OKEN: Childhood Memories of a Taiwanese Poet
Nationally renowned poet Yang Mu's classic work of self-discovery
Rising star in the comic artistry, Wu Shih-Hung, wins international award in breakout work
Preview
This is the first time that the poet’s life story has been transformed into a comic book adaptation, and it gives graphic reading an all-new poetic meaning.
About the Comic Book
Fisfisa Comics’ latest literary comic adaptation since Hunters: “Daddy Cat”, “Lee Jiabao” !
This comic adaptation is based on the classic literary autobiography, Mountain Wind and Ocean Rain, by Taiwan’s celebrated, nationally acclaimed poet–Yang Mu. The work describes his matured insights as viewed through the eyes of the author as a child and gives a meticulously detailed account of one’s spirit as one grows up, and bit by bit, sheds light on the awakening and clues of his artistic pursuit.
The illustrator, Wu Shih-Hung, is a renowned animator. He’s a worker of the aesthete with some of the greatest cross-border and cross-cultural potential in all of Asia. The book is packed with fine detail, provide profound interpretations, and are worthy of placement in private collections.
Apart from inviting poet Chen Yun-Yuan to be the Literary Consultant for OKEN, after the comic book was awarded the Raymond Leblanc Prize at the BD Comic Strip Festival 2021, we invited famed French author, Loo Hui-Phang to join the main creative team, setting off a deepened, international cooperative effort.
"What if I also choose to pursue artistic creation? What then?"
After experiencing bombing raids during the Second World War, the Nationalist government’s Mandarin promotion movement, massive earthquakes in Hualien, as well as the White Terror Period where nearly everything was taboo under martial law, Yang Mu used his recollections from his forties to look back on his youth: through a considerate and sensitive youth, Oken, the boy he was, one day ran into a master woodcraftsman of deity statues destined for temples. Oken watched as the master, deftly skilled and practiced, raised and lowered his hand as he carefully painted outlines on statues-to-be with a thin calligraphy brush, giving the statues a pair of lips and a ridgeline for the nose. Oken asked himself if he was afraid of the images, but he was filled with a strong sense of happiness and glee, mostly because they were masterfully beautiful works of art…
OKEN: Towards the Completion of a Comic preview sample copy
[Literary Guide ╳ Regret from Loss ╳ Behind the Scenes]
Three appendices creating a feast for the eyes!
OKEN: Towards the Completion of a Comic is the pilot launch for OKEN: Childhood Memories of a Taiwanese Poet. We hope you’ll take a peek at the behind-the-scenes production of this literary adaptation comic!
In addition to a sneak-peak at some of the content, since the comic adaptation took three years to produce, the process and solid team lineup went to special lengths to create an introduction and fantastic appendices. These are completely new additions that weren’t a part of Yang’s original work! Incorporating them with the entire comic, the bonus content provides the reader with a much richer and complete reading experience.
