The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew

Sonny Liew is already well known for his comics, such as Malinky Robot, a Xeric award winner. But this Malaysian-born cartoonist has knocked it out of the park with his newest graphic novel, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon). In addition to being on the short list for the Slate prize earlier this year, it is sweeping the 2017 Eisner nominations.

• Best Graphic Album–New
• Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia
• Best Writer/Artist
• Best Coloring
• Best Lettering
• Best Publication Design

This graphic novel is a biography of a fictitious Malayan cartoonist, Charlie, and showcases the massive cartooning chops on Liew. It takes you through the history of Malaysia, seamlessly blending fiction and fact while utilizing the diverse powers of comics story telling.

• Michael Cavna, The Washington Post, “Eisners: Sonny Liew’s ‘Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye’ leads nominations for ‘the Oscars of comics'”: “its true art, on so many levels, emanates from how author Sonny Liew paints windows into Singapore’s culture and history.”
• Shea Hennum et al., A. V. Club, “Sonny Liew Matures to Master Status with The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye”: “But effectively emulating Jack Kirby and Osamu Tezuka, Liew also demonstrates a natural facility with a number of storytelling idioms and a chameleonic ability to move from one to the other.”

• Etelka Lehoczky, NPR, “‘Charlie Chan:’ An Imaginary Cartoonist Draws a Very Real Homeland”: “Also enjoyable is his ability to acerbically polemicize Singaporean history stretching back to World War II.”
• Douglas Wolk, The New York Times, “Comics: ‘The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye,’ and More”: “a hugely ambitious, stylistically acrobatic work by the Singapore-based cartoonist Sonny Liew.”