For the third edition of ASEF’s Lingua Comica programme (2008), 14 emerging comic artists from across Asia and Europe came together to interpret the theme of “East Meets West”. The creative mingling of their artistic backgrounds and experiences produced the seven stories which form Lingua Comica Fuse.
Covering topics as different as travel, memory, modernisation and food, these stories bring a unique artistic perspective to common issues that affect people in Asia and Europe. Within each story, the dialectic between the “East” and the “West” shows the nuances of the different cultures and traditions of these two regions.
An innovative experiment in cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration, ASEF’s Lingua Comica programme was ground-breaking in the field of comics and graphic novels. Different pairs of Asian and European artists were asked to produce a story by exchanging ideas and working through blogs and emails to bridge their geographical distances. The collaborative storytelling has won them prizes and recognition from their peers in the field.