The Good Asian vol. 1

On the surface, Edison Hark has it a lot better than most Chinese-American citizens circa 1936.  Not only is his surrogate father Mason Carroway a very rich businessman, but those family connections helped him become a cop out in Honolulu.  However, Edison is now back stateside after his brother Frankie told him that their dad lapsed into a coma following the disappearance of his housekeeper, Ivy Chen.  That there was more going on between Mason and Ivy is immediately obvious to Edison, but that soon becomes the least of his problems as the search for the missing housekeeper soon spirals to include fraud, extortion, violence, and murder.  The last of which is said to be perpetrated by a legendary Chinatown hatchetman by the name of Hui Long.  Everyone thought he was dead, but just like secrets, some legends refuse to stay buried.

“The Good Asian” comes to us from writer Pornsak Pichetshote and artist Alexandre Tefengki.  Listeners with long memories may recall Pitchetshote as the writer behind “Infidel,” the comic about a racist ghost that stalks a Muslim-American family in an apartment building.  In case you hadn’t guessed, this story also has racial dynamics on its mind as Edison has to navigate the many and various cultural issues he faces in Chinatown.  That’s something I haven’t seen before and it does help to enliven the mysteries at the heart of the story.  It also helps that Edison is a fascinating protagonist to observe as he navigates these mean streets while being just clever enough to stay alive, but not so much to avoid being hated by just about everyone.

Of course, if you were going into a Depression-Era private-eye story about racism against Chinese-Americans expecting a light read, you won’t find that here.  Things get pretty dark for Edison and the rest of the cast and this first volume ends on a note indicating that they’ll only get worse from here on out.  Tefengki does make all this bad stuff look good with a detailed style that captures the period well, brings out the character’s emotions, and works well with the flashier storytelling flourishes when they present themselves.  The first volume of “The Good Asian” may only collect the first four issues of this ten-issue maxiseries, but it’s still a dense and satisfying read regardless of how dark the story is looking to get.