Gene Luen Yang, whose two-volume Boxers & Saints was shortlisted just this morning for the National Book Award, has revealed details about his follow-up: a revival of the Golden Age superhero the Green Turtle with Sonny Liew (My Faith in Frankie, Malinky Robot).

Yang has mentioned the graphic novel, most recently last month in an interview with Comic Book Resources, but BoingBoing now has the final cover for The Shadow Hero, to be published by First Second Books, along with a video laying out the "secret origin" of Green Turtle, who was intended by his creator Chu Hing, who's said to have wanted the character to be Chinese-American.

"His publishers didn't think that would fly in the marketplace," Yang says in the video, "so Chu Hing reacted in this really passive-aggressive way: He drew those original Green Turtle comics so that we never see the hero's face. Whenever the hero is on a panel, we almost always just see his cape. Whenever he is turned around, something is blocking his face. [...] Rumor is that Chu Hing did this so he could imagine his hero as he originally intended, as a Chinese-American." That would make the Green Turtle, who debuted in 1944, the first Asian-American superhero.

Yang wrote the project (in between Boxers and Saints), while Liew is providing the art. Liew posted a preview in March.

(via ComicsAlliance)