Fun things that you’ll discover in this section:

THE COMIC
THE TERM “YELLOW PERIL”
DARUMA
THE AUTHOR



THE COMIC

It’s always disappointed me that in the history of the American sitcom, only one has ever starred an Asian American in the lead, headlining role.  Margaret Cho’s “All American Girl” is the one and only Asian American sitcom to ever air on network television.

What, we only get one?

Yellow Peril is my small attempt to correct that great imbalance in the world of entertainment.  Sure, there are plenty of office humor type comics.  And yes, plenty of comics out there star Asian people.  But none have been drawn by me… until now!

If you’d like more behind-the-scenes stuff about the comic you can check out The Making of Yellow Peril podcast, a continuing production blog that I launched before I launched the actual comic. I know. Sooooo cart before the horse. And should you have any other questions, instead of a boring old FAQ, you can ask me over at the Yellow Peril formspring and you’ll get your answers.



THE TERM “YELLOW PERIL”

The term was coined in the late nineteenth century to denote people who suffered greatly from jaundice.  No, that’s not true.  It is from the nineteenth century and was used as a derogatory description of Asian laborers who were coming to western countries to find work. This political cartoon from 1899 entitled “The Yellow Terror In All His Glory” depicts how the West viewed Asians:

This fear of the “Yellow Peril” was reflected in much of early Western pop culture and media, most notably in the character of Fu Manchu, a sinister villain with mysterious supernatural powers. Versions of this evil character terrorized hapless Westerners in books, radio dramas, and films of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Over the years, it has fallen out of use mostly because I think contemporary racial invectives are so much shorter and easier to shout at people while angrily brandishing rocks.



DARUMA

This roly poly doll that serves as our comic navigation is my interpretation of a Daruma doll.  Daruma dolls are modeled after Bodhidharma, the first Zen Buddhist practitioner.  It is said that he meditated facing a blank wall in a cave for so long that his limbs atrophied.  That’s why the Daruma doll lacks limbs.  They’re traditionally hollow and have a low center of gravity so if you knock one over, it will roll back upright.

They are wish-making dolls.  The doll’s eyes are blank.  When you think of a wish, color in the right eye.  Should that wish be fulfilled, color in the left eye.  Japanese corporate culture uses Daruma dolls to inspire employees to complete great tasks.  When the task is assigned, an eye is colored in.  The single eye will remind them of their duty.  Once the task is completed, the other eye is colored to signify party time!

I think they’re cute.  So I used one as my comic navigation.



THE AUTHOR

My name is Jamie which is short for Jamie. You might also see it spelled Jami a few places online for reasons which are terribly embarrassing.  People sometimes mistake me for a girl because I have long, flowy, thick shiny hair or they just see the name and assume I’m a chick.  But as you can see from this:

I am, in fact, a horrible horrible man.  Horrible.

This is actually my umpteenth webcomic. I start waaaay back in the day when Comicgenesis was Keenspace with a horrible thing called Titanium Moose. If you look hard enough, you can see an early version of Yellow Peril buried somewhere in there. I don’t remember my username or password so it will be online to embarrass the shit out of me until Comicgenesis goes tits up (if ever).

During the Titanium Moose years, I also had the opportunity to draw a few arcs of T.Campbell’s Fans comic which can be seen here, here, and here.

I did a two-year stint as a professional comic colorist with UDON Entertainment and got to color a number of Spider-Girl covers, interiors for Battle of the Planets, a Battle of the Planets Thundercats crossover illustrated by Kaare Andrews, iCandy for DC, and an early Conan collection for Dark Horse.

I returned to webcomics with Angry Zen Master which is now a terrifying blog of random shit.

After a year or so of doing AZM as a webcomic, I put it on indefinite hiatus so I could work on Erfworld with Rob “freaking” Balder. I worked with Rob on book 1 for about three years. It’s now complete and ready for publication. I’ve bowed out of Erfworld to make room for a new artist.

And now I’m here!