April 2016 Book of the Month: THE ART OF CHARLIE CHAN HOCK CHYE
A biography doesn’t have to focus on a real person to offer some truth.
Later this month on the Oh, Comics! Podcast, we’re discussing Sonny Liew’s The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye!
Meet Charlie Chan Hock Chye.
Now in his early 70s, Chan has been making comics in his native Singapore since 1954, when he was a boy of 16. As he looks back on his career over five decades, we see his stories unfold before us in a dazzling array of art styles and forms, their development mirroring the evolution in the political and social landscape of his homeland and of the comic book medium itself.
With The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye Sonny Liew has drawn together a myriad of genres to create a thoroughly ingenious and engaging work, where the line between truth and construct may sometimes be blurred, but where the story told is always enthralling, bringing us on a uniquely moving, funny, and thought-provoking journey through the life of an artist and the history of a nation.
Join along, yeah? Let us know if you’ve picked up the book or have any questions about the enigmatic Charlie Chan Hock Chye!
