"How Was Your Day?"
Comic anthology 80 pages, April 2014/ Self-Published
Artists: Wrat, Kuzu, Sapphire, Choo, Fenix, Max, Ashel, Hwei
How was your day today?
Was it exciting and surprising? Perhaps it more mundane and quiet but contained subtle revelation.
"How Was Your Day?" is a anthology of eight short comics by a group of emerging Malaysian talents in the comic art scene. Each piece in this anthology is a stand alone story revolving around this very personal question.
" How Are You Today ?" was launched last April 2014 at the inaugural KLICAF (Kuala Lumpur International Comic Arts Festival) and ambitious event brainstormed from the minds of the organizers of the wildly popular annual Comic Fiesta .
The anthology is self-published ,83 pages long, roughly A4 size , in black/white/grey scale . It features a beautiful full color wraparound cover done in what looks like delicate but gorgeous watercolor by Hwei, the group leader.
One work in particular I would like to highlight is "Rat Race" , an 8 page story by Remeina Ashel Yee. Ashels story revolves around an unnamed longhaired female brunette protagonist who aspires to become an archeologist.
Ashels uses pencil to draw her story in a stylised, visually sophisticated and yet very personal way, imparting the feel of a hand written note. Her character designs are each highly individual and shows a lot of diversity in the casts physical depictions.
Writing and dialogue is sparingly used and quite a lot of information is conveyed by the characters facial expressions, body language and juxtaposition to each other.
She also uses light and shadow to depict the inner emotions and escalating sense of hopelessness. She arranges the panels and composition of her drawings to alternatively convey optimism, doubt, despair, conformity and sense of claustrophobic isolation.
There is also an increasing use of symbols replace words , thoughts, identities and dialogue towards the end of the story that is somewhat unnerving and depersonalising.
I enjoyed this comic very much as it highlights quite a range of emotions and subtleties and invokes a feeling of despair over the unfulfilled hopes and dreams of the masses, indeed ourselves.
I feel it is an excellent reminder of the importance of holding on to the precious soul desires that make each of us unique, and without which, we risk loses the very essence of who we are as individuals and as humans.
I encourage everyone to enjoy this anthology ... It just might make your day.
August 2014
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