Post AACC Wrap-Up with Keith Chow
by The Happiest Medium on August 20, 2009
Keith Chow
Paolo Javier chats with Keith Chow about the inaugural Asian American Comicon in post-convention glow.
Asian Americans have been vital contributors to the American comic book since, well, its birth, a fact rarely acknowledged by an industry that continues to uphold a homogeneously white and hetero imaginary on the covers and in the panels of its mainstream and independent titles. With this in mind, I cannot thank the BSG gods enough for the editors of Secret Identities, the first-ever anthology of Asian American comics published earlier this year, who followed-up their historic publication with an equally groundbreaking event on July 11th at the Museum of the Chinese in America: the inaugural Asian American Comics Convention. The AACC felt more like a day-long celebration; I got to participate in the morning as a reader on the panel ‘Every Comic is Asian American’, then geek out in the afternoon and evening as a reader and fan. (During my panel, I shared excerpts from obb, my on-going poetry comic collaboration with artist Ernest Concepcion that’s partially inspired by our lifelong interest in underground comic art and artists.) And I loved AACC for all the reasons that Keith Chow, co-organizer of the event and co-editor of Secret Identities, gives in our post-convention interview below.
