Grit, Comics, Crises, Thumbs, Golems

Running around town, meeting artists and publishers. The biggest publishers of new comics nowadays are nonprofits, I’m starting to conclude.

Two job offers in the last two days. While I hit crunch time for the Exhibition I expect the Law of Irony to be in full effect, providing both distractions good and bad.

Uth Roeun has provided us with samples of his two unpublished stories. One grittily realistic, the other a legend fable that has great style and pacing.

Awed and envious, what skill!

“Comics aren’t just for kids” department: officemate Jane Martin provides a new comic by Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre.

(Below). It focuses on the exploitation of economically vulnerable young women, and foreigners seem to be the bad guys in all the cases. This is the fourth CWCC comic I’ve seen so far.

Email from States – Justin from All Thumbs press may be in Phnom Penh around Christmas time. http://www.allthumbspress.com.

Also on the comics front, have finished the Pulitzer prizewinning “Adventures of Kavalier and Clay“. Holy Golems! A fine read.

http://www.sugarbombs.com/kavalier/interviews.html

Meanwhile, back in Oz, Laura Anne Seabrook is creating a zines/comics database.

http://lists.octapod.org/archives/zines/2004-September/000308.html

And on a much more serious note: Sudan – ways to help. Please check this one out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3793577.stm

Comix Chat

A lunch today with Soeung Makara (animator), Neth Sokunthea (Cambodia Book Sector Federation) and Em Satya (comic artist). We chat a bit about the plans for the Symposium. Piseth and I hand out some comics so people can ‘skoal knea’ – know each other.(Getting them at wholesale price now, 350 riel each!)

Halfway through lunch Em Satya picks up one of the comics and notes that they’ve taken a lot of the art in one of the comics from his work. I look and sure enough, the style is quite similar.

We’ve got to get our database cooking, there are a lot of comics and details

to note and arrange.

+ + +

An intriguing article polling science fiction writers on the way things

are going.

http://www.locusmag.com/2004/Features/09_ShirleySocialFuture.html

Hul Sophon

A visit to Hul Sophon’s house finds an energetic and prolific artist, hard at work.

If you’ve gazed at a rack of novel covers in a book stall you’ve seen one of his paintings. He’s also done ‘Rose of Pailin’ as a line art comic for Reyum.

He’s got some unpublished painted work, a legend story.

(It’s got narration, is it a comic or a storybook?)

Flappie…

Image above from Merilee Challiss, who recently exhibited at Java. She, Chris Lawson and others have used comics for collage art along with Cambodian artist Leang Seckon.

http://www.collarmoth.com

http://www.craneorchard.com/

http://www.machinewithnoname.com

http://www.merrileechalliss.com/

Nhek Sokhaleap

A visit to publishing NGO SIPAR yields a wealth of names and in particular some new painted comics by Nhek Sokhaleap. Above is a Hanuman picture he has done for a series of cards.

Also pleased to hear that the Cambodia Book Sector Federation is picking up steam.

Off to see Hul Sophon soon.