The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye deeply looks into Singapore’s history while also being a beautiful homage to comics of the twentieth century. I was utterly flared by the attention to details in this metafiction graphic novel. It was clear that Liew spent a lot of time doing intensive research to put together an incredibly effective fictional biography loaded with historical truth. Furthermore, the great care he put into showing the diversity of art styles in comics and manga was truly apparent.

As a result, Liew’s graphic novel practically demands the reader to slow down and pay attention to all sorts of details, giving a significant amount of information for them to unpack. I can see how some readers—especially those who are already familiar with Singaporean history—may find some of the storytelling tedious due to there being a fair amount of info dumping. However, for those like me who know next to nothing about the history, while there was a lot of information to parse through, it provided a lot of context about Singapore’s complex past.

Lastly, I want to address the stunning art. I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan of US comics, but for those who are, Liew’s graphic novel is going to be an utter delight to read with how he pays homage to various art styles of well-known comics artists of the Golden Age. For those who are like me and adore manga, Liew has you covered here, too, particularly paying homage to Osamu Tezuka (i.e., the Godfather of Manga). It’s not all imitation, though, because Liew’s own art style comes through as well, demonstrating his incredible skills as an artist.

Ultimately, I do think that this is a graphic novel that can be enjoyed by many, but it might resonate more with those who know the culture and history of the country. One thing is for certain, though, which is that this is an incredible work when it comes to how it was executed narratively and artistically. I can absolutely see this graphic novel being assigned as an actual text to learn about Singaporean history.