Phil Yeh is the creator of America's first graphic novel "Even Cazco Gets The Blues".
Amongst his amazing adventures, Yeh was the first to interview Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman. At that time, Siegel was not given due credit (nor compensation) for his creation. Yeh's interview helped Siegel win back his rightful credit as co-creator of the world's most famous American superhero.
Clockwise from left: Lim Chengtju (green shirt), Otto Fong, Hilary Ho, Miel, JF Koh, Phil Yeh and Linda Yeh
In my earlier posting, Yeh is in town to give a workshop. We met for lunch before his book promo at the Kinokuniya Bookstore.
I won't write too much about our afternoon together here. Instead, I'd like to share a few very good insights:
1. The graphic novel (G.N.) format is THE way to go. For the average modern city folk, a full-length novel becomes a luxury as our schedules become packed. A graphic novel allows us to absorb much more information within a shorter time. Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words. As I often told my audience, manga or graphic novels are popular with Japanese adults. Obviously it's not because Japanese adults have not grown up - they're simply too busy to spend a lot of time reading a traditional novel.
Maus II by Art Spiegelman
2. Hugely successful genres such as the American superhero comics and Japanese Manga, while popular, only appeal to a small population. Their dominance now stands in the way of the general public seeing the graphic novel as the future of reading. Because the general public thinks that graphic novels only offer superheroes or manga, they are slower to check out great titles like "Logicomix", "Persepolis" or "Maus". "Logicomix" is a G.N. about the search for truth using Mathematics. "Persepolis" is about a girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, while "Maus" is famous as the one which portrayed Holocaust survivors as mice.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
3. Similarly, some Singaporeans have a negative view of comics. This can be traced to two historical eras:
a. the dominance of Hong Kong kungfu comics. These were popular amongst gang members in the 60s and 70s, creating a negative view of comics in general.
b. the rocky relationship between political comic artists and Asian politicians. The Western concept of Freedom of Speech (including lampooning politicians in comics) could not work well in the region, resulting in friction between the comic artists and politicians. Again, this discouraged young people to pursue a career in comic drawing. With some education, people will come to see the importance of G.N. as the future of reading.
Logicomix by written by Apostolos Doxiadis. Character design and artwork by Alecos Papadatos and color by Annie Di Donna
These are all very good news indeed for the future of G.N. In a way, my comics are G.N.s because they do not fit the popular genre of manga or superheroes. I'm excited about the future of the Sir Fong's Adventures In Science series!
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