Comic and gaming culture site Bleeding Cool reported yesterday (November 28) that Akira Yoshida, a Japanese comic author who wrote more than 35 Marvel books in the mid-’00s, is actually a White man named C.B. Cebulski. A company spokesperson confirmed the report to NBC News, and the newly-minted editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics issued a statement to Bleeding Cool:
I stopped writing under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida after about a year. It wasn’t transparent, but it taught me a lot about writing, communication and pressure. I was young and naïve and had a lot to learn back then. But this is all old news that has been dealt with, and now as Marvel’s new editor-in-chief, I’m turning a new page and am excited to start sharing all my Marvel experiences with up and coming talent around the globe.
Cebulski used the pseudonym while working for Marvel in Shanghai. Neither Cebulski nor his employer discussed if he would face internal punishment for misrepresenting himself as a Japanese man who wrote comics about Japanese culture and characters that drew from Japanese artistic traditions.
There was immediate backlash against Cebulski’s actions, which Bleeding Cool writes rings of “appropriation, yellowface and playing up an authenticity that wasn’t there.” Asian-American Twitter users and allies responded by celebrating Asian diaspora comic creators using the hashtag, #ActualAsianComicWriters. Community organizer Mark Tseng-Putterman launched the hashtag with the following tweet, which references #ActualAsianPoets, a previous social media response to a White poet who used an Asian pen name:
We responded to "Yi-Fen Chou" with #ActualAsianPoets. It’s only fair that white dude Marvel EIC C.B. Cebulski (aka Akira Yoshida) gets the same treatment.
Who are your favorite #ActualAsianComicWriters? I’ll start with Marjorie Liu, who writes Monstress. pic.twitter.com/8kR4QTnmvA
— Mark Tseng-Putterman (@tsengputterman) November 28, 2017
Other users followed his lead with their own recommendations, which include both rising and veteran authors:
!!! my rec goes to mariko and jillian tamaki (@marikotamaki + @dirtbagg) who illustrate queer coming of age so tenderly/achingly pic.twitter.com/BwJQMLR7oo
— JESS (@jessicasjiang) November 28, 2017
Some #ActualAsianComicWriters to check out:
• PASHMINA by Nidhi Chanani
• A DIFFERENT POND by Bao Phi & Thi Bui
• MONSTER by Naoki Urasawa
• BOXERS & SAINTS by Gene Luen Yang pic.twitter.com/rpTk2DrlTM— Books and Boba (@BooksandBoba) November 29, 2017
If you’re talking #ActualAsianComicWriters you should start with the one and only Larry Hama, one of the all time greats. pic.twitter.com/NVuUXfgPdA
— Heidi MacDonald (@Comixace) November 29, 2017
LOVE @gregpak & @geneluenyang! #ActualAsianComicWriters
— Ron Seoul-Oh (@CPThrio) November 28, 2017
One Twitter account dedicated to Asian literature tweeted the following:
A few stories by #ActualAsianComicWriters! (Part 1)
– Skim by Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki
– Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani
– Sun Dragon’s Song by Joyce Chng, Kim Miranda
– Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata pic.twitter.com/vouWG9Ypo2— Lit CelebrAsian (@LitCelebrAsian) November 29, 2017
#ActualAsianComicWriters! (Part 2)
– Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu
– American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
– Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim
– Monstress by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda pic.twitter.com/OTXlLzKi9b— Lit CelebrAsian (@LitCelebrAsian) November 29, 2017
#ActualAsianComicWriters (Part 3)
– Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book by Jomny Sun
– Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung
– Suee and the Shadow by Ginger Ly, Molly Park
– The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew pic.twitter.com/3z5UjUGuuq— Lit CelebrAsian (@LitCelebrAsian) November 29, 2017
#ActualAsianComicWriters Part 4 + rec more comic writers via hashtag!
– Shing Yin Khor @sawdustbear
– Anoosha Syed @foxville_art
– Irene Koh @kohquette
– Clara Mae @ubeempress
– @skimcasual
– @maleksolh
– Rachel Ang @drawbyfour
– Lee Lai(reposted due to typo – apologies!)
— Lit CelebrAsian (@LitCelebrAsian) November 29, 2017