Despite having earned a doctorate and begun a teaching career, Huang Chun (黃駿) decided to follow his heart and pursue his real dream of becoming a comic book artist.
Now 40, Huang, who uses the pen name Jimmeh Aitch, recounted what his life was like before becoming an artist as part of the lineup of presenters at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in southwestern France on Thursday last week.
Huang, who is a Siraya, completed his undergraduate studies at National Chengchi University, before going on to earn a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Florida.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
In Florida, he met a Philippine-French woman who is now his wife, Huang said, adding that he also met a friend who worked in the university library and introduced him to US comics.
After receiving his doctorate, he taught at De La Salle University in Manila for a year before teaching at the University of Guam for four years.
Although Huang had thought of becoming a comic book artist, he had only drawn images and had never composed a story until he met his librarian friend, he said.
Through his friend, he began to immerse himself in US comics, which greatly influenced his personal style, he said.
As he was finishing his studies at the University of Florida, he thought of giving his friends hand-drawn books, which eventually led him to create comic books, Huang said.
He was 32 when he finally picked up a pen to create comics, Huang said.
His comics are completely hand-drawn, Huang said, adding that he never uses a computer.
He prefers lines and shadows, not the dotted pattern that is used as a background in many comics, he added.
Huang fell in love with creating the background texture by hand, adding to the detail stroke by stroke, he said.
Moreover, he typically draws black-and-white comics, he said.
Influenced by growing up in Taiwan and residing in the Philippines, the subject matter for most of his stories is inspired by everyday life, Huang said, adding that he occasionally likes to create political satire.
His favorite comics are by Robert Crumb, the father of US underground comics, Huang said.
Crumb’s style uses many intersecting lines, Huang said, adding that the stories mainly incorporate everyday anecdotes, while presenting US humor with satirical touches.
He wholeheartedly admires Crumb’s comics, both the subject matter and the style, Huang said, but added that he cannot deny the effect that Japanese comics have had on him.
Since he was young, he has loved reading Japanese comic books, Huang said, adding that he enjoys their fight scenes and humor.
Everyone must take a look at Hamaoka Kenji’s Super Radical Gag Family, he added.
Huang said that he likes to experiment with form and does not especially focus on style when working on a comic book project.
The form of a comic book is the next most important element after the illustrations and the story, he said, adding that it takes skill to divide and lay out storyboard frames.
He dreams that his works will one day catch up to Crumb’s comics, Huang said.
Joe Sacoo, who uses comics to report on the Arab-Israeli conflict, is also a comic book artist that he admires, he said, adding that like his idols, he hopes to present more depth in his comics.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not