‘The Good Asian: 1936 Deluxe Edition’ HC (review)

Written by Porksak Pichetshote 
Art by Alexandre Tefenkgi
Introduction by David Choe
Published by Image Comics

Writer Porksak Pichetshote has been on one hell of a good streak lately. His comic Infidel was very interesting and I may like this one even better. It is an interesting noir book set in Chinatown in the 1930’s. What more do you want than that?

Luckily, this comic book has plenty of things to offer the reader and it is very strong.

Pichetshote immediately introduces us to our main character named Edison Hark. Edison is a hard-boiled self-hating Chinese-American detective who is on the trail of a killer in Chinatown.

The year is 1936 and Hark has his work cut out for him.

Unfortunately, it’s going to be much harder than Hark had originally expected.

There is a disappearance that happens in the book that Hark has to look into. Unfortunately that leads him into something bigger that he wasn’t expecting. The twists and the turns happen really fast too and Hark has a hard time keeping pace with them. He is thrown into some pretty crazy circumstances that he has to deal with.

Hark also comes across a “love interest.” Things don’t go as expected, of course. In fact, not much goes as expected for Hark. The reader is thrown into this world with him, and Pichetshote takes any preconceived notions that we have and he shatters them completely. This is a book that really pushes things to the limit.

For his part, Pichetshote writes a really great dark tale of crime fiction, one that handles the social commentary perfectly. It is never too heavy handed and it is always honest.

Alexandre Tefenkgi does a great job with the artwork as well, working with black, grey, orange and sepia for colors. This is book unlike any that are out there and the creative team has truly outdone themselves.

RATING: A