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Rewritten Singapore History Wins Top Eisner Awards

Comic book writer, Sonny Liew, swept the board at the annual Eisner Awards at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday night with three wins including Best … Continue reading Rewritten Singapore History Wins Top Eisner Awards


Sonny Liew
Sonny Liew

Comic book writer, Sonny Liew, swept the board at the annual Eisner Awards at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday night with three wins including Best Writer/Artist, Best Publication Design and Best US Edition of International Material – Asia.

He won for his graphic novel “The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye,” which has caused controversy in Singapore because of its view on the history of the island state.

“I always wanted people to read the book and get a sense of how rich our history was,” Liew told Reuters before the awards. “I think the so-called official narrative Singapore story is part of our history but it’s not the whole story and I wanted to tell a more inclusive version of our history and I hope that’s what people reading the book will get from it.

“When the book was first released in Singapore, the National Arts Council withdrew the grant for the book so that was a bit worrying at first because book publishing has really tight margins but as it turns out, the attention we got from the withdrawal of the grant raised awareness in Singapore so it’s actually done really well in Singapore in terms of sales and people being aware of the book and it’s been generally good, I think,” Sonny Liew said.

Now, the graphic novel has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French and has three Eisner awards behind it, it would seem that Liew is now an established part of the comic book community.