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)

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.

Comic Fiesta 2011 Loot Review Part 1: Artbooks

On the 17th and 18th of December 2011, I made a trip back to Malaysia just for the most epic annual comic festival that I’ve been faithfully attending for the past 9 years: Comic Fiesta. It was held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center Exhibition Halls 4 and 5, the largest event space it has ever taken up in its 10-year run. Despite some glitches with crowd control on Day 1 which I will not go into, I found myself enjoying this year’s event the most out of all my previous experiences, which I must credit the event organizers and the legendary booth owner tag (which basically allows its bearer easy access into and out of the event halls).

In any case, the purpose of this post is not to review the event itself (even though I would love to), but the marvellous swag that I managed to procure. Year after year of attending Comic Fiesta I realized that many people do not take the time to type up their thoughts on the stuff they’ve bought, which I am partly guilty of myself, so I decided that I would do it all to completion this year, so matter how tedious the task might seem.

In this first part, I will be reviewing the 3 artbooks I purchased: CHAM (the official Comic Fiesta Art Collection), A Splash of Imagination: The Art of Silver Fox, and Hawk.

 

From Left to Right: CHAM, A Splash of Imagination, Hawk

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!