Sean Michael Wilson (writer) Chie Kutsuwada (art)
Lee, living in Hong Kong, meets Matt, a fine young Scot. Their relationship becomes stronger by the day, despite their deep cultural differences. But there is Lee’s Dad to contend with who views this affair very suspiciously. And there is another contender for Lee’s heart, a Chinese young man, whose jealousy takes on twinges of xenophobia. Will Lee and Matt’s relationship successfully cross the cultural divide and overcome the negative odds? Two worlds collide creating good sparks... and bad ones.REVIEWS:
"Drawn with the iconic faces and screentones manga aficionados cherish, and written with a sensitivity to the passion of first love, The Story of Lee is a story to move any heart."
-Teacher Librarian
"Recommended. The cultural tension is beautifuilly written, and the story is told well in the small moments between Lee and Matt."
- Library Media Connection
"There is much here to like. Lee is quite sympathetic and her straightforward romance with Matt is sweet and believable. Readers will look forward to the next volume in this gentle series." -VOYA
"Made me feel warm and fuzzy. [The authors'] familiarity with the turf wars gives this unpretentious East-meets-West, boy-meets girl story an easy, breezy sense of verisimilitude."
-Andrew 'Capt. Comics' Smith, Scripps Howard News Service
"It's an old setup done effectively and believably. If anything, the story feels too true to life as Hong Kong, Korea, China, and Japan all have no shortage of aimless 20-something foreign men, many of them making ends meet teaching English and enjoying the occasional tryst with a local girl. Wilson and Kutsuwada's story tells such a tale from the girl's perspective, faithfully reproducing real Hong Kong locales. The artwork, particularly the characters, is crisp and expressive, and the story faithfully reproduces a believable slice of life."
-Publishers Weekly
"Handles its appealing cross-cultural love story with a deft sweetness."
-Bill Sherman, Blogcritics and Seattle Post Intelligencer
"It’s a solidly entertaining, quiet story of possible love and family entanglements." -Antick Musings
"A pretty strong outing. Young women should eat this one up."
-cxPulp
"The fear of cultural imperialism, the dread of loss, the collapse of family, the still-prevalent and widespread sexism in both Eastern and Western society - big themes, but present in every intercultural love story. Chie Kutsuwada's delicate art and Sean Michael Wilson's frank script sum up the tensions in 'The Story of Lee'. This isn't just a book for teens, but something parents should read, both to remember their own years of surging hormones and thunderous emotions, and to understand the strange land their children inhabit."
- Helen McCarthy, author of 'The Art of Osamu Tezuka'
"I very much enjoyed ' The Story of Lee.' It took me to a place I'd never been before - not just Hong Kong, which Wilson and Kutsuwada bring vividly to life. But equally as interesting was the way that the creators explore the worlds of their interesting and complex characters. It's the worlds of these characters that makes 'The Story of Lee' so memorable."
- Jason Sacks, Comics Bulletin.
5 x 71/2, 160pp., B&W, trade paperback: $11.99
ISBN 978-1-56163-594-8
The STORY OF LEE Complete Set
Sean Michael Wilson, Chie Kutsuwada, Nami Tamura, Piarelle
Matt, an ex-pat from Scotland in Hong Kong, meets Lee a local Chinese girl. They fall in love but her family is resistant to this foreigner. Matt eventually brings Lee back to study in Scotland and meet his family and friends. Can the pressures on both sides, and the cultural differences be surmounted? They both find how difficult this can be.
5x 7½, 448pp, B&W, set of 3 paperbacks, $29.99 (normally $36)
ISBN 9781681122144