Southeast Asia recently has risen in prominence in the U.S. comics scene, with Malaysian artist Lat seeing his seminal cartoons released stateside by First Second and the Filipino Leinil Yu drawing Marvel's summer blockbuster Secret Invasion. There's perhaps no better time, then, for an anthology of comics from the region.
That was the mindset of Sonny Liew, who was born in Malaysia before attending Cambridge University. He keeps busy illustrating for publishers such as Vertigo and Slave Labor Graphics and contributing to Flight, but in his extra time has pulled together artists from Southeast Asia to contribute to Liquid City, the new anthology published by Image Comics. Liew spoke with PW Comics Week about the collection and the background behind his region's sudden rise to comics prominence.
PWCW: An obvious question first: where did the title Liquid City come from?
Sonny Liew: Coming up with a title for the anthology was one of the trickier things we had to deal with. We had a whole list of alternatives, like The Only Thing I Was Ever Good At Vol.1, Animoid Row, The Ink Colony, Underpass, Plastic Bottle, Urban, Night Stories, Side Streets and so on. In the end I think Liquid City just seemed to have the right connotations, suggesting the transience and flow of cities, with just a hint of sci-fi.
PWCW: Southeast Asia has been recognized the past few years for producing a lot of comics talent. What do you think it is about the region that is leading to that, or is it too diversified to even say?
SL: I think part of it comes out of countries in the region reaching a certain level of economic development—creating a groundswell of creators who could afford to buy and read comics in the first place, and who could pursue comics as a viable career.
That said, I think the comics industries in the region are generally still very nascent, compared with places like the United States, Europe or Japan. The infrastructure that would allow creators to find each other, editors and publishers is still developing. In Singapore for example the biggest comics publisher is Chuang Yi, and they focus mostly on reprints of popular American and Japanese comics, with relatively little invested in local works. Things are getting better year by year, but there's still some ways to go yet.
PWCW: A lot of the artists who have made names for themselves are doing so in superhero comics, with Leinil Yu being an obvious example. Do you see Liquid City as an opportunity to expose readers to a wider sampling of the region's creators?
SL: Well we did try to get guys like Leinil, Tan Eng Huat and Billy Tan to be part of the anthology, but their commitments to ongoing series made it impossible, I think. But I did always hope the anthology would provide more exposure for regional creators who worked outside the mainstream so-called.
Not necessarily as far off the beaten path as maybe you'd get in a Kramer's Ergot, but certainly non-superhero stuff that might still be considered part of the "smooth wave" of comics, along the lines of works you'd see in the Flight anthologies.
PWCW: Are there any commonalities or shared traits that run through the anthology, anything that you would say unites these comics?
SL: There was a loose thematic idea of "cities" as part of the brief, but "loose" being the operative word. I think the stories really went in their own disparate directions for the most part. In terms of style and storytelling, I think you inevitably see the strong influences exerted by comics from the United States and Japan; though there are some, like Lat, who've of course forged their own unique stylistic paths.
I guess geography does partly unite the creators involved in that we're part of still-developing comics cultures and therefore often still searching for a balance between outside and indigenous influences.
PWCW: What kind of diversity is contained in the anthology? Will people be surprised by the range?
SL: I certainly hope so. It's a diverse group of artists and writers involved, all with their own influences and agendas, so there's a wide range of art styles and storytelling approaches.
PWCW: What are the major comics influences in Southeast Asia?
SL: As mentioned, comics from the more mature industries of the United States, Japan and Europe are of course widely read—I guess that's the same the world over; anyone interested in comics would have read their share of Hergé, Otomo and Chris Ware for example. Maybe more particular influences in the region would include Chinese-language comics from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and Malaysia's Lat is probably the major figure in Southeast Asian comics.
PWCW: Any stories in particular you're especially proud of?
SL: It should be clear by now how thrilled I was to have Lat onboard, having grown up reading his comics like Town Boy and Kampung Boy. Aside from that it was just exciting to discover a lot of artists along the way that I probably wouldn't have been aware of if I hadn't put the anthology together—Gerry Alanguilan and Nguyen Thanh Phong from the Philippines and Vietnam respectively, and Singaporean creators like ken foo and Troy Chin to name a few.
PWCW: Do you plan on distributing the book in Asia as well? What is the comics market like there?
SL: Comic stores here generally work the same way as the ones in the United States—everyone orders through Diamond. There are however other channels, comics that get into newsstands are usually either local publications like Gempak in Malaysia, or reprints by local publishers like Chuang Yi. In Singapore, Chinese manga translations also have their own specialty stores.
Right now Liquid City is going via the Diamond route, so it will end up in comic stores and book stores throughout the Asia. Whether it'll end up in the alternative distributions channels is something I'm still trying to work out.
PWCW: Did any issues come up in producing the book for an American audience, i.e. overcoming cultural differences, language issues, etc.?
SL: I think this would have been more an issue maybe two decades ago. But given the differences manga has been able to overcome—getting readers to read in the opposite direction, learning new visual codes and symbolsit's a lot easier for American readers to adapt to varied styles of art and storytelling. So it was never a huge concern, especially given the shared comics knowledge base that readers around the world have these days.
PWCW: Will there be more Liquid City, and is that decision contingent on this one's performance?
SL: I do hope that will be further volumes, but I don't think any sequel is ever non-contingent on financial viability. I would probably want co-editors on board for any future volumes though. It would just make the whole thing more manageable.
