EVACOMICS BLOG

2015 has been a busy year for me, fulfilling some commission work (bulk orders like 8-15 comic strips) and giving talks from "Lessons Learnt from Self-Publishing" to "Visiting Tokyo". I was also kept busy trying to sell as many books and cushions as possible. Significant achievement in 2015 is my signing with MPH (how it came to this will be explained in another post), becoming their author and no longer self-published. I also went to Jakarta for the first time and saw my first foreign published book "Eva The Explorer", which is actually the same book as "Eva, Kopi and Matcha" but different language. My work was stolen by a Vietnamese magazine but it was eventually resolved favourably, leading to the release of of a Vietnamese version next year. I learnt a lot about freelancing practice in 2015. It is better NOT to do a one-year project for more than 8 comic strips because it is very difficult to plan time when Clients suddenly wants the co...

Seats in Singapore are very competitive...

While foreigners were bewildered why Japanese celebrates Christmas by eating buckets of KFC chicken, Japanese were also surprised that the rest of the world doesn't do the same. This is the result of clever marketing from KFC Japan in the past that became an annual tradition. Please support me on Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/evacomics ), where you get first look at my comic strips! Even $1/month is ok and you can stop subscription anytime! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Yes... the main culprit was Sukiya's Beef Nabe (hot pot): The beef was so good and I always add spring onions to top it to 740yen, which is very reasonable for such a delicious meal. I ate once every 3-4 days for dinner so you can imagine how much Japanese rice and beef was added to my waistline... or is there a waistline now...hmm...

Because my photo of the markers received so many shares, I realised that many artists are interested about the markers and perhaps want to know where to buy them from. Hence I wrote this guide for artists to shop in COPIC heaven aka Tokyo. ★ UPDATE NOV 2017: Please refer to my new article for latest updates on COPIC marker shopping! >>> Ultimate Guide to Copic marker shopping in Tokyo, Japan

If the tattoo is small, you can cover it with plaster before going into the public bath houses.

This year's November was exceptionally warmer and rained more than usual. I thought I would not be able to see Mt. Fuji again until I was invited to Hitsuki Club . This is a beautiful resort hotel with rooms housed in cottages with each having a stunning view of Mt. Fuji. The resort is located in Shizuoka prefecture, inside the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park's Asagiri Highland, which is 700m above sea level so Mt. Fuji appears very close to you. The owner of this hotel is a doctor so the focus is on the wellness of the mind and body together with mother nature. Breakfast and dinner is included and you can expect fresh local ingredients cooked with spring water everyday!

It seems that the concept of getting a job in Japan is getting a full-time job from 9-5pm. Freelancers and unemployed are two different things and throwing a "Freeter" word to cover both is rather inappropriate IMO.

Hidaka City 日高市 is around an hour's train ride from Tokyo's Ikebukuro station. There you can find a small village called Koma, that has deep roots with Korea dated as far back as 1,300 years ago. I was lucky that the annual Korean traditional mounted archery contest was held when I visited on 23 Nov (Mon) public holiday.

There are many specialised beef in Japan and the most famous one to foreigners is Kobe Beef. Frankly speaking I had never tried one before because it is so expensive.

There has been more rainy than sunny days so visiting a museum at this time is the best. Having experienced the 311 Tohoku earthquake back in 2011 , I was interested to know more about the Great Hanshin Earthquake and how it affected Japan.

I lived in Seng Kang for 2 years and there are many cyclists there. They love to ring their bells all the way and expect us pedestrians to move to one-side when they dash by impatiently. They even ride their bicycles indoor inside the community hub area and I even scolded a boy not to ride his bike inside the building as he was ringing his bell non-stop while on his way to buy snack at a stall. There are many cyclists in Japan as well but they seldom ring their bell. The sidewalks are wider and the cyclists are patient enough to slow down or overtake instead of ringing their bells frustratedly like in Singapore.

I wasn't aware that there is this waterfall within the city until my friend said that we should visit it.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of Inari (rice) in Kyoto. It is located right next to JR Inari station so it is very easily accessible.

On our second trip to Kyoto, we wanted to target a temple with red leaves so we shortlisted temples in the North that turn cold earlier than those in the city area. Jakko-in was chosen because my friend thought the other nearby temple: Sanzen-in did not have enough red leaves.

Arashiyama Out of the 5 days we were in Kansai, only 1 day was good sunny weather so we decided to visit Kyoto. The skies were beautiful finally after days of cloud and rain. Our first stop was Arashiyama to visit the temple garden and bamboo forest.

We were looking for elsewhere to visit besides Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe and chose Wakayama because we had never been there. A quick google reveals Koyasan, a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of a mass cemetery and temples set on a mountain. Commuting time was around 4 hours from Osaka that consists of train, ropeway and bus, so it isn't too bad compared to 5-6 hours to southern parts of Wakayama.

It was rainy after we got into our hotel on Sunday (15 Nov) so we decided to check out something indoor like the world-renown Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.

Shinsekai was a highly recommended place to visit from my yoga classmate who claimed that the place appeared to be a pop out town from anime and has good fried food. The name literally means New World although it was created in 1912.

This museum was opened in 2011 but I did not visit when I was studying in Tokyo.

I would not have come here if not for my friend who was into Little Twin Stars from Sanrio...

US has a lot of land and welcome immigrants (to a certain extent of course). Japan wants to welcome foreigners but difficult to accommodate foreigners. Singapore welcomes foreigners despite not enough land...

This year hasn't been good to see red leaves due to the more than usual number of rainy days. One of the popular spots is the "Momiji Kairou" at Lake Kawaguchi. Momiji means red leaves and the English translation can be "Momiji Tunnel" or "Maples Corridor" although they are two separate but close-by places on the map. A "Momiji Matsuri" festival is held every year from the end of October to mid November with road stalls and romantic night illumination so it is a popular destination during November for people to see both Mt Fuji and red leaves.

I was surprised when I attended a life drawing session here and all the artists flipped their pages as soon as a break was announced as if they are fearful of people seeing what they drew... Perhaps Japanese do not like to show off their work and prefer to keep things to themselves...

Tokyo One Piece Tower is an indoor amusement park based on the famous manga/anime series "One Piece". It was officially opened in March 2015 with much hype, so is it worth the trip and your 3,000yen?

It is very difficult for foreigners to rent apartment in Japan due to language barrier and lack of guarantor. The rental procedure is also very complex and you are required to pay lots of fees like gift money, key-change fee, agent fee, deposit and first month rental. I blogged about this bad experience 4 years ago when I first went for my house hunting: Rental Nightmare in Tokyo . However with this CLIHO shared house, you can rent your own private room in a Japanese house setting and environment easily.

High Touch in Japanese actually means high five! I guess they don't like to assert too much force when happy?

Feng jia Night Market 逢甲夜市 This was my 3rd time to Taiwan but I had never visit Tai Chung City. Locals say that the only night market that is crowded all the time is the Feng Jia Night market. My brother booked an airbnb location close to the night market so it was really convenient to visit there almost every night. However because I was traveling with my mum, siblings and young nephew, so I had to help bring back food each time...

There was a publication on Tuoi Tre, which I was told is one of the biggest daily newspaper for youth in Vietnam this morning. Here is a quick translation by Doanh Nguyen from  Vietnam IPR Infringement  to update my readers: ------------------------------------- Foreign author requests Muc Tim magazine to compensate 2,300 USD. http://tuoitre.vn/tin/van-hoa-giai-tri/tac-gia-nuoc-ngoai-de-nghi-bao-muc-tim-phai-boi-thuong-2300-usd/991168.html Surrounding a series of incidents where comics on Muc Tim magazine was found to be originated from a foreign author's work made online community tumultuous. On Oct 25, talking with Tuoi Tre, Mr. Nguyen Khac Cuong – Muc Tim’s Chief Editor, said that after he was informed of this incident, Muc Tim magazine found that these comics have been sent from a reader collaborator for a comics corner of an entertainment sector in Muc Tim. Muc Tim magazine discussed with the author Evangeline Neo, and then cut off royalties to that reader a...

There is an exception if you are visiting a festival or fair in Japan where there are many street food stalls. However, people still tend to gather at one place to eat finish their food first before moving on :P~ (BTW, I originally planned to post a comic about the recent incident, but because I received a good reply, I decided not to go ahead but post on my Patreon account only instead).

This is the Vietnamese version of my original article: " Vietnamese teenage magazine: Muc Tim stole Evacomics artwork and refused to admit ". Thanks to Doanh Nguyen for the translation! Tôi đã được thông báo vào ngày 4/9 bởi một người hâm mộ ở Việt Nam, người này muốn xác nhận với tôi xem tôi có cho phép tạp chí có tên là “Mực Tím” sử dụng các tác phẩm truyện tranh của tôi vì đã thấy chúng trên vài số báo. Tôi đã sốc và trả lời là không. Bởi vì tôi không hiểu tiếng Việt, tôi đã đăng việc này lên trang facebook (như hình ở trên) để tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ cho việc liên hệ với nhà xuất bản nhằm giải quyết vấn đề này. Sau khi nhiều người hâm mộ “tấn công” trang facebook của họ, họ đã buộc phải trả lời tôi vào ngày hôm sau bằng một tài khoản gmail miễn phí từ một người không rõ chức vụ nói rằng đó là một sự cố kỹ thuật và sếp của họ thì đang đi nghỉ mát…. Luật sư bạn tôi nói với tôi rằng việc đó không đúng luật và tôi nên yêu cầu Tổng biên tập của họ phải liên lạc với tôi ...

I was alerted on 4 September from a fan in Vietnam, who wanted to verify with me if I had given permission for this magazine called "Muc Tim" to use my comics because they had been appearing for several issues. I was shocked and replied no. Because I don't understand any Vietnamese, I posted the above on my Facebook page to seek help to contact the publisher to settle this issue. After fans bombarded their FB page, they were forced to reply me the next day with a gmail account from someone with an unknown job title saying it was a technical mistake and their head is on vacation ... My lawyer friend told me it doesn't look right and I should demand their editor contact me through a proper company email. So I requested and their editor contacted me to ask for my bank account information to transfer my royalty and said they will also publish an apology on issue #37. I gave them my account number and asked how much they will be paying. At the same time, fans were ...

Sorry for the lack of updates this past month! I was paralysed by the selling of the cats... I had to reply tons of emails, messages, comments all over my many social media channels (FB, Instagram. Blog, Patreon), coordinating transport from warehouse to temporary holding then to my house and shop, labelling, packing and mailing the cats, etc. etc. There was simply no free time at all to draw new comics and I learnt: Despite me posting several times on FB and Instagram to ask people to buy, nothing beats a good story about how difficult it is to make them.  After posting this article: " Why Matcha cat cushions were so difficult to make ", sales soared and I sold around 150 cats compared to only 30 or so initially... Other things I also learnt selling online: Don't use bank transfer if a flood of orders come in because people don't put their initials when they make payment. Therefore it is difficult to cross-reference which payment is paid by who. Also sp...

I heard that no take away of leftovers from restaurants and buffet was allowed because of a major food poisoning that happened some years ago. Caterers and restaurants did not want to be liable if anything happens. Bento are ok because they have a expiry date and storage instructions on the packaging! Maybe this explains the tiny portions too...hmm...

This thing didn't happen, but I did visit a doctor with my mask frequently when I was suspected of contracting TB... ( you can find my blog post here back in 2011 )

It's the haze season again in Singapore! Yes, it is actually an official season now! Starts from September and might end in November... It is said to be caused by the palm oil plantations in Indonesia:  https://webreathewhatwebuy.com So I drew this "sensitive" teeth toothpaste to help get more signatures for the campaign. But apparently it is still far from target (maybe it's too troublesome?) I still go for my yoga classes and went to a Ashtanga yoga class last month at Yoga Inc. And boy, it was very tough, jumping in and out of poses and several repetitive sequences. I think I will go back to my regular hatha and flow classes...