Happy Winter Solstice Festival!

Today, many Chinese families will be eating tang yuan (glutinous rice balls in syrup) as a symbol of family unity. 

Sir Fong wishes your family happiness and good times on this festive season!

Sir Fong represents Singapore in the annual IASL International Book Exhibit!

A school librarian has brought Sir Fong comics to represent Singapore in Qatar!

The International Book Exhibit is an activity of the IASL Children's and Young Adult Literature Special Interest Group. Each year at the International Association of School Librarianship conference, the Children's and Young Adult Literature Special Interest Group collects and displays books that represent the countries and regions of IASL membership. These books are donated by members and others to give to the host country to share with the children and youth of that community. At the close of the conference the books are distributed to the most appropriate libraries in the host country.

Sir Fong's writeup in Malaysia in Sin Chew Daily

I received this quite late. The article appeared in September. Enjoy!

Sir Fong visits Thailand orphanages!

Science belongs to everyone! Great scientists, engineers, doctors can come from humble beginnings.

Hence, Sir Fong was more than delighted when Project LOVE, a non-profit initiative started by Mr Jose Tay (http://www.facebook.com/josetay.sg?fref=ts) asked for comic books to be donated to the orphanages and migrant learning centres in Thailand.

Since Book 3 and 4 both featured a Thai hospital museum (Siriraj Forensic Museum) and a Bangkok fashion designer (Tawn C), Sir Fong feels glad that these kids will read about good science being practiced in their own country!

If you like to contribute or donate to this project, contact Mr Tay on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/josetay.sg?fref=ts 

My Favorite Teacher Photo Competition!

Here's a chance to win a pair of Morchoo and Titoy stuffed toys AND the latest Sir Fong Book 4!

The details are on the Morchoo & Titoy Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MorchooTitoy/app_150206515038121

DUE DATE is 21st Sept 2012, 2359hr! Hurry!

Toy Game & Comic Convention at Marina Bay Sands

Hi Sir Fong friends and fans! 

It's that traditional time of the year when Sir Fong meets and greets old fans and new! The STGCC (Singapore Toy Game & Comics Convention) will be held in September 1st and 2nd (Sat and Sun).

This time, it's held in Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. The details are here: http://www.singaporetgcc.com/

Each Sir Fong's Adventures book will be sold at a discount of $10 ($13 in bookstores). Besides a brand-new collectible bookmark and Sir Fong printed bag with every purchase, every two or more books bought will entitle you to a FREE Sir Fong comic: the out-of-print Sir Fong Book 2: Fur-o-cious! 

You can also try out the new Sir Fong Book 1 App on our iPad!

So see you at the Convention. Sir Fong is at Booth G29 in the Artist Alley!

Updates: Book 4 now in ALL Popular Bookstores - and a big hit at National Library!

According to the National Library's tracking of Book 4 in its first week, readers from Ang Mo Kio to Yishun are eager to read about the latest adventure of Totto the bunny and his friends! 

Another good news is that Book 4 can now be found in ALL Popular bookstores. That means you can get your own copy of Book 4 at all branches of Popular, Kinokuniya and MPH stores!

Happy 47th Birthday, Singapore!

Sir Fong's wish for Singapore is that one day, it will be such a cool town,

that fictional monsters will want to rampage its iconic buildings as did New York and Tokyo!

Happy 47th birthday, Singapore!!!

The Official Sir Fong Website!

Sir Fong's Website is now officially up and running!

http://ottoniumcomics.com/

Students and teachers can now use the FREE Atom Maker game as part of their lessons in learning about different ELEMENTS!

Latest update: Book 4 has reached MPH and Kinokuniya!

 

Good news! Patrons of MPH and Kinokuniya can now find the latest Book 4 in their favorite bookstores!

Sir Fong App now available on the App Store!

Sir Fong's hit comic book "Book 1"  is now an App for iPad!

Featuring the 208-page comic book in full colour for the first time, the App also contains 5 exciting new science games - play the games and learn about the Periodic Table, atomic structure, electrolysis of water and more! The App also features two great Sir Fong theme songs, animation and interactive pages!

Using Apps in the classrooms - a Science Festival workshop

The Sir Fong Book 1 App will be launched on the 20th July!

A workshop Sir Fong is hosting will invite science/IT teachers and students to explore how Apps can be used in the classroom to compliment the teaching of various topics such as Electrolysis, Atomic Structure, Elements and Compounds, the Periodic Table. 

See you and your teachers on 13th August at Science Centre!

http://www.sciencefest.sg/calendar-details.php?id=88#.T9IClDM968A.facebook

Details of the 13th August workshop is here:

http://www.sciencefest.sg/calendar-details.php?id=88#.T9IClDM968A.facebook

Watch this blog next week! Preview screen shots of the new Sir Fong App!

Next week, Sir Fong Book 1 (Atoms/Elements) will be available as an iPad App.

The promo video will be posted here in a few days' time.

In the meantime, here's a few preview screen shots of the features!

Sir Fong's Straits Times-National Art Council comic!

This is a special piece called "Cave Dad!", which appeared on Sunday (8th Jul) in the newspaper. 

Click on the picture above to see a larger version!

(All print rights reserved by The Straits Times.)

Visual Literacy with Singapore Teachers - oversubscribed in one day!

Sir Fong is very lucky to be invited by Colin Goh and his lovely wife Yen Yen Woo to share the stage. We will be talking to Singapore teachers about using comics and Apps in the classroom.

Just one day after the announcement, the talk was oversubscribed! They had to close down registration!

This is potentially great news for young people and students. This means that a lot of teachers are interested in learning new approaches to make learning interesting and fun for you!

Book 4 Official Launch Date & Sir Fong's first App!

CLICK HERE: Go to STGCC Facebook Page for updates!

CLICK HERE: Go to STGCC Facebook Page for updates!

A shout-out to CHIJ and Unity Primary School!!!

Thank you for your warm welcome for Sir Fong at your assembly halls! You've been a terrific audience! I'm very impressed that two of you drew these cool frames for my signature!

I am very happy to meet some of you and sign my autographs. I stayed back till 230pm on Friday to sign more books, so that there will be some signed Sir Fong comic books for you on Monday!

Also, I'd like to invite all of you to my booth at the Singapore Toy, Games and Comics Convention (STGCC)! I'm launching BOOK 4 at my booth (G28), and the STGCC will be held on Sept 1st and 2nd at Marina Bay Sands! A new collector's book mark and Sir Fong designer paper bag will also be given out! 

See you all there!

Book 4 - Spine Design!

It's too early to release the cover of Book 4, but I just completed the spine design (the side of the book). So I'm sharing it!

20 more pages to the completion of Book 4!

Last night, I encountered a black hole. I dreamnt about revisiting my past as a Raffles Institution science teacher, walking around the campus and finding with satisfaction that my students are still loving science. I guess such dreams may occur when one is at an event horizon, facing an uncertain future, and the past reappears as a safe, welcoming entity. It took almost 5 years to switch from the mindset that I am no longer a school teacher, and my work should no longer be confined by the limits of being one. Fortunately, Stephen Hawking already determined that not everything gets sucked in by black holes, so memories, no matter how awesome, will not slow my evolution. If there is any baggage I am still carrying, I'm letting go and moving forward with the speed of light.

For Book 4, I put everything aside. Nothing matters except making this comic book the best I can make it, with the 4 years of experience I learnt making Books 1 to 3. My daily life is walk the dog, draw, walk, draw. Friends thought I was withdrawing, family sees me less often. That doesn't matter. All that matters is what I want to say with Book 4.

20 pages to completion.  Walk, draw, walk, draw . . . :)

Sir Fong visits Elias Park Primary!

Sir Fong would like to do a simple shout-out to the students at Elias Park Primary School! It was a great time sharing about the importance of science, some imagination and comics with you on Tuesday! Remember: anyone can use science well - it doesn't matter if you are a boy, girl, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, it doesn't matter what race or nationality you are, and you don't have to be a scientist or be in a science career. History records great scientists and scientific contributions from all kinds of people. Love what your teachers teach you, but always keep that imagination of yours alive! Thank you for being such an enthusiastic and expressive audience!

Sir Fong Book 4 update!

Above is a screenshot of the latest page I am drawing for Book 4.

As you can probably guess, this page talks about "Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle". Doing research about the effect of pollution can be sobering. Everyday we discard tons of plastic, some of which finds its way into the ocean. Not only is that killing 100,000 marine lives every year (sea turtles die after they eat the plastic, mistaking them for jellyfishes, while seagulls, penguins, sharks get trapped and suffocated in plastic nets and trash), there is clear evidence that plastic releases toxic waste into the water. That means the fishes we eat will bring the toxins back into our homes.

Hopefully, my readers and future movers and shakers will read this and get my message. But don't worry, the rest of the story is still funny and enjoyable! I'm almost half-way there! See you after June!

Sir Fong, Feb 2012.

Science is Beauty

Who says there is no science in the beautiful? 

If you see beauty in this photograph, it is because of the biology of the flower, the chemistry of how nutrients are used to construct the petals, and the physics of light that took the image of the flower and multiplied it by refraction through the precipitation. The image is taken by a digital camera, and shared via the internet and your computers. 

It takes a lot of science to make us see beauty. Just because we cannot explain everything we feel, does not mean that science is not present. We simply have not found the science in them yet!