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My Manga Teacher AMOEBA
I’m sure when you’re young, you’ll always be asked the question,”What do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was very young, I definitely know I didn’t want to be a doctor because I found the idea of cutting up human bodies, live or dead, a revolting habit. When I was in Primary Two, the security guard at my condo asked me that question. I replied,”I want to be a fireman.” Why? Because I think its pretty cool to scramble, sliding down poles, ride on fire engines and go rescue people trapped in burning buildings. A fireman is a uniformed action hero that doesn’t need to takes lives in order to save lives.
楽神伝 – The Adventure of Happy God Jiro by 阿米巴 (Amoeba)
When I was close to my teen years, I wanted to run a comics publishing company when I grow up. Because I can’t be professional comics artist unless there’s a comics publishing company. So there’s a need for a comics publishing company first if I wanted to fulfil my dream of becoming a comic artist. In spite of that aspiration, I was never enrolled in an arts school or course. So during school holidays, I’d try to join extramural art classes. During my first year-end holiday in JC, Comics Pal (漫画一族) ran a manga-drawing class. The teacher for the class is a little known manga artist, whose works was serialised by a Taiwanese publisher. He went by the pen-name of Amoeba (阿米巴). Some of you from Nanyang Polytechnic might know him as the Mr. Yu Jiunn Siang (余俊湘).
AMOEBA, the manga-ka
My manga sensei, Amoeba, was trained in illustration at Otis College of Art and Design in the States. After graduation, he stayed on in US, finding work at DIC, an animation studio. There, he did some character design for cartoons such as “Captain N: The Game Master” as well as G.I. Joe.
AMOEBA – Biodata
During the mid-90s, Taiwanese manga publisher Sharp Point Press (尖端出版) picked up his solo manga work 《楽神伝》 (The Adventure of Happy God Jiro). In September 1995, the works were collected in a single, 175-paged volume. The page count does not including bonus materials. The manga was promoted during the Chinese Book Fairs, usually held during school holidays at the World Trade Centre. [*koff* Vivo City was built over the ruins of the World Trade Centre, Singapore's only convention centre before there were Suntec City and Singapore Expo]
《楽神伝》 is Akira Toriyama’s “Dragonball” meets the L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz”. The art very much imitated Akira Toriyama’s style, which was very popular during the 90s.
Akira Toriyama style
During Amoeba’s manga class, I learnt that he adopted storyboarding techniques from Osamu Tezuka and Katsuhiro Otomo. (And perhaps, from Hayao Miyazaki’s works too?). For his manga class, he used film-making theories to teach storyboarding techniques.
I loved his whimsical character designs.
Barbie and Prince Thunder
Note the design of Prince Thunder (雷震王子) – he looks like a Majapahit prince.
Fans of no-holds barred action might be disappointed – because Amoeba’s manga is light on violence. Here’s the most eye dazzling action sequence in the manga:
ACTION! Jiro vs Marcus the Fly
The battle scenes are more about comedy than Dragonball Z violence.
Other than the adventure story of Jiro, Amoeba also did whimsical cartoon strips at the sides.
Amoeba Theater
Some of the strips were inspired by his life as a manga artist.
At the end of the manga, he included the character designs (設定資料) of the cast.
Character Design
If only Singapore’s creative industry then was like what it is now, I’m sure Amoeba would have gone far with his works and creative talents.
AMOEBA, the sensei
Amoeba was 30 when he taught us manga techniques. He’s a Dragon one cycle ahead of me. Characteristic of one born in the year of the Dragon, he was a trailblazer who pursued his interests that bucked conventions. He was very much a person that I looked up to. Even after the holidays ended, he’d still meet up with us just like an elder brother. For some of us who’re closer, he also invited us to his wedding banquet at Goodwood Hotel.
Wedding Invitation
He designed his own wedding cards, and even wrote a song that he dedicated to his wife during the banquet.
During the holiday just before I was drafted into National Service, we met up at the Swensen’s at Changi Airport for ice-cream. I won’t forget what Amoeba told us. He was sharing with us some of the things he wished he had done when he was much younger. One of it, was that he wished that he joined the Commandos (he did his stint in National Service as an illustrator for Pioneer magazine). He felt that the Commandos is one of the toughest vocation ever, and if he had made it as a Commando, there would be little else left to fear because he would have overcame the toughest challenges.
His words stuck.
And signing up with the Commandos could have been one of the Foolish things that I did.
