Visions of Taiwan No.1

What Da Cover Says: Visions of Taiwan is an anthology comic series focusing on the lesser-known land of Taiwan.

Featuring a range of new voices from around the world, each artist has made Taiwan their home and has a unique take on what it is truly like to be there. With seven stories in total, Visions of Taiwan is sure to have something for everyone.

There’s “Nineteen and Moving Along” by Erique Chong; “An Island of Inspiration” by Fabienne Good; “Some People” by Joel Fremming; “How Not to Get Your Scooter License in Taiwan” by Ray Hecht; “Green Island” by Bronwen Shelwell; “Walk & Talks” by Patty Hogan and Todd Allen Williams; and “ConSequential” by Jon Renzella.

Each story contains its own perspective about what makes life worth living in Taiwan, told with humor and depth. It’s not always easy and there are all kinds of experiences, but above all it is never boring…

What I Says: I really like the concept behind this anthology, outsiders who have come to Taiwan and learnt to make it their home, it is a mix of what Taiwan means to them, some tips on how to thrive and that the place is so perfect that you’ll never want to leave. The range of different styles of artwork means this doesn’t get dull, whereas one style is so vivid it almost explodes from the page the next one will be much calmer and the way these have been ordered has been done so that the movement between comics is seamless. Two I particularly like were by Joel Fremming, where the pen has been given free reign of the page and you’ve gotta work your way around to follow the story and by Fabienne Good, this style of drawing is where each image is done in one single line and it’s very clever, reminds my of my youth playing with an etch-a-sketch trying to make rude drawings. The only artist here I had heard of was Ray Hecht and I’ve always enjoyed his work and if you stalk him on Instagram you’ll see how accurate his drawings are by how easy it is to identify him, here he gives some valuable advice on how to pass your bike test in Taiwan.

A great first outing for this series and I’ve got high hopes for what comes next.

Many thanks to Ray for sending me out this review copy, ya totally should check it out HERE: