Atlas (Chuang Yi)

Alan Bay has a lot of potential as a cartoonist, if the comics on his website are of any indication his abilities. And Atlas, is his Mugen (Chuang Yi) feature.

Seeing the first few pages, it would seem that Atlas is a spoof of role-playing games, considering the popularity of MMORPGs at the moment. There is a page of character stats in the style of the genre. But reading on, the book does not seem to be poking fun at RPGs. Rather, it reads like an adaptation of an MMORPG; the Ragnarok kind, with cartoony drawings. Because I am not familiar with games such as Maple Story, I am unable to access the quality of an MMORPG manga.

This book is recommended for those who cannot get enough satisfaction from MMORPGs just by playing. When playing the game is not enough, read it. Oh yes, there is the pre-requisite chibi humour present.

Come back, PCK!

Phua Chu Kang should be retired; that is what many Singaporeans seem to believe. They say that he is outdated, and his humour is no longer fresh. Looking at how Marvel and DC have been for so many years, the complaints do not seem very valid.

PCK could have been honorably revived. DC and Marvel characters having been around for so long is a proof of that. It is just a matter of whether characters can be kept up to date. But by modernizing characters, the original essence of the character might be lost.

Spider-Man started out as a whiny everyman. He was nerdy, average in looks, failed with girls and was mostly average in every aspect, except that he has powers. Today Parker is still very much a whiny everyman, except that he is handsome, married a supermodel, and stands among the Avengers. Some things were definitely lost.

So it is not PCK, but those who write him that are at fault. They lack the creativity to find new directions for the character.

STGCC update

The 1st batch of guests has been confirmed sometime ago. Let's hope more good news will come.

http://www.singaporetgcc.com/

24 Hour Comics Day

2 October 2010.

The first time this is happening in Singapore.

More news to follow.

九把刀功夫漫画

Two more weeks before the conclusion of 少林寺第八銅人 and the start of 功夫!

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=821784177

New Book by Morgan

Divercity Singapore: A Cartoon History of Immigration - published by Mix Magazine, run by Cherian George.

http://mixmagazine.sg/specials/divercity/

http://morganchua.sg/?p=4

IAHA - CIA

In 2004, I attended the International Association of Historians of Asia conference in Taipei to present a paper on (what else?) Singapore cartoons.

In KG Tregonning's Merdeka and Much More (2010), it was revealed that IAHA was funded by the CIA during the Cold War. (p. 73)

Oh well.