''Secret Asian Man'' is a discontinued weekly

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

written and drawn by Tak Toyoshima. The strip covers the author's biography and

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

issues. ''Secret Asian Man'' often centers its discussion on what it means to be Asian American, as well as other race- and ethnic-related issues. Its title is a

mondegreen A mondegreen () is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes w ...

referring to the song " Secret Agent Man".

Publication history

The strip appeared weekly starting in 1999, and was published in ''

Boston's Weekly Dig ''DigBoston''—formerly known as the ''Weekly Dig'' and known colloquially as ''The Dig''—is a free alternative newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts. It covers news in the Greater Boston area and offers commentary on music, arts, politics, busin ...

'', ''

Metro Silicon Valley ''Metro'' is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as ''Metro Silicon Valley'', as well as ''Metroactive'' online, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print ...

'', ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'', ''

RedEye Red eye, red-eye, redeye or variants may refer to: Related to the eye * Red-eye effect, in photographs * Red eye (medicine), an eye that appears red due to illness or injury * Red, an extremely rare eye color due to albinism * Red eyeshine i ...

'', ''

Nichi Bei Times The ''Nichi Bei Times'' (日米タイムズ ''Nichi Bei Taimuzu'') was a Japanese American newspaper headquartered in San Francisco. As of 2009 it was the oldest Japanese American newspaper in Northern California. Historically the ''Nichi Bei Tim ...

'', ''

AsianWeek ''AsianWeek'' was America's first and largest English language print and on-line publication serving Asian Americans. The news organization played an important role nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area as the “Voice of Asian America”. ...

'', '' Georgia Asian Times'', ''

The Everett Herald ''The Everett Herald'' is a daily newspaper based in Everett, Washington, United States. It is owned by Sound Publishing, Inc. The paper serves residents of Snohomish County. History ''The Daily Herald'' was first published on February 11, 190 ...

'', and on the internet. ''Secret Asian Man'' was picked up for syndication by

United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along wit ...

(

United Media United Media was a large Column (periodical), editorial column and comic strip newspaper print syndication, syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comi ...

) for its daily run on comics.com, which ran from July 16, 2007, to September 19, 2009. On May 12, 2013, Toyoshima announced that the strip was going on hiatus.

Characters and story

All episodes of ''Secret Asian Man'' feature Osamu "SAM (Secret Asian Man)" Takahashi, who is a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

artist modeled after the author. SAM has three major friends: Richie, a white man; Charlie, a black man; and Grace Patterson, an East

who was adopted by white parents. Along with them, SAM also has a cynical and sarcastic spiky-haired cousin named Simon. SAM's wife Marie is Italian, and they have a son named Shintaro, and a newborn son, Bob.

References

External links

Interviews with Toyoshima

* Attitude: The New Subversive Cartoonists
IMDiversity.com

CurrentVine.com

1999 comics debuts 2009 comics endings Male characters in comics Humor comics Satirical comics Autobiographical comics {{comic-strip-stub

Publication history

Characters and story

See also

References

External links

Interviews with Toyoshima