Charlie Chan Hock Chye has been called Singapore's greatest comic book artist, and now reflects upon on his largely unsuccessful and unlucky career. Eisner Award-nominated artist Sonny Liew (Malinky Robot, The Shadow Hero) sets his graphic novel about the cartoonist against the backdrop of Singapore's fight for independence and transformation from a British colony to a modern city state. And unless one Googles Chan, one wouldn't realize he is a brilliantly conceived fictional invention.
Chan's story unfolds like a documentary. At 16, he conceives Ah Huat, a Tezuka-influenced story that portrays the student-led anti-British protests through the eyes of a young boy controlling a giant robot and features his heroes Lee Kuan Yew and Lim Chin Siong, fathers of modern Singapore. Ah Huat gains the attention of young storyteller Bertrand Wong, and together the two publish an independent monthly and Roachman, a precursor to Spiderman. When Wong leaves for a full-time job, Chan turns his energies to political commentary, using Disney-like anthropomorphic characters as his narrative muses. Despite his talents, Chan's work goes largely unpublished in a state-controlled press, and his own perfectionism and idealistic tendencies doom him to perpetual failure.
Liew uses a variety of mediums--pencils and ink, oil on canvas, photographic reproductions of actual historical events--to tie Chan's fate into the unrest throughout the country. The result is a surprising revelation of a master storyteller who manages to turn a controversial and largely buried story into a personal reflection on art and freedom of the press. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant