The latest work from Sean Chuang, winner of the Golden Comics Awards for Best Comic for Young Adults and Comic of the Year in 2014 for 80’s Diary in Taiwan, applies ink wash techniques to the manga format and shows what it’s like to learn to be a father.
Sean Chuang excels at portraying life through manga. Following on from his best-selling graphic memoir, A Filmmaker’s Notes, he again draws on his own experiences to tell readers how he learned to be a father.
The nineteen chapters of the book each cover a different period of his child’s life: the anxiety of pregnancy; the sleepless nights; the toilet-training; and all the beautiful moments as his son grows.
Sean Chuang often starts his chapters by recalling his own childhood memories and the changes since then. Finding himself faced with a child who simply will not sit still to be fed, for example, he remembers his own parents having to chase him to try to get him to eat. And so the book becomes not just the experiences of being a father, but a reflection on what it means to be a son.
