The Secreter Robot Spy Factory

Back Again

2010-08-05T00:51:00.000-07:00

Where is My Mind

2010-08-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

A trip to Brisbane to catch the Pixies! Also there at Splendour in the Grass were Mumford and Sons, The Strokes, Florence and the Machines, Jonsi and Laura Marling. Broken Social Scene and Wolf Mother as well, but weren't up to much good :p

There was a Ron Mueck retrospective at the Gallery of Modern Art as well, with 12 pieces on display, including the seminal "Dead Dad". Lots of Koalas and kangaroos too at Lone Pine :)

Some Sense Reviews

2010-07-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

A bunch of reviews:

Diary of an Eccentric

1979-SemiFinalist

and this was on ComiXtreme before the site revamp :p

"Sense & Sensibility #1 (Marvel Comics)
By Jane Austen, Nacy Butler, Sonny Liew Sotocolor & Joe Sabino
The Dashwood ladies have it rough. Their father has passed on and left the estate entirely to their only brother, John. The house is now run by John's harridan of a wife, Fanny, and increasingly it seems there is little place for the Dashwood ladies in her demesnes. To complicate matters, Fanny's eldest brother Edward seems to be courting the eldest Dashwood daughter, Elinor. Sense & Sensibility is a comic/tragic/comedy of what occurs when strong personalities clash and quieter personalities get swept up in the fervour. This is an excellent comic book. The dialogue sparkles and vast amounts of plot are covered in the space of 22 pages with few seeming abridgments. Each few pages presents a new discrete scene. But the true star herein is Sonny Liew's art. He veers between a fairly intricate detailed style to cartoony caricatures depending on the needs of the scene. There is little action to portray, but Sonny poses the characters as in mid movement and shows a lot of character in their faces. Rating: 4.5/5 --Todd Dyck"

Alex Ferguson: Cafu is a Time Lord

2010-07-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

Back in '86 i used to hate Maradona, in the kind of way you hate someone who scores through a handball against the team you're suppoting. Over the years though following his ups and downs its become difficult not to love the man, for his passion and foibles, and the belated realization of just how amazing a player he was.

So it was sad to see his Argentina side go out 4-0 to Germany in World Cup quarter finals.

But heartening and oddly touching to read about the response they got when they got back home:

Fans celebrate the return of Argentina from South Africa

Argentina welcomed home like champions

In other news, Alex Ferguson claims that Cafu might have be a Time Lord :p

"Ferguson picked out Dirk Kuyt as an example of a Premier League player who coped with the demands of the season and has still flourished at the World Cup finals Ferguson said: "It's hard to explain the whole panorama [sic] of that. The likes of Kuyt and the Spanish players who are playing in the Premier League. But all the England team are playing in it so they're all affected. Whereas Spain have one or two, Holland have one or two. They don't all play in England.

"Maybe Kuyt is just exceptional in terms of stamina. That's how it seems to me every time I watch him for Liverpool. I see him with Holland and Liverpool and he's always running. I remember Cafu [captain of the victorious Brazil team in 2002, aged 32] who was up and down the touchline at 38 – it was like the guy had two hearts. "

Here's hoping either Torres and Alonso or Kuyt win the World Cup :)

Liquid City vol.2 Press Release

2010-07-04T02:03:00.000-07:00

Press Release :

http://www.liquidcitizen.net/pressrelease2.pdf

Contributors

Adrian Ngin * AKS * Charlene Chua * Chin Yew * Christiyani Kabul * Dave Chua * Don & Katherine Low * Drewscape * Ivan Song * JC Wong * Kenneth Loh * Koh Hong Teng * Lat * Lefty * Miel * Nguyen Thanh Phong * Seiji * Shari Chankhamma * Shelly Wan * Sheila Rooswitha Putri * Sonny Liew * Troy Chin * Vic-Mon * Wayne Santos * Zeropointfive

Bios

1. “Signs” by Miel

Miel Prudencio (Philippines/Singapore) is an internationally syndicated cartoonist whose works have been published in The Straits Times (Singapore), Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, and International Herald Tribune, amongst others. He is the recipient of the prestigious National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Newspaper Illustration in 2001.

artbymiel(at)yahoo.com.sg

2. “Worn” by Charlene Chua & Wayne Santos

Charlene Chua (Singapore/Canada) is an award-winning, Singapore-born illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has appeared in books such as Spectrum, American Illustration and Exotique 4. She spends her days working on illustrations, drawing her own comics, and managing her husband and two cats.

www.charlenechua.com

Wayne Santos (Singapore/Canada) has worked as an advertising copywriter, freelance writer, television scriptwriter, producer and director, and game journalist, sometimes all at once. He is also a novelist and short story writer.

www.waynesantos.com

3. “City” by Zeropintfive

Elvin Ching aka Zeropointfive (Singapore) freelances as a graphic designer and storyboard artist in Singapore. This is his first published comic. He is thrilled to be featured alongside such amazing talents, and hopes to pursue more comic-related work in the near future and bring his vision of comics to life.

www.theworkofzeropointfive.blogspot.com

4. “Paper City” by Dave Chua & Koh Hong Teng

Dave Chua (Malaysia/Singapore) is a fiction and freelance writer based in Singapore. He is currently working with Koh on an illustrated version of his novel Gone Case, which won the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1996.

Koh Hong Teng (Singapore) is the illustrator of the graphic novel 01321. Self-published in 1996, the first page of 01321 won the Gold Award in the digital art category at the inaugural Siggraph Asia Pacific Animation and Digital Art Competition in 2001. Apart from short graphic stories, he also spends his time working on full-length graphic novels and paintings.

5. “Red Balloon” by Vic-Mon

Piengpitch Sartsasi aka Vic-Mon (Thailand) is a comic artist and illustrator. Although her work mainly consists of cover art for novels so far, she hopes to do a graphic novel one day.

www.vic-mon.deviantart.com

6. “Chinky and the Yuan” by Adrian Ngin

Adrian Ngin (Singapore) graduated with a diploma in Fine Arts Painting in 2005. He is in his final year of Visual Communication studies at the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design & Media.

www.absurdcosmos.tumblr.com

7. “BICOF Story” by Nguyen Thanh Phong

Nguyen Thanh Phong (Vietnam) is a comic artist and illustrator with a deep love and admiration for the rich traditional cultural values of his country, especially its charming and humorous features. They have influenced him from an early age, and have become the basis of all his comic works to date. He currently leads the Phong Duong comic artists group.

www.phongduong.deviantart.com

8. “Liquid City Spotlight: Cambodia” by John Weeks

John Weeks (USA/Cambodia) is a comic artist/editor based in Cambodia. His scratchy scribblings appear in print and online under the rubric ‘QuickDraw’. He has worked for Eclipse and Dark Horse in the US, and is currently the managing editor of Our Books in Phnom Penh. He curates the global comics portal Comics Lifestyle, and is currently researching Khmer and Southeast Asian comics history.

www.jweeks.net

9. “The Hunt for Mas Selamat” by Sonny Liew

Sonny Liew (Malaysia/Singapore) is an Eisner-nominated comic artist and illustrator. His work includes titles for DC Vertigo, Marvel, SLG and Disney, along with Malinky Robot, a Xeric Award recipient and winner of the 2009 Best Science Fiction Comic Award at the 10th Utopiales Science Fiction Festival in Nantes, France.

www.sonnyliew.com

10. “Missing” by AKS

Kwan Thung Seng aka AKS (Malaysia) graduated from the Saito Academy of Graphic Design in 1990, and placed second in the 2002 Malaysia New Comic Drawing Talent Search. He is currently creating comics for Art Square Creation.

www.aksfile.blogspot.com

11. “Salvage” by Ivan Song

Ivan Song (Malaysia) makes comics to share his stories with as many readers as possible. He is the winner of the best “One-page Theme Comic” at the 2006 International Manga and Anime Festival (UK), and has been showcased in the Mammoth Book of Best New Manga: Vol. 2. He is currently working on his first graphic novel.

www.mangada.net

12. “Flooded House, Flying House” by Shari Chankhamma

Shari Chankhamma (Thailand) is a sequential artist and illustrator. Her works have been published in Thailand, UK and US, including several stories in The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga: Vols. 1-3 and the graphic novel The Clarence Principle, released by Slave Labor Graphics.

www.sharii.com

13. “Memory” by Drewscape

Andrew Tan aka Drewscape (Singapore) is a freelance illustrator based in Singapore. This former advertising art director now creates illustrations and TVC storyboards for ad agencies. Always on the lookout for new illustration styles, drawing tools and indie graphic novels, he co-founded the Organisation of Illustrators Council Singapore in 2006 and is currently working on creating more comics and picture books.

www.drewscape.net

14. “Liquid City Spotlight: Indonesia” by Surjorimba Suroto

Surjorimba Suroto (Indonesia) is a comic book journalist and founder of KomikIndonesia.com and the Indonesian Tintin Community. He is currently involved in various comic book projects, exhibitions, and publishing, and is also a radio host/producer, music journalist and music magazine editor.

www.komikindonesia.com

15. “The Way Back” by Lefty

Julian Kam aka Lefty (Malaysia) a full-time comic book artist. Since the first volume of Liquid City, he has co-edited Malaysia's comic art magazine Popcorn, worked as an editor for a Singapore/US based publisher, and participated in various conventions including the San Diego Comic Con. He is now working on more ‘Major Zombie’ stories with fellow Gilamon Studio partners Chin Sau Lim and Michael Chuah.

www.gilamon.com

16. “Urban Myth” by James Tan (Seiji)

James Tan aka Seiji (Singapore) spent two years in Tokyo designing mobile games. He is currently working in Scrawl Studios, an animation studio in Singapore. He likes to draw.

www.akaidotto.blogspot.com

17. “Liquid City Spotlight: The Philippines” by Mark Torres

Mark Torres (Philippines) is a graphic designer/illustrator by profession, and a comic book artist by passion. He has done work for IDW, Image, Dark Horse and Ronin Studios, and has written various articles and reviews on comic book culture for magazines.

www.mytymark.deviantart.com

18. “Night at the Stadium” by Lat

Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid aka Lat (Malaysia) is one of the most beloved cartoonists in Southeast Asia. Published since he was just 13, he has received numerous awards, including being conferred the prestigious Malaysian honorific title of ‘Datuk’ in 1994. Most recently, he received the 2004 Malaysian Press Institute Special Jury Award.

19. “Orang Minyak” by JC Wong

JC Wong (Malaysia) is a concept artist. Currently engaged in a research project at the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design & Media in Singapore, his previous work includes animation pre-production, illustration, lecturing at The One Academy of Communication Design, two self-published Chinese language graphic novels, and comics published in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the US.

jcwongproductions(at)yahoo.com

20. “Delays” by Troy Chin

Troy Chin (Singapore) returned home after almost a decade in America to try his hand at drawing comics. Since then, he has been chronicling his life in the ongoing autobiographical comic book series The Resident Tourist. He is currently also working on Loti, a four-panel daily strip about a group of eight-year-old school children and their everyday adventures in and around their school.

www.drearyweary.com

21. “Invasion” by Kenneth Loh

Kenneth Loh (Singapore) is a freelance digital artist. He loves working on comic projects, and is a fan of Joe Madureira, Yoji Shinkawa, Marc Silvestri and Greg Capullo. He is currently working with Scott Milam and Daniel Alter on Killing Machine, an upcoming graphic novel from Arcana comics.

www.scabrouspencil.deviantart.com

22. “The Box” by Chin Yew

Chin Yew (Malaysia) is co-creator of the blog 30dayartist.com. Each month, a new artist takes up the same challenge he had first embarked on in August 2005: locking himself in a room to paint 40 paintings consecutively for 30 days. This led to the publication of his picture book The Boy Who Loved Clouds, a solo exhibition and graphic novel I See So Many Butterflies.

www.30dayartist.com

23. “Journey to East Java” by Sheila Rooswitha Putri

Sheila Rooswitha Putri (Indonesia) began her career as a storyboard artist for feature movies and TV commercials. In 2005, she released her first comic book Lovely Luna. After a long hiatus from comics, she released a graphic diary Cerita si Lala in 2009.

www.okeboo.multiply.com

24. “Win Some Lose Some” by Don & Katherine Low

Don Low (Singapore) is a former materials engineer turned artist. He received an MDA scholarship to pursue an MFA in Animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He was a finalist in the 2008 Disney ImagiNations Design Competition, while his thesis film "Cafe Voyeur" was also awarded an Honorable Mention in Animag’s 2009 Annual Student Film Awards. He is currently an art director with Scrawl Studios.

www.donartdesign.com

Katherine Low (Singapore) obtained her first degree in nursing, but always had a passion for writing. While in Savannah with her husband Don, her works were published in the local weekly Connect Savannah under the byline of Katherine Rachel. One of her short stories had been previously selected for the July 2007 Secret Attic eBooklet. She is currently writing her first novel and fictionalised biography.

25. “The Adventures of a Robbit” by Christiyani Kabul

Christiyani Kabul (Indonesia/Singapore) liked to draw as a kid, but didn't think of taking up art as a profession. But she is now studying in the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design & Media, majoring in Visual Communication. She is a regular contributor of comic strips and illustrations for campus papers such as The Tribune, Inverse and Nanyang Chronicle.

christykabul(at)gmail.com

26. Cover art by Shelly Wan

Shelly Wan (China/USA) is an illustrator from Guangzhou, China. After graduating from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, she majored in illustration at the Art Center College of Design in California. She has worked for Rockstar Games and Imagi Animation Studios as a concept artist, and is currently working for Pixar as a visual development artist. She received the Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist in 2008.

www.shellywan.blogspot.com

27. Table of Contents Illustration by Eeshaun

Eeshaun Soh (Singapore) is a self-taught artist and illustrator. He has created works for Adidas, Nike, Singapore Fashion Festival, Discovery Channel, onedotzero (UK), IdN, Pictoplasma and the 2006 San Diego Comic Con. In 2008, he received the co-commission to design the Singapore Pavilion, ‘Singapore Supergarden’, for the 11th Venice Architectural Biennale. His largest public art installation, ‘Move!’, comprising three murals at the Singapore Bishan Circle Line Station was unveiled in 2009.

www.eeshaun.com

Lqiuid

2010-07-04T02:02:00.001-07:00

issue one

2010-06-25T01:25:00.001-07:00

Finally got hold of a copies of issue one this week; always a little nerve-wrecking waiting to see how the actual comic turns out. As it was the colours by Sotocolors were quite nice indeed :) some issues with word balloon colours and placement but hopefully something we can fix for future issues. Another tricky question is whether readers will get the switches to a chibi/cartoony style in some sections. Was hoping the formal switch would be reinforced with a different colouring style (screen tone effect to emulate old newspaper strips or pre-digital comics?) but i guess team productions do involve everyone making their own aesthetic choices :p

Upcoming

2010-06-24T02:01:00.001-07:00

Image Comics press release for Liquid City Vol.2 has gone out, the cover and some sample pages can be seen at fanboy.com.

Also out later this year is the Italian edition of the Malinky Robot collection from Lavieri Edizioni. "Le atmosfere rese in questi brevi episodi narrano le avventure minimaliste di due amici che si dividono tra il centro futuristico e la periferia rurale della metropoli asiatica. Spettacolari le tavole, le colorazioni e lo stile fluido e dettagliato di Sonny Liew" apparently :p

Issue 2 of Sense and Sensibility is also out this month :)

Old Art

2010-06-24T01:36:00.000-07:00

A bunch of old stuff from RISD days...

"K is for Kornflakes" . This was bore a heavy Mark Ryden influence i think. Oil on cardboard.

"Art School Zombie" Learning about colour was one of the bigger challenges at RISD, a whole new world of theory and application. Tony Janello taught a class where he made everyone use crayon dache; applying bold colours and then trying to work your way to some sort of useable palette. (I think that was the point anyway :p).

One of the main reasons for going to art school was tolearn painting; reading books about it before that never made any sense - it all sounded like alchemy, strange substances from linseed oil to darmar varnish, stretchers, gauche and acrylics.

This was probably the first painting that came together a little like how i'd hoped.

The Phil Hale influence is obvious; probably just after a class in SciFi painting taught by Nick Jainschigg, where Jon Foster (who was only just starting out at the time) came in as a guest lecturer for one lesson and showed us his Crowbot painting as well as slides of Hale's Johnny Badhair that blew my mind

Sense and Sensibilty #1

2010-05-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

Issue 1 is on sale now i think. Haven't seen the book yet, not quite sure what the interior colours or lettering/balloons look like :p

Sense & Sensibility issue 5 cover

2010-05-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

Cover for issue 5 of Marvel's Nancy Butler's Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility adaptation :)

Chinese People Know Kungfu

2010-04-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

Dug up these old pics of the painting in progress; one of two images to be included in this year's Spectrum annual. The painting itself can be found at the Museum of Contemporary Chinese Art.

Sense and Sensibility Covers

2010-04-04T04:34:00.000-07:00

covers for issue 2 and 3 of Marvel's Sense and Sensibility adaptations.

French Edition

2010-04-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

The French edition of Wonderland came out last week from Bao/Paquet, changes from the english version (aside from the French) include a return to non-matte paper so the colours look closer to the original series, plus a revision of the word balloons and text so everything looks more hand-drawn/written. Hoping to get some copies of the book soon :)

Goodbyes

2010-03-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

RIP Mark Linkous, Barry Hannah.

Heebie Jeebies

2010-02-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

Comp copies of Le Tour du monde en bande dessinée” (A World of Comics) arrived in the mail today, making me feel kinda out of place :p

Wonderlands and Liquid Cities

2010-02-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

Sense and sensibility vol 1 listed for Marvel's May solicits :)

http://marvelousnews.com/index.php?itemid=12809

"Marvel’s best-selling adaptation of PRIDE & PREJUDICE, returns to Marvel with another Jane Austen classic: SENSE & SENSIBILITY! Alongside incredible artist Sonny Liew (My Faith in Frankie, Wonderland), Butler brings to life the world of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, two daughters without parents or means, forced to experience hardship, romance, and heartbreak, all in the hopes of achieving love and lasting happiness. 40 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99"

The French edition of Wonderland is out in March, and last month Delcourt released volume 2 of "Le Tour du monde en bande dessinée" (A World of Comics) which includes a story I did about Mas Selamat; quite an exciting thing to be included alongside creators like Gipi and the amazing Carlos Nine! :p

Finally, a review of Liquid City Vol1 at Popmatters. Vol2 due out in July! :)

sense and sensibility cover 1

2010-02-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

Cover for issue 1 of Marvel's Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility adaptation (that's a mouthful just like Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelly's Frankenstein! :p)

YALSA 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens

2010-01-22T00:14:00.000-08:00

Not quite the top ten but Wonderland's on the list at least :p

"... presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The books, recommended for those ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens", says the website.

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/greatgraphicnovelsforteens/ggnt10.cfm

Jane Austened

2010-01-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

Started sketches for the Marvel adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, which will be written by Nancy Butler. Did some of the covers for the Pride and Prejudice adaptation, but hadn't really read any of Austen's books before, and only had a vague awareness of all the movies made from her book...

It seemed like an intriguing challenge though; how to translate a novel into comic form, especially a story that featured no real action scenes, and where so much is just people talking in rooms....

So first thing to do was to read the book itself, followed by watching adaptations like Emma Thompson/ Ang Lee's 1995 film and Andrew Davies' more recent BBC production. The Thompson/Lee version was especially entertaining, but raised issues in terms of how true to the novel it was (something covered quite a bit in another book I picked up, "Jane Austen in Hollywood"). One of the thorny issues of adaptations i guess; how much to adapt to modern sensibilities, how reverential to treat the source material.

That's mostly Nancy's call though - the main goal on my part would be to try to make the adaptation make sense as a comic - to justify its existence, maybe, through the use of comics language. The Karasik/Mazzuchelli adapation of Paul Auster's City of Glass might be a touchstone of sorts...

Interpretation aside, there's the issue of character designs, which is kinda like a casting process, figuring out how to make the characters look right, how to avoid being too influenced by movie or tv versions... particularily tricky in Sense is Edward Ferrars, who is supposed to be plain looking in the book, but is usually played by attractive actors - difficult I suppose to separate the idea of interior worth and exterior looks when it comes to any visual medium?

A couple more sketches can be found on the deviantart site here.

In the meanwhile, a lot more research to do; period costumes, architecture... i wonder if the prodcution crews of the movie and tv adaptations kept any of their notes, and if they would lend me some :p

Buffy vs the Master Gnome

2010-01-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

Greeting card for a friend's birthday. Needs lots of polishing up but it was a tight deadline! :p

"Au Pays des Merveilles"

2010-01-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

Trailer done for the French edition of Wonderland, called ""Au Pays des Merveilles" which translates as... "Land of Wonders" i think :p Always with the plinky rinky Burton-Elfmanesque music! Why must it be so? :p

Wonderland Trailer

2010-01-15T05:53:00.000-08:00

Through a Scanner Darkly

2009-12-31T01:28:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the folks at artprintasia , got a high-res scan of the painting.

For the french edition of 'wonderland', out in 2010...still needs some colour correction though i think

Noughties are go!

2009-12-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Its farewell to the noughties and david tennant in doctor who!

Saw Avatar over xmas and wasn't really be sure what the fuss is about. Somethings that might have made it a proper movie:

- Amazing 3D. There were some effective depth of field shots... but having watched movies like Coraline, Bolt and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3d, I wasn't sure what the technological breakthrough in Avatar was. An improvement in degrees perhaps, but it didn't feel like a major advancement from recent 3d movies.

- Convincing human CG characters. Some like R oger Ebert have argued that the movie overcomes the problem of the Uncanny Valley with improved motion capture techinques etc. But this seems overblown and misguided - the characters still looked CG, and the idea of the Uncanny Valley I think refers to Human duplicates that we find odd because we're so attuned to reading human expressions and movements. The aliens in the movie however are just that - aliens, and therefore were never going to face a stringent test of the Uncanny Valley problem in the first place, any more than Jar Jar Binks. Also: was it really a huge leap from LOTR's Gollum?

- Something to tie Jake Sully to his human side; no wife, no kids, no parents, just a bunch of greedy war-mongering capitalists - it made the choice of joining the Na'vi too much of a no brainer. That aside the story was kinda predicatable from beginning to end, with cardboard characters and wooden dialogue. Some argue there's some sort of message about Gaia and the environment , but I'm not sure what that is. There' s a Luddite angle idealising primitive cultures, but the movie itself was made with cutting edge technology. For real tribes facing extinction by loggers, the movie doesn't seem much help either - what, pray to the trees and hope the forest animals fight off the loggers? :p

Anyway that's my Avatar rant. High horses are go too! Except: there is no horse. :p

Happy 2010!

Money Buys Things

2009-12-16T23:28:00.000-08:00

Various pages of original comic art (Wonderland, Regifters, My Faith in Frankie and Malinky robot) now available at Graphic Collectibles :)

Here's the link.

rabbit redux

2009-12-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Did a painted version of the wonderland cover, mostly for the French edition that's due out next year. Oil on canvas, 30x40 inches. It was also a chance to see if I could replicate in traditional media a piece that was coloured digitally before, and whether it was a process that I'd enjoy. Mixed feelings ultimately I guess; on the one hand it was an interesting challenge somewhat simplified by having an original to refer to , but that also meant a kind of constraint, so maybe there wasn't as much a process of discovery and figuring things out as there usually is when painting.

DVDs watched whilst painting: season 1 of Battlestar Galactica (Edward James Olmos is great, mixed feelings about the religious angle) and seasons 2-3 of the Wire. Which felt a lot like the brilliant Homicide Life on the Streets, which totally made sense when I found out that Homicide was based on a book by the creator of the Wire :p

Janed

2009-11-11T04:52:00.000-08:00

The hardcover trade of the Marvel Adaptation for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice has been out for a bit, and seems to be going down like gangbusters, if this NYT article is any indication..

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/jane-austen/

Having worked on 3 of 5 covers for the series, I'll be working on the interiors as well for the new Sense and Sensibility adaptation, also with Nancy Butler. No sea monsters unfortunately :p

Regency Reference Book Hunting is go! :p

Bucket Lists

2009-11-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

One advantage of being a Causeway Child, you get to be both Singaporean and Malaysian :p Though not speaking much Malay I've been told by Malaysian immigration authorities i should throw my passport away, and by Singaporean ones to 'go back to your country' when I inadvertently entered Malaysia with an expired passport and tried to travel back to the little red dot :p So maybe its still neither here nor there... Anyhow a couple of lists that kinda blow things out of proportion....

The Singapore Hotlist

20 Under 40

Utopiales 2009

2009-11-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Malinky Robot French edition won the "Prix de la meilleure BD" (Comic Album of the Year) at the Utopiales SF Festival in Nantes!

First stop though was Paris, where me and dad visited the Eiffel Tower, which is where zombies like to come after they destroy the UK.

Have to admit I'd not heard of Utopiales before, but its apparently the largest SF con in Europe. Anyway this year's special guest was James Gurney, so he did the illustration for their poster and there was lots of original art by him on display.

The event itself is a lot more low key than SDCC, which would mean more opportunities for interacting with the writers and artists there, if only I knew any french :p I did get a chance to talk to writer Stephen Baxter though, who happens to be from Liverpool so we commiserated a little on the sale of Alonso and liverpuddle's woes this season.

I'd hoped to meet Philippe Druillet, whose Loan Sloane I'd picked up at a flea market in Cambridge years and years ago, but he had unfortunately taken ill and was unable to attend. Enki Bilal was there though, that's him in the background having breakfast at the hotel we were staying. Best described as... aloof :p

There were orginal comic book art on display at the event, and I particularly liked Yoann's lively, brushy drawings.

Some of the other nominees included Fergus and Ikigami (which picked up the Special Jury Prize).

I had very little idea what anyone was saying during the awards event but it was still kinda fun :p

Back in Paris a couple of days later I had a chance to see a small exhibit of old video game consoles, including a 1977 Atari Pong Machine and the Odyssey.

There was also a Galaga arcade machine (me and Rich Nehmad used to play the one at RISD after lunch every day) and a handheld Galaxy II unit in which i kept getting destroyed by aliens :p

Finally a vid put up by Manga News of a robot sketch. Plus an interview of some sort here. Or click on the image below....

Eric Khoo part 3

2009-10-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Final part of the "Eric Khoo is a Hotel Magnate" series, oil on canvas. The words in the balloons are in Hokkien, for the context: "Pah See Buay Zao" and "Lao Quee Buay Xi, Bo Quee Jia Eh Xi".

Utopiales and Singapore Writers Festival

2009-10-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

The French Malinky Robot collection is rather surprisingly up for the Best SF Comics Album award (aka "Le Prix Du Meilleur Album de SF") at the Utopiales Science Fiction Festival in Nantes . Its the city of Jules Vernes, and James Gurney is the guest-of-honour there this year. Other nominees for the award are:

Ikigami, Préavis de mort de Motoro Masse, Asuka, 2009

The Twelve de W.Chris, J-M.Straczynski, Panini Comics, 2009

Fergus d’Agrimbau et Pietro, Atalante 2009

Malinky robot de S. Liew, Paquet 2009

Les épées de verre de S.Corgiat, L.Zuccheri, Les Humanoïdes Associés 2009

Doubt d’Yoshiki Tonogai, KI-OON 2009

Also this month is the Singapore Writer's Festival, which has quite a few comics panels, with guests including Lat, Neil Gaiman and Mark Waid. I'll be muddling my way through a couple of panels:

24 Oct 2009, 3:00 pm

" Comics – A Timeless Narrative Price: Free Venue : Chamber
Featuring: Lat, Mark Waid, Sonny Liew
Moderator: Terence Chua

From young to old, everybody loves a good comic! Join American comic writer Mark Waid (whose notable works include The Flash, Captain America and Superman), Malaysian-born Singapore-based comic artist Sonny Liew and beloved Malaysian comic artist Lat in a panel that reflects on the challenges of drafting a good narrative and on writing comics from an American or Asian angle."

Another panel with Troy Chin is being moved to an earlier date (the 25th I think) .

Some paintings up at the Arts House too for the Writer's Fest :p

YALSA

2009-09-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

"Wonderland" is one of many books nominated for the "2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" by the American Library Association :p Buy it on Amazon! :)

Secret Robot Kid

2009-09-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Actually its Sungha Jung, a real live guitar prodigy from South Korea. Its superfragilisticexpialidocious :p

Lucky Plazas 2

2009-09-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

The other painting from the series "Eric Khoo is a Hotel Magnate", now up at Mulan Gallery till the 25th of Sept. Oil on canvas, 36x48 inches.

Lucky Plazas

2009-08-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

Will be having an art exhibition at Mulan Gallery from 5 Sept to 25 Sept 2009. Its located at Tanglin Shopping Centre; for directions go here. According to their press release...

"‘Lucky Plazas’, a two‐man show at Mulan Gallery, presents the works of noted comic illustrators and artists Sonny Liew and Koh Hong Teng, in a reflective mood, exploring aspects of their homeland, Singapore. While offering narratives that grapple with Singaporean issues that are both subtle and deep, both artists also present engaging visuals that proliferate with minute observations."

There's also a Singapore Art Gallery Guide review here, somewhere down the middle :p

Singapore Comic Con

2009-08-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

Will be at the Singapore Toys Games and Comic Con with the Gilamon guys from august 14-16. The name kinda reflects the priorities, but what the hey :p Copies of Wonderland, Liquid City and the Secret Robot Spy Factory on sale :)

Doctor Who Fan Art WIP

2009-08-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

For no good reason at all, spent most of sunday doing a piece of doctor who fan art, maybe cos the excellent David Tennant will be leaving the series soon; also a phil hale homage of course :p I was surprised to learn he did a Tony Blair portrait, but then discovered a video on you tube of him playing drums! Kinda like Sparklehorse :p Still a WIP, with bits and pieces that need fixing....

What is Storytelling?

2009-08-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

The above image, from this website, shows some of the concept art for "American Dog", a Disney movie that turned into "Bolt" after its original director, Chris Sanders was removed. This was apparently due to disagreements over storytelling with John Lasseter, and therefore raises parallels (in my mind) with other projects where the orginal directors/creators were removed for failing to solve "storytelling problems" (Jan Pinkava on Ratatoullie is another case and maybe Glen Keane on Rapunzel Unbraided as well) .

Apart from any talk of conflicting egoes, it does make me wonder: What exactly is good storytelling?

Pixar movies have been used as a gold standard for a while now in critical circles, and on Ratatoullie, Brad Bird is often cited as having fixed numerous storytelling issues in a matter of weeks. But here's the rub though: as much as I loved the 2 Toy Stories and Iron Giant, I've been underwhelmed by later Pixar movies, from Ratatoullie to Wall-E; Bolt was a pretty bland movie as well.

Which makes me wonder what the movies would have turned out like if Sanders and Pinkava had been allowed to carry out their vision; something more personal, less commercially driven perhaps? Or were there really objectively quantifiable problems with their approach? Is good storytelling a subjective thing or is there some sort of universal (or at least human) standard we can point to? (say...a 90% rating on rottentomatoes? :p)

I guess I worry about these issues working on my own stories, particulary the current Malinky Robot GN: is there enough direction in the plot? Emotional engagement of the reader? Is the conflict resolution placed at the right time, at the right intensity? What would a John Lasseter make of the Brothers Quay or Jan Svankmajer?

Who exactly do we write for, and to what end?

A Playlist

2009-08-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

Comic Con Swag

2009-07-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Some books from SDCC, including: David Mazzuchelli's new GN "Asterios Polyp", Jeff Smith's RASL (Collector's edition which I got for a Wonderland trade! :p), a bunch of Flight Alumni books (Bannister's "Elsewhere Chronicles", Scott Campbell's "Double Fine Action Comics" and Kean Soo's "Jellaby"), "Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights" from DC Vertigo which I got for the brilliant (and sadly departed) Seth Fisher's story, Tae Young Choi's art book and a Daniel Clowes collection. Special mention too for the folks giving out buttons for racebending.com, kinda a fight against another hollywood movie casting caucasians in clearly-asian-characters roles :p

Sketches on a Plane

2009-07-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

Some sketches done on the trip back to Singapore. Not really sure what they're about just yet - i guess something to do with the combination of organic and robotic forms, maybe trying to reach somewhere outside the usual robot drawings i've done for a long time; very much works in progress though :p

SDCC reportage

2009-07-30T04:56:00.000-07:00

SDCC this time round was a different experience, with booth-manning tasks (ordering books, keeping track of sales etc) adding a new wrinkle to proceedings..

First stop after a 17 hour flight was downtown LA, where I’d sent all the books to old RISD friends Danny and Sue, here’s them helping to load their car with many boxes for the drive to San Diego. We then had to figure a way to get the boxes to the exhibition hall itself , despite a trolley with a dodgy comedy wheel that wobbled like a drunken sailor :p

The booth itself, shared with Flight and Gallery Nucleus was centrally located, thought the best way to find it amidst the mayhem was to look for the Marvel banner hanging from the rafters.

The Wonderland HC trade did good business, and i drew quite a few mary anns and chesire cats :p

There were the usual assortment of costumes, though i didn't get a chance to snap a picture of someone dressed in full Judge Hershey regalia :s

Lots of toys and figurines of course, including original Coraline Stop Motion figures and custom Storm Troopers (my fave ones were the comic con fan and popsicle versions :p)

There were old faces to meet like the folks from the Flight crew, and new ones too, with Mike Allred being the most exciting just cos I'm a big fan of Madman. He's pictured here with his family :) I missed the Doctor Who panel with Russell Davies and David Tennant, but still got to meet a Dalek, plus one of this guys from Yo Gabba Gabba! :p

Also there were the folks from Secret Identities, it was nice meeting everyone there after only ever communicating via email. There were photo ops with Larry Hama and Kelly Hu too (its a guy thing, i think :p)

David Sung (animation director) was one of the many people I met at the con, and he was kind enough to show me and danny round the disney studio lots (though the actual animation dept was out of bounds cos of secret secrets), above is me and danny pretending to be mickey mice.

They also had original props on display, the best of the lot was a couple of Steve Zissou headgear, including the red cap worn by Williem Defoe.

Before you knew it, it was time to pack everything back into boxes and say goodbyes.

The saddest one was with Munki, Danny and Sue's cat who i first met back in art school days at RISD. She's now 14 years old and was rather ill, and I probably won't be seeing her again next time SDCC rolls round. Bye bye munki!

more pics at: facebook

San Diego Comic Con 2009

2009-07-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

SDCC is about a week away, will have a Liquid City booth (Booth #2329) this year, right next to the Flight crew... others who will be there off and on include Shari Chankhamma, Mike Carey, Lefty and others... floorplan location:

Will also be at the Image booth from 2:30 - 4:30 on Friday (and probably the weekend as well), plus with Gene Yang and the Secret Identity folks from 12:30pm-2pm on Thursday( Epic Props/SI Booth #1735).

Malinky Robot stuff

2009-07-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

Some updates on the French edition:

Over at Wartmag, its been listed as a top 5 scifi comic for the first half of 2009 (http://www.wartmag.com), i think its been shortlisted for the sci-fi comic award (not sure if its the final shortlist) at the Nantes Science Fiction Festival, and there was a rather odd interview from Un Monde de Bulles... odd cos the interviewer and translator were talking simultaneously and you had to listen to the translator whilst making eye contact with the interviewer :p

More designs

2009-07-08T04:01:00.000-07:00

With the "Decelarate Blue" project still in hiatus, still awaiting a long awaited final script, started a bunch of new designs for a new story I'm working with Mike Carey on, a sci-fi setting with aliens and gadgets :p

The two main characters are Jo and Hal, though things are very much in the earlt stages, so no idea where it'll end up eventually :p The rest are quick half baked ideas for miscellanous aliens that might populate the story ...

Work-In-Progress

2009-07-01T02:38:00.000-07:00

WIP of a painting for a show together with my friend Koh Hong Teng in September at Mulan Gallery... oil on 2 canvases size is about 72x116 inches i think ... you kinda have to be from singapore to know what its about (and maybe not even then :p)

The Wedding Present

2009-06-30T03:38:00.000-07:00

Gollywood

2009-06-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

Its a

http://avatarmovienews.blogspot.com/2008/12/avatar-last-airbender-casting-news.html

Quickish Portraits

2009-06-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of quickish sketches... only ever read one of the harry potter books , but alan rickman is always great :p This was kinda practice for the upcoming kino event. The Don Delillo was for Steven Gettis very cool collection of Artist's-favourite-Writer collection.

Malinky Robot review

2009-06-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

A review of the Malinky Robot french collection, CanalBD magazine:

http://sonnyliew.com/blog/malinky_canalbd%202%20copie.jpg

The translation is something along the lines of :

"By launching their new label Bao, Paquet want to create a place for freedom where artists from all backgrounds (geographic and cultural) can meet and work together. To initiate this approcah, they could not find a better fit than sonny liew....mixing all influences with a lot of bravado, his book is a pure pleasure. Relying on art full of nuances and subtlety, these four short stories lay the groundwork to a very engrossing universe, while at the same time daring to develop striking graphical effects. "

(translation courtesy of Jean-Paul Moulin)

Wonderland Signing at Kinokuniya

2009-06-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Will be promoting Wonderland at Kinokuniya Singapore (Takashimaya) next sat, details below:

Talk on ‘Wonderland and Literature In Comics’ and Live Painting Demo
13th June 2009 (Saturday)
5.00 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.
Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store, Crossroads

Kino press release below! :p

"Calling out to fans of comic books and graphic novels! Sonny Liew, the Eisner-nominated comic artist and prolific illustrator who last appeared at Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store in November 2008 for the launch of the book /Liquid City/ , is back again to launch the hard cover trade edition of Wonderland, written by Tommy Kovac, with art by Liew and published by Disney Press.

Comic critic Lim Cheng Tju, Ian Gordon ( Associate Professor at the Department of History, NUS) and poet Gwee Li Sui will discuss the topic of ‘Literature In Comics’ with reference to /Wonderland/ , and other comic titles, whilst Liew will be doing a live demo painting to be given away to one lucky winner."

Upcoming Things and Stuff

2009-04-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Secret Identities anthology has hit the shelves, see some coverage here , here and at Amazon.com. Basically an attempt to address the issue of why there are so few asian superheroes in American mainstream comics (or anywhere else for that matter), despite many asian-american creators in the industry and amongst fans who read comics.

In the meanwhille, will be attending a panel at Pekomikon on April 25 at the Putra World Trade Center in K.L.

On May 2 (Sat) will be talking about comics in Singapore together with Johnny Lau (Mr Kiasu!) and others at Ignite, 10am-5.30pm, Lee Foundation Theatre, NAFA Campus 3.

In the meanwhile : Je ne parle pas francios!

Shopping

2009-04-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

Trying out a online store for original art and other stuff. Teething problems ~~may~~ will be experienced :p

Any feedback on preferred items, prices, payment methods etc welcome! :)

Pride and Prejudice Covers

2009-04-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Cover for issues 3 and 5 of Marvel's Pride and Prejudice Adaptation... Issue 3 started as oil on board with digital touchups, Issue 5 is just digital. Its the old problem though - digital artwork is much more efficient but leaves you without an original, which is still a valid thing to want, despite all the talk about hyperreality :p

craptacular spiderman

2009-04-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

crikey just realised there was a major screwup when i sent the final pages for the spiderman pages last month. Was rushing to meet the deadline before the trip to france so when the request came to resend the files in 400 dpi i must slipped up somehwere down the line.

the image on left was the intended final art, the one on the right i sent at 400 dpi, which is really an earlier WIP version.

some of the pages they finally used weren't even given the halftone treatment in photoshop.

A really bad screwup on my part

Flippety flip

2009-04-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

A digital flip through some of the malinky robot pages here:

http://www.manga-news.com/index.php/preview/172

This one has some preview pages:

http://www.bdgest.com

A bunch of reviews in French below... i hope they're saying not anything bad :p

kochipan.org

www.planetebd.com

More Spidering

2009-03-31T02:49:00.000-07:00

A couple more pages... the first has some robert crumb influenced imagery...

and the second an attempt to emulate the look of an old original art piece... hopefully for reasons that explain themselves in the story :p the book again is:

MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #50

From a more distant past, with clear Phil Haleness:

Spideyman!

2009-03-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

Just before the trip to France got a chance to do a short Spiderman story written by Roger Langrige... I'd forgotten how much I liked reading those stan lee- steve ditko stories as a kid but doing some reading and research for the story really brought back memories of Mysterio, the Vulture and that whole sick crew...

Both Roger and Me wanted to do a homage to Ditko I think, plus that feel and look of old comics so I got some advice from Matt Hollingsworth on how to get that half tone effect on photoshop (filter-pixellate-color halftone)plus that yellowed paper look (scan, rubber stamp, use as multiply layer)... and then there's the Spooky Bank!

The whole thing was a wee bit rushed but I hope it turned out ok. Does everything a spider can! :p

To appear in MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #50

Videos and Wonderland

2009-03-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

The Wonderland trade is out, Amazon link here... there was a nice review in Publisher's Weekly... The colours... well didn't turn out the same way they did in the original series, but I guess that's an issue for another time... it does have a great feel to it though, what with the hardcover and all :)

Meanwhile a couple of videos!

Bao put this together for Malinky Robot:

And Parry Shen put this together for the Secret Identities Anthology :)

The making of video here :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mnHjcqZF4E&fmt=18

Bandes Dessinees

2009-03-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Back in Singaporeland after a 2 and half week trip to France and Belgium to promote the new french edition of Malinky Robot published by Bao.

Our first stop was the BD Fugue comics store/cafe in Annecy...

Met up with fellow Flight artist Nicolas Bannister there (he happens to live in Annecy), and BD Fugue itself was a really cool store which kinda gave a sense of how differently the comics medium is treated in France. Here in Singapore big stores like Kinokuniya aside you just don't see comic stores like this, with a good balance of all sorts of comics - mostly they're just stocked full of mainstream superhero stuff, and the only one that kinda bucked the trend (Atomix Comix at Orchard MRT ) shut down bout a year ago.

Anyhow it was exciting to see that Matt Groening and Gilbert Shelton has been there too! :p

My dad was with me on the trip, partly to see Geneva, but mostly to make sure I didn't fall over too much given my dodgy achilles tendon. The cold weather and Too Much Comics seemed to take a toll though, with increasing frazzledness as the week went on, but it was good to see him chipper again when he headed home after a week :)

Before that though we went to Albertville to see lots of mountains and snow. In the pics above there's Bao editor Jean-Paul Moulin, plus two very excellent artists also on the book promo shindig, Chaiko from Shanghai and Tony Sandoval from Mexico...

I lugged back home lots of comics (wait 'bandes dessinees' i mean) i couldn't read back home, and i think my favourite French creators remain Nicolas DeCrecy and Manu Larcenet, whose "Ordinary Victories" was very good indeed...

Other places we did signings at was the Apoklyps in Paris, the Brusels Libairie Galerie in Brussels and the Salon De Livre, where i ran into Obelix and Dogmatix! :p

The above photo is from scannaruto.com, thats Chinese artist Ji Di on the left.

All that book signing left everyone kinda tired by the end of the Salon de Livre, but one highlight of the trip was a chance to go visit Borges' grave in Geneva...

A Bunch of Dedicacees above, and some sketches below...

More pics at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115702

malinky robot video :p

2009-03-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well kinda sorta anyhow... Bao books made this promo thing for the salon de livre and assorted websites :p

http://bao.paquet.li/2009/03/bande-annonce-de-malinky-robot-sonny.html

Its been an educational trip so far, learning bout the comics industry here in france, and finding out exactly how much cheese they eat over here :p

Malinky Robot.... turns French! Plus some Secrets :p

2009-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

A French edition of the collected Malinky Robot stories will be release in March... the publishers (Bao imprint from Paquet books) have also been kind enough to arrange for a trip to promote the book, which should cover several cities, including the "le salon du livre" from March 13-18 abd another conventionin Grenoble ... more details soon, maybe :p Some stuff in french here...

Meanwhile also out in March is the Secret Identities anthology, featuring(mostly) Asian American creators, exploring Asian American identity via superhero stories. I did a story with Gene Yang ( "American Born Chinese" ), also featured is Dustin Nguyen and many more....

Wonderland HC Trade

2009-01-28T17:09:00.000-08:00

Haven't got a copy yet, but they had the Wonderland HC trade on display at the Disney Hyperion booth at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference recently, and Tommy sent me some pics of it .... :p

In less fun news, ruptured my right achilles tendon last week, so its going to be crutches and rehab (and no footie) for the next 6 months or so :p (the foots not as mangled as it looks - that's just the backslab :p)

Meabwhile some paintings and original comic book art up at the J Cafe at the MICA Building ,140 Hill Street, #01-01, S(179369) here in Singapore until Feb 18th :)

opening hours:

Daily:
11.30am - 4.30pm
6.30pm - 10.30pm

contact: 6337 7009

Thanks to Kelvin from Asian Art News for the hookup, and J Cafe for putting up the show :) For more info goto : Singapore Art Tours

Pride and Prejudice Cover

2009-01-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

Did a cover for Marvel's Adaptation of Pride and Prejudice... the magazine approach was totally editorial's idea, i just tagged along :p out in this months previews i think... the adaptation is wriiten by Nancy Butler and interior art by Hugo Petrus :)

Singapore Comics on Xmas Day

2008-12-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

The Straits Times ran a bunch of comic strips by local creators in the xmas issue of Life, here's the one i did:

FSc, Troy Chin and Otto Fong also contributed theirs:

http://www.straitstimes.com/gallery/Breaking%2BNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_318476.html

Merry Xmas, You Would Make a Good Dalek! :)

2008-12-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

Liquid City Book Launch at KLCC

2008-12-17T17:47:00.000-08:00

The book signing at KLCC Malaysia just about wraps up all the promotional shindigs for Liquid City for 2008. It's been lots of fun meeting all the artists involved in the project, but tiring as well; all this PR stuff requires a kind of disassociation i think, a projection of some self other than the one you're used to. Maybe in time the two will coalesce, but maybe not just yet :)

Anyway, the folks from Gilamon were there, including Kaoru who couldn't make it to the Singapore signing, plus Leong Wan Kok. Otto Fong made the trip across the causeway, and Tan Eng Huat and Pekomik's Muhamad Azhar Abdullah showed up to lend their support. Wan Kok brought his laptop along and it had all sorts of amazing works in progress on it... check out his website!

Lat was all PR-ed out from all the signings he did for his new stamp collection, but he did join us for drinks afterwards, and it was great as always hearing him talk about his experiences :)

Above from left to right: Micheal Chuah, Kaoru, Keith Chong, Chin Sau Lim, Lat, Muhamad Azhar Abdullah, me, Tan Eng Huat and Leong Wan Kok.

an aside: watched "Bolt" in 3D today, the first 3D movie i'd seen since a Jaws sequel ages ago... it was an interesting experience, but after the first half hour I think you start getting used to the effects, and its back to old fashioned storytelling to sustain the show. Maybe Jame Cameron's Avatar will take 3D to its next step though, with the effects somehow becoming intergral to the story, who knows :)

The Half Flat show is in its final week; it'll probably be kinda sad when its time to take all the paintings down :p

The Half Flat Art Show

2008-11-21T16:27:00.000-08:00

The Half Flat Art Show is on from Nov 29- Dec 30 at the Black Earth Art Musuem in Singapore. Original Comic Book Art and Robot Paintings on display, together with the works of another 3 illustrators :p

For more event photos, click here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88943

For a show review: http://www.liquidcitizen.net/temp/IS-reviewsmall.jpg

For Gilamon Studio's report of the Liquid City book launch at Kinokuniya Singapore, goto:

http://gilamon.blogspot.com/2008/12/at-liquid-city-launch-in-singapore.html

Liquid City Book Launch

2008-11-15T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Liquid City comics anthology hit the shelves as of last week (US$29.99, S$42) and the official book launch at Kinokuniya Singapore is on the 29th of November, with another signing in Malaysia on 13th December.

Go here for more info: http://www.liquidcitizen.net/LQcity.pdf

and : http://www.liquidcitizen.net/EVENT2.jpg

Book Launch (Singapore)

29th November 2008 (Saturday)
2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store (Takashimaya),
Crossroads

Pre-Event Exhibition of Liquid City
Crossroads from 17th November 2008 (Monday) to
29th November 2008 (Saturday): an exhibition of
some of the artworks from Liquid City.

Book Launch (Malaysia)

14th December 2008 (Sunday)
3.00 p.m.
Kinokuniya Malaysia, KLCC, Mezzanine Floor.

note: errata

-Page 115 and 116 of “Alpha Gorilla” should take place after page 123.

- Shari Chankhamma is wrongly listed as Shari Chankhammer in the contents page.

Malinky Robot vs Zidane

2008-10-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Currently working on editing all the old Malinky Robot stories that are being put together for a collection in French, to be published by the new BAO imprint of Editions Paquet Sàrl.

Its taking longer than expected; the intial idea was to just colour the existing black and white pages (for consistency's sake, since later malinky robot stories were coloured, the black and white look could no longer represent 'reality/normality' as such), but as with a lot of old drawings, you end up wanting to fix things here and there, so there've been whole pages redrawn...

Not sure how much change there is, but something just didn't look right :p here's a before and after sample:

Anyway... its an exciting project, just hope i can get everything done in time! :p

meanwhile here's one of the oddest most compelling vids i've seen on the tube :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4E9Vs74E7Q

Liquid City Giveaway Draw-A-Robot Contest

2008-10-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

The “Liquid City” Comics Anthology launches on November 5th, 2008 and we’re giving away 3 free copies of the book. One winner will also receive a piece of original art!

The Contest: Send us an illustration of a Robot of your own design (no fan art) via Deviantart.com

To join and for more information, please goto:

http://sonny123.deviantart.com/journal/20889602/

Minxed

2008-09-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Learnt last night that the DC Minx line got cancelled; there're a whole bunch of blogs speculating about the why and how of it, of which these are a few:

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/09/25/breaking-news-minx-line-cancelled/

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cbr_dc_comics_ends_minx_imprint/

steverolston.livejournal.com/89645.html

Some of the reports argue that it was a placement issue, the books ending up in the comics/graphic novel section rather than the YA or manga ones. That was certainly true here in Singapore, and maybe it was an unfortunate result of the hybrid nature of the line.

Personally of course the worry is that, whatever the marketing or placement issues, some of it comes down to the quality of the stories themselves, in this case the art - would Regifters have done better with better drawings? Or if it had been done in a different style?

There've certainly been some who thought that different creators might have fared better - getting more YA authors involved for example, or having more female creators.

I'm sure though that Shelly must have thought all these things through, and my sense is that any set of decisions would have been criticised at some level - if they had gone with more YA authors, there might have been complaints about not making more use of actual comics creators who understood the craft better; if there were no male creators involved they might have been accused of a sort of reductive reasoning that you could only create comics for your own gender; and I'm pretty sure any name other than 'Minx' would have ended up with problematic connotations at some level or another; and so on and on.

Having said that, I think the debates over the reasons for the demise of the line is interesting - leastwise in helping everyone figure out what exactly makes Manga and YA fiction so successful in the first place. How much is down to marketing, to the quality of the stories, to that ineffable thing that helps a Viz, TMNT or Harry Potter catch fire like its nobody else's business?

And maybe some of it really is a mystery - how on earth did [insert name of your most-hated movie/singer/band/book/comic] end up making millions whilst [that excellent movie etc you really liked] ended up sinking without a trace? As comics creators i guess all we can really do is try and tell the stories we think are worth telling and hope that the jungle of the marketplace out there somehow thinks they're worth reading too.

Press Release thingy

2008-09-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Press Release info for the Liquid City launch and the "Half Flat" Art show :

http://www.liquidcitizen.net/pressrelease3.pdf

The Anthology launch will be at Kinokuniya (Ngee Ann City) 2:00-4:00 PM on November 29 2008, and the "Half Falt" art show opening will be at the Black Earth Art Museum, later that evening at 7:30 PM.

Liquid City Website, Vertigoed and Other Stuff

2008-08-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to JF Koh, we've been able to put together a blog and previews site for Liquid City:

http://www.liquidcitizen.net

The anthology will be launched in November this year, and includes works by creators like FSC, Leong Wan Kok, Gerry Alanguilan, Troy Chin, kenfoo, Lefty, Drewscape and many others. Lat's participation though was particulary exciting, cos i grew up reading his comics, and books like Town Boy and Kampung Boy get better with every reading; you realise how much craft goes under the deceptively simple surface.

We'll be arranging for book signings at Kinokunikya in Singapore and Malaysia, watch... various spaces for updates :p

Speaking of Kino, recently headed there to get some new comics, and saw the Vertigo Encyclopedia; so the first thing i did of course was to see if they had any entry on My Faith in Frankie...and was surprised to find it did in fact get a whole page! :p

Finally me, Hong Teng, Lun Cheak and Skan will be having a group exhibition of our personal and commericial works at the Black Earth Art Gallery starting November 29, more details once we've firmed up stuff :p

Indie Comics Singapore !

2008-07-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

This week saw the release of Troy Chin's "Resident Tourist" comics, from independent publisher Adrian Teo. Available for $10 at Ani-Play at Sunshine Plaza :) Its definitely an exciting development for the local indie comics scene, go check it out! :)

Flight Vol 5 is out

2008-07-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

The fifth volume of the Kazu Kibuishi edited Flight anthology is out on July 11, and will include a Malinky Robot story called "100,000 Horsepower"

Here's a Newasrama interview with Kazu :)

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080703-Flightv5.html

Singapore Toys and Comics Convention - Sunday

2008-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

STCC finally came to a close last night, and I think overall it turned out better then many of us had expected. There were complaints about the size of the exhibition space, crowdedness and teething problems with queue-organization...but I guess its difficult to avoid these things at a first time event. Attendance was probably bout 50-70,000, which is impressive given even San Diego CC is bout 125,000 a year.

One great thing bout STCC was seeing so many fellow creators together; left to right above are Tan Eng Huat, Kenny Chua, Rixou, Michael and Julian 'Lefty' of Gilamon, Derrick, and Kai and DCJW from IFS (the name of the girl in blue escapes me :p)

Not to mention the ever ebullient Jerome Hinds , Skan Srisuwan and Zemotion (who had to run off for an assigment in Paris on saturday, so its her sister assistant (?) and Geraldine and fellow Wacom exhibitor in the pic :p).

Left is super helpful Winston Goh from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose has a folder full of excellent Wonder Women sketches by various artists and far right is Gary Erskine, guest artist whose credits include 2000AD and Dan Dare! :)

"3 Guys in a Booth" reunited: me and two of Singapore's most intriguing and talented cartoonists, Troy Chin and Ken Foo.

Us again, and Eddie from Collatarel Damage Studios....

Before you knew it, it was closing time, so it was goodbye to the Booth That Didn't Exist, and a near miss as I almost tossed out a box before noticing neat drawings on it by Danny Yee (L-R: Oliver, Danny, Sue, Atari!) . End-of-convention hour is always kinda sad; maybe its the (re)realisation of the transitory nature of it all. Sub specie aeternum, right? :)

The organisers have already said there'll be another convention next year. They'll probably secure a bigger space. Personally I don't have a lot of reference points for what conventions are like beyond SDCC, so it's hard to envisage any model to aspire to besides San Deigo, though maybe that's always going to be a touchstone rather than realistic goal.

Aside from attracting more artists, creators and publishers to attend, I guess what STCC might need in the future would be more exclusive launches, maybe a seminar or three, maybe some tie-ins with Mediacrop etc for TV serial or movie launches to add a bit of celebrity razzmatazz :p And maybe some easy access rest/food/beverage areas! :)

Still all in all it was an excellent start, but now its back to work work work. But last but not least: students from CHIJ with their first runners-up Lego model and my favourite costume of the day! :)

Singapore Toys and Comics Convention - Saturday

2008-06-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

It was the first day STCC was open to the public today, and many of us had thought it might turn out to be a sedate affair, so it was a real surprise on arriving in the morning to see the queue that had built up by bout 11...

Not quite the San Diego Comic Con , but given its a first time affair, the turnout and buzz was pretty impressive, and those of us who had rented booths were left frazzled (in a good way) by the end of the day by the activity involved - meeting fellow fans and creators, selling merchandise, all that.

There was also was great toys on display, including an excellent Star Wars section that had a whole bunch of storm troopers, the debut of the Clone Wars toys line, and best of all the full old school line up from the 70s and 80s, including two of my faves, Han Solo and Darth Vader in all their limited-articulation glory :) The presence of stores like Basheer Books, offering proper convention discounts, debut showings of the Manga Batman anime and all sorts of competitions also added to the general atmosphere.

One letdown was the absence of Lao Fu Zhi/ Old Master Q artist Joseph Wong Chak, who was unfortunately unable to make it due to 'urgent personal circumstances'. Generally the number of celeb-level artists present was on the low side, and too few people had risked taking on Artist Alley booths (on unfounded fears as it turned out), but in general it did feel like a small -scale SDCC, with lots of growth potential. A lot of publishers and companies approached apparently want to wait for the second STCC before committing resources to taking part, and I do hope that the convention gets bigger and better every year :)

As was most the Singapore fraternity was there: from IFS, to ACAS, Ken Foo, Troy Chin, plus some from across the causeway like Gilamon and Gempak; even Tan Eng Huat was wondering around for a bit ...more pics of everyone tomo! :p

For lots more photos go:

http://sgfrag.net/?p=3689

Chinese People Know Kung Fu

2008-06-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

finished version of the painting... thinking of trying it out the UOB painting thing... might not be their cup of tea but what the hey :p *

*as it turned out i totally missed the small window of 6 hours they had for submissions, as i was playing footie instead :p

Singapore Toy and Comic Convention

2008-06-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

Will be at STCC next weekend (27-29 June) at the Artist Alley, along with fellow creators like Troy Chin, Ken Foo, Zemotion and others :)

Its the first comics convention we've had here since the 80s i think, so do come and support the event! :)

http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com/

Tsuge vs Tatsumi

2008-05-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Drawn and Quarterly in recent years has been releasing hardcover translations of manga by Yoshihiro Tatsumi ("The Pushman and other stories", "Abandon the Old in Tokyo") . Everytime I see a Tatsumi book though I can't help wondering why no one has done the same for Yoshiharu Tsuge's works.

The stories that I've managed to find by Tsuge ("Screw Style" and "Oba's Electroplate Factory") were amazing, certainly for me much more engaging than the Tatsumi stories I've read. So it's a shame his works are so hard to find in English. The man doesn't even seem to have a proper entry in wikipedia! :-o

Perhaps one day soon. Maybe I should be talking to people to get it off the ground :p

For more on Tsuge:

http://www.tcj.com/sp2005/tsuge.html

http://lambiek.net/artists/t/tsuge_yoshiharu.htm

http://www.indyworld.com/indy/spring_2004/review_homme/index.html

more orphan works

2008-05-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

New York Times op-ed piece by Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/opinion/20lessig.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

From the sounds of this, I wasn't far off in my understanding of the problem :p ... as Lessig puts it:

"The solution before Congress, however, is both unfair and unwise. The bill would excuse copyright infringers from significant damages if they can prove that they made a “diligent effort” to find the copyright owner. A “diligent effort” is defined as one that is “reasonable and appropriate,” as determined by a set of “best practices” maintained by the government.

But precisely what must be done by either the “infringer” or the copyright owner seeking to avoid infringement is not specified upfront. The bill instead would have us rely on a class of copyright experts who would advise or be employed by libraries. These experts would encourage copyright infringement by assuring that the costs of infringement are not too great. The bill makes no distinction between old and new works, or between foreign and domestic works. All work, whether old or new, whether created in America or Ukraine, is governed by the same slippery standard."

podcasted

2008-05-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

eh... my first podcast, with the usual ahh and ummms and non-sequiters :p much thanks to Chris from cIndyCenter.com for putting up with it all :p

http://www.cindycenter.com/

http://www.cindycenter.com/SonnyLiewFinal.mp3

new robot painting

2008-05-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

WIP of my first robot painting... since risd i think :p

Mas Selamat's Tattoo

2008-04-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

Idea courtesy of Ronald Cheong :p

for context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mas_Selamat_Kastari

Satiemania

2008-04-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

First saw this on a BBC programme years and years ago; i remembered it as one of those most beautiful pieces of animation i'd ever seen. Re-watching it again and its absolutely brilliant :)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x275fg_satiemania-by-zdenko-gasparovich-19_shortfilms

Central Malled

2008-04-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

Some work up at Central at Clarke Quay, old paintings and some My Faith in Frankie pages...

Will be having a show with fellow illustrator Hong Teng sometime in June, more details soon! :p

Digitalese

2008-04-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

Recent work has involved illustration projects that require digital colouring/painting; the content itself has been client-driven and not especially engaging, but they did make me realise the extent to which you could manipulate 'paint' digitally. The upshot is some touching up (finishing up in some cases) of what have been pretty poor scans of actual paintings...

WIPs below:

Orphan Works Law

2008-04-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

Still reading about this, but it seems like something to worry about.

Its a bill in congress that seeks to change copyright law which will require all work we have ever done and ever do to be registered (for a fee), otherwise you would lose your copyright, and anyone could use it without paying you a cent.

Current law assumes passive copyright.

To learn more:

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&page=3

and a brad holland interview:

http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html

Colouring Idiosyncracies

2008-03-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

Some queries from various sources recently about the colouring done on Wonderland and Malinky Robot, so here's a quick walkthrough :p

Programme: Photoshop

First thing is scanning in the pencils at 300dpi, after which i adjust hue/saturation, brightness/contrast until it looks ready...

Image layer is now changed to 'Multiply' so you can see the layer of colour underneath it. Then its the mechanical process of blocking out the major areas in flat colours, which ends up looking like this:

Next a duplicate layer is made of colours and highlights, tones, shadows etc are worked on in the new colour layer. The layer box looks something like this:

The reason for keeping the old colour layer is so that its easy to select a large area on it using the Magic Wand tool; then you can go back to the new colour layer, and adjust the hue/saturation - its a quick way of making changes to the palette...

So eventually you end up with something like this (still a work in progress i think! :p)

Malinky Robot Stinky Fish Blues

2008-03-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

I've been redrawing and colouring the first Malinky Robot story. I guess I still kinda like the story but the art looks pretty dodgy in retrospect :p maybe some script changes too, but we'll see :p

hmm those wires aren't quite working, will have to do some work on those...

malinky robot..."100,000 Horsepower"

2008-01-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

.finally finished the short story for the anthology, excerpts below :p

Kurt and Gail in Singaporeland

2007-11-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

Gail Simone and Kurt Busiek are in town this weekend for the Singapore Writer's festival.

They'll be holding forth on all sorts of panels and workshops, one of which covers comics in the context of Singapore; I'll be sitting in on that along with a few other folks, including Rosetta editor Ng Suat Tong and Kenny Chua from Kinokuniya. I hope there will be snacks! :p

Time and place: Dec 2, Sunday 4pm, Arts House, Playden

Spectrumed!

2007-11-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

Recently got the new Spectrum 14 in the mail, one of the Malinky Robot pieces got a whole page! :p i know its just a random thing, but itsstill kinda nice :p

Malinky Robot "the Balloon Bomb Factory" sketches

2007-11-18T17:11:00.000-08:00

Sketches for the new malinky robot book i'm working on :p

malinky robot short

2007-10-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

working on a short malinky robot story (um... about robots!) for flight 5 and /or liquid city. early colouring stages for a double page spread:

Comics Anthology

2007-09-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

Been busy of late organizing a comics anthology featuring South East Asian creators (alone or in collab with creators outside the region)... current (partial) list iof contributors here:

http://www.sonnyliew.com/antho/anthologylist.htm

its turning out to be a lot of work, but also exciting in its own way. Still looking for a cover artist though! :p

new website

2007-08-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

the new website is up and running, still some tweaking to go, but the amazing squash rental agency is no more :p

http://www.sonnyliew.com/

do leave some comments and all :)

inklings

2007-08-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

inking has always kinda sorta frightened me. i've relied mostly on the Staedtler mars 3000 since art school, but its handling has always been a bit erratic and seems to dry up real fast. a recent trip to kinokuniya in La a few weeks back i spent a chunk of moolah buying lots of brush pens; have been trying out some sketches with one of them since and finally did a illustration with it today, with final results here: