Liquid City Volume 1

Edited by Sonny Liew

This is a pretty interesting anthology, in that it features work from a number of Southeast Asian comics creators. In his introduction, editor and contributor Sonny Liew mentions how these creators are influenced by European, Japanese, and North American comics, and this is evident throughout the book.

All genres are represented here, from science fiction, autobiography, fantasy, horror, magical realist, to the mythological. It's an eclectic mix, yet it seems to work as a whole much better than Popgun did.

I particularly enjoyed Leong Wan Kok's take on Kafka's Metamorphosis, Troy Chin's autobiographical piece, Gerry Alanguilan's zombie-esque story, kenfoo's two pieces of weird anthropomorphism ("Slap you, bird! Your name is Bird!"), Otto Fong's Monkey God story, and Lefty's samurai/pirate tale. Kah Hong Teng's story 'Regrets' was a beautiful piece of work, but I'm not sure I picked up on all its subtleties.

My two favourite pieces in the book are both drawn by Sonny Liew. His "Malinky Robot" story is a charming tale of two kids (although one looks like a pig), who are able to find a living Stinky Fish, and try to profit off of it. The other story, written by Mike Carey, is an indictment of colonialism.

This is a good anthology, and I hope there are more volumes on the way.