Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

I'm Jordan Morris. It's Bullseye.

Jean-Mulan Yang is a cartoonist and graphic novelist. Four years ago, Jean went on MacArthur

and a genius grant, an honor that isn't given to many comics creators. That same year, the

Library of Congress named Jean as its ambassador for young people's literature. He's written

a lot of critically acclaimed graphic novels, American-born Chinese, Boxers and Saints,

and the Shadow Hero, just to name a few. These days, Jean's working at DC Comics as a

writer for Superman. His latest work for DC can be found in the new graphic novel Superman

Smashes the Clan, a book where Superman smashes the KKK. Not too long ago, though, Jean

was a teacher. He taught computer science at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California.

The school was known for its basketball program, and while Jean wasn't exactly a sports

guy, he soon took an interest in the team. He got to know the coach and the players,

and he wrote a graphic novel about it. Dragon Hoops follows the year he spent observing

the high school's basketball team and their road to the state championship. But it's

also sort of a memoir that year at Bishop O'Dowd would end up being his last when Jean

took a full-time gig at DC Comics. Anyway, both books are great and we're thrilled to

have Jean on the show. Let's get to the interview.

Jean Luan Yang, welcome to Bullseye.

Thank you, thank you Jordan, thank you for having me.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? I would love to hear about how you first took

an interest in comics. Was it, you know, alternative comics in high school? Was it superhero

comics in the drug store when you were a kid? Do you remember the first time you encountered

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