The story goes that legendary Uncanny X-Men scribe Chris Claremont discovered Malaysian-born artist Sonny Liew at a comics convention and got him his first big break into comics, landing Liew a gig illustrating Iron Man for Marvel. It was a small gig, just one illustration, but it set the stage for Liew’s bright future in comics! In 2004, Sonny Liew won the Xeric Award(an award for excellence in self-published comics) in 2004 for Malinky Robot. Later, he would go on to illustrate such titles as Slave Labor & Disney’s Wonderland series, Marvel’s Sense and Sensibility adaptation, and collaborate with artist/inker Mark Hempel on DC/Vertigo’s My Faith in Frankie.
Before studying illustration at Rhode Island School of Design, Liew attended college in Singapore(where he currently resides) and in the UK. His work has been featured in the critically acclaimed anthology Flight and he’s served as editor of the Southeast Asian comics anthology Liquid City.
Liew has been a celebrated artist at home, winning Singapore’s Young Artist Award in 2010, but recently he’s found himself in a bit of controversy over his latest book, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. The grant that supported the making of that book was withdrawn by the National Arts Council for containing sensitive topics. You can hear more about this story from the man himself at this book sharing session.
Right now is a great time to become a Sonny Liew fan, because he’s making some of the best comics art of his career on the newly relaunched Doctor Fate series with famed DC writer/editor/former-president Paul Levitz! I see that more people are catching onto this series, now that it’s up to issue 5, so hopefully that will continue to happen and we’ll get a nice, long Doctor Fate run out of Liew!
If you’d like to see more art and learn more about Sonny Liew, check out his blog here.
For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates
Jim Rugg is an illustrator, graphic designer, comics artist, and visual narrative instructor at the School of Visual Arts. He broke into the comics scene in 2004 with the publication of his comic book Street Angel from Slave Labor Graphics, which he created, and co-wrote with friend Brian Maruca. Since that time Rugg has worked on a number of high profile comics projects including The Guild for Dark Horse, The Plain Janes for DC/MINX, and more recently, Adventure Time for Boom! Studios. He’s also contributed cover illustrations for LA Weekly, Sleazy Slice, and IDW’s G.I. Joe Special Missions. In 2009 AdHouse Books published his Street Angel spin-off, Afrodisiac, to much critical acclaim, and next month will see the release of the new Street Angel hardcover collection.
Jim Rugg’s art has been exhibited at Iam8bit, Gallery1988, Mondo, and the Society of Illustrators. His work has been honored with an Ignatz Award for outstanding achievement in cartooning, and AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers Selection for best designed books.
You can see more of Jim Rugg’s work on his website.
Jim Rugg is an illustrator, graphic designer, comics artist, and visual narrative instructor at the School of Visual Arts. He broke into the comics scene in 2004 with the publication of his comic book Street Angel from Slave Labor Graphics, which he created, and co-wrote with friend Brian Maruca. Since that time Rugg has worked on a number of high profile comics projects including The Guild for Dark Horse, The Plain Janes for DC/MINX, and more recently, Adventure Time for Boom! Studios. He’s also contributed cover illustrations for LA Weekly, Sleazy Slice, and IDW’s G.I. Joe Special Missions. In 2009 AdHouse Books published his Street Angel spin-off, Afrodisiac, to much critical acclaim, and next month will see the release of the new Street Angel hardcover collection.
Jim Rugg’s art has been exhibited at Iam8bit, Gallery1988, Mondo, and the Society of Illustrators. His work has been honored with an Ignatz Award for outstanding achievement in cartooning, and AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers Selection for best designed books.
You can see more of Jim Rugg’s work on his website.
You can read more about other great artists working in comics at my website here.