6 Eisner Nominations for The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
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Economizing
The Economist reviews The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (March 12 2016 Print edition)
"A touching, thoughtful meditation on Singapore’s relentless progress.... Like any other country, Singapore means different things to different people. Its detractors admit that modern Singapore is safe, well-run and has achieved remarkable material progress since it became independent just over 50 years ago. And even its defenders admit that Singapore restricts civil liberties... Sonny Liew’s brilliantly inventive “The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye” weighs those costs and benefits."
This magazine used to be de riguer reading in junior college days for everything from history to economics and the General Paper :p
Giant Robot
Illustrator and fellow RISD-ite Antoine Revoy did a pinup for The Art of Charlie Chan...! See his blog (and a colored version of the image) at:
http://antoinerevoy.tumblr.com/…/i-was-happy-to-be-invited-…
Antoine is also releasing an intriguing Japanese horror influenced graphic novel called "Playground" from First Second soon, do check it out! http://www.pastemagazine.com/…/exclusive-first-second-annou…
npr
Fresh Air
NPR Fresh Air reviews The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye!
"...a startlingly brilliant tour de force.... At once dizzyingly meta and deeply heartfelt, the book spans 80 years and in its complicated layering remind me of everything from Maus and The Tin Drum to, believe it or not, Ulysses... a Valentine to cartooning, to old buildings and street food, to heroes written out of official history, to ordinary people trying to make a better life."
front
Launch Week
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye was released this week internationally!
The always amazing Robb Mommaerts did a pinup (see above!), do visit his blog to see more fantastic artwork :)
Some early reviews:
- The Beat says that The Art of Charlie Chan is "2016’s first superlative graphic novel"
- Mental Floss lists the books as one of "5 Most Interesting Comics of the Week" and "a tour de force artistic performance"
- The Gazette calls it "easily one of the greatest books of the year... [A] multilayered, beautifully executed work is like no history book you’ve ever seen. It will leave you speechless."
- There are features on the book at Pen America and CBLDF
- Over at NPR, a review says "The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye feels like Singapore between two covers. The pressure-cooker country — tiny and polyglot, globally competitive and politically repressive — seems to have been poured into this dense book"
- On Instagram, The Beguiling says : "With this book, #SonnyLiew establishes himself as a major voice in comics"
- The BookPage calls it "transcendent graphic novel" that reveals "the ability of comics to blur the lines between fact and fiction, and to transport readers between eras and cultures."
An Amazon link to buy the book here :)
Some interviews:
- With Comics Alternative
- With ComicsBooksReources
- At 13th Dimension
Anticipate
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is one of Publishers Weekly's Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2016 in the Comics category. Alongside books by Daniel Clowes and Julie Doucet(!)
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/69297-the-most-anticipated-books-of-spring-2016.html
"A stunning tour de force masterpiece of imagined and real history as Liew recreates the entire career of the titular cartoonist via art and photos to explore the history of both comics and Singapore."
Selections
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye was named several times in Singapore Poetry's My Book of the Year 2015 selections :p
"It is complex, brilliant and so edgy. Bold and creative. The visuals are stunning and powerful. A phenomenal accomplishment." - Lydia Kwa, novelist and poet.
"My book of the year, no question, is Sonny Liew’s The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. Gustave Flaubert once said that writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful. Sonny Liew drank an ocean and pissed vintage champagne. Charlie Chan, amazingly, might be the only non-academic book to accurately depict Singapore history. But more importantly, historians often fail to capture the emotion, the feelings, the spirit surrounding history. Liew captured all of that in his art. It’s truly a remarkable work." - P. J. Thum, historian
"The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew pulls off the improbable feat — imbuing the modern history of Singapore with such artistry and revisionist imagination that it makes reassessing our past urgent and pressing. Perhaps its greatest achievement is to dare the reader to dream of an alternative future and even long for it. - William Phuan, arts administrator.
Get the Special Bookplate Edition here: http://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/STK694415
Or pre-order here: http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Chan-Pantheon-Graphic-Novels/dp/1101870699
Those in Singapore or Malaysia, pop over to a bookstore or order online at:
http://shop.epigrambooks.sg/products/charlie-chan-hock-chye
(special cover edition: http://shop.epigrambooks.sg/collections/graphic-novels/products/charlie-chan-special-cover )