The Art of Ian Kennedy

In his new book, Masters of British Comic Art (Rebellion, 2020), David Roach described Ian Kennedy as “perhaps the most important artist at Air Ace (for Fleetway) where he drew strips and painted covers for nine years, meanwhile at Thomson he crafted light-hearted girl strips for Judy and Bunty, mixed with boys strips for Hotspur” in the 1960s.

Roach went on to say the 1970s and 1980s consolidated Kennedy’s position as “one of the country’s top adventure artists with crisp, dynamic strips for Wizard, Warlord, Bullet and Crunch along with IPC’s Valiant, Battle, Starlord and Eagle where he memorably drew Dan Dare for several years.”

The assessment is:

Kennedy’s work is characterized by energetic drawing, beautifully crafted ink work, a mastery of paint and a gift for bringing anything mechanical to life, all of which has been thrillingly evident in his long association with Commando which began in 1970 and continues to this day, resulting in over 1,200 exquisite covers. (p. 55)

Now that makes Kennedy the link between the pioneering postwar generation of British comic artists (he started his career in 1949 at the age of 17) of the 1950s and 1960s and the new wave of the 1970s and 1980s. Kennedy was one of the few who successfully transited to the adventure and science fiction strips of the 1970s and 1980s, and still working today. He even drew Judge Dredd in the mid 1980s, although he didn’t quite approve of some of Joe’s more violent punishments.

But it will be his Commando covers that will stand the test of time. In War Stories: A Graphic History (Collins Design, 2009), Mike Conroy praised Kennedy’s ability to draw a seemingly simple action scene but in actual fact, the cover is a master class in balance and design (p. 109).

Now, wait. Some of you are asking Ian who? Ian Gibson? Cam Kennedy? If you are unfamiliar with British comics history, now is the time to brush up on its rich heritage other than the writers and artists that most of us only know when Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Brian Bolland, Dave McKean and others invaded American comics in the 1980s and 1990s. A good place to start is the above-mentioned David Roach’s Masters of British Comic Art, a hefty hardcover tome of 386 pages.



Back to Ian Kennedy. From his website:

Ian Kennedy (born 22 September 1932, Dundee, Scotland) is a UK artist.

Growing up in Dundee in the Forties, Ian was enchanted by aircraft. An ear infection ended his dream of becoming a pilot, but a trip to Dundee Royal Infirmary led to meeting his wife to be, Gladys, who was a nurse and he pursued a career that involved drawing aircraft rather than flying them.

Ian started at D. C. Thomson & Co. in 1949 as a trainee illustrator, and in 1954, with a wife and son to support, took the decision to leave D.C. Thomson and go freelance. He has had a career in illustration and comic books ever since.

During the 1950s Ian turned his hand to illustrating anything and everything. His work appeared in Hotspur, Rover, Adventure, Sun, Buck Jones and many other comics.

In the 1960s the Picture Library became a popular format and Ian worked on Air Ace, Bunty, Battle and War Picture Libraries. That's not to neglect the work he did for many of the weeklies such as Adventure, Hotspur and Bunty.

From the 1970s onward, Ian began to specialise in science fiction comics, regularly producing work for IPC's 2000AD and Star Lord. He also worked for Battle Picture Weekly, Buddy, Blake's 7, Eagle (Dan Dare), M.A.S.K., Victor Summer Special, Wildcat and D. C. Thomson's pocket books (including Commando).

For those of us of a certain vintage, we grew up reading his Commando stories and Dan Dare in Eagle in the 1980s in Singapore.

I did an email interview with Ian recently. He still lives in Dundee.



What is your typical day like these days?

My typical day is much less structured than in previous times when, the only way to cope with a heavy workload was a strict daily routine of roughly eight hours with a break for lunch and, to a degree, relaxing in the evening. Now, as I do not have to meet so many deadlines, I am more relaxed as to when I go to the studio, which, I feel, has led to, in some aspects, an improvement in my work.

I am not much of a sports fan, although I do enjoy tennis, bowling and snooker on TV.

How is your health these days?

I have enjoyed a fair measure of good health over the years. However, since contracting prostate cancer 10 years ago, my health has deteriorated to quite a degree, mainly due to the chemotherapy which, although successful in treating the cancer, has had drastic side effects.

You had wanted to be a pilot when you were young. When was the last time you took a plane and where did you travel to?

Yes, that was the burning ambition, sadly not to be! Last flight was a short one - Edinburgh to Belfast return!!

What is heroism in this time and age?

Heroism? I believe it manifests itself in all walks of life. Disregarding one's safety for that of others, might well be considered heroism.

Are characters like Dan Dare and Judge Dredd still relevant today? (this year is the 70th anniversary of Dan Dare)

Dan and the Judge relevant today? I really do hope so as I make a living out of portraying them!



It is 2020. War – what is it good for?

A bit of a dilemma here. Although earning a living portraying war, I find the very thought of mankind going to war totally abhorrent, especially when it is, frequently, to further the aims of politics or religion.

You drew many science fiction and futurist comics. What are your hopes for the present and future?

I consider Scifi and Fantasy publications to be the natural successors to the traditional Fairy Tale and, therefore, hope they will continue, with one proviso. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of the grotesque to the exclusion of all else. I feel we can do without this unnecessary trend!


(M.A.C.H. 1 from 2000AD Annual 1982 - you can always expect planes in a Kennedy comic)

Do you still read any comics today? What about books, music, movies or plays?

I do glance/examine current publications including those for children, especially for the ones in their middle age! That apart, I do not do much reading of books as I tend to doze off, having then, to reread that last paragraph - very boring! I enjoy TV documentaries and music, especially DVDs.

You are still making appearances at comics conventions and events like the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (2018), the 40 Years of Thrill-power Festival (2017), a celebration of 2000AD and the launch of your own art book, The Art of Ian Kennedy, published by DC Thomson last year. Are you seeing a revival and reassessment of your career and now more famous than ever than?

I took some persuading, mainly by my friend Phil Vaughan of Duncan of Jordanstone Collage of Art and Design at the University of Dundee, to attend some of the local conferences. My reluctance was based on the belief that all I had done was earned a living, like so many others, using a talent I was lucky to possess. I soon realised that I was part of an industry providing entertainment for many members of the public of all ages. I, very quickly realised, that having had such an interesting and rewarding life in comics etc, there was an opportunity to put something back by making myself available to discuss, for instance, my "apprenticeship" among the unsung professionals in the Art Department of D.C.Thomson & Co. Dundee. The knowledge I gained then has proved invaluable, and has played a great part in any subsequent success that has come my way. As for the "fame" - I must admit, I find it, at times, somewhat difficult to cope with as, although I enjoy company, I am essentially a bit of a loner which is rather fortunate in that I have never had any trouble in spending many solitary hours in the studio.

How do you explain your longevity?

I can only put my longevity down to sheer luck in having my wife Gladys look after me all these years, ensuring a healthy diet and, most of the time, ironing out the creases in life. In addition, it must be noted that apart from my talent, I have been extremely fortunate in that my professional life coincided with what I term "The Golden Days of British Comics" when there was no need to search for work.

What do you think about the fact that comics are taken more seriously now and are given more respect and research? (there is a Scottish Centre for Comics Studies at the University of Dundee, which offers a Masters in Comics and Graphic Novels, the only course of its kind in the UK)

The recognition is long overdue! I mentioned earlier, the artists in the department at Thomson. Each one was a talented professional who, today, would get the recognition they richly deserved. Along with many others around the land, they laid the foundations of comic illustration as we know it today. You mention Dundee University's interest and initiative in the world of comics. I am rather proud to be connected, albeit only in a very minor way, in that from time to time, Phillip Vaughan, the Senior Tutor invites me to meet and talk with the students on that particular course.

Are you working on any new projects?

I am fortunate in that I am still contributing covers for Commando combined with commissions mainly from private individuals. This is more than enough as I now find it difficult spending more than three to four hours at the drawing board. At present, there are five commissions and a cover awaiting attention.

Can you show us some work in progress pages or art you are working on?

I prefer, out of respect for my clients, not to publicise current work. However I shall attach some of my recent efforts.



Thanks, Ian!


One could say that other than being bloody talented with the pen, Ian is also lucky to be at the right place, at the right time. From being the tea boy and doing up the crossword in the DC Thomson office in the late 1940s to drawing adventure and romance strips in the 1960s, and cementing his contemporary reputation as one of the pioneers of 2000AD and his long time association with Commando, Kennedy is one of the few postwar giants of British comics still with us today. Younger readers should read more about his work and learn from him. That’s why I wanted to do an interview with him.

There are still new areas to research for his comics. His war stories would have been studied but given the interest in early romance comics in the UK, Kennedy’s girl strips for Judy and Bunty are up for a reevaluation.



I did an interview with Calum Laird, the editor of Commando comics, back in 2015.

http://singaporecomix.blogspot.com/2015/04/commando.html

Reality Bitchslap: Interview with Arif Rafhan

Epigram Books is restarting their line of graphic novels, this time getting the rights of comics from the region and translating them into English for the local market. Earlier this year, they published the late Gerry Alanguilan’s award-winning Elmer (the Philippines), a timely read in these troubled times about race and discrimination; and Tita Larasati’s Coming Home (Indonesia), a graphic diary of Tita’s own return to Bandung after 10 years away from home.

This month, a new title is released, Arif Rafhan’s Reality Bitchslap (Malaysia), a travelogue of twentysomethings on the verge of adulthood and on the road to explore Southeast Asia and their own future. Sounds very Gen-X, which it is as the story is set in the early 2000s when Arif and friends took some time off to see the world.

It is a breezy read, reminding one of hanging out at the Central Market in KL and plucking the courage to cross the road in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Originally published by Maple Comics in 2015, Reality Bitchslap (Malay title: Pelempang Realiti) reminds me of the other travelogues by Mimi Mashud published by Maple. Mimi documents her family holidays while Arif’s encounters in Reality Bitchslap should not be experienced with family members. So kudos to him for laying bare his misadventures with the seedier side of Southeast Asian backpacking.

All these have to be taken with a pinch of salt, of course. You wonder if Arif and his friends are really that naïve and innocent about the ways of the world – after all, KL is a big city too with sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Arif shared that he was inspired by the Dead Kennedy’s song, Holiday in Cambodia, to visit Phnom Penh. I wish there were more personal insights like these which would be more interesting than the boys avoiding sexual advances in the different cities. While sex tourism is prevalent in certain parts of Southeast Asia, to highlight it frequently in the story can also be a stereotypical depiction of the poorer places in the region (circa early 2000s).

I found the ending rather abrupt. It reads like Arif could still go on as we do not know his solo travels in Jakarta and Bandung when his travel companions returned home first. Perhaps he was constrained by the page limit but a sequel of his recent travels with this same group of friends (all married with kids) could show how they and the world have changed. After all, Maple publishers shared that their entire run of Pelempang Realiti is sold out.

I did an email interview with Arif recently.


How did this book come about? Is this your first book and what else have you done?

The pitching process started with a small zine I made for my booth at KL ZineFest back in 2014. It's an 8-page zine made out of A4 paper. The story was about a flower girl who was a bit too friendly and ended up hanging out with an old white man at the back of the restaurant (that story is featured in this book as well). I sold them for RM2 each and 100 copies were gone in a few hours. I have attached the picture here (the mini zine is on the top right of the picture. Photo credit: AkuNapie):



Since people liked the story, I came up with a 10-page sample of the book in English.



Together with the treatment of the story, I started to pitch to a few publishers at that time. After a few rejections, I approached Amir Muhammad (Buku Fixi, Kuman Pictures) with my idea and he suggested for me to approach this new comic publisher, Komik Maple. I met Amir Hafizi and Roy Ablah at a mamak stall and they suggested for Reality Bitchslap to be made in KL slang instead and to be renamed to Pelempang Realiti. This helped me build a strong foundation locally at this initial stage (I was a newbie with two illustrated books and only one graphic novel under my belt). I obliged and that's how this graphic novel was officially kicked off.

Why did you call the book Pelempang Realiti? (pelempang = slap) Were you thinking of the phrase Tiada rotan, pelempang berguna juga?
Haha! That's a very good proverb. However, I'm not that deep! I remember Ben Stiller's film, 'Reality Bites' (1994), a movie about these struggling Gen X graduates facing the reality of adulting, which is different from what they expected back in college. I am also a big fan of the Dead Kennedys, a hardcore punk band from San Francisco back in the 80s, especially their hit song, Holiday in Cambodia. The song 'bitchslaps' most of these so-called middle class educated graduates who think they've seen everything; compared to what the Cambodian people were facing under the Khmer Rouge. So, I combined Winona Ryder and Jello Biafra (of the Dead Kennedys) together and came up with Reality Bitchslap (Pelempang Realiti).

A big fierce slap to me as I faced the reality of the Third World countries through our backpacking journey and how it realigned my perspectives and attitude towards our fellow Southeast Asians with some comedic flavor.



How did the deal with Epigram come about? What do you hope to achieve with the English translation? (new audience in Singapore and English-reading readers?)

Epigram contacted Komik Maple and Amir informed me about the intention. I said okay and I was included in the discussion from then on. As I mentioned earlier, the original idea of this book was in English and translating it to English was not a big problem for me. It's just that some of the details needed explanation for relevance purposes.

Do you think non-KL, non-Malay readers will relate to this book?

The theme of this book is very general; it's a road story. Some of the jokes were funnier in KL slang but I personally changed them so it would sound funny in English as well. To begin with, this story was set in the early 2000s, so I already set my mind writing the story to be relevant with today's readers. But again, 99% of the book is a true story, my own experiences, so I had to make sure the narrative and context are general enough so it will be relatable to most people around the globe, but with some local hints here and there.

How close is the English title Reality Bitchslap to what you have in mind?

Reality Bitchslap was the original title. So coming up with Pelempang Realiti was the challenge actually! Pelempang is quite harsh compared to 'tampar' and 'sepak', so I think the chosen word pretty much captures the essence of the story.

How do you find the English translation? Were you involved and what is gained and lost in the process of translation?

I was heavily involved in it. Actually, I was the translator, haha! I worked with my old friend, Yanty Ishak as my personal editor on the translation. I also worked very closely with Sylvia from Epigram and she helped me with the context and relevance from English readers' perspective. I can safely say that there is no lost in translation in the process. What makes me happy is that now the book has its own international face whilst promoting local flavors as well.

Who / what are your influences? (punk rock and dead kennedys..) I am thinking of someone like Fatah who used the Terengganu dialect in his comics.

Fatah, Lat, Jaafar Taib (to name a few) are my heroes. These Godfathers of local comics created success stories for us younger generations to study, adjust, adapt and practice in today's age. I was lucky to get the chance to work with Jaafar Taib for a year as a Gila-Gila contributor in 2018 and now I'm working closely with Lat for his latest graphic novel as his inker.

Dead Kennedys obviously was the main reason I wanted to go to Cambodia in the first place. My other influences are Robert Crumbs and I read Joe Sacco a lot before I wrote this book. I was intrigued by Sacco and Crumb’s honesty in their stories even though it makes them look weak in their own stories. I tried to include the 'nakedness' of the protagonist in this book as well, especially his thoughts and impressions.

What is your 'day job'?

I'm a full time visual artist and an animator. Currently I'm partnering with a few interior design companies and municipal bodies, providing mural artworks for new offices and public spaces such as libraries and street art. I'm also involved in the animation industry, both pre-production (concept art, environment design, storyboards) and the principle animation as well.



On graphic novels, I'm currently working with my long-time collaborator, Melanie Lee on a new book (Amazing Ash and Superhero Ah Ma), hopefully coming out by the end of this year by Difference Engine in Singapore. My next personal project is to compile my webcomics, #SeketulSina (comics on parenthood and a kid named Sina) into a physical format. I am also currently writing a new graphic novel about a kid who is experiencing his coming-of-age in a small town in Taiping, Perak in the late 80s.

Heard you are working with Lat now on Mat Som 2. How is the progress on that?

We've been working together on this project for two years now and at the moment we are on the last leg of the inking phase. This is considered as my best 'achievement unlocked' moment as a comic artist, having an opportunity to work closely with a master and to learn not just the technicalities and history of KL & Perak, but also the mindset and attitude from Lat in creating a comic that 'talks, sings and dances' to the readers in a unique and beautiful way. Hopefully the book will be published this year, it's all up to the Big Man himself.


An old interview with Maple from 2015:

https://singaporecomix.blogspot.com/2015/06/maple-comics.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1i-sMNheDVzZDGBB8qh_WY2rBpKs3aOFrHrnwHvVhUZ79EuS3zB03RTek

Tatsumi and Liquid City Vol 2

Times flies. 5 years ago, Tatsumi sensei passed away on 7 March and 10 years ago, Liquid City Vol 2 was released.

In September 2011, gekiga pioneer Yoshihiro Tatsumi returned to Singapore for the premiere of Tatsumi (dir: Eric Khoo), the animated film of A Drifting Life, the autobiography of his early life. We met up at the poolside café of Goodwood Park Hotel where he and his wife were staying. I gave him a copy of Liquid City Vol 2, the Southeast Asian comics anthology I co-edited with Sonny Liew and published by Image Comics just the year before. He flipped through the book and asked through a translator whether the artists were paid. I replied no. He paused and said I must be very powerful to get the artists to work without money.

I thought about what he said. It was not power that got this volume done, but it was a collaborative effort and a constructivist approach was taken. The objective of the Liquid City volumes is to highlight the diversity of talent and stories from the region. Comics anthologies do not sell well, a fact confirmed by Eric Stephenson, the publisher of Image, when I met him at the Thought Bubble comic con in 2013. For this anthology, the artists and editors were not paid. The stories were fuelled by passion. As such, my editorial approach was to have a light touch as I wanted to retain the artist’s vision as much as possible. If you are not paying someone, it is not reasonable to ask them to make extensive changes when it could affect their schedule for other paying jobs. Editorial changes were suggested to improve the overall story.

For example, in the original WIP (work-in-progress) pages for The Box by Chin Yew, he made it explicit that he had a problem with pornography ala Joe Matt and Chester Brown. Porn made him feel guilty and doing this story could be therapeutic for him. But it was too much like Matt and Brown. I suggested for him to make the story more universal and replaced the word pornography with addiction. I explained this could make the story more identifiable with readers with other forms of addiction. Most of us are addicted to something in one way or the other. Given our love for autobiographical creators, Chin Yew and I did a tribute to Harvey Pekar when he passed away.
(http://www.ideaship.com/CAA/uncleJAM/harveyPekar.pdf )

Another challenge for the editor is following up with the artists. Some stories come in late and it is the job of the editor to chase them. And sometimes, you have to cross the border to do it. I contacted the Malaysian artist Lat for a story and the deadline was looming. Lat has always welcomed us to visit him at his hometown in Ipoh, Malaysia. I decided to take up his offer and it would be a chance to chat about the story for Vol 2. Lat showed us his kampong (the Malay village where he grew up), drove us around town in his old sedan car, played Roseanne Cash’s The List CD on the stereo and we were just cruising. We talked about old John Wayne movies and he casually mentioned he would offer a story about a soccer match for the book. That was how it was done, over curry cooked by his wife. For this road trip, I travelled with editorial cartoonist, Dengcoy Miel who also promised a story for Vol 2. I think he was sufficiently inspired by the journey to come up with the excellent wordless crime story he did for us.

Working with artists is about building a relationship with them. I got to know some of these artists quite well and have worked with them on comic stories. It is not about having power over them but to have the power to help them realise their vision and bring their stories to a wider audience.

As for Tatsumi sensei, he offered us some of his older stories to be published in Singapore as gratitude for all we have done for him. I was fortunate to be involved in Midnight Fishermen: Gekiga of the 1970s (Landmark Books, 2013), writing an introduction for the volume.

Interview with Chris Riddell (SWF 2019)

Chris Riddell is in town this weekend for SWF. The UK Children’s Laureate is promoted as a major illustrator of children’s books by the festival, and rightly so as Riddell’s books like The Edge’s Chronicles, Gulliver’s Travels, Ottoline and Goth Girl are well loved. For comics fans, Riddell is also the illustrator for several of Neil Gaiman’s books such as The Graveyard Book, Fortunately, the Milk… and The Sleeper and the Spindle. Their latest collaboration is Art Matters, which came out last year. But I am more interested in the fact that Riddell is the political cartoonist for The Observer newspapers. I still think political cartoon is a powerful medium today.

Riddell took time out from his busy schedule to answer some questions of mine.


Many outside the UK are familiar with your work as a children books' writer and illustrator, especially with your drawings for The Graveyard Book and other stories written by Neil Gaiman. How do they react when they find out you are a political cartoonist too for The Observer?

Many people are surprised when I tell them that I’m the political cartoonist for The Observer but they recognise my style which isn’t significantly different from my illustration work. Lately I’ve been drawing Brexit unicorns, Chinese dragons and Tory trolls.

You have said that you did not find that much a difference in the tools you utilized when drawing a children book or skewing Theresa May or Trump. How do you feel about Brexit, Boris and the state of British politics now?

The only thing I can say about the state of politics right now is that it is a great time to be a political cartoonist!

You are optimistic about the state of political cartooning in the world today, given the affordances of technology and the antics of sometimes-too-exciting world leaders like Trump. But what's good material for political cartooning can be bad for humanity. Can political cartoons change the world?

I don't believe political cartoons change the world but they can help to articulate people’s thoughts and change the political mood sometimes. People change the world.

Political and social satire was not confined to the editorial pages in the past. One of my favorite books is The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman by Raymond Briggs. We have less of that these days. Would you want to do combine the two one day? (political satire and children books)

I would love to combine political satire and children’s books and my subject would be climate change – my medium, the graphic novel.

As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Raymond Briggs too. Are you excited about his new book?

Raymond Briggs has been a huge influence on me. He was my personal tutor at art school and we have kept in touch ever since. ‘Ethel and Earnest’ is Raymond’s masterpiece but I’m looking forward to his new book.



Drawing political cartoons can be dangerous - Charlie Hebdo and closer to Singapore, the various lawsuits against Malaysian cartoonist, Zunar and Singapore cartoonist, Leslie Chew. Did you have any close encounters yourself?

My encounters are on social media and I can choose what to look at and take onboard. Trolls are easy to spot.

Some have confused satire with fake news. Is it a thin line?

Satire doesn’t hide under bridges, fake news trolls do.

Is gif the future for political cartooning and satire?

Gif is one tool. There are many. I post a ‘visual diary’ drawing on social media every day and film myself drawing live. I’m also interested in podcasting.

I am a school teacher. You have talked about the need for creativity in the British education system and the importance of the school libraries. If you are the Education Minister for a day, which policy would you change or introduce?

If I were the Education Minister for a day, I would make it a statutory requirement that all schools have a library and a qualified librarian to run it.

Neil Gaiman visited Singapore twice (once for SWF) and is hugely popular. Readers would want me to ask: how was it like working with Neil?

Working with Neil is like a fairy tale – often literally. He sends me magical words and then allows me to imagine them visually with complete freedom.

I think of Neil as ‘the wise wizard’ and myself as his rotund hobbit companion.


Gaiman and Riddell’s love for libraries.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/sep/06/neil-gaiman-and-chris-riddell-on-why-we-need-libraries-an-essay-in-pictures

You can find out about Riddell’s SWF appearances here:

https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/author-speaker/Chris-Riddell.html


Thanks to Catherine Alport for her help!

Forgive but not forget: Interview with Rani Pramesti (SWF 2019)

The politics of remembrance and commemoration is complex. One can forgive but one should not forget. In places like South Africa, East Timor and Aceh, truth and reconciliation commissions have been set up to investigate and reveal the atrocities committed by the colonizers, the complicit and the compliant. It is not just a tabling of reports and mere presentation of facts and figures, but it is important how narratives are shaped and shared. It is through storytelling that ideas are spread and kept alive.

This is where comics is a powerful medium for such a purpose – giving voice to the silenced and speaking truth to power. In 2012, a young woman was raped on a bus in Delhi, India. She died from her injuries a few days later. A comic book based by the tragic incident was produced in 2014. Priya’s Shakti makes use of augmented reality tech and is available for online reading.

https://professorlatinx.osu.edu/comics/priyas-shakti/

Closer to home, the events of the May 1998 riots in Indonesia have inspired comic artists like Mice to reflect on the aftermath of the riots on the ordinary citizens in Jakarta. Now, adding to the list is Rani P Collaborations’ Chinese Whispers, a digital comic that has its first incarnation as a performance installation in 2014. It traces lead artist, Rani Pramesti's journey from Indonesia to Australia, from citizen to diaspora.

Growing up in a privileged Chinese family in Indonesia, Rani was sent off to live in Australia when the riots happened. Her story is not uncommon. I have colleagues from Indonesia who came to study and live in Singapore after 1998 for the same reason. Some came to Singapore. Others like Rani went to Australia and she grew up safely in the comfort offered by her adopted country. But she wondered about her past, which formed the basis of her art practice. Having graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2013 with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art, Rani formed Rani P Collaborations to work on productions which explore history, memories and trauma. She mined her own family history for the world to see and reflect. In Sedih//Sunno, she shared her mom’s story as a sexually abused child. In Surat-Surat (Letters), she used her grandparents’ letters to each other to tell a love story.

For her appearance at the Singapore Writers Festival in November, she returns to her first performance installation, Chinese Whispers, whose lifespan as a performance piece has been extended to a new platform of digital comics. For Chinese Whispers, Rani collaborated with illustrator, Cindy Saja; composer, Ria Soemardjo; and web developers, Martin Harusetyanto and Gondo, to develop this new version of Chinese Whispers for the cyberspace.

I was curious about the politics of race and identity in Rani’s story and I asked her these questions.


What is the main difference (in intent, if any) between the performance installation and the digital graphic novel?

My team and I created the digital graphic novel as a way to reach more people, particularly younger generations of Indonesian people first and foremost, with this work. The intent of the work remains the same, which is to create time and space to reflect on a part of Indonesian history that is still often shrouded in ignorance. Just as the performance installation guided audiences one by one through a labyrinth, to engage in meditative reflection, so does the digital graphic novel. One of the key messages to reflect on is how "we cannot heal, what we will not face". My hope is that this question is a relevant one across many of our shared histories, although I use the May 1998 politically motivated racial and sexual violence as one 'launching pad' from which to reflect on this key message.

What is it that you hoped to achieve when you first started this project in 2014 and what has been achieved now with the digital graphic novel?

At the beginning of the research and development for Chinese Whispers, back in 2013, I wanted to find a way to tell Chinese-Indonesian stories on Australian stages. As I delved deeper into the conversations I was having with Chinese-Indonesian diaspora women in Melbourne, however, I slowly realised that what I actually wanted to talk about was May 1998. I then went back to the women I had interviewed and informed them of this shift in my intention with the work. With their consent, I focused the storytelling on my personal experiences with May 1998 and also on socio-historical sources on May 1998, including the human rights activist, Karlina Supelli and the journalist, Dewi Anggraeni.

What I hoped to achieve in 2014 continues to apply today- which is to pass on a story to the younger generations of Indonesian people (whether Chinese identifying or not), about a part of our history that needs to be remembered and a part of our history that we all need to work on learning from, in order to stop it from happening again.

What has been achieved now through the graphic novel is a contribution to a global conversation on the legacies of colonialism. It's really exciting to hear people's responses from Australia to Indonesia to the US, to France, to Italy, to Taiwan... Just to name a few responses I've received since Chinese Whispers went digital!

How has the project been received in Australia and in Indonesia? Have you encountered any cynicism?

Far from cynicism, during the premiere of the performance installation in 2014 at the Melbourne Fringe Festival (where we won Best Live Art and Innovation in Culturally Diverse Practice Awards), younger Indonesian people have come up to me to thank me, because this was a part of our story that their parents were too afraid to expand on. So for them, Chinese Whispers gave a way 'into' this disturbing part of Indonesia's history and the ways this has shaped Indonesian diaspora globally.

In 2018, we launched the Indonesian language digital graphic novel to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of May 1998. The digital graphic novel was launched by the Indonesian Director General of Culture, Dr Hilmar Farid, and moved many to tears! We were also blessed because the timing meant that our work was picked up by many media outlets. Far from cynicism, our readers continue to leave us very generous messages of forgiveness, of unity, of pledging to never forget.

Since the 2000s, there are more works that dealt with the violence against the Chinese in Indonesia, eg. The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. And also the books of Dewi Anggraeni such as My Pain, My Country. Have things improved now? Are people more aware?

My experience of viewing The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence is that it very much focused on the widespread politically motivated violence of 1965, rather than necessarily being focused on the racially motivated violence towards Chinese-Indonesian people. Is that correct?

I think in terms of works about 1998, there has definitely been more and more. In fact I think there has been twenty years' worth of works dedicated to May 1998. But that does not mean that there is more awareness of how anti-Chinese violence is just one colonial tactic that continues to divide our nation, whenever it suits people in power to use for their own ambitions. I would love it if more people asked themselves, "who does it actually benefit when I participate in this kind of hatred" whether towards Chinese, towards West Papuans, towards LGBTIQA+ communities and so on... It's been heartening to see the key demands of the current student led protests which have called for an end to the violence in West Papua, amongst other demands, because that is a show of solidarity for another group in Indonesia that has always been "othered" since being colonized by Indonesia.

Why is the denial of racism (both ways) so strong in Indonesia?

I think it's less a "denial" of racism and more a "normalization" of racism.

Firstly, I want to say that one of the flaws of Chinese Whispers, which I can now see in hindsight is the lack of focus on how the heinous violence of May 1998 was orchestrated to happen. If you read the report of the Fact Finding Team (there's a link to this report at the conclusion of the final chapter), you'll see ample evidence of provocateurs literally being offloaded into majority Chinese areas and then provoking/ inciting violence. So, May 1998 was able to happen because there is a level of normalized "othering" by both Chinese/ non-Chinese (so-called "Pribumi" or "native") but also because the violence was deliberately stoked to explode.

Secondly, in terms of the normalization of racism from "both sides", I do think it's interesting to study the different social, economic and political roles that Chinese played throughout pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial times. For example, even before the Dutch came, the Chinese already played the role of tax collector for many kingdoms in Java and Madura. This was a role that the Dutch exploited and exacerbated during three and a half centuries of colonial era, for example by appointing Chinese Kapiteins which had more political, social and economic powers than the so-called "natives".

When social, economic and political structures are created to divide people, racism is a natural by product of these structures.

Chinese Whispers is also your personal story. Was it hard adjusting to Australia at 12 years old when you move there after the May 1998 riots? Do you consider yourself as part of the diaspora?

Yes, it was very hard. The hardest thing was coming from a very politically charged context (a literal political revolution) and then moving to a very privileged all girls' private school boarding house. Materially speaking, my class privilege has always sheltered me from material hardship and for that I am thankful.

However, the challenges came more in the form of culture shock. More and more as I accumulate years of being based in Australia, the most challenging thing is how to survive and attempt to thrive in a white supremacist society like Australia. I absolutely consider myself a part of the Indonesian, Chindo and Asian diaspora. I wouldn't have lasted this long living on Kulin Country (Melbourne) without my friends who hail proudly from First Nations and diaspora communities.

What are your feelings about Indonesia ?

I love Indonesia. It is a beautiful country with beautiful people. In terms of from my perspective as an artist, I am excited by the explosion of arts and culture (both in terms of artistic practice as well as arts infrastructure) in the past twenty years of relative democracy. I am excited by the embracing of technology by the younger generations. Jokowi recently opened the "1000 startups" conference in Jakarta and to see government ministers in conversation with the younger generations- it's evidence of real future thinking at the national level. At the same time (and this is what Chinese Whispers tries to remind us of), in order to move knowingly into our future, we must embrace the lessons of our past so that we don't repeat our past mistakes. That is my feeling and my hopes for Indonesia.


You can view Rani’s SWF programmes here.

https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/author-speaker/Rani-Pramesti.html

You can read Chinese Whispers here.

https://thechinesewhispers.com/

sexsexsex: interview with dave cooper (swf 2019)

Thanks to the Canadian Embassy, the Singapore Writers Festival are receiving some cool comics guests for the last 2 years. (in fact, Canada is the country of focus for this year’s SWF) Last year, it was David Collier, quintessential down-to-earth Canadian artist whose appearance in Singapore even got Lat to come down from Ipoh to catch up with this old friend of ours.

I interviewed Collier here:

http://singaporecomix.blogspot.com/2018/10/swf-2018-interview-with-david-collier.html

This year, it is alternative comics provocateur of the 1990s and 2000s, Dave Cooper, who will be coming to town. A rather odd choice for a guest as only old time fans of Fantagraphics Comics (Dave’s publisher) will be familiar with his comics like Suckle, Weasel, Crumple and Ripple. They are fantastical tales of people who are overwhelmed by sex, society, technology and … women.

Some have stood up to rereading like Ripple, which can still make you stand. (Dave is doing a lecture on sex comics at SWF) But Dave has been off the comics grid for some time. He became a fine art artist, a children’s books artist and got into animation for the past 10 years. These are all interesting projects, but thankfully for his comics fans, he has returned to comics with Mudbite (2018), a book collecting 2 new Eddy Table (Dave’s alter ego) stories, Mud River and Bug Bite. Sex and all its bodily fluids return in a big way in Dave’s comics. Maybe he should have a meeting with the minister of population here to talk about sex.

I did an email interview with him and the first question I asked was …

What is the obsession with sex?

Good question. I’m exploring that very question as I write the lecture for the Singapore Writers Festival. I won’t spoil it for you, but it seems to all come down to a number of imprinting experiences I’ve had since childhood, pared with a strange absence of stigma around using sex as a central theme. It just seems to be the thing that drives my work. I find writing and drawing really exhausting most of the time, I’m not the type to doodle constantly in a sketchbook for pleasure. Drawing is more like pushing a car up a hill. But I’ve found from experience over the years that as soon as I insert sex into the equation it’s like I’ve put a key in the ignition.

I just reread Ripple, about the perfect orgasm. After all that build up, we never get to see it. What is it like? Have you experienced it before?

Ha ha! At the time of writing that, it was only a plot device, I’d never experienced it first hand. It was a highly amplified, exaggerated version of the bliss you can feel the first time.

Underground comix artist, Robert Crumb is obviously a big influence for you. But he recently came under heavy backlash in light of the #metoo movement. Any thoughts on that? Are you worried about your portrayals of the female body and physique?

I’m not informed on the Crumb thing. But as for my work, I do wonder how the new generation processes this kind of intentionally provocative and morally ambiguous work. Only time will tell. I can say that the only feedback I ever get from women is enthusiastic. That’s always been a hugely gratifying thing for me. It tells me that my work is often understood, and that my loving sentiment comes through all the confusion.



Do you see yourself as part of the underground comix tradition or linage?

I never feel like a part of anything. I never have. Comics, painting, animation, filmmaking. I’m lucky that my work is well regarded and I love these communities, but there’s something about my personality that keeps me feeling a bit on the outside. Maybe it’s from feeling the black sheep in my own family as a child.

When you were starting out, was there like a Canadian alternative comic artists scene? Drawn & Quarterly and people like Chester Brown, Seth, Julie Doucet and Collier.

Nationalism is another where I feel apart. I’ve never thought of myself as “Canadian” per se. If anything, I may have felt a bit less connected to those authors because I imagined some sort of expectation. I love all those artists you mentioned but their Canadian-ness was never a factor that drew me to them.

Your stories deal with the dissonance between pastoral and civilization, nature and technology, desire and morals, and the child and the man. Do you see the world in such dichotomous terms?

As a person, no I don’t. But when I write and draw, I always seem to slip into these patterns. I’m transported back to my childhood in the woods of Nova Scotia where I became obsessed with nature, with things growing from the earth, or with the way my father could build machinery out of raw metal and wood, or to my pubescence when my obsession with the female form began. I sink under, into a world where exploring all these ideas was an escape, a place where I could feel like I controlled things and my explanations were law.

You moved from comics to music, back to comics, then paintings, children’s books, animation and comics again. Are you ADHD?

Absolutely! Not formally diagnosed, but I definitely need the constant thrill of new projects, unfamiliar challenges. It creates a spark that is absent when I’m doing the same kind of work day in and day out. Initially it happened within the discipline of comics- I’d change my drawing style from book to book. But eventually I started craving the challenge of jumping from one discipline to another. The latest is live-action filmmaking, and after that possibly sculpture.

You moved into animation and you brought along your alter ego, Eddy Table. Eddy is your most enduring character. What makes Eddy so versatile?

He’s just a guy that I never get tired of visiting. I can’t explain it. I just like drawing him. And the fact that he is my alter-ego for my own dream stories, and nonsense stories means that I’ll never run out of stories for him. I don’t enjoy writing real stories with serious intentions and structure so making Eddy stories is always enjoyable.

Eddy gets to do lots of fun thing. Are you Eddy?

Yes. He started as a stand-in for my dream stories. I wanted to use an actual dream, but cartoonize the visuals. I thought it would just make the whole experience more universal if the protagonist was a cartoon character.

Any connection between Eddy Table and Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown?

No, that would make sense though. Ed the Happy Clown was one of the most seminal works for me at that time. But no, Eddy Table comes from the word “editable”, meaning easily changed- in other words, malleable to my needs as fickle artist.

Eddy has new adventures in your new book, Mudbite. But Eddy is also the hero in your short animation film, The Absence of Eddy Table. Now what is exciting is that Eddy is voiced by Mike Patton of Faith No More! Was it a kick to work with Mike Patton?

It was comically mundane actually. Our composer is friends with Mike. We asked if he’d consider doing a voice in exchange for us re-purposing footage from our film to make a little music video for him. We never got to meet him, we just sent the movie and soon received his tracks. The director was thrilled, but he had a couple of “notes”- places where he’d like a take 2. Mike’s response was, “there’s no take 2”. Ha ha! Anyway, we were beyond thrilled to have him attached to the project, his work was phenomenal.

What is your process like these days? Still pen and paper or a mix of digital now?

I use digital only for colouring and lettering, and in fact, I'm starting to get a bit fed up of using it to colour. i think i may just go back to black and white drawings, i usually prefer them. Drawing on a computer is something I avoid. I love soft graphite on letter paper, I love ink on strathmore, I love oil paint on canvas. These are visceral experiences for me that I don’t want to give up for expediency. I draw on a computer if there’s a nasty deadline and there’s no other way.

Can tell us more about your new projects, Pillowy and Squash?

Pillowy is the most beautiful publication I’ve ever been associated with. It’s a 400-pg retrospective. All the work I’m still pleased with from the past 30 years. When I look at it I still can’t believe my luck that Cernunnos Publishing would put so much love and care into a book about my work.

Squash is my first foray into live-action filmmaking. A 4-minute film about a jiggly, obsessive woman and her giddy self-gratification. It’s highly stylized and I think it will make a great first effort. Making it was a thrilling challenge. My first day on set as a director I was gratified by an overwhelming feeling of belonging and confidence.

What’s next for you?

I always answer that question with “more of the same, I hope”. I love my career and I just want to keep pushing myself to dig deeper into the same themes that have always motivated me. Bigger paintings, longer films, maybe sculpture. I just love it all and I want to keep finding ways to make it fresh for me.

What have you heard about Singapore?

No chewing gum?

Some say we are really uptight. But then one of our ministers said you don't need much space to have sex and make babies. What do you think of that? Can ripple be achieved in a small space?

Just enough space for two people. Or just one in a pinch.


You can find Dave’s programmes at SWF here:
https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/author-speaker/Dave-Cooper.html

I am moderating a panel on Outsider Comics with Dave, Ye Zhen and Weng Pixin on 3 November, 3 pm.

https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/programme-listing/festival-events/Outsider-Comics-.html

You can watch The Absence of Eddy Table here:
https://vimeo.com/blog/post/staff-pick-premiere-the-absence-of-eddy-table-by-rune-spaans/

Life is not shit and you survive: Interview with Ancco (Bad Friends)

Memory is a tricky thing and sense making of the past is important. What is remembered of a particular event, how we remember certain friends and why - they are our ways of navigating through the landscapes of our mind. Sometimes these are places we do not want to revisit. They can be horrific events.

The Korean comic book, Bad Friends by Ancco, awarded the Prix Révélation at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2017, is a horror story. There are no ghosts or monsters to contend with. Just terrible situations involving really bad friends. But what makes these friends so bad that parents, teachers and society are constantly warning you about them? What has happened to them that turned them so bad – family, circumstances and wrong personal choices? And if you ‘wake up’ and abandon them to better yourself, does that make you a bad friend to them?

Some of us experienced these situations, such moments of survivor guilt when you have to let go of your buddies to move on with your life. Friendship and loyalty is a theme much explored in books, music and movies like Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973) where the character of Charlie (Harvey Keitel) was dragged down by his friend, Johnny Boy (Robert de Niro), which explains the opening line, “You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.”

Bad Friends tells a similar story from a female point of view, situated in post-Asian financial crisis Korea in the late 1990s, and a slightly different ending. Pearl (Ancco’s alter ego in the story) meets Jeong-Ae, a bad friend. They had lots of fun, getting into fights and giving the finger to the world. They only have each other. They are physically abused by the men in their lives, their fathers and boyfriends. If their mothers and siblings try to intervene, they are beaten up too. It is not a good situation. But in the end, Pearl survives better than Jeong-Ae. Pearl becomes a comic book artist like Ancco in real life. Jeong-Ae disappears and Pearl wonders what has happened to her best friend and how she is doing. She is plagued by questions and survivor guilt.

I will be moderating a panel on The Power of the Graphic Memoir with Ancco as one of the panelists at the Singapore Writers Festival on 3 November and I will be engaging her about Bad Friends. But Ancco asserts that the story is not her autobiography. She told me:

“I mixed many episodes into one story for it to be understandable for the readers. There are parts which I made up as well. I thought it is not important how much of it is based on my life. The important thing is how does it makes the readers focus on the story. I wrote every single characters with my friends in my mind.”

Ancco, whose real name is Choi Kyung-jin and born in 1983, is the first Korean comic artist to win a prize at Angouleme, and Bad Friend was picked up by Drawn & Quarterly, the Canadian comics publisher, for translation and publication in 2018. I am curious why Ancco wrote and drew this book and I did an email interview with her.

Why did you write this book?

I have been constantly thinking that I should write this story since I graduated from high school. Back then, after I became friends with school mates who were known as ‘bad friends’, I started to have a different view of them. When I visited and saw where and how they lived, I felt as if I found where their ‘badness’ came from. Their lives seemed so hard and inappropriate for a teenager. I didn’t mean to advocate for them and their lives, but I just wanted to tell what their lives are about.

There is a lot of guilt in Bad Friends – survival guilt, that we have survived better than some of our friends. Does that necessarily make us bad friends?

For those of us who survived, it doesn’t mean we are ‘bad friends’. But it is true that Pearl (my alter ego in the story) felt guilty about Jeong-Ae. She turned away from Jeong-Ae. That is the choice and reality for some of us.

Another side of the story of Bad Friends is how female friendship can help us get through bad times. Korea is known sometimes for its toxic masculinity, the need for boys and men to be macho. In your opinion, is it true? How bad is it?

I don’t think anyone is forced to be uber masculine and to be macho. Even if the older generation did so, but it is not so now. The men in my comic are in unusual situations. They are also victims of their home situation, their parents, and by extension, of our society. The story is about the darker side of our society. But the men ‘Bad Friends’ cannot be generalized. 


You are born in 1983. You grew up as a child during the period of the Asian Economic Miracle when Korea was one of the Four Asian Tiger Economies. Asian values were celebrated. But the bubble burst in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis happened. Would you say your book is a critique of those times – overconfident capitalism and its problems? (the irony is that the other friend of Pearl who survived now worked in a bank)

I didn’t mean to write about social problems consciously. But I thought it is important to be careful to share the background of the story without distorting the facts. I grew up and lived through that period, I would have been influenced by the environment of a recession struck Korea in the late 1990s. So I thought if I tell the facts, it would work in many ways. And the readers would interpret the story as they like.

For tourists who visited Korea, they may only have a K-pop view of the country and its people. But when I watched movies like Parasite (Bong Joon-ho), I get a very different story. It is the same for manhwa. In 2014, Korea was the Market Focus at the London Book Fair. I attended a presentation by Yoon Tae-ho and the audience associated Korean manhwa with popular webtoons. But reading your comics gives me a very different picture of Korea. What is the truth?

No one vision of Korea can be the truth. There are various forms of life in Korea. I met so-called bad friends in high school. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about their lives and existence either. This comic is about the lives which we cannot see easily in our daily life.

In Bad Friends, the characters did not have a good time in school. Is there something about the school system that we should change?

The problems of school system in ‘Bad friends’ have changed and have largely disappeared now. Korea is changing very quickly today. But it doesn’t mean that everything has cleared up. There will be other problems that we have not encountered and we still have to solve.

How do you work with the translator, Janet Hong, on the English translation for Drawn and Quarterly?

She has worked more with novelists than with comic artists. As far as I know this is the first time she has translated a comic book. The publisher D&Q requested for her to translate ‘Bad Friends’. I didn’t have to do much for the translation though. When she was trying to come up with an English name for the character of ‘Pearl’, she contacted me and I gave some of my opinions. She understood the comic and the story very well. It was very lucky for us to have her as a translator.

Did winning the prize at Angouleme change your career?

It is almost the same as before actually. As a matter of fact, this kind of serious comics is not popular in Korea. To win the prize at Angouleme as the first Korean comic artist to do so has helped somewhat to let the Korean public know there are such heavy comics like this. And personally, it was meaningful.

What are your new projects?

I am preparing a new project. I was full of darkness when I was working on Bad Friends. After I finished this chapter of darkness, I began to learn what is the brightness in my life. About the brightness which defeats the darkness is my new project.

Finally, did you find out what happen to Jeong-Ae?

My ‘bad’ friend who inspired the character Jeong-Ae? She went through many adversities but she has become a great mother of two children now.


You can look up Ancco’s programmes at SWF here:

https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/author-speaker/Ancco.html

You can read parts of Bad Friends here:

https://pen.org/bad-friends/

Here is an interview with the translator of Bad Friends, Janet Hong:

http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/2019/05/14/interview-with-janet-hong-graphic-novels-in-translation/