Award-winning Singaporean artist Sonny Liew pens COVID-19 comic
SINGAPORE — Acclaimed Singaporean artist Sonny Liew has penned a short comic about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic entitled The Moment, a meditation on the state of the world and what it might look after the virus is finally defeated.
The nine-page work, written and illustrated by Liew, was penned in consultation with Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases expert, and edited by Joyce Sim.
Liew had already done a series of one-page educational cartoons with A/P Hsu, featuring the characters Baffled Bunny and Curious Cat discussing the facts of the coronavirus and related issues such as social distancing. Most of them were sponsored by the Singapore Population Health Improvement Centre (SPHERIC) and published on, among other platforms, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health website.
But the 45-year-old told Yahoo News Singapore that he wanted to do a longer, more personal piece. "There is so much information out there, whether real or fake, and I just hope the comic can contribute a little to the conversation."
The Moment expresses hopes for, among others, an end to Liverpool football club’s 30-year wait to win the English Premier League and “a peaceable world, more equitable, kinder and gentler” once the pandemic is over. It will be posted on Liew’s Instagram account and is also available here.
A/P Hsu, who works at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore, told Yahoo News Singapore that he sees comics as one more medium to educate and inform people about the coronavirus, in addition to the mainstream media and short animated clips.
The former clinical director at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases added, “Sonny has this amazing ability to put very difficult concepts into comics that people can read and understand quite easily.”
Liew is best known for the 2016 graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, which won three Eisner Awards, the comics industry’s equivalent of the Oscars. He is currently collaborating with well-known political observer Cherian George on Red Lines, an illustrated book about the censorship of cartoons throughout the world.
It will be published later this year.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
Related stories:
Singaporean comic artist Sonny Liew ‘stunned’ by Eisner wins
I want to know what the Lees think of ‘Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye’: Sonny Liew
