Info Bites: Speech Bubble & STGCC 2016

Phew, it’s that time of year again where I finally wipe off the dust of this musty blog with an update! September is rolling around soon and it’s shaping up to be a month long comic bonanza in Singapore!

Kicking off on the 2nd of September, Speech Bubble is a brand new event in the Singapore comics scene with a focus on comics produced and published in Singapore (and in South-East Asia to a lesser degree).

 

The Official Speech Bubble 2016 Poster

An initiative spearheaded by Sonny Liew with the aid of the National Library of Singapore, the event aims to engage people from all walks of life and foster their love for the comics medium through workshops, talks, and exhibitions carried out by the local comics community. Running throughout the month of September, their stellar lineup includes comic luminaries such as Drewscape (who will be talking about drawing non-Superhero comics) and Lefty (who will touch on the relevance of comics in today’s high-tech world), plus some practical panels (like this one about Financial Planning for Freelancers by Karen Tan) thrown into the mix.

Sadly I won’t be around on the weekend when Speech Bubble kicks off, but I’m hoping to at least attend one of the panels on the subsequent weekends. For a comprehensive list of talks and other happenings for Speech Bubble, do head down to their official website!

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Next up, the annual Singapore Toys Games and Comics Convention will be happening on the 2nd weekend of September!

Singapore Toys Games and Comics Convention 2016

Taking place at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Halls once again, this year’s guests look promising to me, especially with the inclusion of Emma Rios and Hwei in the lineup! I have seen some people lamenting about the lack of more famous guests being invited to the event in some of the local comic groups I frequent online, but from my standpoint as a casual attendee (my main motivation to go is to support my friends who are boothing at the Artist Alley) the inclusion of Emma and Hwei are a welcome addition to the usual mix of Marvel and DC artists and writers.

Having said that, do drop by the Artist Alley to give the people at Global Beards (Booth AA88) some love…and pre-order their upcoming all-ages comic Yellow Princess: Attack on the Amber Citadel! Also a little birdie told me that Rex Regrets (Booth AA86) will finally be having its first ever hardcover book so do keep a lookout for that too (Rex will be right next to Global Beards)!

If you’re thinking about hanging about the main stage like me to listen to some of the talks, the stage schedule for both days can be found here.

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That’s September in a nutshell for me (apart from my upcoming trip!), so till next update, see ya!

Info Bites: STGCC 2014

The Singapore Toys, Games, and Comic Convention 2014

 

This post is a little late, considering that the Singapore Toys, Games, and Comic Convention (STGCC) 2014 is less than a week away, but I only decided to make a post for it a day or so ago after realising that there are more than a few things I’m looking forward to from the event this year. The biggest irony is that I won’t be able to attend the event this year as I’ll be back in Malaysia attending a friend’s wedding, but thankfully I still have my *ahem* girlfriend and our group of friends there to be my proxy shoppers!

I’ll only be highlighting the stuff I’m looking forward to personally, so this post will definitely come off as a little biased, but hey, I guess it’s kinda my task to get people excited about what I myself find exciting too, right? Now, onwards to the juicy bits!

Info Bites: CAFKL!

It’s almost the middle of the year and what better way to commemorate this than a brand new comic event?

Coming to The Annexe Gallery real soon!

The Comic Arts Festival Kuala Lumpur, happening on 7th and 8th June at The Annexe Gallery,  is a newcomer in the arena of comic-related events in Malaysia, but it brings with it a new sensibility: A focus solely on illustration and comic art and their creators, without using other fringe events (*cough*cosplay*cough*) to draw in the crowds as other local comic events are wont to do. Modelled after international comic events such as the Angoulême Festival and Toronto Comics Arts Festival, this event has the potential to become the common ground for comic aficionados and creators from different genres to meet and mingle.

If you’ve never been to the Annexe Gallery before, you should probably grab this opportunity to give this Malaysian arts hub a visit as CAFKL seems to be the last event to be booked for that space before it’s being developed into something else (There are no details on what exactly it’s going to be developed into, but believe you me that it’s probably not going to be another space for the arts).

The Comic Arts Festival Kuala Lumpur currently shares most of its updates on its official Facebook page and Twitter, though I am told that an official website is forthcoming. If you’re interested in attending CAFKL, do prepare an extra RM10 on top of your shopping budget for an entry ‘passport’ which entitles you to freely access the event hall for both days. Though there isn’t much information to go on online regarding the booth layouts and exhibitors for the event for now,  a little birdy has informed me that comic workshops will be hosted by some seasoned veterans, so keep a look out for the official announcement!

P/S: As I will be having a booth at the event, I have already gotten a preview of sorts for booth layout and exhibiting booths and let me tell you, it’s definitely an eclectic mix!

Info Bites: 24 Hour Comics Day and Singapore Writers Festival 2012

Hello again everyone, it’s been a (long) while since I last updated this blog! I’ve been really (REALLY) busy for the past 8 months, travelling, drawing and whatnot! It’s been a crazy ride but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, though I do regret not making time to write about the comic-related things I’ve been up to. So this is me trying to make amends by kickstarting my writing engines again with an update.

24 Hour Comics Day

24 Hour Comics Day is just around the corner (like this weekend!) and will be happening on the 20th till 21st October worldwide. This year I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and commit to participating in the Singapore version of this event (since I’m still working here) but for those of you in Malaysia, there’ll be one taking place at the Balai Seni Visual Negara  organized by none other than Sarah Joan Mokhtar (about time too after the last one held back in 2007)!

 

The Poster for the Malaysian version of 24 Hour Comics Day

Both versions of the event require pre-registration so that spaces will be allocated for your participation, so please register quickly if you’re interested! I’ve not participated in one before but I am pretty sure that it’ll be a great experience as well as a good way to meet people who love comics!

The Poster for the Singaporean version of 24 Hour Comics Day

More information and details on how to register for 24 Hour Comics Day Malaysia can be found here on their Official Facebook Event Page while the 24 Hour Comics Day Singapore has its own pages for Rules (aka what to expect) and Registration.

Singapore Writers Festival

If you were like me a few days ago you’d probably be wondering what does the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) that will be taking place between 2nd till 11th November 2012 have to do with comics, and you’d be delighted to know (like I was) that SWF has a lineup of comic panels/sessions in their itinerary!  Here are some of the comic-related highlights that I am itching to attend, if possible (click on the links for details of each event):

Brand New Books: Lingua Comica – Graphic Novels from Asia and Europe

Panel: Comic Artists Capture Singapore (Featuring Sonny Liew, Oh Yong Hwee, Miel)

Workshop: The Making of a Graphic Novel (Featuring Khalil, Creator of webcomic and graphic novel Zahra’s Paradise)

Meet the Author: Jimmy Liao

I’m definitely attending the Lingua Comica book launch session even though it’s on a weeknight I need to grab a copy of each of the books, especially the ones containing Hwei and Sarah Joan Mokhtar‘s comics when they attended Lingua Comica, a comics exchange program by the Asia-Europe Foundation! I’m still trying to make a tough decision on whether to attend the workshop or the meet-and-greet session with Jimmy Liao (a very famous Taiwanese Illustrator, in case you didn’t know. Go brush up on him on Wikipedia!), as the last three items on the list (Panel, Workshop, and Meet the Author) are taking place on the same day with overlapping time slots! The pains of being an avid comic lover!

Well, that’s all I have for now (that is, until Comic Fiesta rolls around in December)! Till next time, keep drawing!

P/S: There’s loads of drawing competitions currently bring co-organized by Comic Fiesta in conjunction with Comic Fiesta 2012, so you should probably take a look at the Comic Fiesta Forums if you want to join in! (Yes, I’m lazy to write about them now, haw!)

Info Bites: Spera Volume 1

Hey guys and girls, I know that I probably should be following up with the next part of the Comic Fiesta 2011 Loot Review, but I just couldn’t help but promote Spera Volume 1 after I remembered that it should’ve been out by now – and I was right!

 

Spera Volume 1 Cover (source)

Spera is an on-going story written, created and editted by Josh Tierney, who has enlisted various artists around the world to help make his visions come to life – in the form of graphic novels. As I’ve not read Spera before (yet!), I think it’s only fair that I use the ‘official’ excerpt for the book to give you an idea of the story:

Lono’s life as a princess consisted of sitting, reading, and dreaming—until the day Pira, princess of a neighboring kingdom, arrived with news of a waking nightmare! With the help of Pira’s best friend—a fire spirit in the form of a dog named Yonder—the princesses now find themselves in a race against evil. The goal: Spera, a magical realm of which the princesses had only ever heard the tallest tales. The prize: their very lives!

This book deserves your attention because it contains a comic by one of our very own up-and-coming Malaysian talents, Hwei! If you’ve not heard of her (which is impossible if you’ve been keeping an eye on this blog as I’ve mentioned her work before in my review of Hawk in my Comic Fiesta 2011 Loot), she won 2nd place in the inaugural Morning International Manga Competition (MIMC) back in 2007 with her entry, Vefurrin. And if that’s not enough to make you sit up and take notice, her work was recently (and I mean as recent as 36 hours ago) featured on Comic Book Resources. Plus, come on, it’s not everyday that you can say that somebody you know has their work published alongside Emily Carroll (yes, she’s in Spera too)!

I do intend to sit her down sometime soon and hopefully squeeze an interview out of her but until then, I shall leave you with an interview she had back in 2008 with The Star.

Do get the book if you can from a bookstore close to you, or just order it from Amazon.

Info Bites: Weekend Fillers

Hey all! As usual, long time no update, my apologies! Just wanted to pop by and inform you all about the two events I know that are lined up for this and next weekend.

First off: Fusion of Passion Showcase

 

 

In conjunction with MASIF 2011 (an acronym for ‘Music, Arts, Style, International Festival’), Galeri Petronas is hosting the Fusion of Passion exhibition which features canvas-printed artworks of various Malaysian artists, including those of the graphic novel persuasion. Artworks by some of my favourite local artists such as Zid, kiDChan, Hwei, and Quartz (just to name a few) will be on display there, which is such a pity as I won’t be able to attend this exhibition before it ends!

 

One of Zid‘s artworks on display – ‘The Amazing Race’

This exhibition will come to a close on the 25th of September (this Sunday), so if you’re looking for something to feast your eyes on this weekend perhaps a trip down to Galeri Petronas at KLCC isn’t such a bad idea.

Next up: 24 Hour Comics Day Singapore

 

 

After a pretty long drought since the last 24 Hour Comics Day held in Malaysia back in 2006, our neighbours down South have have picked up the slack since 2010 with their own version of the event…and it will be happening again really soon! The Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day will be held on the 1st of October and sadly, all the places for the on-site drawing area at the Goodman Arts Center have been taken but don’t let that put a damper on your spirit! The Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day is still open for registering home participants, which means you can still take part in this event no matter where you are, from the comfort of your own home!

 

Participants from last year’s Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day (Picture taken from Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day website)

I know what’s the next question running in your mind: What are the benefits of participating from home? Well, for one, registering for this event (even though you say you will be taking part regardless) is the first step in making the commitment to participate 24 Hour Comics Day since from my own experience, you’ll be more likely to give it some serious thought instead of just ‘accidentally’ forgetting about it altogether! You can register to be a home participant here then take a look at the other participants that will be joining you on this journey (My name is somewhere in the home participants list…haha).

They also have a Google Group for this event for participants-to-be to exchange tips and carry out discussions. It seems that there’s some kind of collaboration going on between writers in Indonesia who want to liaise with artists to produce a comic for 24 Hour Comics Day there too, so some of you might want to give that a try!

Also, just a final shoutout to all of you to buy Craig Thompson’s latest book, Habibi, which was just released on the 20th of September to raving reviews. I’ve not gotten my copy yet, a terrible act that I will remedy once I post this entry and head off to enjoy my weekend!

With that, I hope that you’ll have some fun-filled weekends ahead, and till next post (really soon, promise!), I bid you adieu!

Info Bites!

Heya, it’s been pretty busy (as usual) since my last update here (another long hiatus! *sigh*)! I’ve compiled a few bite-sized chunks of information here into a single post, which I suspect will become a norm in the future (I’ve even created a new category for it in anticipation, haha!).

Without further ado, ta-daaaa~!

What I’ve Been Up To

Having been in Singapore for almost a year now, it’s funny how I only managed to meet up with Zid a few weeks before he left Singapore to return semi-permanently to Malaysia. I thoroughly enjoyed his company in those last few weeks, and the best thing was that he pointed me to a pretty nifty activity held by the Organization of Illustrators Council Singapore (OIC): their monthly Portrait Day held at the Market of Artists and Designers (MAAD) in the RedDot Design Museum.

OIC Singapore’s July 2011 MAAD Portrait Day Poster

For a 10SGD fee, the OIC will provide you a seat in the portrait drawing area, where interested ‘posers’ will sit in the designated chairs for 20 minutes while the artists get busy drawing their portraits. Apart from being good life drawing practise (no matter what art background you come from), you may be able to earn back the participation fee you’ve paid (or more!) as you are strongly encouraged to hang your completed artwork in a browsing area where the ‘posers’ can choose to buy them for 10SGD a piece. Interesting concept, no?

Here’s the Event Photos of the July 2011 OIC Session at MAAD I attended. I’m glad to say I managed to sell a piece of my art, much to my own amusement, as that was the only piece I chose to draw straight from my imagination instead. It’s this piece if you’re interested to know (please don’t laugh!).

It seems that the July session I attended will be the last of its kind being held on Saturday afternoons at the RedDot Design Museum; from now on the OIC intends to have the RedDot sessions on Friday nights, and are trying to find a new location for the Saturday afternoon sessions. Looks like the OIC Portrait Day will be bi-monthly from now on, so keep checking the OIC WordPress Blog for updates on when and where the next sessions will be held!

 

What I’ve Heard

I stumbled onto this piece of information as I was browsing my tumblr page. Many thanks to Eisu for bringing Womanthology to my attention!

The Preview Cover of Womanthology. Looks darn pretty to me!

A little background information on Womanthology: Womanthology is ‘a large scale anthology comic showcasing the works of women in comics’, to be created entirely by 140 women of all experience levels. As you can see from their Kickstarter page I’ve linked above, they’ve already reached their targeted amount, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still contribute since: 1. The more money they get = the more copies they can print and 2. Malaysian artists Aimo and Hanie are part of the project! From the lineup of artists taking part in this, I’ve got a good feeling that the result’s gonna be pretty awesome!

 

Upcoming Events

Dongeng (Fairy Tales) Publicity Poster

Dongeng (Fairy Tales) – A Solo Exhibition by kiDChan
Come mid-July, a solo exhibition by the prolific kiDChan will be held at Saito College in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, entitled: ‘Dongeng (Fairy Tales)’. You can visit their Facebook Event Page for more information if you’re interested to go there and have a gander at this wonderful artist’s works (free entry). There are slots where kiDChan herself will be there to do CG demos and such, so do keep an eye out for that. KiDChan does more illustration work than comics, but she still dabbles in comic work now and then. Definitely a trip worth making if you’re in need of artistic inspiration!

STGCC 2011

Singapore Toy Games and Comics Convention 2011 (STGCC 2011)
If you have extra moolah to spare or are super kiasu about being at the major comic events in South East Asia, then make your way across the Causeway to attend STGCC 2011, taking place at Suntec City’s Convention Hall in Singapore on 20th till 21st August. As usual, there’ll be loads of things going on at the event, such as the sale of event exclusive figurines, Guests of Honour appearances (CB Cebulski!), and the artists alley, just to name a few. All the information you may need (online ticket purchasing, event location, event schedule) can be found on the STGCC 2011 Homepage, though I must say that it’s a visual assault when you’re navigating the site.

That’s all for now, stay well, stay safe, and stay CLEAN! Till next time! 😉