Graphic Novel Talk

On Monday, I attended a talk at Kong Chian Library hosted by Mr Jason Lundberg, and Dave Chua(writer) and Koh Hong Teng(artist). They discussed their adaptation of Dave's prize-winning 1997 novel Gone Case from a prose novel to a graphic novel format.
To start with, I attended this talk because I found that the graphic novel talk should be interesting. I have to admit that I am a great fan of comics, and I feel that it is not easy adapting a prose novel into a graphic novel format. Furthermore, they did it in a little group of 2, which was quite impressive. Thus I attended the talk to know more about their adaptation.
According to Mr Koh Hong Teng, at the time when he met Dave, Mr Koh was looking for a local writer, and when he read Dave's book, he found that it was interesting, and worth investing his time in co-operating with Dave. On the other hand, Dave found Koh's artwork quite impressive and local. After some discussion, both agreed not to go for a text-heavy book. In the process, Koh said his artwork was inspired by the things he saw in the HDB estate, and decided to incorporate it into his drawings. There was a scene which he drew that depicted a kid having fun at a game arcade with his mother standing behind him. The background was quite colourful and included many different interesting toys which could be won. After Mr Lundberg asked Mr Koh regarding that picture/scene, Koh said that those toys were actually stuffed toys he used to own.

The first thing I learn was the strength of a team. No matter how small a team is, it is strong if each person has different talents and abilities and their various abilities can come in great use for their project. Before this, I used to think a team was good as long as there were many people and the work was split. But when I listened to the talk, I realised how important was the abilities of various team members, the respect for each other's abilities and trust. When Koh and Dave met, Dave found Koh's artwork good and suitable for they were supposed to do and Koh liked Dave's book. Respect is very important, as well as trust. There was respect for each other's abilities, work and talents between Dave and Koh, and they were able to work together because they know, and they trust that it is worth it working with each other. If we think it is impossible, Dave and Koh have already proven, that the size of the team is not important. What is important is mutual trust and respect, and the ability to work together and make use of the talents they had. During the talk, they also spoke of how they had to plan the project... about setting a timeline and deadline, and planning how much time they would give themselves for each phase of adapting the comic. I learnt that when we do something. We must be able to see the end of the project, and to plan our steps to our goal, and not just do it aimlessly. Because if we have no aim, we will never achieve what we want to.
The next thing I learn was about Koh's inspiration to draw. Well, to put it simply, Koh was inspired by his surroundings. I used to think that inspiration is just nonsense, and we should just draw simple stuff, use stickmans, and just put things simply. But when I looked at certain pictures and scenes in the adapted graphic novel, I actually found that his drawings had many things and details inside, and that it seemed quite real. The colour, the details, that every space on the paper was made full use of. On the way home after the talk, I thought back, and I came to realise, that when we draw something, let's take a gangster's bedroom for instance, we should think about what it is like, we should imagine it. Because when we draw, it would be better for it to look like what it is supposed to look like, to make it look more realistic. What is the point of drawing a gangster's room when all we put inside is just a bed? One thing we know for sure is that it is not a ganster's room. Because, at least there will be a cupboard, scratches on the floor(maybe from the sharp weapons), and little parts in the picture showing some wine bottles and sharp weapons beneath his bed. It is about making things real.
I heard that when Dave wrote the novel, he wanted to take a break from his stressful work, and he chose to write about certain things around him. When we write, most of us would have a message we would want to convey, something we want our reader to ponder about, or to let our reader know something. Let's say I write about murders. Perhaps I want to tell my reader abotu this cruel world where no place is safe, or about cruel reality, to show the bad sides of the world. There should be a motive when we write.

In conclusion, this graphic novel talk has taught me many new things, which I would never forget, and I have also learnt things which I would never learn by reading textbooks. It was a fresh experience.