Comic Art Festival Kuala Lumpur is back again!

In case you’ve missed my tweets about this year’s Comic Art Festival Kuala Lumpur (CAFKL), it’s time to get hyped! CAFKL is back again this year for it’s 4th iteration and will be held at the Dewan Bunga Raya at Campbell Complex this weekend, 29th and 30th July!

As usual, most of the information about the event can be found on their official website and Facebook event page, but here’s a quick highlight reel of the event!

• Unsure how to get to the event venue? Fret not, the organizers came up with a handy map which includes public transportation + walking route options for those of you who prefer to test out our brand new MRT system!
• Event tickets (also known as CAFKL Passports) are going for RM15, which grants you access to the event on both days. These can be bought at the entrance to the event.
• The artist booth map can be found inside each CAFKL Passport, but there’s no harm planning your route before the event since the map is already available online! You can check out each booth’s promotional art in the CAFKL event album or trawl through the #cafkl4 tags on social media to check out some promotional posts some booth owners have already put up!
• The CAFKL Team put out some great CAFKL-themed merchandise this year too so prepare your wallets before hand, especially if you’re already planning to drop some cash at the artist booths.
• There are some great talks lined up throughout the 2 days of the event featuring a variety of Malaysian talents, including seasoned veterans Kaoru and Keith of Gempak fame and newer webcomic hit artists Fishball and Sam Hepburn.Personally I’m very interested in the talk titled Music and Math between Malaysian comics publisher Maple Comics with its artists, which looks to be a tug of war between the realities of marketing comics and the creative process/integrity.

And that’s it I guess! I’ll definitely be retweeting some artist booth promo posts on my Twitter account @indiedoodle leading up to the event (just one more day!), so if you’d like to get in on that, do follow me on Twitter!

Since I won’t be boothing this year, I’m hoping to be able to cover the event with a blog post, so fingers crossed! On that note: I’ll be attending two other events over the next two weekends outside of Malaysia, so I’m hoping to blog about them too. Will keep you guys posted!

See you guys at CAFKL!

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!

Comic Fiesta 2015: Books & Stuff To Throw Your Ringgits At!

Heya guys! As most of you comic lovers in the region should know, Comic Fiesta will be taking place in Malaysia next weekend on the 19th and 20th of December at a brand new location – The Mines International Exhibition and Convention Center (MIECC)!

The Comic Fiesta Committee has put up the event schedule, ticketing queue layout, and booth maps on their Facebook page, so you can head there or their official website for all your queries! Someone even made a walking route guide from the closest KTM Train Station to the event hall (Props to Honou-no-Izumi for coming up with that)!

The main reason why I’m writing this blog post is to share with you the comic books and merchandise that I’ve managed to suss out from promo posts in the #comicfiesta hashtags across the social media landscape (a.k.a Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram). This isn’t a complete list and is most definitely skewed towards my preferences, but since I’m doing this for myself I figured that I might as well spread the love! I’ve decided to focus more on comics, so there are significantly fewer merchandise and print promotions in this post.

One last note before we begin: I will only be listing the booth location for each of the artists/groups I’m including in this post, instead of pointing them out on the booth map. You can refer to the booth maps (Premium and Basic Booths) here.

Without further ado ladies and gents…my Comic Fiesta Shopping List.

Time for you guys to shower the artists with love…or your moolah!
You can also find me at Booth G40 to throw money at me like this!
(Yes, that is me in the gif, courtesy of Sarah Coldheart)

Panelgraph Editorial Meeting July 2015: Dragon riders + Gary Choo

I attended my first ‘official’ Panelgraph meeting yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong. I have been to a few Panelgraph gatherings before, usually held at the food court of Funan Digital Life Mall on weekday evenings, but this was the first time it’s at a pre-booked venue – the Programme Zone of the Toa Payoh Library *and* on a weekend.

Before I get ahead of myself, allow me to give you the lowdown on what Panelgraph is all about.

Review: Just So Happens

Every now and then, I happen to chance upon a book I’ve never heard or took notice of online before while browsing the bookshelves of brick-and-mortar shops. Just So Happens is one such book.

Just So Happens (Hardcover Cover)

It was the cover which caught my attention as I was walking by it. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it but it has a sort of understated elegance that I found very arresting, and the next thing I knew I was already at the counter making my payment for the book. Considering how I do most of my book shopping online nowadays, this should tell you exactly just how eager I was to dig into it.

I guess you could say that I judged this book by its cover and thankfully I was greatly rewarded.

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!)

A Rare Occurence

The title of this entry would be a suitable label for the frequency of my posts of late, as well as the significance of today’s date, the 29th of February.

I originally intended to try to rush finish up part 2 of the Comic Fiesta Doujinshi Reviews that are long overdue (among other things in my life) just to make it for tonight, but then I didn’t want to compromise the length of the article for a self-imposed deadline so I figured that I should just type up something short and fresh that I’ve been meaning to share with you for a while now.

During the past month and a half (somewhere after the Chinese New Year holidays up till now), I’ve been travelling quite a lot to attend social obligations (willingly, mind you) and somehow I ended up travelling to Batam, an island located in Indonesia. It’s just a stone’s throw away from Singapore (an hour’s ferry ride) which made for a nice weekend getaway for my colleagues and I.

The gist of it was that I had a whale of a time thanks to my happy-go-lucky colleagues, but the highlight of the trip for me was my serendipitous discovery in a bookshop there.

 

The complete set of Indonesian Adolf volumes by Osamu Tezuka

This! I’ve longed to read Adolf since I discovered its existence after reading The Art of Osamu Tezuka but the English editions are quite difficult to find (they were published almost 16 years ago by Viz). What you see above are the Indonesian editions of Adolf, printed by Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, one of their local publishing houses. It’s been translated into Bahasa Indonesia of course, but I’m still slowly but surely making my way through the books! After all, apart of the meaning of certain words, the sentence structure of Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia are almost similar, so I guess I’m somewhat learning a new language as I’m reading this!

Taking place before World War II, Adolf chronicles the story of three different individuals by the name of Adolf and how differently each of their lives play out. There’s loads of mysteries and rumours entwined into the story, which I am still trying to get my head around (hey, it’s in a somewhat foreign language to me!).

At the bookstore where I purchased these, I was quite surprised to discover the sheer amount of different comics that are being officially translated and published for the Indonesian market. From bandes dessinees (European comics) like Lucky Luke to the latest shoujo or shonen manga (they even had Nurarihyon No Mago) , they have them all! Their editions are fairly thin though, thanks to the brown and thin recycled paper (I think?) that they’re printed on, but don’t let that deter you from grabbing them should you ever chance upon them as the printing quality is extremely good – clear till the last crosshatch. This pretty much justifies the prices of the books though, as they roughly cost about RM15 per copy.

This made me reflect on the quality of comics that are currently being made and translated for the Malaysian market…and it pains me to say this but we still have a lot of catching up to do in terms of quality of content and the maturity of themes presented.

Well, that’s all I have to share with you on this special day that only comes about once every 4 years. I hope that it’s been an enjoyable read though I’m writing this off the cuff while I edit some of the images I’ll be using in part 2 of my Comic Fiesta Doujinshi Review. Trust me, it’s shaping up pretty well and it’ll be done real soon, I promise!

Till then, adieu!

P/S: Here’s to hoping that Vertical will re-release Adolf in English! *fingers crossed*

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.

Comics Are Cool! (Like we still need convincing?!)

If you’re already following me on Twitter, then you’d have noticed that I retweeted Zid’s tweet about Earthy 638’s upcoming event called ‘Comics Are Cool! @ Earth 638’.

 

The Comics Are Cool! Event Poster (So Cool! Haha!)

I remember that Earth 638’s shop used to be located in Damansara Jaya’s Atria Shopping Complex, but I guess they must’ve moved since demolition/reconstruction work on the complex began a few months ago. They’re now located at Lot No.31J-2 on the 2nd Floor of Kelana Mall and this event could be an ingenious way for them to draw supporters of the local comic scene to their humble shop once again.

They have a strong lineup of Malaysian artists gracing the event; Gilamon Studios (which comprises of Tan Eng Huat (who is slowly becoming a familiar face at comic events around Southeast Asia), Slaium, Lefty, and Michael Chuah), Alan Quah, Faezal Tan, and the list goes on. It’s going to be a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the who’s who in the Malaysian comics scene!

‘Traditional’ comic shops like Earth 638 are few and far in between in Malaysia nowadays (with the exception of The Mind Shop), so show your support by attending whether you’re a comic aficionado or creator. You probably won’t regret it.

As usual, all the cool things happen when I’m not back in Malaysia, but it’s cool (pun unintended). You can find more information on how to get there and such (like the launch of Malaysia’s 1st Indie Comic Wall) on the Official Comics Are Cool! Facebook Event Page. Viva Comics!

Minor Edit: Changed the Poster image to the latest one to display more information.