Dark Horse Comics, Abrams Books, and Nickelodeon bring fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra a fun and informative panel about this beloved universe. Creators and writers Michael DiMartino, Faith Erin Hicks, F.C. Yee, and Gene Luen Yang talk about their role in the creation of the show and beyond. They explore the expansions of the Avatar: The Last Airbender and how it has grown and changed.
Watching the panel
Kate Jay from Dark Horse Comics leads the conversations with the panelist. Michael DiMartino was the animator, director, and creator of the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. Faith Erin Hicks was brought on by Dark Horse to be a writer for the comic books. F.C. Yee has written two novels that could be considered prequels to the Avatar series. Gene Luen Yang is also a comic book writer. He was (still is) a huge fan of the animated series but needed to know the answer to the burning questions like, “What happened to Zuko’s mom?”
Highlights as the panelists gushed over the Avatar world
Avatar: The Last Airbender came out on Nickelodeon in 2005 and lasted for three seasons. At the time, there were no other animated shows that had a continuing story-line. There are no stand-alone episodes, and every character grows and changes throughout the three seasons. This is what has allowed the series to stand the test of time.
Faith Erin Hicks says that her favorite character in the Avatar world is Toph.
“I was this huge tomboy as a kid, and you know now, I feel like we’re having this huge surge of women in animation and female characters and animated shows with female leads that is like incredibly important. But, in the 90’s…it felt like that was incredibly rare to have this strong, tough, tomboy female character in a show. And, then also have to have a show with multiple female leads..”
Avatar: The Last Airbender was also one of the first animated shows to have so many strong and powerful female leads. There were so many women in this show, and that spoke to young kids back when the show came out. It still speaks to so many people now.
Michael DiMartino was a little skeptical about having comic books, graphic novels, and young adult novels at first. He didn’t want them to be out just for the sake of being out. Because of the talented creators, those fears were put to rest when he saw that these stories they were coming up with were really great ways to fill the gaps and continue the canon of the series that was already laid out.
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