Participants of this project are short-listed from all applicants received by the organisers, selected on the basis of outstanding motivation, captivating ideas and suitable portfolios. They are promising creators, artists and writers with a strong sense of social purpose and who are interested in developments and issues that impact people’s lives. Generally, they are those who see the ASEF comics collaboration as a unique opportunity to be part of an international production team, and to gain experience and access to an international network of comics practitioners.
The resource persons (NIX and Johnny Lau) are selected on the basis of their wide experience and established presence in the field of comics. They are renowned individuals whose works are already well received in public, not only within but also beyond their national boundaries.
Team of Artists
Facilitators/Guest Speakers
NIX, Belgium
European Resource Person/Artist
Nix was not formally trained in any art institution. In fact, he graduated from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven as a Civil Engineer in “Electrotechniques”. After leaving the security of a stable job in telecoms services, Nix decided to follow his passion in comics, and has become one of the most prominent hopes of the Belgian comics scene.
Nix’s notable portfolio reflects strong enthusiasm in expression through comics and animation, and his works have been displayed at exhibitions in comics festivals such as the Brussels Comic Festival La Quinzaine 2nd edition (Belgium) and Angoulêmes International Comic Festival 31st edition (France). His comic books are published in Dutch by Silvester and in French by Le Lombard. His sense of humour also surfaces in his involvement in stand-up comedy performance in Holland and France.
Nix is currently a Professor at Sint-Lukas art school Brussels, Comics section.
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Website: www.nix.be
Craig Au Yeung Ying Chai, Hong Kong SAR, China
Artist
An experienced cross-media artist who graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (BA with honours in graphic communication and Master of Philosophy), Craig has been involved in radio and TV programme production on cultural issues, working actively in graphic design, art direction, comics and illustration.
He also writes commentaries on travel, lifestyle and food. His writings and comic works currently appear extensively in newspapers and magazines in the greater China region.
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Tomáš Kučerovský, Czech Republic
Artist
Tomáš is an illustrator, comic artist, graphic designer and game concept artist, as well as the publisher and the editor of Aargh!, a magazine printing comics by young Czech and other European authors. His latest comics try to explore different ways of fusion between comics and architecture.
While he is interested in exchanging different points of view, approaches to comics and backgrounds, he hopes that this collaboration will not end with the release of the publication, but will continue much further.
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Fredric Felder, France
Artist
Frédéric is the Chief Editor of Ferraille Illustré Comix Magazine in Paris. He used to work as a comic artist for Sierra Nueva, UPSA Comix, and Good Stuff in Belgium, and also as a comic writer for Muerto Kid in Bordeaux.
Frédéric has always been fascinated by Asian culture; hence, this project will give him a unique opportunity to “confront phantasm to the reality”. He further wishes that this will be an opportunity to compare, understand and ultimately combine the skills of the two worlds.
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Tommi Musturi, Finland
Artist
Tommi is a comic artist, press publisher and an editor for Glömp, an annual international comics anthology. Currently he is working on a five-album volume titled, The Book of Hope, and also a new book, Walking with Samuel. Tommi “digs freedom, animals, friends, books and walking around”.
Tommi is always interested in searching for new ways of storytelling with pictures and hopes the results of the Asia-Europe comics project will do some good “for the universe”.
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Al fitri Muhammed Zachky, (Alfi Zachkyelle), Indonesia
Artist
A graduate from the Jakarta Institute of Art, Alfi has been making comics since an early age and contributing actively in building up an independent comics network in Indonesia. Together with some friends, he set up Graveyardshift Studio, which has produced two major titles: Dua Warna (“Two Colors”) and Mantera Pawitra (“Pawitra’s Spell”), and more than 20 other comic titles which were independently published.
He resides in Batam and works as a 2D artist in an animation studio.
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Little Fish, Japan
Artist
Little Fish made his debut as a comic artist in Garo, an underground comic magazine. He has contributed experimental works to several magazines on the Japanese comics scene, and recently launched an independent art magazine, Spore. He has also participated in the anthology Japon (a joint project-team assembled by publishers from several countries), a work which has been translated into 5 languages.
His recent activities include collaboration with French photographer Charles Freger.
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Kwon Yong Duk, Korea
Artist
Skeptical about the conventional system based on memorisation, Yong-deuk stopped going to school and began to draw comics in 2003. Two years later, his work, My Love Youngsoon was published by Sai Comics. He has also had his cartoons featured periodically on Yahoo! Korea. He now makes a living by drawing comics about his grandfather's death and his family.
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Maaike Margareta Hartjes, Netherlands
Artist
Maaike is a professional comics artist and illustrator from Amsterdam. She mainly draws autobiographical comics in a minimalistic style. Among her interests are different Asian cultures, so she expects to learn a lot from this project involving people from different cultural backgrounds and their variety of “image-languages”, which she hopes will prove an interesting visual experience.
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Artist
While Lyra only started becoming a comic artist/writer fairly recently, her education as a comic artist and reader has been a delightful and serendipitous process, which will have an enduring impact on her. She began doing illustrations for magazine articles and children’s books in the middle of her college years, and it was only about six years ago when she discovered the interesting process of comic art.
Lyra expects to learn more about the possibilities of comics writing and illustration. She is very excited to have the meeting and to collaborate with other artists, to be exposed to their thinking process and the issues and philosophies they are concerned with.
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R a f a l Gosieniecki, Poland
Artist
Rafal graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland. He was a recipient of the Monbukagakusho Japanese Government Scholarship and now resides in Japan, doing research in manga, comics and animation there.
Rafal sees this project as a unique opportunity for international collaboration that brings together people of different countries, cultures and ideas about comics, and hopes that comics can act as a medium to voice out today’s happenings while retaining its entertainment value.
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Le Phuong, Hanoi, Vietnam
Artist
An illustrator, cartoon and comic artist working under the pen-name LEO, he graduated from the Graphic Design department, University of Industrial Fine Art, Hanoi, Vietnam. He has 6 years of experience in professional illustration, political cartoons, graphic design and comics.
Through this project, Leo hopes to share experiences, thoughts and cultures to form a mutual understanding with other participants from both regions.
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Johnny Lau, Singapore
Asian Resource Person/Facilitator
Turning artistic passion into business isn’t an easy task. It is a delicate balance between maintaining artistic integrity and a good business map. Johnny Lau has clearly displayed his forte in the field of comics and has boosted several initiatives through projects in different media for the last ten years. He was one of the founding members of the Singapore chapter of Young Entrepreneurs Organization (Y.E.O), a global business organisation with a network of enterprise leaders under age 39.
Presently very committed in the business of animation, he intends to promote Asian-style comics and animation on the global platform.
Johnny is the Chief Executive Officer of Vasunas, an animation technology company, and also Associate Director of Anime International Co. Asia, a Tokyo-based anime company.
Eric Khoo, Singapore
Guest Speaker
Eric Khoo put Singapore on the international film map with his first feature film “Mee Pok
Man” (1995), picking up prizes at Fukuoka, Pusan and Singapore. His second feature “12
Storeys” (1997) won the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award and the
UOB Young Cinema Award at the 10th Singapore International Festival, and the Golden
Maile Award for Best Picture at the 17th Hawaii International Film Festival. More importantly
“12 Storeys” was the first Singaporean film to be invited officially to participate in the 50th
Cannes Film Festival (1997).
Mee Pok Man and 12 Storeys have together been screened at over 60 film festivals, held all over the world including Ivy League festivals such as Venice, Berlin and Rotterdam. In 1998, Eric Khoo was ranked as one of the 25 exceptional trend makers of Asia by Asiaweek magazine. He was an Executive Producer for the local comedy hit, “Liang Po Po – The Movie” (1999), and “One Leg Kicking” (2001), which were both the highest grossing local movies for their respective years in Singapore. He also produced “15” (2003) directed by Royston Tan, which has been invited to the Venice Film Festival (2003) and Sundance (2004). His TV work includes being Executive Producer of “DRIVE”, an anthology series for the Television Corporation of Singapore (1998), and “Seventh Month” (2004), a highly acclaimed TV horror series for Channel U (SPH Mediaworks). These productions served as a platform for grooming young talented filmmakers.
Some of his notable achievements include being the first recipient of the National Arts Councils Young Artist Award for Film in 1997. Eric was conferred the Singapore Youth Awards (Individual) in 1999 for his dedication to film-making and contributions to society. In 2004 Eric directed his third feature Be With Me which was selected as the opening film for the Directors’ Fortnight Cannes 2005. The film has since won several awards overseas and has been invited to the Toronto International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival amongst others. It has also received international distribution including the US and Europe with glowing reviews in the French media when it opened in October 2005. Eric was a judge at the 10th Pusan International Film Festival 2005 and Be With Me is the first Singaporean film to be nominated for the European Film Awards 2005. In 2006 Eric executive produced Royston Tan’s second feature “4:30” and was invited to direct for the Jeonju Digital Film Festival in Korea - “No Day Off” the story of an Indonesian maid.
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