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Pam Pam Liu

Pam Pam Liu Active as an illustrator, an independent graphic novelist and a musician, Pam Pam is also a talented animator. She often turns the dark side of life, its anger and failures, into fantastical graphic novels, but also creates true-to-life works such as Good Friend, Cancer. Her other works include A Trip to Asylum and When My Brother was a Kid. She was a resident of La Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France (2018-2019).

Works

Rights sold: Indonesian (KPG), simplified Chinese Full content available in English.   Documentary Comic Diary   This book examines the traditional role of the daughter. Pam Pam delves into the realities of adulthood that we all recognize, whether or not we're willing to admit it.   When my mother gets cancer for the second time, she asked if I would keep her company through her chemotherapy. And of course, I said yes. But how am I meant to cope with it all? Pam Pam uses a clean but comical style to portray the joys and sorrows of accompanying a loved one through an illness.   Despite the technical and medical wonders of the modern age, cancer remains one of humanity’s biggest enemies. And while we all know the patients themselves suffer, what of their loved ones, who find themselves suddenly becoming caretakers, struggling with negative emotions, drained by the demands upon them? They too face a long physical and emotional battle.   Good Friend, Cancer is a daughter’s first-hand account of her mother’s chemotherapy treatment. Finding herself now responsible for caring for her mother, she worries as she waits in the hospital that maybe her genes mean the same fate is in store for her. And she is also resentful - she has missed out on a chance to follow her dreams and travel overseas. And most of all, and most unanswerably: why her?   Graphic novelist Pam Pam’s simple style and plain strokes provide a humorous look at a harsh reality and turn misfortunes into charming tales. Over the course of 18 chapters, Pam Pam examines the traditional roles of a “daughter” and the pressures of being an adult as she portrays truths about family relationships which we all recognize - even if we cannot admit to it.   1 Volume (end) Single color 150x150 mm
Rights sold: French (IMHO), Korean (Marco Polo), Polish (timof i cisi wspólnicy) Full Content Avaiable in English 2020 Taipei Book Fair Award (Fiction) 2020 Golden Comic Award (Best Comic of the Year) First graphic novel recognized with a literary award in Taiwan   Trapped in a nasty asylum, a young man who considers himself perfectly healthy discovers that escaping is nearly impossible, as everyone seems determined to keep him confined.   Amidst the company of his sister and niece, a young man reluctantly checks into a mental institution for a short-term recovery. The tranquility of the place quickly becomes unbearable. The friendliness and peculiarity of fellow patients only fuel his agitation, compelling him to escape at all costs. Yet, the exit seems non-existent, and even those he conversed with are claimed to be his hallucinations. In a basement, he encounters his younger self, engaging in a blame game, but neither can lead the other to freedom. They watch memories unravel like film reels, revisiting the multitude of traumas endured throughout his life. Rejecting this review, he seeks out other patients, hoping to find a way out together. However, his sole like-minded companion meets a tragic end. Disillusioned, his violent acts intensify, culminating in an attempt on another patient's life. Now, united against him, they expose the truth: he is not a victim but a perpetrator, and they wish for his demise. Scarred and broken, he realizes the world harbors no kindness, succumbing to complete collapse.   Ten years in the making, A Trip to the Asylum incorporates Pam Pam Liu’s personal experiences as well was extensive research into the literature of mental illness, including works such as Erving Goffman’s Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates and Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. With its indy comic aesthetic, absurd humor, and fast pacing, A Trip to the Asylum delivers deep issues in an entertaining package, bringing mental illness out of the shadows and into the realm of relatable, everyday interactions.   1 Volume (end) 170 x 230 mm Four colors
English Sample Available   An absurdist vision of a world on permanent lockdown, in which a golden ticket to shop at the Super Supermarket is a luxury so scarce that it draws out the darker side of human nature.   A projection into the future of current pandemic realities, Super Supermarket envisions a world in which no one leaves their home, in which simply walking down the street can get you reported to authorities, and in which everything past the front door begins to provoke reactions of fear and anxiety. Cloistered in their homes, a new generation of children is growing up with no knowledge of the outside world or basic niceties – like wearing pants!   One day our protagonist is reading a picture book to her nephew, only to discover it contains forbidden depictions of playgrounds and supermarkets – things that no child should know about! Her hysterical complaints to customer service are resolved with a free gift of two tickets to the Super Supermarket Experience, an elite in-store shopping simulation intended to alleviate the rampant cabin fever of the near future. However, the tickets only serve to awaken our protagonist’s long-suppressed retail desires, leading her down a spiral of temptation that can only end in disaster!   Known for her dark humor and willingness to address troubling topics, graphic novelist Pam Pam turns her unsparing eye to the psychological impact of pandemic restrictions, providing chillingly incisive social commentary while perfectly lampooning the ways in which we all went a little crazy while on lockdown.   1 Volume (end) 150 x 210 mm Two colors  
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