Not Your Typical Graphic Novel Author

by Siti Aishah

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“If you told me that I’d grow up writing and drawing stick figures for a living, I’d laugh,” he said joyfully.

41-year-old Malaysian artist and author, Cheeming Boey, rose to fame in 2011 when his first self-published graphic novel When I Was a Kid hit the best-selling shelves in major bookstores across Singapore and Malaysia. Now, he’s touring the country for his book events to promote his latest book and meet his readers. Amidst this fame and fortune he’s basking in now, life wasn’t always a walk in the park.

When When I Was A Kid 5, was released, it hit the best-selling shelves in major bookstores. During the interview in Kinokuniya Bookstores, Boey told that this is not the future he had expected and told the story of how he started to enjoy writing.

He said that what inspired him to start writing about his childhood was because of a conversation with his American friend. “The thing that inspired me to write about my childhood in Malaysia was when my friend in the States asked where in China is Malaysia and I knew I had to help this country’s tourism board.”

“When you want something, you have to do it yourself,” he said humorously.

Growing up, Boey who studied at Academy of Art, San Francisco said he didn’t like writing as he felt it was a burden. “But one day, when I was in my high school in Singapore, I got an English teacher and instead of giving us homework, she told us to write a story on anything that we liked.”

“I’ve never felt so excited to do my homework,” the Johor Bahru-born artist smiled while recalling his memories of Kam Cho Cho. He said “When we received our essays back, I was surprised that my essay was the best! The teacher read my essay to the whole class and everyone laughed.” He expressed that he felt like the king of the world at his school table. “Of course, I couldn’t show my dad the marks I got because it was only 54/100. I mean, it was the best story, but my grammar still sucked at that time.”

“My dad couldn’t read English and the only thing he knew how to read were the numbers. He would’ve beaten me up if he saw that 54/100,” he said and laughed. “My dad was very hard to please, but that day was still memorable to me as everyone laughed and loved my work. Kam Cho Cho got me into writing because she taught me that writing could be for fun and not work.”

Boey’s books are enjoyable for readers of any age and during the interview, he explained how he attracts readers of all ages through his stories. “I write funny stories that are relatable to everyone but to attract young readers, I feel like it’s important to always keep up to date with their trends and internet language.”

“I constantly have to update myself on their internet language and jokes. If you speak their language, then they can relate to you,” he said.

Now residing and working as a designer at a company in California, Boey said that if there was a piece of advice he could give to his younger self he’ll say, “Stop playing so many games and do more work. Don’t waste time.”

He mentioned that the journey to be where he is now had a lot of struggles like financial issues and feeling lost at times, but “being an artist is so much fun because it doesn’t feel like work. I like the feeling that I’m drawing for a living.” He also added, “I hope kids out there who wish to become artists and read my books feel inspired that they could do it too. I mean, I draw stick figures for a living. They probably know they could do a way better job than my stick figures.”