The Comic Embassy - Meet Sam Lay, Sean Lam and Kang Jing (1 - 14 August 2022)

Since The Comic Embassy's launch in June 2022, the pop-up art community space has hosted a number of local comic book creators like artists Foo Swee Chin, James Leong, Alan Bay and Collin Yap. These ambassadors met art students, comic book fans, did live drawings, drew portrait sketches as well as conducted interesting workshops about illustrating comic books. Creative guests like poet Felix Cheong also shared about their personal creative journeys.

Last month, on Community Day, a busy flow of comic book fans, art students and members of the public mingled and sat down for portrait sketches by the artist ambassadors. The many colourful participants of the Harajuku Fashion Walk Singapore dropped by that day, adding on to the convivial and creative ambience of the place.

The Comic Embassy will wrap up its busy and fruitful run promoting the local comic book scene at the end of August 2022. Before that happens, the organizers have planned a list of exciting activities, and will be introducing more featured guests throughout the month.

From 1 to 14 August, the theme will be Realms Of Chiaroscuro. SAM LAY, SEAN LAM and KANG JING are the three featured artists who will share and demonstrate the use of their skills and techniques of using light and darkness to tell compelling narratives. There are also scheduled sessions with other creatives like veteran artist Cheah Sin Ann (best known for The House Of Lim), Zaki Rahman and Danny Jalil.

Attack On Titan Exhibition At Artscience Museum - The Invasion Is Here!

The epic invasion of scary, colossal beings has begun! Starting 19 February 2022, Artscience Museum and collaborator SPACELogic has kicked off the ATTACK ON TITAN: The Exhibition that pays tribute to the best-selling manga's creator Hajime Isayama and the series' amazing 11-year run with Japanese publishing company, Kodansha. The exhibition makes its South-East Asian and overseas debut here, with a few new additions and surprises.

Come along with Red Dot Diva as she walks through the exhibit in this feature, so you can know what to expect. Or, if you are unable to head to Red Dot Island during the exhibition's run, Red Dot Diva hopes that you will be able to live vicariously through this article and photos.

Got your ODM gear ready? Here we go!

Attack On Titan Exhibition Stomps Into ArtScience Museum From 19 February 2022

Attention, troops! Get your ODM gear ready! The Titans will be arriving at ArtScience Museum from 19 February 2022.

ATTACK ON TITAN (Shingeki no Kyojin) is an insanely popular manga series by Japanese creator Hajime Isayama, with over 100 million copies sold in print. During its 11-year run, readers followed the adventures of a young man named Eren Yeager and his close friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Alert, in a dystopian world where humanity is threatened by horrifying, man-eating giants.

The manga was adapted to an anime series produced by Wit Studios, except for the last season, which was taken over by MAPPA. The series is currently streaming on Netflix Singapore, and The Final Season: Part 2 recently premiered on 10 January 2022. New episodes are being released weekly, with reports stating that there will be a total of 12 episodes to wrap up the anime series.

Organised by SpaceLogic, the ATTACK ON TITAN: The Exhibition will feature over 180 pieces of Hajime Isayama's works of art, from his early days of the manga series to the present. This will be the exhibition's South-East Asia debut. Here are what visitors and fans of the franchise can expect from the exhibition:

Diva's Interview With Artist Sean Lam - Geungsi Is About Human Emotion and Subconsciousness

After decades of working in various high profile projects overseas like the two-part graphic novel adaption of New York Times bestselling Larry Niven's sci-fi novel RINGWORLD, and the mega 40-page manga IT TAKES A WIZARD by Thomas R. Hart, local artist Sean Lam has been returning back to his roots. His self-published graphic novel GEUNGSI Vol 1: Geungsi in the House was launched recently during the National Library Board's annual Night at the Library event, together with an art exhibition that showcased the creative evolution of the comic.

GEUNGSI (the Cantonese pronunciation of jiangshi, the vampire from Chinese lore) is a horror fantasy tale about Meng, an energetic HK slayer who moves to Singapore, and meets Shaun, a young salaryman. Bad news for Shaun though. He has been turned into a geungsi by a mystery woman named Alice. Can Meng and Shaun be friends? Or will they end up as frenemies and end up fighting the unexpected dangers of the underworld? If you are interested in checking out this new horror comic based in the streets of Singapore, GEUNGSI is already available at several local bookstores, including GnB Comics, Kinokuniya and Basheer Graphics Books.

To find out more about Sean Lam's thought process in creating GEUNGSI, Red Dot Diva got in touch with him for a short interview.

Asiapac Books' Reunion: Timeless Love and Art in Return of the Condor Heroes Exhibition

Back in 1995, Chinese manhua paperbacks of reknown novelist Louis Cha (Jin Yong)'s wuxia tale, RETURN OF THE CONDOR HEROES, was illustrated by local award-winning artist Wee Tian Beng. The comic books, published in 18 volumes, have been out of print for more than two decades. So, it is with much excitement that Asiapac Books has launched the graphic novel series compiled into one complete omnibus-hardback boxset in two language versions - simplified Chinese and English!

To commemorate the launch of the RETURN OF THE CONDOR HEROES 2021 Collector's Edition Comic Book Boxset, an exhibition was held at the zall bookstore, a Chinese language book shop located at Wheelock Place. The Reunion: Timeless Love and Art in Return of the Condor Heroes exhibition wraps up tomorrow (17 October 2021), so it will be your last chance to get to know, or in the case of long time fans, to re-acquaint yourself with the epic love story of Yang Guo and Dragon Girl!

Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2019 - Q&A With Thai Award-Winning Manga Artist Prema-Ja

Thai artist and animator Prema Jatukanyaprateep - more commonly known by her pen name Prema-Ja - will be coming to Red Dot Island this December as one of the guests of popculture convention, Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2019.

In 2014, BOKBIG, her manga about a boy and his mischievous pet dog, beat 256 entries and won the 2014 Gold Award at the International Manga Award in Japan.

Prema-Ja's cheerful, colourful and fun artwork has been featured in children's books as well. Go take a look at her her social media accounts, where she has posted an imaginative take on Inktober with a series of wonderful mermaid drawings, and you will see what Red Dot Diva is talking about!

Red Dot Diva: What got you interested and passionate about animation art?
Prema-Ja: I think it is about the storytelling. When start working on my art projects - beside beautiful pictures, I try to focus on the story in the work. And I love telling a story so the animation art and also comic art serves my intention.

Red Dot Diva: Who are your favourite artists, and why?
Prema-Ja: Amano Yoshitaka, a Japanese artist. His style is unique. The ambiance in his work, mysterious and brimming with fantasy, fascinates me. Another one is Beatrix Potter, an English artist. I love how she draws humanoid animals characters. They are so attractive.

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A post shared by Prema-Ja (@prema_ja) on Oct 28, 2019 at 7:39am PDT

Makoto Shinkai's Latest Movie "Weathering With You" Premieres in Singapore on 6 September 2019

After the astounding international success of the body-swapping, time travel love story “Your Name” in 2016, fans of Makoto Shinkai have been looking forward to enjoy more imaginative tales and dreamy landscapes in his signature style.

“Weathering With You” is Makoto Shinkai's latest animation masterpiece. In the long awaited movie, the city of near-future Tokyo is facing an unusual deluge of rainstorms. Hokada, an underaged runaway tries to look for a job and ends up as an intern in a publication that investigates strange phenomena, one of which is a story about "sunshine girls". He meets and befriends one of them, Hina, who is able bring on clear skies through prayer. Both of them decide to use and monetise her superpowers... but surely, there is a price to pay for that?

When the movie was released in Japan earlier this year, it raked in takings of over USD100 million (10.7 billion yen) at the domestic box office, officially making it the biggest Japanese film domestically since “Your Name”. It has also been chosen as Japan’s entry for the best international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.

“Weathering With You” has since been released in Hong Kong and Indonesia, and has topped box offices in the opening week in both countries.

Singapore audiences need not wait too long to experience another of Makoto Shinkai's enigmatic tale of young love unfolding in stunning, photorealistic backdrops. The Singapore premiere of “Weathering With You” (organised by film distributor Encore Films), will be held at Capitol Theatre this Friday, 6 September.

Hardcore fans can be one of the first to watch “Weathering With You” at this special event on 6 September, before the official theatrical release on 12 September 2019. All they need to do is buy the tickets at this link. At the cost of SGD 55 per ticket, fans will also be able to redeem exclusive movie premiums, like the transparent umbrella and notebook as seen in movie, an A2 movie poster and invite card. Seats are filling up fast, so get your tickets pronto!

Here's the trailer for “Weathering With You”:

Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2019 - Livio Ramondelli, Joey Spiotto, Creees, Prema-Ja and Cosplayer Jin Join the Guest List

More guests have been announced for major local pop-culture event Singapore Comic Con (SGCC), which is scheduled for 7 & 8 December at Marina Bay Sands' Convention Centre.

Adding to the list of well-known comic book guests announced in the first round, like artists Greg Capullo and Jock, a few more interesting personalities will be joining the convention for a whirlwind weekend of meet and greets, and panels held live on stage.

Here are the latest guest announcements:

LIVIO RAMONDELLI

Livio Ramondelli is best known for his work on IDW's Transformers comics series, where he has done both covers and interior artwork. He is also a long time fan of the Transformers, so will be able to talk shop with fellow fans about the popular Autobots and Decepticons.

His other comic book work include Dark Horse's Star Wars series and Dynamite's Battlestar Galactica comics, as well as Pacific Rim for Legendary comics.

Livio Ramondelli's art style is detailed as well as cinematic, especially in terms of the lighting. So, Red Dot Diva is not surprised to learn that he has also worked on concept art for Victory Hill Productions’ upcoming Transformers Experience in Shanghai, DC Universe Online for Sony/DC Comics.

Diva Interviews OKAZU, A Sumi-e Artist & Live Art Performer

Last week's Japan Park SG exhibition was quite the cultural fest on all things Japanese. In particular, Red Dot Diva thought the events held on the Omakaze Stage was very engaging.

The schedule of stage events ran the gamut of talks with cosplayers, wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger, robotist Professor Tomotaka Takahashi, various types of traditional dances, a party with girl band Poppin'Party as well as veteran rockers Sunplaza Nakano Kun & Papala Kawai. However, Red Dot Diva's favourite performance on stage was the live drawing of samurai sumi-e art (Japanese black ink brush painting) by OKAZU, a talented artist who hails from Osaka.

OKAZU is well-known for his sumi-e art on historical samurai and warriors, but he also does fantastic artwork of characters from manga, anime, Western pop-culture, and even comic book superheroes!

A post shared by 墨絵師 御歌頭 (@sumieokazu) on Mar 20, 2018 at 6:00am PDT

On stage during the Japan Park SG show, in less than 30 minutes, OKAZU created striking warring samurai images that seem almost alive, as if they are to jump through the white canvases. Accompanied by a cinematic soundtrack, his live performances were both elegant and visually powerful.

At @japanparksg: a video snippet of OKAZU showing his sumi-e art style. Love it!! Swipe left to see the final artwork! #JapanParkSG #japan @sumieokazu #Singapore #sumie #sumieink #artist #Okazu #art #inkbrush #samurai @suntecsingapore

A post shared by Red Dot Diva (@reddotdiva) on Aug 4, 2018 at 5:52am PDT

Red Dot Diva had a chance to interview OKAZU at the Samurai Room on the 2nd day of the show, and learned more about his motivations and inspirations.

Welcome Comic Book Artists David Finch and Mark Brooks to STGCC 2018!

STGCC 2018 announced their first round of guests was well as opened online ticketing for the event yesterday.

Comic book artists David Finch and Mark Brooks will be meeting fans at the pop-culture event, held on 8 and 9 September at the Marina Bay Sands Expo!

David Finch started out in Top Cow Productions' "Cyberforce", working closely with creator and studio founder Marc Silvestri. After the run for "Cyberforce" ended, he created the titles "Ascension" with writer Matt "Batt" Banning, and "Aphrodite IX" with David Wohl.

In 2003, David returned to comics collaborating with Brian Michael Bendis on Marvel's "Ultimate X-Men" and "Avengers", as well as the relaunch of the superhero team called "The New Avengers". Sometime in 2010, David switched to DC Comics, providing covers for "Brightest Day" by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi. He also wrote and drew for 18 issues of the "Batman: The Dark Knight" series, before moving on to "Justice League of America" and "Forever Evil".

As for comic book artist Mark Brooks, this is not his first time visiting Singapore. Mark, who has worked on various of Marvel's popular titles, like "Deadpool", "Ultimate Spider-Man" and "Secret Wars", made an appearance as a guest hosted by the now-defunct Invasion! Toys, back in STGCC 2012.

His career has grown in leaps and bounds since then, with his art gracing the covers and interiors of several Star Wars comics, like "Han Solo" which was published in 2016. The limited series garnered favourable reviews and earned Mark Brooks and writer Marjorie Liu an Eisner Award nomination in 2017. Not only that, his pencil work caught the eye of Star Wars creator George Lucas, and he had requested to buy every page of the original art from the first two issues of "Han Solo"! Wowzas, right?