Final answer:
Gene Luen Yang is notable for bringing diversity to the comic book industry, with his work 'American Born Chinese' being the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award and winning the Printz Award.
Step-by-step explanation:
The most interesting or surprising thing I learned about Gene Luen Yang from the article is his significant impact on diversity in the comic book industry. Yang, a celebrated graphic novelist and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature has been a trailblazer in representing Asian American characters and themes through his work. Notably, his graphic novel American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award, which speaks volumes about the acceptance and recognition of graphic novels as a serious literary format.