The Good Asian Vol. 1
Pornsak Pichetshote, writer; Alexandre Tefenkgi, artist; Lee Loughridge, colorist; Jeff Powell, letterer & designer
Image Comics, 2021
This is a crime noir with a unique focus. The detective is Edison Hark, a Chinese-American who is a member of the police force in Hawaii. But he is trying to solve a 1936 murder in California, where the very idea of a Chinese policeman is completely foreign--after a while he stops even showing people his badge, because they all think it's fake. Chinese-Americans are routinely referred to as "Orientals" or "Coolies," and no doubt it would be historically accurate to use far more racist terminology (the word "chink" also makes an appearance, as well as "yellow").
Edison is on the case because he was adopted by Mason Carroway, a rich white man with properties in Hawaii and San Francisco, and because Carroway's son Frankie asked him to come (Mason is inconveniently in a coma, so he cannot help with the investigation). Ivy Chen, a family housekeeper, has disappeared; and the investigation points towards personal connections to both Mason and Frankie. Someone is killing people in Chinatown with an axe, evoking the preferred execution method of the dreaded Chinese Tong mobsters, thought to be long gone.
The narrative also deals with the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake--which destroyed so many records that many Chinese faked documents claiming they were citizens returning home whose birth papers were lost in that fire. But the big mystery never stays away for long, and in the end it finds Frankie and Edison in Chinatown, looking for a resolution that may be the end of Chinatown itself. Tefenkgi's art is a bit minimal, but the storytelling is solid. The Historical Notes expand on the background of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Angel Island (the gateway for immigrants crossing the Pacific), as well as including an Immigration History Timeline, which includes immigrants of all races. There is also the history of the Chop Suey Circuit and the Chinatown Telephone Exchange, which are both referenced in the story.
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