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3. The Endless Possibilities of Comics

This year’s shortlist revealed once again just how unlimited the possibilities are for comics. New opportunities are brought about by changes in the media landscape, for example San Ri Juan Zi’s self-published comic Hi, Grandpa! Being Together and Then Saying Goodbye has a lot of traits that are common in today’s web comics, such as the way it uses sincere feelings that are true to life, like those stories you read on the internet that suddenly leave you teary-eyed and heartbroken. This multimedia approach is also reflected in the nominees for Best Cross-media Application: Tong Li Publishing Co’s work on The Monster of Memory: Destiny; and Secret Whispers which was a joint venture between Chimney Animation and Fish Wang, an illustrator, animator and director who won Best Animated Short Film at the 2019 Golden Horse Awards for Gold Fish.

The Monster of Memory was originally a comic by author-illustrator Mae and featured an ingeniously designed setting as well as a truly mind-blowing plot that was filled with metaphors of real-world relationships. It’s the sort of story that is perfectly suited to being adapted into a game as a more immersive way for readers to experience the world of the book. Fish Wang meanwhile, is known as a great all-rounder in Taiwanese comics and Secret Whispers can be seen as an “original multimedia work” because from the outset he uses different types of media to portray the teenagers’ “secrets” through different perspectives as the tension rises between them. In the future, the work might be seen as an important reference point in the development of Taiwanese comics, not just because it was set up as a cross-media project from the beginning but also because of the way it was a joint creative venture in the studio.

In addition to the possibilities brought about by other media, a lot of graphic novels have emerged among Taiwanese comics in recent years. The term “graphic novel” has been adopted from the West and encompasses works that are deeply experimental and avant-garde. A lot of readers who have been familiar with Japanese manga from a young age can’t help but flip through graphic novels and wonder uncertainly “Is this book really a comic?” This completely new experience and the excitement it provokes are precisely what makes graphic novels so fascinating.

A Trip to the Asylum by Pam Pam Liu was the most provocative, nerve-wracking book of the year. A fictional story about mental illness and a psychiatric hospital, the comic is an all-out sprint that thrusts you straight into the darkness of the subconscious where you have no defences and there are no taboos. Reading it is like being in a comic book version of a Lou Reed song.

A Trip to the Asylum by Pam Pam Liu

It is hard to think of a comic more different from A Trip to the Asylum than the nonfiction series Son of Formosa. The series is based on the life of Tsai Kun-lin, a political victim of the White Terror who published comics despite the authoritarian environment in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987. He won the Special Contribution Award at the 2018 Golden Comic Awards for his courage and perseverance in fostering the development of Taiwan’s publishing sector. For the Son of Formosa series, author Yu Peiyun conducted extensive research when writing the text and illustrator Zhou Jianxin used a range of visual methods to convey the myriad of twists and turns that Tsai Kun-lin experienced over the course of his life. It doesn’t just relay the facts but the images invite the reader to extend their imagination and in doing so the comic conveys a level of empathy that goes beyond the words of the text. Son of Formosa is a graphic novel that can be cherished as a classic both in Taiwan and internationally.  

Son of Formosa by Yu Peiyun and Zhou Jianxin

In this new era of comics, even the older forms of comics that followed a reliable, clear-cut path are no longer restrained by the same rigid set of standards as they once were. In addition to graphic novels, works like Illustrated Taiwan Keywords: A Hand-Drawn History of 1940-2020 by Chiou Hsien-Hsin which look like picture books or nonfiction books centred around infographics will also have an impact on what are stereotypically considered to be “comics” in the future. There is an almost unlimited number of paths an image can take, so rather than holding onto outdated beliefs of what a comic should be, both comic creators and readers alike should adopt a more open-minded approach and embrace the endless possibilities comics have to offer.

Summary

These three points are just my suggested highlights for anyone looking at the online exhibition of this year’s Golden Comic Awards. As with any exhibition, each visitor should use their personal interests and preferences to unearth their own understanding and appreciation of the exhibits. It is also important to acknowledge the work done by editors to help bring these visual adaptations of literature and history to life. Lin Yi-Chun (Managing Editor at Locus Publishing Company) won this year’s Best Editor Award for her work on The Ren Zheng-hua Collection: Drawn to Life + The Human Bun and on Secret Whispers; while the shortlisted editors included Huang Pei-Shan and Ho Szu-Ying (Editor-in-Chief and Editor at Slowork Publishing respectively) for their work on Son of Formosa, and Tan Shun-Hsin (Editor) for her work on Fantastic Tales of Splendid Blossoms. These exhibits are all undoubtedly great works of art which deserve to be poured over by visitors. However, there are physical limitations with all exhibitions and this was no exception. With a total of 226 works registered this year it was inevitable that some talent would go unrecognised, so this exhibition should only be seen as a starting point and readers should take their initial interest a step further because there are just too many beautiful Taiwanese comics out there waiting to be read.

Comics are a medium where stories are told through images and by using different themes or illustration styles what you are ultimately trying to achieve is a great story. Over the last few years, Taiwanese comics have produced countless great stories regardless of whether they are shortlisted for the Golden Comic Awards or not. These are stories that will make you laugh, make you cry, and at some point they might even accidentally become something that saves your life, and this, more than anything, is what I want you to know about the Golden Comic Awards and the corresponding exhibition, not just this year but in all the years to come.

Basis Books is found on Huayin Street, near Taipei Station, the Qsquare shopping mall, the North Gate of the old city walls and any number of hotels. The area is popular with tourists, yet remains one of the more peaceful parts of the city.

The store is on the first floor of the Taiwan Comic Base, with which it shares a mission: promoting Taiwanese comic books. It aims to be comprehensive and it seems every original comic book ever published in Taiwan can be found here. From the earliest examples – Grand Auntie (大嬸婆) and Jhuge-Shiro (諸葛四郎) – to recently successful shojo and shonen manga, it’s all here. But being published in Taiwan doesn’t guarantee a place on the shelves here – Basis Books only stocks comic books both written and drawn by Taiwanese people.

Comic books and picture books are sold here, along with magazines. Most are arranged by publisher – manager Min-hui says she did once consider arranging her wares by category, or theme, or some other method. But she soon realized one book could easily fall under several different categories. And, as Taiwan’s comic book publishers all have their own styles and audiences, it made sense to sort the shelves this way, highlighting those differing choices.

Alongside the comic books, Basis Books also has an exhibition space, with displays tying in with the work of the Taiwan Comic Base: featuring nominees for the Golden Comic Award or the Angoulême awards, for example. And on a central table the staff create carefully designed displays on certain themes: works featuring Mazu, the local sea goddess, or Taiwanese history.

Basis Books also holds events such as seminars and book-signings. One such event Min-hui remembers particularly clearly is a talk on Watched Woman (守娘), easily the most glamourous of their events – the author, the readers, the other writers, were all women who’d dressed up for the occasion. And not all the attendees were fans – many were friends of the author, or aspiring comic book writers themselves.

Min-hui mentioned an interesting phenomenon – although Taiwan’s comic book artists, in theory, compete with each other, there is no sense of competition or mutual disregard. On the contrary, artists make an effort to attend each other’s events and buy each other’s works.

When she opened Basis Books, Min-hui expected her customers to be like the people she saw at comic book exhibitions: young fans of shojo and shonen manga. She was surprised to find many of her customers have never read a comic book – they have simply come in for a browse. They are also older than she predicted, often university students or adults. And so they opt for a wider and more experimental range of books, not just the typical Japanese-style offerings.

And the customers in Basis Books reflect the development of comic books in Taiwan. In the early days these were school contraband, frowned upon by teachers and parents, but not something to read when you were older. Unless you visit Basis Books and get nostalgic – or perhaps finally find the final entry in that series you never finished. And many visitors discover that, despite their prejudices, comic books aren’t just entertainment – they have a social role to play as well, offering a space for discussion of current affairs or a new angle on historical events. Parents often bring their children here, trying to understand why their offspring are so keen on comic books, and perhaps becoming less suspicious of them. Some even buy comic books for their kids as a reward for good behavior.

Of course, Min-hui’s most important task is to sell books, and like any store, new releases and books featured in events sell best. But books featuring Taiwanese history and culture are popular with those who’ve popped in from the street out of curiosity. For example 1661 Koxinga Z (1661 國姓來襲), which describes Koxinga’s defeat of Dutch Formosa from the point of view of the Dutch, or 80’s Diary in Taiwan (80 年代事件簿), a nostalgic look at 1980s Taiwan, are popular choices. And what does Min-hui herself recommend currently? She suggests The Memory Freak (記憶的怪物), a sci-fi tale of male love and brotherhood.