Glancing over the neglected links from late last week, I see that Gene Yang got hisself an interview with Scripps Howard’s Karen MacPherson. Whaddya have to say fer yerself mister fancypants?:
Gene Luen Wang likes to joke that “I’ve got two jobs — just like Batman.”
“He’s a billionaire by day and a crime fighter by night. I’m a high school teacher by day, and at night, I draw comic books,” Wang says.
Wang, 35, may not be a billionaire like Batman, but he’s begun to win a measure of fame with his “comic books.” This year, Wang’s graphic novel, “American Born Chinese” (First Second Books, $16.95) won the Michael Printz Award, the young adult literature equivalent of the Newbery Medal. The book, which Wang both wrote and illustrated, was the first graphic novel to win the Printz.
Tsk. Win one award and they’ve got delusions of gradeur.
October 8th, 2007 at 9:14 am
I just can’t believe that they kept misspelling his name throughout the entire article.
October 8th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I was just going to say that! It’s so sloppy.
October 8th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Messing up Yang’s name that badly speaks of sheer sloppiness. Too bad, because one thing the article did get right is the Printz Award and its importance to libraries. As a member of the 2002 Printz Award Committee, I know how much work the librarians on the committee put in, and about how many books they read (I read more than 400 and skimmed through at least another 200 during my year on the committee). I truly didn’t expect a graphic novel would be able to win the Printz Award yet, I thought that would come several years down the road. I’m so glad I was proved wrong.