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0ne point Zer0

The Fool shows a child or youth, while the Magician depicts an all powerful adept. Just as the Fool showed us the price of eternal innocence, so this Magician gives us the fearsomeness of taking on responsibility. If the Major Arcana represents the Fool’s journey, the Magician is the first thing the Fool encounters.

FSc (aka Foo Swee Chin) made history as the first Singaporean comics artist whose works got published in a monthly manga magazine. Her newest work, “Noirstorborg” was published in Vol. 16 of Comic Ryu 「comicリュウ」

2 Works of FSc

But Who’s FSc? Although the preview notice in Vol.15 of the monthly had described FSc as a popular (”シンガポールの人気マンガ家“) Singaporean comic artist, she’s not yet a household name in Singapore. In fact, I doubt many comics fans here know who she is unless they’re fans of Goth comics such as Lenore, Gloom Cookie etc or have been following the local doujin scene (or if you’re a card-carrying member of Latendo).

Back in May 2001, Swee Chin big break came when she did the art for the first twelve issues of “Nightmares and Fairy Tales“, published by Slave Labor Graphics in the US. In August 2006, publisher Asukashinsha Publishing (飛鳥新社) licensed the rights to publish the Japanese edition of the graphic novel. Prior to that, this former student of Temasek Polytechnic started off as a doujin artist.

FSc (フー・スウィ・チン)

When she was a teenager, FSc was fascinated with comics art from both the Japanese and American streams. Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman were the two biggest influence. FSc, who’s a peer of Chun (aka 傅一纯 aka 小狗 – the resident comics artist for ZaoBao and a pioneer of the local comics scene) cut her teeth doing illustrations for the student-oriented Chinese weekly 《星期5周報》 in 1994. Then, she was using the pen name “萤火虫” (firefly). Together with Chun and D.kartoon, they began dabbling in doujinshi. Her story “The Third Eye” 《第三眼》 was published in a Taiwanese anthology “Three Ladies” 《三個女生》 from Reading Times Publishing (時報出版).

Comic Ryu Vol.16

In 1999 and 2000, FSc sold her doujin at Anime Expo over in USA. Neko Press, an indy comix publisher took note of her works. FSc published “The Art of Foo Swee Chin: Consicous” with Neko Press in 2001. That book was sold out on its first print run. That established her foothold in the North American (indy) comics scene. Subsequently, she collaborated with Serena Valentino on “Nightmares and Fairy Tales” from Slave Labor Graphics (SLG – the same publisher of Sonny Liew’s Wonderland). Check out her interview on Sequential Tart.

ノーストルボーグ (Noirstorborg – the dark underground city)

FSc found herself on the exchange programme sponsored by the Japan Foundation in 2004. During the same year, she made her debut in the 2004 Summer Comiket with the circle “Epo Honpo” 「EPO本舗」. Her doujinshi “MuZz” was a hit. FSc’s work was also featured in the quarterly manga art journal “S” 「季刊エス」. Without looking back, she’s even got her own Japanese fan club.

月刊COMICリュウ

In Oct 2006, FSc began contributing black & white illustrations for sci-fi writer/critic Masaki Yamada’s movie review column 「山田正紀の映画狩り」 in Comic Ryu from the second issue onwards. A year later, FSc’s new work “Noirstorborg” headlined the first chapter of Vol.16 with all eight pages printed in full colour.

Comic Ryu may not be a familiar title to the younger ones. This magazine started back in 1979 as “Ryu” 「リュウ」, a supplement to Animage. This is one of the earliest ‘otaku-zine’ with a strong Sci-fi flavour. Tokuman Shoten (徳間書店) revived this magazine in 2006, targeting the demographic group that followed the magazine’s first incarnation. In spite of its ‘youth’, the magazine got together some of the alumni from the original magazine and contemporary luminaries – the who’s who from Japan’s sci-fi manga scene, boasting names such as Mamoru Oshii (押井守), Masaomi Kazanki (神崎将臣), Miyuki Miyabe (宮部みゆき), Yoshiki Tanaka (田中芳樹) and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (安彦良和). FSc’s “Noirstorborg” is like an opening act for the industry’s titans, a sign of greater things to come for this talent.

Noirstorborg – the dark underground city

Over and above her full color work, Comic Ryu 「 フーさんのニッポン日記」 also published the 8-paged black & white “FSc’s Japan Diary” in the same issue.

フーさんのニッポン日記 (FSc’s Japan Diary)

One of FSc’s creation has even been made into a G-kit, and is a giveaway prize for Vol.16 mail-in lucky draw:

FSc Original Design Garage Kit – Rokoo

Her quiet achievements certainly deserves more attention and fanfare at home. Not only is her work well received in North America, she’s also found a following in Japan and Taiwan too. Other than Stikfas and Trexi, there hadn’t been any other Singaporean cultural product that found appeal across the Pacific. I hope her success will inspire more Singaporeans to realise their dreams of becoming comics creators.

While Singaporean comics hadn’t found it’s own definitive style, comic artists such as FSc, Sonny Liew, and those from Imaginary Friends Studios have shown the way ahead. Their art is a product of Singapore’s ’strategic’ location. The Tiny Red Dot is not just a convenient logistics hub in the heart of Southeast Asia, it’s the confluence of Eastern and Western cultures. Rather than producing more of the same “me too” kind of comics art that can be conveniently pigeon-holed as ‘manga’ or ‘(American) comics’, these trail blazers found success with a new style that is Asian at heart but cosmopolitan in appeal. And that’s the essence of Singapore.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Otaku Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.