Category: Chinese Comics Review

Chinese Comics Review

Night Bus: journey through the fantastical Chinese countryside

Posted on by Jason Li

Cover image of Night Bus

A young woman with big, circular glasses is nudged out onto the platform by the rivers of the passengers going in and out of the train. She finds herself at an unfamiliar stop, but close to home, and she is forced to take the night bus to complete her journey. The bus, and its inhabitants, have other ideas, taking her on a…

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Chinese Comics Review

Ping Pong 4: cataloguing explorations through illustration

Posted on by Jason Li
Table display of candy, caricatures and collected trash objects
Objects and drawings from the Ping Ping Vol. 4 exhibition opening

Ping Pong Vol. 4 marks the Hong Kong publication’s continuing shift away from comics to the world of illustration. Titled Field Guide Collection, this latest volume finds its artists cataloguing various objects, behaviors and techniques through their drawings. As with the previous issue, the collective…

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Chinese Comics Review

City of Darkness: A macho Hong Kong comic exemplar set in the Kowloon Walled City

Posted on by Jason Li

city of darkness squad illustration

City of Darkness (九龍城寨) chronicles the fall and rise of prominent gangster and martial artist 陳洛軍 (“Lok”) as he goes into hiding in the Kowloon Walled City after a bitter fight with his former boss. Set in a picturesque rendition of 1980s Hong Kong, City of Darkness pays homage to what co-creator Andy Seto calls the most beautiful…

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Chinese Comics Review

WeChat Cats, Romantic Blunders & Lightning Dogs: Paradise Systems Year 1

Posted on by Jason Li

“Paradise Systems publishes exemplary comics from the United States and China.” This is the story of their first year, broken up into three acts.

I.

Our story begins in Brooklyn, where long-time translator and former China resident Orion Martin sets out on his publishing adventure. Wanting to foment a a cultural exchange of comics, he tests the waters…

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Chinese Comics Review

China King of Fighting: An action graphic memoir that ended too soon

Posted on by Jason Li

Chinese King Of Boxing Covers

China King of Fighting was created by a pro boxer-turned-cartoonist, who tells the life story of boxing living legend Zou Shiming after they befriend one another in the ring. Zou, commonly hailed as China’s most successful boxer, is famous for having won Olympic gold twice in a row, as well as winning and defending the WBO flyweight title for a…

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Chinese Comics Review

My Beloved Mother: A Comic Book Epic About Human-Android Discrimination

Posted on by Jason Li

My Beloved Mother covers

My Beloved Mother (机器妈妈) is a science fiction tale of dystopia about the frayed relationship between a boy and his android mother. Originally serialized in 漫友·动画100, the comic has won multiple awards, been re-published in Malay and English, and helped launch the career of its creator, Wang Xiao Yang. Today, we turn back to the clock to look at the…

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Chinese Comics Review

Original Indie Comic Con in HK #3: A window into Hong Kong’s bustling indie illustration & manga scene

Posted on by Jason Li

Last Sunday heralded the third Original Indie Comic Con in HK (第三屆原創誌交流展). Hosted on the eighth floor of a co-working space in an industrial part of Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, the one-day convention was small but bustling, and showed off an often-overlooked side of Hong Kong, where the comics scene has long been derided as being in…

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Chinese Comics Review

Evading Hong Kong’s self-censors: Ah To’s absurd yet poignant comics about life and politics

Posted on by Jason Li

Fuck It Suck It Up book release gif

It was nearing the end of May. With less than two months to go before the Hong Kong Book Fair 2016, Ah To’s book still hadn’t yet hit the presses. In fact, it was looking like the book might not be published at all. Talks had broken down between the author-illustrator and his unnamed, major Hong Kong publisher. Despite a promising start,…

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Chinese Comics Review

The psychedelic art of an Adventure Time-inspired Chinese webcomic

Posted on by Jason Li

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Electrocat and Lightning Dog is an indie webcomic set in a futuristic world of talking animals, aliens and psychedelic strawberries. Inspired by Pendleton Ward’s Adventure Time, it follows the tried-and-true formula of two best friends going on random adventures, except that Electrocat and Lightning Dog is even more zany and non-linear than its progenitor.

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