“As I was researching, I was struck by how similar the Boxers were to Joan of Arc. Joan was basically a French Boxer. She was a poor teenager who wanted to do something about the foreign aggressors invading her homeland.”

American cartoonist and author

Gene Luen Yang is an American cartoonist and author. He lectures frequently on graphic novels and comics, and has spoken at conventions, universities, schools, and libraries. He also worked at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California, where he served as Director of Information Services and taught computer science. In 2012, he joined Hamline University’s low-residency MFA program in writing for children and young adults. In 2016, the U.S. Library of Congress named him Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and he received a MacArthur Fellowship that same year.