Category: Chinese Comics Review

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 In fact, it was looking like the book might not be published at all.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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Chinese Comics Review

Ping Pong #03: a visually-stunning package of risograph comics

Posted on by Jason Li

Photo of Ping Ping 03 package

Ping Pong #03 is all about the printed, physical object, and the results are stunning. Eschewing the convention of a single, bound book, Ping Pong #03 comes as a lushly-packaged set of seven booklets, written and illustrated by seven different artists. While every booklet looks visually distinct, they all bear the mark of the risograph printing process: bright,…

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Chinese Comics Review

Whacky on Weibo: Dick Ng’s collected webcomics

Posted on by Jason Li

DickNgCover

Ng’s webcomics are snappy, short and whacky. His comics are native to Weibo (a Twitter-like service), his strips thrive as self-contained, single-page gags. While other cartoonists in China might publish 100+ page works on Douban (a Tumblr-like service) or one of the many webcomic portals (e.g. 有妖气), Ng focuses primarily on creating short comics on Weibo where…

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Chinese Comics Review

Kylooe: an emotionally-charged comics trilogy about trying to fit in

Posted on by Jason Li

Kylooe Trilogy Covers

The Kylooe trilogy brings us three stories of people who are trying their best to fit in with society. In book one, a shy, introverted schoolgirl struggles in her first days at a new middle school. In book two, a broadband salesman reminisces about his first, failed love. And finally, in the last book, a delivery boy finds himself stuck…

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Chinese Comics Review

A Borrowed Life: a superb comic memoir of a flawed Taiwanese patriarch

Posted on by Jason Li

Cover of A Borrowed Life

In A Borrowed Life, esteemed Taiwanese writer-director Wu Nien-jen pays tribute to his working-class father by telling the latter’s life story. His story was made into an award-winning movie way back in 1994 (also called A Borrowed Life), and now it has been retold in comic form. The graphic novel has a grand, sweeping, filmic quality…

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