Gene Luen Yang Interview – San Diego Comic Con

On Sunday of San Diego Comic Con, I got to speak to Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese, for a few minutes while he was in between panels. He had a great Comic-Con, winning three Eisner Awards and being announced as the new writer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I started the interview by congratulating him on winning an Eisner for his graphic novel Luna New Year Love Story. He and his partner on the book, LeUyen Pham, were nominated for four awards, taking home three. He was excited about the wins; however, the celebration was dampened a little because LeUyen Pham couldn’t attend this year due to a preplanned trip.

He talked about how big an honor it was to be nominated in the first place, but he never imagined winning three Eisners. We talked about how being recognized for your work is amazing, but even more when it’s from your peers. I jokingly asked if he could achieve an EGOT (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award) in his future; he didn’t say no.

Many fans learned about Gene Luen Yang’s work on American Born Chinese, for which he also won an Eisner award. I asked him how it felt to have Disney+ call asking to adapt his graphic novel into a live-action show. Having been a major Disney fan as a child, even doing a biography of Walt Disney in high school, and adding that he was such a Disney fan, he wore something Mickey Mouse almost every day while in school.

Gene Luen Yang spoke at length about how much of an honor it was to work with Disney and living out his childhood dream of working with them. I asked if there was a possibility of further collaboration with Disney. He talked about how they got in right under the wire of both the strikes and the LA fires. Although Hollywood and streaming are in a strange place right now, they are working on a couple of things that he couldn’t go into detail about.

We then moved on to his background in storytelling, using traditional Chinese elements but bringing them into a modern way of telling stories. Gene Luen Yang talked about how he naturally gravitated to it, being raised with a lot of traditional Chinese stories and storytelling. His mother would tell him traditional stories, but he grew up in the modern way of telling stories, especially in the States.

I mentioned that each storyteller brings what they were exposed to while growing up, when I asked him if there is a new traditional or modern story he would like to tell. He has a genre bucket, as he called it. The first thing he mentioned was doing a sci-fi story, which is my favorite genre, so I was interested right off the bat.

Gene Luen Yang also wants to do another romcom after doing Lunar New Year Love Story. He also wants to do a horror story and maybe a detective comic. It felt like many other writers I have spoken to, they want to play in all the different sandboxes.

This led me to ask him about being announced to be the next writer of the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during Comic-Con weekend. Launching in December with issue 13 of the new run, Gene Luen Yang will be writing, and Freddie E Williams will be the new artist.

He told me the story about self-publishing his first comic with $3000 from Peter Laird, co-creator of TMNT, Xeric Foundation. As a kid, he read the comics, watched the show, and even had many of the toys. So this is a huge full-circle moment for him. Although he couldn’t talk about what direction he and Williams were going to be taking the Turtles, he is beyond excited to be part of this ongoing and important comic series.

We then talked about getting younger readers to get off their phones and read more comics. He quickly talked about how important it is that the story is compelling, and he feels that readers of all ages will gravitate to a good story. He added that in modern comics and also other types of storytelling, grabbing someone early was more important than ever before, with so many different types of movies, shows, books, and comics. Grabbing readers quickly is key, then he can slow down and tell a deeper story.

To finish up, I wondered if there were other avenues of storytelling he would like to explore, like another television series or movie. Gene Luen Yang made a point of saying that yes, he is working on other projects for the screen, but his heart and soul are with comics. He enjoyed his time working with Disney+, but if that never happens again, he would be happy. But if he couldn’t write another comic, he would be devastated.

He and I missed connecting on Saturday, but I am glad to have had my ten minutes with him. He was patient with me as I set up my camera to record the interview so I could reference back to it for this article. And that day, my phone and gimble had decided not to cooperate.

Being able to speak to the talented Gene Luen Yang was a great way to end my first Comic-Con experience. I am excited to see what he has in store for us in the TMNT comic and whatever other projects he is working on in the future.

You can read more of our SDCC 2025 coverage here and watch fun footage on our TikTok.

Author: Sean Miley

I’d rather find the things that I like about a story, movie, or tv show, than lead with negativity. I love Star Wars, Doctor Who, MCU, comic book and conventions.

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