One of the hardest things about comics that I'm glad to have finally gotten the hang of is writing pitches. It's not elevator-pitch style (don't ask me to do that), but it's concise and has the goldilocks ratio of information needed. (3 pages divided into 6 sections).

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On the rare occasions I step out of my bubble (or, I don't even need to: sometimes the call is coming from inside the house), I time-travel to the era before the rise of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, etc, and encounter publishing or academic or institutional or creative people who think comics are not a valid art form or even a medium. Despite the fact comics are flourishing in the US, already a core part of literature in Europe and Japan, accessible to a varied audience, and proving itself a strong representational medium for a variety of issues/topics/experiences. But I don't have to reiterate the statistics and official articles and journals to confirm this. It should be as mundanely acceptable a phenomenon as prose books and films in the global cultural consciousness, because it already is a part of said consciousness.

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This is the second stage following the Onion Method: An Outlining Method for Graphic Novels. You got the onion...now how are you going to present it? This post will talk you through how I craft the art direction of a graphic novel... weaving the thematic and character motivations established earlier in the outline into its final, ultimate mode of language: the visuals.

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FINALLY YESSS THE NEWS IS OUT!

My new middle-grade adventure graphic novel MY AUNT IS A MONSTER is about a POC blind girl writer and her (formerly) World’s Greatest Adventurer aunt with a big secret. :O You may recognise Lady Whimsy from a post awhile ago!

A bit more in the cut.

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On March 31st, 2013, I published the first ever page of my webcomic, officially debuting The World in Deeper Inspection.

I was 18 then: fresh out of SPM, and at the start of my gap half-year. While my friends and schoolmates almost immediately transitioned into Pre-U Lyfe (A-Levels, IB, STPM, ADP - wow those names sound so irrelevant now) I was adamant about getting a few months off - not to travel since I didn't have the money then lol, but to work on my passion project: an artsy, ambitious magnum-opus webcomic about a Jersey Devil detective and his friends.

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Graphic novels, especially ones for children, are a thing now. This is great news – it means more books, more diverse voices, and more public appreciation for the medium. Some of the people most excited for GNs are editors; many of whom are fans of comics and will be taking on comics projects for the first time. This post is for them...

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I'm excited to announce my month-long stint at Rimbun Dahan Southeast Asian Arts Residency in late 2020! I'll be their first resident comics creator (artist and writer), and I'll mostly be working on my comics during that time – I'll either be wrapping up my middle-grade graphic novel, or preparing for my Alexander the Great comic. I would love for more Southeast Asian comics creators to apply to Rimbun Dahan, so this post is going to show you my application. Please feel free to use it as a template! (more…)

Some of you may know I write historical fiction. Some of you may also know I've been chipping away on an Alexander the Great graphic novel. (Which this concept art is for) My role as a historical graphic novelist has been stewing in the back of my mind for a while now. Actually, the stewing began when I first thought of The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, but I already know my insights from that project. Be actively thoughtful. Be self aware of how your own biases and societal context influence your storytelling. Recognise the people before and around you. Use your power to bring up voices. Understand that the work of being a responsible author lasts beyond the final page of your story. (more…)