Pornsak Pichetshote is an editor’s writer. Coming up through comics as an editor under Karen Berger, Pichetshote has an uncanny ability to see every gear in the assembly line of a comic, allowing every individual piece to shine without ever losing track of how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Not only is that collective shine apparent in his collaborations, but one can’t help but marvel at his ability to create something that allows for so much different talent to feel perfectly at home with each other. There are no overzealous solos, the whole orchestra is in tune and on point.
The Good Asian Vol 1 — by Pornsak Pichetshote, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Lee Loughridge, and Jeff Powell — is the Rolex of comics. A hard-boiled, noir series about immigration policy, identity, and family melodrama, this is perhaps the most precision tuned book on the stands today, pooling together so much outstanding work, it feels like a night at the Eisners. Every element here from the overall writing and art, down to the details of the logo, designed by Erika Schnatz, evoke the essence of a great noir without ever depending on the genre’s formula.
