The unofficial start of the residency (at home).

I am reading The Penguin Book of Prose Poems, an anthology of... well, prose poems. A nicely-sized paperback made out of stacks of typical cheap FSC paper. But my goodness, the book smells good. Almost vanilla-ish, earthy, subtle. And I think, man I wish comics smelled more like prose paperbacks.

Comics smell like ink: heavy, pungent. Like glue in effect. I'd know – the Carpet Merchant came out as a dense giant sandwich of CMYK; nearly every page is covered from corner to corner. Apparently people enjoy that smell. It's the first thing they would comment on, before they talk about the art or the story. I like watching people plunge their face into my book. It's funny, but sweet.

Unfortunately I don't like that smell very much. It's not my thing. I wish comics smelled more like prose paperbacks. I want vanilla. I want the smell that comes with yellowing pages. I want comics to compliment the atmospheric scent of my studio-bedroom, which is also a library. I want comics to smell like a dusty library. I don't know. I have memories of reading that's incongruous to the materials my books are printed with. My entire history is cheap FSC paper and brittle ancient sweet stock. But comics are a different medium, and until they make ink that smells like prose paperbacks (though if we had a choice, I'd prefer peach or brown sugar), comics will have to smell like comics.

Many things and not so many things occurred this week.

A week has passed since rowing off to my Island.

What have I done? Well, some things.

Here's a feature from Kenny Mah about my process, Seance Tea Party, and current and future projects. Also I can't get over the opening paragraph: "Malaysian illustrator, writer and designer Reimena Yee has a touch of the Fae. No, there are no pixies or goblins in her family tree (not that she knows of) but her whimsical illustrations evoke fairy tales and distant lands we travel to only in our dreams."

So it starts tomorrow.

I know I have been yakking on about "Getting Away from Social Media and Building My Own Island on the Internet" since the early and not-so-long-ago days of this blog -- but this time, I finally have the opportunity to walk the talk.

This Sunday, June 14 2020, I’m going to be on an online author’s interview to talk about my life as a comics creator. If you’re interested in knowing about my life, my villain origin story and my craft - this is the rare opportunity to ask those questions and hear my voice/accent live.

Registration is required for the event (link): bit.ly/TMC1DL1

The timezone is GMT+8, Malaysia time.

This event is part of the book launch for my upcoming graphic novel with Tintin Pantoja, The Maker’s Club! The full schedule and programming can be found on the Difference Engine website.