Meet Charlie Chan Hock Chye. Now in his early 70s as he looks back on his career, Chan has spent a lifetime making comics in his native Singapore since he was a boy of 16, in 1954. The artist doubles here as both the narrator and the subject matter, as his life story parallels the changes in Singapore over five decades since the war. The evolution of his artwork mirrors the evolution of both his homeland and the comic book medium itself. The myriad art styles employed by Liew go beyond deft sleight-of-hand and actually inform the narrative in a thoroughly ingenious and engaging way. While all the detail about the formation of the Singapore government adheres meticulously to the facts, the reader is ultimately left wondering whether or not Charlie Chan Hock Chye himself is real or a construct. And given the subject at hand, that quandary only adds to the themes raised in this enthralling graphic novel.

Graphic novel.