May, 2009
The case of two talented brothers
Writer Rhaimie Wahap, 42, and illustrator Rizal Wahap, 36, are brothers. Rhaimie is an editor at a publishing company and Rizal is a technical officer at PUB. Despite having fixed jobs, they took some time out to work on their first ever graphic novel - Mystery Investigators Five (MI-V) and the Case of the Missing Golden Bird Mask. Here, they tell us more about their work.
Why did you decide to publish a graphic novel?
Rhaimie: Actually we wrote this for our children because I don't find them reading as much as we did in our time. We needed to come up with something different to counter all these games and others. There are places that are using graphic novels to encourage reluctant readers to read. Even Macbeth can now be found in graphic novel form!
Tell us more about the process of making the graphic novel.
Rhaimie: I come up with the story first, then I'll show Rizal the script. Then he'll visualise how the scene looks like. We go by chapters first. I'll send him one chapter together with my thumbnail sketches of the angle and the perspective to give him some rough idea, and then he will actually go into details.
Rizal: From the thumbnails, I will produce the actual drawing and panelling. But sometimes the thumbnails aren't accurate and I do change it.
How long did it take you to complete the whole project?
Rhaimie: One year. For research, we went around taking photos for reference for about one month, purely for background and character design. The facts on Rapa-Nui took a bit more time as we needed to dig out all the legends.
We noticed the story is about Rapa-Nui, but the setting itself is very Singaporean. Is there a reason for this?
Rhaimie: We share the same vision. We wanted to promote local stories and to be proud of our Singapore background. We wanted the story to be international, but we wanted the local background. We actually scouted around to find the best places we could use. We went to the Singapore National Museum; we went to one ghost house in Punggol called the Matilda House. If you look at the details, it's really what you see here. The architecture, and even the plants and the trees, are all authentic.
Rizal: In Spiderman, they're really proud of USA and have drawn the real New York. What I was thinking was that we hardly see any comic in Singapore with the background in Singapore.
How do you come up with the characters background?
Rhaimie: When you create a character, each character has his own universe. For example, Wee Teck - you must know the father, his siblings. You need to create all this to make it more realistic.
Rizal: Although it's not real, it has to be believable.
Rhaimie: If you ask me who his father is, I will know who the father is. Who is his mother? Does he have a pet? What does he like? What does he do on a typical day? I have to believe he's real. The same goes for the other characters.
Do you relate to any of the characters?
Rhaimie: For me, it's Zak. Zak is very resilient and he likes to think of ways to do things. More of hands-on, DIY kind of thing. He likes to create. Actually most of the characters are based on my primary school friends!
Have you always liked to draw?
Rizal: I can remember in my school days, my books always had doodles. I'm a self-taught. I started off by copying other artists' drawings. Then slowly I learnt and practised how to come up with my own characters. You also need to know when to zoom in and zoom out.
Do you think from a cameraman's perspective?
Rhaimie: Yes, particularly for comics. It's like film-making. The angle is very important. If it's too straight, people will find it boring.
Rizal: I also like to watch movies. So we learn from there.
Do you have any advice for the budding graphic novelists?
Rhaimie: Be original, read constantly. If you read a lot it means you'll have a lot more to inspire you.
Rizal: A lot of practice. Especially when drawing humans and animals. It's all about proportion. Be original. Originality is very important. You may have your own idol, but you cannot totally follow him. You must create your own style. And you cannot easily feel contented. You must keep on improving yourself.
Rhaimie: If you draw and just show your friends and they say "Wah it's very good!", you cannot take their word for it. You must show it to lots and lots of people. If out of 10, maybe 8 people say it's really good, then you know you're heading in the right direction.
Mystery Investigators Five (MI-V) and the Case of the Missing Golden Bird Mask is scheduled to be released in mid-May this year. You can learn more about this comic book here.
Why did you decide to publish a graphic novel?
Rhaimie: Actually we wrote this for our children because I don't find them reading as much as we did in our time. We needed to come up with something different to counter all these games and others. There are places that are using graphic novels to encourage reluctant readers to read. Even Macbeth can now be found in graphic novel form!
Tell us more about the process of making the graphic novel.
Rhaimie: I come up with the story first, then I'll show Rizal the script. Then he'll visualise how the scene looks like. We go by chapters first. I'll send him one chapter together with my thumbnail sketches of the angle and the perspective to give him some rough idea, and then he will actually go into details.
Rizal: From the thumbnails, I will produce the actual drawing and panelling. But sometimes the thumbnails aren't accurate and I do change it.
How long did it take you to complete the whole project?
Rhaimie: One year. For research, we went around taking photos for reference for about one month, purely for background and character design. The facts on Rapa-Nui took a bit more time as we needed to dig out all the legends.
We noticed the story is about Rapa-Nui, but the setting itself is very Singaporean. Is there a reason for this?
Rhaimie: We share the same vision. We wanted to promote local stories and to be proud of our Singapore background. We wanted the story to be international, but we wanted the local background. We actually scouted around to find the best places we could use. We went to the Singapore National Museum; we went to one ghost house in Punggol called the Matilda House. If you look at the details, it's really what you see here. The architecture, and even the plants and the trees, are all authentic.
Rizal: In Spiderman, they're really proud of USA and have drawn the real New York. What I was thinking was that we hardly see any comic in Singapore with the background in Singapore.
How do you come up with the characters background?
Rhaimie: When you create a character, each character has his own universe. For example, Wee Teck - you must know the father, his siblings. You need to create all this to make it more realistic.
Rizal: Although it's not real, it has to be believable.
Rhaimie: If you ask me who his father is, I will know who the father is. Who is his mother? Does he have a pet? What does he like? What does he do on a typical day? I have to believe he's real. The same goes for the other characters.
Do you relate to any of the characters?
Rhaimie: For me, it's Zak. Zak is very resilient and he likes to think of ways to do things. More of hands-on, DIY kind of thing. He likes to create. Actually most of the characters are based on my primary school friends!
Have you always liked to draw?
Rizal: I can remember in my school days, my books always had doodles. I'm a self-taught. I started off by copying other artists' drawings. Then slowly I learnt and practised how to come up with my own characters. You also need to know when to zoom in and zoom out.
Do you think from a cameraman's perspective?
Rhaimie: Yes, particularly for comics. It's like film-making. The angle is very important. If it's too straight, people will find it boring.
Rizal: I also like to watch movies. So we learn from there.
Do you have any advice for the budding graphic novelists?
Rhaimie: Be original, read constantly. If you read a lot it means you'll have a lot more to inspire you.
Rizal: A lot of practice. Especially when drawing humans and animals. It's all about proportion. Be original. Originality is very important. You may have your own idol, but you cannot totally follow him. You must create your own style. And you cannot easily feel contented. You must keep on improving yourself.
Rhaimie: If you draw and just show your friends and they say "Wah it's very good!", you cannot take their word for it. You must show it to lots and lots of people. If out of 10, maybe 8 people say it's really good, then you know you're heading in the right direction.
Mystery Investigators Five (MI-V) and the Case of the Missing Golden Bird Mask is scheduled to be released in mid-May this year. You can learn more about this comic book here.
Gail Simone:
How to become a comic book writer
How to become a comic book writer
