We’re pretty sure we’ll finally get our hands on the next reprint - they say third time’s the charm. Amazingly crafted, with detailed art to accompany the complex and riveting storyline, it’s one piece of art Singapore can be proud of. With most naming the book Sonny Liew’s magnum opus, it’s not hard to see why. What makes it more frustrating for those who have yet to get a copy is that somewhere in the first and second reprint, reviews of the book are aplenty on the Internet, and damn, they all had to be super positive. There’re even fictional characters like the Orang Minyak and Roachman, a nightsoil collector who acquired superpowers after being bitten by a cockroach.

The very meta novel features a local artist who recounts the past 60 years of history through his comics where politicians like Lee Kuan Yew and Lim Chin Siong are part of the narrative. Wee also said that most of the graphic novels published by Epigram Books take two years to sell 1,000 copies. 2,500 copies have been sold since the book’s release last month.

In an interview with The Straits Times, publisher Edmund Wee said that another 3,000 copies will be printed. Unsurprisingly, the book sold out - and twice now.

When it made news that the National Arts Council withdrew an $8,000 grant on the eve of the launch of the book because it contained ‘sensitive content’, it only served to lure the public to find out more about it. In The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, local artist Sonny Liew explores the history of Singapore through the eyes of protagonist Charlie Chan Hock Chye, a comic artist who lives from the Colonial era to post-independence Singapore.

The art of charlie chan