A thousand days, a thousand comics - Troy Chin
TROY CHIN jumped into creating comics and found that he could not stop.
In 2002, I was working at a record company in New York. I was also pretty depressed. I made the decision to seek help from a doctor. She was interested in talking to me about things in my past so I could tackle what made me uncomfortable.
One day, we discussed drawing, and how I'd been terrible at it since my childhood days. She told me to start drawing again. We’d built up a certain level of trust together, so I just did it. Somehow, I got better at it.
As I got better, I asked myself, "Why do you want to just draw? Is there something more you could do?" That's how my first comic came about. I didn't know any rules for making comics, but I jumped right in.
From one page, the comic became five pages, then 30 pages, and eventually a whole 220-paged book. It wasn't fantastic. In fact, it's really quite embarrassing to me now. Still, it made me want to continue telling stories this way.
My comic strips
When I came back to Singapore in 2007, I started doing a comic about my life. I called it The Resident Tourist and put it online. At first, I only got around 30 hits, which were all from my friends.
I only got a bigger audience when I e-mailed my stuff to a friend of mine who runs a humour site. For some reason, he felt the need to tell everyone about it. When I released the second book in 2008, that got people even more excited.
But, after I was done with the third book, I was totally exhausted. Nobody had told me that drawing comic books would take up so much energy.
I realised I had to change direction for a while. I had the idea of doing a comic strip about primary school kids in Singapore.
I wanted to show how if you have the right kind of upbringing with the right kind of love, you can have a pretty awesome childhood here.
That was how Loti was born. I made the mistake of saying there would be a new strip every day at noon. And, I don't know how I've managed to last this long but I've made about 1,000 strips and I haven't missed a single day. I'm pretty proud of myself.
I still get depressed sometimes, but doing comic books definitely helps. When I'm writing scenes about my life, it feels like I'm back in my doctor's office in New York, having the same conversations with her.
So I really have to thank my doctor for what she did. It's because of her that writing and drawing are an important part of my life right now, and probably will be for a long time to come.
About Troy Chin
Troy Chin was born in Singapore, but spent nine years of his adult life in the United States. He now works here as a full-time comic book artist. He writes a comic for grown-ups called The Resident Tourist, as well as a daily comic strip for kids called Loti. You can read these comics on his website, http://drearyweary.com. He believes kids should dare to try new things, even if they fail or hurt themselves. After all, you may find something you love doing, and will want to do for the rest of your life.
In 2002, I was working at a record company in New York. I was also pretty depressed. I made the decision to seek help from a doctor. She was interested in talking to me about things in my past so I could tackle what made me uncomfortable.
One day, we discussed drawing, and how I'd been terrible at it since my childhood days. She told me to start drawing again. We’d built up a certain level of trust together, so I just did it. Somehow, I got better at it.
As I got better, I asked myself, "Why do you want to just draw? Is there something more you could do?" That's how my first comic came about. I didn't know any rules for making comics, but I jumped right in.
From one page, the comic became five pages, then 30 pages, and eventually a whole 220-paged book. It wasn't fantastic. In fact, it's really quite embarrassing to me now. Still, it made me want to continue telling stories this way.
My comic strips
When I came back to Singapore in 2007, I started doing a comic about my life. I called it The Resident Tourist and put it online. At first, I only got around 30 hits, which were all from my friends.
I only got a bigger audience when I e-mailed my stuff to a friend of mine who runs a humour site. For some reason, he felt the need to tell everyone about it. When I released the second book in 2008, that got people even more excited.
But, after I was done with the third book, I was totally exhausted. Nobody had told me that drawing comic books would take up so much energy.
I realised I had to change direction for a while. I had the idea of doing a comic strip about primary school kids in Singapore.
I wanted to show how if you have the right kind of upbringing with the right kind of love, you can have a pretty awesome childhood here.
That was how Loti was born. I made the mistake of saying there would be a new strip every day at noon. And, I don't know how I've managed to last this long but I've made about 1,000 strips and I haven't missed a single day. I'm pretty proud of myself.
I still get depressed sometimes, but doing comic books definitely helps. When I'm writing scenes about my life, it feels like I'm back in my doctor's office in New York, having the same conversations with her.
So I really have to thank my doctor for what she did. It's because of her that writing and drawing are an important part of my life right now, and probably will be for a long time to come.
About Troy Chin
Troy Chin was born in Singapore, but spent nine years of his adult life in the United States. He now works here as a full-time comic book artist. He writes a comic for grown-ups called The Resident Tourist, as well as a daily comic strip for kids called Loti. You can read these comics on his website, http://drearyweary.com. He believes kids should dare to try new things, even if they fail or hurt themselves. After all, you may find something you love doing, and will want to do for the rest of your life.
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