The Legend of Korra is an anime-inspired cartoon about benders, martial artists who can control the classical elements, and the Avatar–the only person who can bend all the elements–responsible for maintaining balance and stability in the world.

The series was a sequel to AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER, set 70 years later after the conclusion of Avatar Aang’s adventures. Despite ending in 2014, the series’ popularity still endures, especially because the two female leads, Korra and Asami, begin a lesbian relationship at the conclusion of the finale. More recently, Dark Horse Comics published a highly anticipated sequel comic with art by Irene Koh. Turf Wars Part I was published in July, with Parts II and III scheduled for future release.

AsianCrush got front row seats at The Legend of Korra Comics’ Panel at New York Comic Con and a private interview with Ms. Koh.

Highlights at the panel included Janet Varney, the voice actress behind Korra, reminiscing about the polarizing fan response Season 2 got: “What is she doing? She’s so mad. Why is she doing this?”

Both Irene and Janet also admitted to relating to Korra’s struggles because they suffered from PTSD and anxiety, respectively.

Irene confessed: “I dealt with PTSD issues when I was younger. The 4th season was so powerful. I’d never seen a cartoon deal with that before. Those things are universal and they should be discussed in all mediums.”

Irene also spoke to her level of influence throughout the artistic process. As an Asian American woman, she had a great deal of insight on both representation and sensitivity that actively shaped the project, including the exclusion of a character design she knew would come across as problematic. In her words, “They [series creators Mike Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko] really wanted me there as who I was and they wanted my feedback on their work.”

After getting a quick selfie with Janet for AsianCrush, Irene and I journeyed Dark Horse Press Booth for the interview, which occurred between sips of precious bottled water.

Otter Lee (AsianCrush): What was it like getting to draw western animation’s first, official gay POC heroines in their first outing as a couple as well as their coming out? Did it have greater meaning to you as a bisexual woman of color yourself?

Irene Koh: Totally. It was a huge honor. I’ve been a huge fan of the Avatar and Korra Series since they came out. Hahaha, double entendre there hahaha! As a fan before I’d ever worked on them, since Day One, I had shipped Korra and Asami together, and I was like, ‘That’d be great.’ And then when it actually happened, I was like “WHAT!?”

I mean, you pick up right after the finale.

Yeah, exactly. It was a dream come true. Honestly.

Can you talk about the pages where Korra comes out to her parents? What was drawing those like?

It was funny because Mike, Brian, and our editors Joan and Dave, we all had a group meeting about that scene. It had been written before I came in, but we wanted to talk about the follow up. It doesn’t resolve in the first conversation that they have, which we thought was pretty realistic. The parents want to be supportive, but they’re also afraid of the backlash toward their daughter, and it comes off the wrong way to Korra. It’s just a bunch of complicated feelings and misunderstandings, which I thought was reflective of reality, and we wanted that. We definitely wanted it to be complicated. But at its heart, it’s about compassion, and they do resolve it eventually—we put a lot of thought into it.

Part of what make LOK and Avatar so engaging is the beautiful and skillful fight choreography…. To what extent did you have to familiarize yourself with characters’ various martial arts styles? Is there one you enjoyed drawing more than others?

I’ve done martial arts for a lot of my life so I’m familiar with a lot of things, at least visually. I grew up being obsessed with kung-fu films and stuff like that. I remember watching all the extras on the Avatar DVDs when they came out, the fight styles and like the backgrounds. It was just so cool. And it was fun to see when Korra came out that they incorporated more MMA perspectives on the fight scenes. Brian and I have talked a lot about MMA and wrestling. It was fun to put it in there and also get to put my own fighting expertise into the books.

Was it difficult growing up as a bisexual, Asian woman?

I honestly wasn’t aware of my sexuality until I was older, until probably like high school or college when I was like ‘Hm, why am I staring at that girl over there?’ Haha, I had all these troubled feelings. I grew up in a relatively liberal Korean American family. I was born abroad, grew up in Tokyo for a little bit, then moved to the U.S. I was raised Roman Catholic, but I’d like to think that my parents were pretty liberal for Korean parents, but there was definitely a sort of pressure. Even through just like jokes… ‘Oh thank God, you’re not like that! Wink. Wink. Just kidding.” Stuff like that. And it did give me some amount of anxiety, maybe that I wasn’t aware of. But my family’s very accepting now.

You’ve told fans that your favorite character to draw is Asami. If you had the opportunity to draw any character from any season, series, or story from the Avatar/Korra world, who would you choose?

I think Aang is just fun to draw because he’s bald hahaha. Like drawing a round head is just really satisfying. I know, surprising coming from someone who really likes drawing hair, as I mentioned in the panel. Aang gets to be all flowing and fun, so that’s cool. I think Sokka and Katara would be great, just because I love their outfits.

Do you have a favorite villain from the series?

Well, Season 3’s villains in Korra (The Red Lotus) were my absolute favorite. In Avatar–I guess he’s not totally a villain, but he definitely has some antagonistic qualities, Wan Shi Tong, the owl guy who runs the library.

He’s terrifying.

I KNOW. I love him, I love him.

What were the hardest pages or moments for you to draw and why?

Anything involving the tanks or the mecha-suits. I guess they’re not that hard to draw so much as a pain because you have to get the perspective right. Cityscapes are always a pain because there are so many windows. Otherwise, everything is pretty fun, and I try to approach it as a learning experience.

Which bending element or style do you think matches your personality the best?

I’ve always wanted to be a waterbender, I thought waterbending was the coolest, but honestly, I would probably be a firebender. I also love the idea of chiblocking.

Chiblocking, at its core, is really about taking power back from the oppressed.

Exactly. I really thought Season One of Korra was very resonant because of that, and…. I have some opinions on how it should have been resolved, but I did find those themes very interesting.

Yeah, I wish there were more nuanced chiblockers around.

Yeah, like good ones.

Have you always been an artist?

I have. I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are of being in Japan and copying Sailor Moon drawings.

Are you a big Sailor Moon fan?

I’m a huge Sailor Moon fan! I still have the video games, the outfits, and the toys from when I was like three.

Do you have a favorite story arc?

Irene: Hmm. It’s the third season that’s my favorite one.

Is that the one with the Death Busters?

YES. It’s the best one!

Can you tell us anything about the next installments of Turf Wars?

Without spoiling too much, we get to see more of the new characters that I got to design. In particular, a character named Jargala and more Tokuga, which is cool. I think I’m most excited for that. To be able to put my own characters into this franchise, that’s so big!

Can you talk about that more? You mentioned at the panel that you tried to add more diversity and distinctly Asian characters.

Tokuga was definitively Japanese from the beginning, slightly based on a friend of mine, a writer of comics named Jon Tsuei.

Jargala is South Asian. We didn’t really pinpoint but I took a lot of influence from Bangladeshi and Indian culture. I tried to make her look that way. And she’s kind of “thick” too, which is fun haha. I feel like everyone else is all fit. She’s an Earthbender, but she’s in charge of the Creeping Crystals Triad, who use crystal bending.

You’ve said you got the Korra job through a friend. Are you still in touch with them?

Irene: Yeah, we’re still really good friends. She’s a very famous illustrator who works on animation in Australia. She was like ‘I just don’t have time to do this and I know someone who would really like to have that job.’ Of course, they didn’t just give it to me. I had to do art tests.

What were those like?

They gave me three pages from the very beginning of the first comic when Korra and Asami are on their honeymoon sort of testing me on an action scene, character acting, and environment drawing.

So they had you draw Korrasami like right away? That’s a hell of an audition!

They actually had me draw their first kiss.

Wow, were you nervous?

I wasn’t. I was ready!

You already knew how much it meant to you.

Yeah. I was totally ready!!!

How’s your convention experience been going?

It’s been good. Conventions are usually exhausting for me. I love meeting the fans. Korra fans are THE BEST fans I have ever come across, but talking to a bunch of strangers is pretty tiring. It’s really fun because most of my work is me sitting at home at my desk just working nonstop by myself. It’s nice to go out into the world and see that my work touches people. It’s gratifying.

And here’s the last question. It relates to your work and career as an artist. How do you meet those deadlines?

Weirdly, just practice. Finishing something is just a bunch of skills. The thing about comics is that because there’s such a short deadline for so much work, you can’t draw comics at your 100%. If you want to meet deadlines, you can draw comics at your 60%. And the trick is just to get your 60% to be pretty good. By the time I got to the Korra gig, I feel like I got a lot of practice, and I was ready. I did my best. Sometimes, we were a little late on deadline, but we made it work. That’s just comics!