I’m German-American, but unless I’m commenting on my heritage (such as having uncles who exerienced the World War II from both sides), it should’t matter.

Living in New York, so vermischt, well… background is just another aspect of someone, like the color of one’s hair, or if one wears glasses, or reads comics.

SRS

- but Larry Hama and Greg Pak are Asian?

Here is an interview with Hama:

Q4: People tend to ask a ton of questions about multiculturalism and diversity in interviews with you, more than with other comic writers. Given that making racial classifications is such an artificial exercise in labeling people, do you ever become frustrated as some try to classify you as an Asian-American and focus on what “importance” they can make out of it, or drag out stereotypes, specifically with regard to your comic work?

Larry Hama: I tried to read the Wikipedia article about me once, but the first thing it says is something about me being Japanese-American, which I found so off-putting it kept me from reading the rest of it. Is Ronald Reagan described as being Irish-American? Maybe it’s to make clear that I am not Scandinavian or Syrian? (Hama being a perfectly good name in either place) Not that I am not proud of my heritage, but my grandparents came to this country a hundred years ago. When do I get to be just a plain American? This hyphenation distinction doesn’t come into play outside of this country. In England, France, Spain, Russia, and even Japan, they peg me for an American right off the bat.

and an interview with Pak:

CK: Let’s talk about why you wanted to create a Korean American character.

GP: I’ve always thought it was particularly fun when you take a genre or story that doesn’t have anything to do with Asian American issues and then you cast that story with Asian American characters. Sometimes it allows for almost a more subtle kind of commentary that can come out of almost surprising or unexpected ways. We didn’t throw Amadeus out there like, “Here is the latest and greatest Asian American character: It’s Asian Man!” The hook was, this is a great conflicted character with a fun attitude, a good sort of Marvel-esque tragic back story, a big learning curve ahead of him and some dramatic potential.

CK: So why the name “Amadeus”?

GP: I thought of Asian American families giving their kids crazy names like Stanford and Harvard, and I just thought it was a fun idea that this family would name their kid Amadeus because they want or know he’s going to be a genius.

Well, being Asian myself…cool.