Back Again

Round and Round, back to Wordpress :p

Where is My Mind

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

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

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

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

issue one

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

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

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

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

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

Chinese People Know Kungfu

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

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

French Edition

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

RIP Mark Linkous, Barry Hannah.

Heebie Jeebies

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Au Pays des Merveilles"

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