Why Troy Chin is not your usual comic book artist

If you asked Troy Chin how he had jumped from a career in finance to making comics, he would say it is unexplainable.

You could say the Singaporean comic book artist is not your typical artist. Unlike most comic artists who started drawing at a young age, Chin said he hated art as a kid. “I failed. I was good at maths and science and benefited from a Singaporean system. What mattered to Singapore was easy-peasy for me — but I wanted to be a musician,” said the 38-year-old.

He ended up spending nine years working for music company Sony BMG in the United States before returning to Singapore.

Upon the encouragement of his therapist, he started drawing comics, even though he had no prior experience. Within a year, he had put out his first semi-autobiographical comic book The Resident Tourist (2007), which captured the culture shock he felt upon returning home.

While he had also published other works, such as his 2012 comic parody Bricks In The Wall: Tall Tales From The Music Industry, which was based on his experiences while working in the US; as well as stories in volumes 1 and 2 of Liquid City, an anthology of South-east Asian comics; The Resident Tourist series is undoubtedly his biggest calling card.

The seventh instalment was launched last month and continues from the previous book with tales about life in National Service (NS), from hanging out with friends to dealing with things such as IPPT. But unlike most army stories that paint NS as a rite of passage, the book highlights the unpleasant side of it.

“I care about the nonsense that happens after BMT. This is a difficult story that has to be told, and the truth is there. I have to write stories that happened and not sugar coat it,” said Chin about the book, adding: “I use the army as a backdrop as my presentation of the book. I hope people realise it’s criticism of people in general, not just the army.

“You kind of have to be an a******,” he said.

Having been back in Singapore for a while, Chin, who was conferred the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award in 2011 and was one of the featured authors for the National Library Board last year, said the style of his storytelling has changed over time.

“It first started as an alternative comic that you can find in the US, where it’s very haphazard and everything has a very odd feel to it. It feels like it was put together quickly — and it was. It was nice and captured the essence of coming back. As the story moves on, I’m telling a complex story. I have to plot,” said Chin.

“Time has passed, opinions have changed. Your mindset changes because you have to deal with — and Singaporeans have gone through — lots of changes.”

Publishing the book has not been an easy task for him — Chin has lost friends as he published the series.

“The biggest criticism is that it’s a story about my life, but would you dare (do it)? It’s easy to write nostalgia — (but) when it’s eventually about real people, would you still write it? When I write about someone, there is a danger of people finding out and it biting me back,” he said.

Nonetheless, Chin said he would still continue writing, no matter what. “The world is getting bigger and by the time I’m done, it would be nice to say I have added a whole chunk of things to Singapore literature,” he said.

The Resident Tourist (Part 7) is available in bookstores now.