Buddy Buddy p31 + p32

My apologies for the delay in this week's post! But thank you for dropping by now!

An update on the progress of Sir Fong 3 (tentatively titled "Sir Fong: Ottonium"): I am in the middle of inking the book. And shown above is one of the pages you can expect. As you can see, I have been hard at work to make sure the new Sir Fong looks fantastic.

I have the great honor of finally meeting Mr Johnny Lau today at the Esplanade Library Cafe.

Mr Lau is the creator of Singapore's most successful comic character: Mr Kiasu. Every print of the comic was 30,000 copies, an exceptional feat locally. I remembered queuing up at MacDonalds when the Mr Kiasu toys were sold, and Mr Lau makes no apology that his creation is a commercial one. Later, TCS made Mr Kiasu into a television series, starring Chow Chou Meng and Singapore Idol presenter Daniel Ong.

Just as bonus, here's a handphone ad I found along the street. For those of you who don't know Chinese, the character "machine" was wrongly written as "chicken". So this ad is buying and selling "handchickens".

And of course, here's the next pages of Buddy Buddy! Soon, the newly-eviled Piggy will escape into the real world to create great havoc . . .

Weekly Big Post: Buddy Buddy p29 + p30

This is a short video made for English Day in 2005. Though Star Wars is hardly serious literature, the characters such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are enduring story archetypes!



Right now, Singapore cinemas are showing a rare treat of an animated movie: Persepolis.

It's about an Iranian girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution, where an oppressive regime was replaced by another. Suddenly, the poor girl Marji had to change her entire lifestyle. Her rebellious attitude got her into loads of trouble but her strong spirit ultimately won out.

It's easy to judge another culture, but I think a good movie is always a reflection of ourselves. Afterall, do Singaporean men really see women as our equal?

This movie is based on the award-winning comic novel of the same name. Go catch it to understand the situation in the Middle East a little bit more.

Finally, Buddy Buddy!

Buddy Buddy p27 + p28

After a month, the draft of Sir Fong 3 is completed. Now comes the arduous task of inking.

Inking is to commit a page of pencil sketch to black ink. It is labor-intensive, involving many hours of concentration and patience. There is little room for error, unless I want my inked pages to be full of smudges and correction tape trails!

So from now on, I will only be updating my blog once a week. Buddy Buddy is my first child, but at the moment, Sir Fong 3 - my fourth kid - needs me more! Also, a dear friend has been telling me I should re-publish Buddy Buddy - instead of putting it up fo free on this blog - and as I looked back on my firstborn, I am beginning to see how right my friend is. Afterall, Buddy Buddy is one of the very first Singaporean comic book to be published in Beijing, China - it's practically a historical document!

Buddy Buddy p25 + p26

November 1993. I was a disk drive engineer in Western Digital (WD) by day, and writing theatrical plays into the wee hours of the night.

Engineering then was very different. The design and planning were all done in the States, while we locals are given lower-level tasks like maintaining production yields. Hopefully, our new breed of Singaporean engineers are just as interested in the creative aspects of engineering as their Western counterparts.

Happy 2008 + Buddy Buddy p23 + p24

Yesterday I was working on my comic at home when the door bell rang. Outside, a whole class of Radin Mas Primary School kids greeted me with their teacher, and handed me a beautifully-drawn card and two Mandarin oranges. It's a brilliant idea - to teach the kids to reach out to the community around them. That's certainly different from the usual 'celebration in the school hall', and I'm very happy someone from Radin Mas thought of that!

Happy 2008 to all of us! May the Year of the Rat brings us greatness and commitment to our community and world!

Announcement: The next post of Buddy Buddy will be on the 12th of Feb. I'll be overseas for some recce.

Buddy Buddy p21 + p22

I was in Taipei when the Media Development Authority of Singapore released this rap video by upper management. So I missed the fuss until I watched the stage play "Chesty Nutty Bang Bang" last weekend (see last entry).

I must say, it took a lot of guts for MDA to produce that video. They know they can't rap or dance like the youngsters, but I think I got their intention!

I mean, if we (as in the artists of Singapore) think we can do better, why are we not putting up our own stuff and putting our own asses on the line? Facebook, Youtube, blogs . . . you name it. The technology is there to project ourselves, so why are we sitting safely in the audience seat laughing at those who dared to go onto the court and play the game?

Think about it when you watch it again:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ksw2UqTyhhc

Rock on, MDA!

Singapore Pops Now!

Buddy Buddy p19 + p20

Had a ball last night catching "Chesty Nutty Bang Bang - The Hairspray of the Pheonix", a local musi-comedy at National Library. Singaporeans really love taking our own take on famous entertainment stuff such as Hairspray and Harry Potter, and this annual production is the most irreverent review of the big events of 2007. Hadi Mirza's Asian Idol win, 881, MDA Senior Management Rap, Hokkien versions of the popular song Umbrella, Repeal 377A . . . Jonathan Lim and crew really know what tickle the Singaporean funny bones!

There's one more show this afternoon at 3pm. So catch it before u haf to wait for next year's. It's for 16 and above though.