If you’re a lover of detective noir stories, the real detective noir stories, the sharp noir that reaches for your incessant itch and gratifyingly draws blood, the hard noir that caresses you so that you can’t gasp for air, the heavy noir that…
…well, you get the picture, if you’re a lover of that kind of detective noir.
And who isn’t? Good stuff, that detective noir! Fans of authors Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and Dashiell Hammett would agree. In the comic book artform it would be fans of Brubaker and Phillips, Miller, Bendis, Aaron and Azzarello.
Today sees the release of another high watermark in the detective noir fiction oeuvre. And it’s award-winning noir, to boot! Today sees the release of the collected The Good Asian: 1936 Deluxe Edition hardcover!
Written by comic book editor-turned-fan-favourite writer Pornsak Pichetshote (Infidel, Dead Boy Detectives and TV’s Arrowverse, Cloak & Dagger, Two Sentence Horror Stories) and wonderfully illustrated by Alexandre Tefenkgi (Outpost Zero, Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World), The Good Asian: 1936 Deluxe Edition hardcover from publisher Image Comics collects the entire ten-issue miniseries first published on a monthly schedule a few years ago.
It won 2022 Eisner and Harvey Awards, it was that good, didn’t you know?
The Good Asian follows Edison Hark, a Chinese American private eye, living out the American Dream, whatever that is, during the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1936 San Francisco. That Act prohibited Chinese immigration and cemented Asian-levelled racism in America for decades. But Hark is a self-loathing man who monitors the Chinese residents of San Francisco for the predominant, and predominantly white, parties that govern. Still, he’s on the trail of a killer in a city and people plagued by every kind of societal abuse.
The Good Asian: 1936 Deluxe Edition hardcover not only covers the original comic book, recently optioned into a live-action television series for which Pichetshote will be involved in the writing process, but it also contains bonus content in its 304 pages of noir-brilliance. It’s an entertaining book that scratches every detective itch you might have while also highlighting real societal issues that America had at the beginning of the 20th century – and still has today. It’s a story with meaning and relevance, a deserving recipient of the awards and high praise the series and creators have garnered.
Discover what all the fanfare is about! Make the run to your local comic book shop or better bookstore today and pick up The Good Asian: 1936 Deluxe Edition hardcover.
You can catch the original trailer to The Good Asian series directly below.
