols, are intelligent and powerful…” (Janey Place’s Women in Film Noir). This is a genre where the first master of it wrote what is considered by Out magazine to be “Hollywood’s first gay masterpiece…” without ever featuring a literally out character on screen. And this was a movement filled with complex, dynamic Asian heroes who were almost exclusively white men in yellow face.

This is where The Good Asian #1 steps in with the most confidence and elegance of any new number one issue that I’ve read this year.

As written by Pornsak Pichetshote (Infidel) and drawn by Alexandre Tefenkgi (Outpost Zero), The Good Asian is a necessary next step for a genre that exists in a forever cycle of repetition. Here we can feel the influence of comics like Criminal and Sin City with the looming presence of Dashiel Hammett but it is remixed into something unique and threatening and true. Here the detective is dealing with the intricacies of their race in a time of federally approved hate that history has effectively forgotten, struggling with a mystery that is clearly going to fuck me up.

Pichetshote’s script is sharp and clever, purple without ever being bruised. Characterization is strong and immediate, regardless of time jumps or backgrounds. It’s a testament considering how nonlinear this issue often is how clear it is. It bounces around through the life of our protagonist letting us in on the hate he has endured, the world he is trying to survive in and hint at how far he is willing to go to succeed.

Tefenkgi’s art is just as delightful. It is filled with the large shadows and deceptively simple backgrounds. It’s a world filled with all the icons of noir (flappers, unimaginable wealth, deep cruelty, sex, violence) but still feels unique and different. The characterization is strong artistically as well. I adore the design for Edison Hark. It’s everything I want out of a noir hero. As soon as I saw him show up, I knew I would follow this detective through innumerable mysteries.

Lee Loughridge does excellent work coloring. He uses simple colors per scene - each one assigned one base color. It creates a dialogue between scenes as a jump from blue to purple may be kind but that next jump to yellow is jarring and intimidating. Jeff Powell gets to do a variety of different text layouts and does it all with aplomb. It’s elegant, easy to read and, most importantly, continually amps the tension and the style of scene up.

We should take a second though and acknowledge what is going on right now. Hate crimes against Asian-Americans have jumped up dramatically. In New York City alone, between Jan 1st and April 4, there were 80 hate crimes targeting Asian Americans. And while this comic isn’t attempting to deal with this per se, it is innately having to deal with the culture it is being published into. Which may be a long winded and fucked up way to say, I’m happy this comic is coming out now.

No comic is going to change the world. No comic is going to get people to stop being monsters. But, if there was one that was going to do it, it would be The Good Asian. It’s compelling and diverse characterization is a testament to humanity’s need to persevere. With a creative team that is all doing some of their best work, evolving a genre into a place it always should have been, no reader can go wrong with this book. Hell, I bet some people will benefit.

Overall: The Good Asian #1 is a phenomenal addition to the world of crime comics, a necessary and daring creation. 9.0/10

REVIEW: The Good Asian #1

The Good Asian #1
Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote
Artist: Alexandre Tefenkgi
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Jeff Powell
Publisher: Image
Price: $3.99
Writer PORNSAK PICHETSHOTE’s long-awaited follow-up to the critically acclaimed INFIDEL with stunning art by ALEXANDRE TEFENKGI (OUTPOST ZERO)! Following Edison Hark—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."Edison Hark immediately joins the ranks of Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade in a smart, classic noir drenched in style and history."—JAMES TYNION IV (DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH, Batman)"A gripping and authentic crime story from an Asian-American POV. This is the book I've been waiting for!"—CLIFF CHIANG (PAPER GIRLS)"A brittle story that takes place during an unfamiliar time in our history that is tragically all too familiar now in our present."—BRIAN AZZARELLO (100 Bullets, MOONSHINE)
Buy It Here: The Good Asian #1

Read more great comic book reviews here!

Read our full interview with writer Pornsak Pichetshote!

My name is Jacob Cordas (@jacweasel) and I am starting to think I may in fact be qualified to write this.