Here’s something that happened behind/inside the booths by the artist alley at the Singapore Toy and Comics Convention, from the POV of cool cat comix artists Ken Foo and Troy Chin.
drearyweary & Ken foo at STCC 2008
Check it out. I got a cameo role inside this series of 4koma.
Just last week, I was following the series of articles in the papers on Singapore’s brain and rootedness of her citizens.
If only they’d realise our kids when they grow up, they’re always dreaming someone else’s dream – ideas, aspirations and cultural values picked up during the socialisation process of ‘play’. The fiction they read, the games they play, the cartoons they watch, the toys and figurines they collect – are not our own. It’s not difficult for them to assimilate themselves into another culture/society/nation when they come of age.
Singapore’s myth making infrastructure is not in place yet. Maybe, the policy makers didn’t appreciate the strategic importance of ‘play’ in the schema of nation building.
Hopefully, they’ll do a second take at the development of the animation, games and comics industry – the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) industry is part of something bigger; and it’s more than just about the economy, stupid.
