The Return of Chang Apana
The journal will serve as an inspiration to Samuel, helping him through moments of doubt and spurring him on with the sage words of his predecessor.
“If you look at the movies with Charlie Chan, it was all these pearls of wisdom from the Far East, and with Chang, it was the same except it was based on the Hawaiian culture and stories he had learned growing up in Hawaii,” says Croom. “He will read of his grandfather’s exploits. There will be times when he doubts himself, and the journal will give him the confidence to do what’s right.”
The comic originally was envisioned as black-and-white, but with its inclusion in MidWeek it will be printed in color, giving the artist Tripp a much more comfortable medium.
“Now that we are doing it in color, it gives us additional means to tell the story,” says Tripp, whose expertise is in coloring. ” What is the easiest way to show something is different? You use color – bright normal colors of modern day, to a desaturated-noir look for the older flashback images. We will use color to separate the two stories.”
For fans of the serial, there will be further exploration available on the website chinatowncop.com.
“You cannot tell this full story in a comic strip. You can make it exciting, you can give information, but as Paul Harvey would say, for the rest of the story, go to the Internet,” says Croom. “We will have an expanded version of the episode on the website that gives you more background and things like that.”
Think of it as a behind-the-scenes feature of a DVD. The serial will make sense without it, but for those who want to explore the story deeper, that information as well as Apana memorabilia will be available on the site.
While this may not be the Hollywood red carpet opening Noland originally envisioned for Apana’s story, it is a start that he has been seeking for more than 20 years.
And much like the man the serial is about, never doubt what can be accomplished by even the smallest among us.
