Bleeding Scars: The Calamity of Canning [Maple Comics, 61 pages] by Chua Kok Yee takes readers to the suburbs of Ipoh, spinning a haunting tale rooted in local urban legend. At the heart of this graphic novella is the story of a chee cheong fan seller, Uncle Chin, on whose life and livelihood the events of the story converge, in darkness and tragedy.
Chua Kok Yee weaves a story that feels grounded in the familiar, both in the sense of its setting, and also the tropes and features commonly found in the scary stories Malaysians love to exchange during social gatherings. The black-and-white artwork adds a moody, almost cinematic layer to the narrative, while providing dramatic contrasts that stress and intensify the rawness of the characters’ experiences.
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What a gorgeous story. The premise, the telling, the characters: I liked most everything about it. I’d been a little wary because someone had mentioned that it’s about a pelesit who becomes the friend of a little girl. I was wary because pelesit are Malay familiar spirits that are used by their owners to possess victims and I didn’t particularly like the idea of such a creature being turned into a cute Disney-type character. However, my fears were pretty much unfounded. The friendship between the pelesit and the girl is framed in such a way that makes it plausible, natural and even necessary. Also, the spirit itself declares that it is ‘not a character from some childhood tale’, a meta moment that I hugely appreciated. TGATG is a childhood tale, but of course it’s not that kind of childhood tale, the sort that sanitizes the heck out of our stories, wringing out all but their most 
ENCOUNTERS: MODERN FOLKTALES FROM SIBU
I have to admit that the books’ covers made me think that they were both written for children. I wouldn’t say they shouldn’t be read by kids, but, fair warning, Fairy Con does feature a grisly murder and some very light sexual innuendo, so some may be leery about introducing it to primary school-age readers. As for, Encounters, the stories in this collection also contain some details that may be deemed unsuitable for children, but I don’t think there’s anything that voracious readers of ten and older can’t handle.
daphne lee 