NEW ONLINE COMIC STRIP!

New: Star Child the comic strip!

This is an announcement I'm really excited to make.

Star Child is a comic strip I've created for a new online company called BreezeTo5.

It is a 6-frame strip about a foetus inside its mother's womb. Life in this womb is anything but mundane. Star Child's parents, a super-kiasu and technologically-savvy pair, could not wait for their child to pop out in 9 months' time. They decided to beat the competition by introducing a state-of-the-art womb tutor called iWoom, hence giving their kid a head-start like no other.

Star Child also gets to meet some of its dad's sperms, as they continuously crossed mountains and valleys only to find the prized egg long taken. Eventually, they became resigned to their status and made the best of their situation, providing an endless source of amusement for our Child.

http://www.breezeto5.com/comic/#15-05-08

BreezeTo5 is an ambitious new Singaporean venture that not only help job seekers hook up with good jobs, but also let these people discover their true potential and earning power based on their passion/interest. The portal is new, and will be officially launched after a period of testing. I'm confident that the platform it creates will make it a fast-growing portal that makes life at work a breeze from 9 to 5.

At first, there was some reservations about such an approach. How do I portray a comic that is hilarious but tasteful? And what has a comic about a foetus and sperms got to do with a job seek portal?

Well, it's a fact that the fiercest competition on earth, more nerve-wrecking than any American Idol episode, is when a million sperms vie to fertilise one egg. The winner gets a whole life - achieve immortality from spermdom - while the losers all disintegrate within 48 hours. Nothing is more high-staked and represents better the competition one faces in landing that coverted career.

There will be two new strips every week uploaded. I hope you can all support by going to the following link and enjoy the comic. If you like it, why not print it and pin them on your work table for all to share?

http://www.breezeto5.com/comic/#15-05-08

Star Child is inspired by "2001: A Space Odyssey", written by the late, great Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick.

New images of Sir Fong 3!

This month's post: MAN + MACHINE
These two images are direct from my new book. Since I miss teaching Science, I'm taking the Sir Fong characters into a brave new territory: Asian science comics.

The series is titled "Sir Fong's Adventures In Science". Book 1 is about Atoms, Molecules, Elements & Compounds.

Some of you might wish I'd stuck to the original focus of the comic: jokes. But I think Asians have been missing out on our share of Scientists and Researchers, and also that Singapore is the perfect platform for such a center for Science and Education. It is a worthy mission: how to make Science fun and enjoyable for the next generation. I hope all of you who have supported me previously will take a chance on this new book!

For those who did not get to own a copy of the original Sir Fong 1 and 2, I am also reprinting a limited number as a compilation. It will be titled "Sir Fong's Jokes From a Singapore School".

One major feature that really excites me when creating the book is that I'm using computer technology to completely create the contents! Every line is lovingly drawn and twisted to my exact liking in Macromedia Freehand.

The hard work and long nights paid off handsomely for myself. When the tutorials in the software didn't work for me, I'd call up friends for their expertise. Although the work is tough (don't think drawing in computers take any less time!), I know in my guts that THIS IS IT. I am finally becoming the kind of comic artist that I'd always dream of being!

I love drawing comics, but I never really liked the traditional paint and ink approach to drawing. I stuck to pencil and brush because, for the longest time, computers were quite clumsy. Now, Computer technology has advanced to such a stage that I no longer have to endure long processing minutes or unwieldy computer tablets.

For those who resist the transition from brush to machine, just stop and look around us.

Iron Man is about a fragile but gifted man who was just mucking about, misdirecting his talents until he got encased in a metallic suit. After that, his dream of protecting the innocent became reality. Obviously the audience loved the show: it is currently still number one in America.

The star of the show, Robert Downey Jr, never reached such commercial success until his acting talents got married to computer graphics.

Number Two in America now is Speed Racer. A movie that will give older viewers headaches, but I suspect my nephew in primary 6 will totally love. Again, it is about a man who didn't hit the heights until he got into his space-aged super car. The visuals alone are worth the admission ticket price! I won't miss it!

Pop Queen Madonna and pop prince Justin Timberlake, currently in the charts all over the world with the duet "4 Minutes", reigned by fusing their voices with computer-generated sounds. When synthesizers were first introduced into the world of music, the technology was not taken seriously, and traditional rock stars poo-pooed electronic music as soul-less.

But look at the chart now.

It really is inevitable. Man + Machine. You can do a lot of good, or you can do a lot of bad with computers. We can't stop progress, but we can steer it in the direction of benefitting mankind. We are the ones behind the wheels.

Something decidedly last century, but still enduring to me: Buddy Buddy. Enjoy!

Butt Shaking

Recently a group of my friends went Ipoh. Amongst the footages they took, this one stood out. A video editor friend took it, laid down Britney Spears' song "Gimme More", and added a few nifty editing tricks. No offense to Britney fans out there, but this video is funnier than the official video promoting the song. Enjoy! (special thanks to KW for the permission to blog this.)

On the topic of butt shaking, below is a hilarious Thai commerical.

Back to Buddy Buddy.

Uploading this very old comic book sure brings back memories of my first attempt at creating a comic book.

As I am creating my new comic book, it helps to review the experience I have accumulated since my first book. What did I do right besides getting really lucky? What did I not do to push my creation further?

It was a long, lonely process, waking up on time only to bend over the drawing table to meet the daily quota. It's only years later that I realise drawing is only 10% of the work. 90% is actually being out there in the world, and talking to people who can make the book a possibility. The publisher is only the tip of the iceberg. No matter how good my work is, it will not gain wide recognition without marketing and many other support.

Hence, for my new work Sir Fong: Ottonium, I am learning to do all the stuff I did not do previously. That's why I am not updating this blog as regularly as I like.

I do what it takes to make the book a success.

Survivors

In my last blog, I mentioned that Britney Spears had nothing to do with comics. I didn't know I had to eat my words so soon.

Her new single, Break The Ice, features a Manga video. Another great song, and here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DdCFczrodc

Britney will likely be a sruvivor, just like her predecessor Madonna. Cool.

I'm excited because two of my favorite survivors will soon hit our little island: Robert Downey Jr, in his comic book adaptation of Iron Man, and Sir Elton John.

Iron Man is a comic book hero who is not as well-known here as Spiderman or Batman. From the trailer below, I believe this movie will rock!

Before he finally get a blockbuster role as Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr was already an Oscar-nominated actor. He broke into the scene with his amazing portrayal of Julian, a wasted Beverly Hills rich (but neglected) kid in Less Than Zero. I met him in Los Angeles once, and he was down-to-earth and affable - no airs at all!

Downey's got really crazy with drugs and got into lots of trouble with the law. Sometimes I wondered if he would go the way of River Pheonix, another great actor who died of drug abuse.

Fortunately, Downey looks set to leave his past behind him.

In the following video, he played Sir Elton John's alter-ego, mouthing the words to one of my favorite Elton John song: "I Want Love":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_u6l7EsQMc

Sir Elton is another great hero of mine, He is outspoken, lived his talented life the way he wanted, and spoke out against homophobia. He will be performing in Singapore this May, and I look forward to hearing the great legend sing - hopefully as many of his newer songs as his classics.

Both Downey and Sir Elton are talented artists who'd overcome all odds, gained victory over their own demons and shared their gifts with the world. It is people like them that give us inspiration to battle our own odds, that inspire us to rise and shine.

And finally, Buddy Buddy:

Britney's South Park episode + Violence in Comics

When Britney Spears began her career in the pop scene, I saw her as Madonna-lite.

But her last two studio albums, In The Zone and Blackout, are really enjoyable. I practically worn out my copy of In The Zone, and her latest song "Piece Of Me" is a fantastic and meaningful song that addresses the topic of her public persona.

While she has nothing to do with comics and animation, her recent appearance in the newest season of South Park blew my mind. In it, Britney got tired of the public attention and used a shotgun and blew out her brains. And that's just the beginning of the show.

Bizzarely, she survived the blow and went on an adventure with the South Park kids of Kyle and Stan.

As you can see below, with her brains blown off, Britney went on to perform her first single, Gimme More, in the Grammy Awards. If you are aged 18 and above, you can watch the episode on the South Park site jaw agaped at this new South Park affront.

If that's not violent enough for your tender heart, you can go the the Net and check out the latest episodes of Happy Tree Friends (above). In these mini-episodes, cute little squirrels and rabbits get their innards turned inside out (organs exposed etc) in many grissly ways.

Many people are upset by the violence in Happy Tree Friends and South Park. Don't forget that in earlier seasons, Kenny from South Park died in virtually every episode.

The very same people (usually adults) forgot that when they were younger themselves, they were laughing at just as much cartoon violence. Look back at the popular cartoon Wily Coyote and the Road Runner.

In his constant bid to catch (and probably eat) the Road Runner bird, Wily Coyote used a bunch of ridiculous equipment and weapons. Everytime these technology backfired. And Coyote is usually burnt to a charred crisp, his eyeballs, teeth etc falling off his face.

We can laugh at such cartoon violence because we instinctively knew cartoon violence is different from real violence. We laugh because we knew the cartoon character always survives.

Deaths are often used in comics and cartoons to different effects. Take the famous Batman comics - the 2nd Robin, Jason Todd, was killed by The Joker. Tragic, but he eventually returned from the grave as the Red Hood.

So there.

One big fat non-secret in the comic world: noone dies. So often their deaths are quite funny.

There are no deaths in Buddy Buddy, but it's still fun. Slow in posting, but fun. :)

Buddy Buddy p37 + p38

After some long search in Youtube, I finally found my favorite Thai commerical! I have no idea what's it about, but I just love the grooviness of it all.

Sir Arthur C Clarke, author of one of my favorite science fiction movie/story "2001: A Space Odyssey" passed away at age 90 in Sri Lanka.

Aside from the movie, Sir Arthur also predicted communication satellites, and inspired Gene Roddenberry to pursue the creation of enduring tv series Star Trek.

I found it particularly strange because only in January did I somehow worked a little bit of Sir Arthur into Sir Fong 3!

A sci-fi geek since my secondary school days, 2001 blew my mind. The story traced how ancient apemen were prompted to evolve by aliens.

In a classic scene, spaceman Bowman survives a malfunctioning, murderous super computer, called HAL 9000. Now this was created in 1968, long before the battle between man and machine got updated in the Matrix series.

Spaceman Bowman then was transported into a space/time tunnel, where he famously exclaimed, "it's full of stars!" Then, he encountered the forces that kick started Mankind's evolution.

At the end of the movie, Bowman is no longer a human being, but a powerful Star Child. He has taken the next step in evolution.

The movie was powerful because it expanded the possibilities of mankind beyond Earth, for myself as a gawky teenager, and I'm sure for millions of other people.

As a sign of Sir Arthur's enduring legacy, I worked the Bowman scene into Sir Fong 3 in January!

As you can see, Sir Fong sees (something), and exclaims, "it's full of stars!"

The timing between my use of a 2001 imagery and Sir Arthur's demise is freaky!

Finally, Buddy Buddy continues.

Buddy Buddy p35 + p36

A hanger is a hanger.
Unless it's a 3M hanger that looks like part of a cartoon bear's anatomy!
This hanger stands out (pun intended) amongst all other hangers.
And that's a humorous, attention grabbing design.

What about this? It's a family of salt + pepper shaker. And the kid is actually a brilliant tooth-pick container.

When the kid's cap is raised, the toothpicks fan out like the kid's in shock, his manga hair standing out and pushing his cap into the air! Simply ingenius!

These green and yellow chicks are each a salt/pepper dispenser. Twist their heads one side, and you get salt. Twist the other, and you get pepper!

You might think these wonderful designs are from some European or Japanese design house, but they're actually the works of Thailand.

The bags above?
They used discarded plastic bags and shampoo bottle wrappers as part of the decoration. Again, another Thailand design!

OK, now back to Buddy Buddy!