The Malaysia-born Singapore resident shares his thoughts on the evolution of the comic industry and if comics are the art form of the people
It was a 2017 article in Singapore’s paper of record, The Straits Times, that really propelled award-winning cartoonist Sonny Liew into the public eye. The article stated that the National Arts Council had withdrawn a grant of about US$6,000 from Liew's graphic novel, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye.
The official reason given for the withdrawal was that the novel's content “potentially undermines the authority or legitimacy" of the Singapore government and the country's public institutions. The 320-page novel tells the story of a comic artist in Singapore whose work reflects the country’s changing social and political environment over a span of more than 50 years.
Despite this bump in the road, Liew moved on quickly. His novel, which was published by homegrown publisher Epigram Books in 2015 and US publisher Pantheon Books in 2016, won him three Eisner Awards, the global comic industry’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. He was the first Singaporean ever to win the accolades.
Liew’s knack for producing cartoons with a political or social slant stems from a deep personal interest in these issues. “My cartoons are a reflection of what’s happening around me and the things I’m personally engaged with,” he says.