Malaysian Artist Erica Eng Bags Prestigious Eisner Award For Best Comic

By Kamarul Halim M Kamal BATU PAHAT (Johor, Malaysia) Oct 2 (Bernama) -- Who would have thought that an interest in drawing since the age of two has now borne fruit for Erica Eng Hui Qing, who received the Eisner Best Webcomic, The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the highest awards for comic artists and cartoonists, last July. The webcomic titled ‘Fried Rice’, bagged the prestigious award and the Batu Pahat-born Eng became the second recipient from Malaysia at the annual Eisner Awards ceremony, the comics industry’s equivalent of the Oscars. The first Malaysian woman to receive an Eisner nomination was Reimena Yee in 2018 for her graphic novel, ‘The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya’. Eng, a 22-year-old animator, said she started drawing comics which depict the life of a young girl in her 20’s named 'Min’ who wants to pursue her dream of becoming a film animator, in May last year. The 57-page webcomic was nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Webcomic category in March this year. "I did not expect to be chosen as the winner of the award as I had to compete with about 1,800 other artists around the world,” she said when met by Bernama. The second of three siblings, who is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, United States of America, said she started sketching her idea for fun using pencil and walnut ink and her comics could be read at friedricecomic.tumblr.com. "When I was contacted as the winner on July 25, I was grateful and thankful to both my parents for their unending support and encouragement. I also would like to thank my art cikgu (teacher) Hashim Ismail for guiding me to become a successful artist today,” she said. Besides the Eisner Award, Eng has also won several other awards through her comic illustrations, among them, the Asean Short Films Awards - 29th FLiCKERFEST (2020); TAO Hall of Fame - Illustration storyboarding (2020); Excellent Works Asiagraph Tokyo (2019) dan DELL Visions of the Future - DELL Short Film Award (2017). Eng now shares the interest in drawing comics with her younger brother Nathaniel Eng Shu Liang, 15, and they often spend time together to discuss producing several other comics published online. She plans to make the continuation of the ‘Min’ comic series for up to 200 to 300 pages and this is expected to take about two to three years to complete. "I hope after this, Malaysians will continue to support my art journey,” she said. -- BERNAMA