The Johor-based animator and artist gained international recognition in 2020 when her debut webcomic ‘Fried Rice’ won the Eisner Award
What started as simple, hand-illustrated pages in her dorm room in college in KL grew over time into something that changed Erica Eng’s life irrevocably. The first Malaysian to win the Eisner Award back in 2020 for her webcomic Fried Rice, Eng can now proudly say she’s officially in print as the graphic novel hits bookstores this month.
An animator at a local gameplay and animation studio, the 25-year-old artist from Batu Pahat, Johor, contemplates her literary journey so far with admirable composure. “I wrote Fried Rice to be a graphic novel, so the layout was pretty much done,” she told Tatler during a visit to Kuala Lumpur in March.
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“I added more content at the back, just to make it a special print edition, and of course, I had to design a cover. It was fun! It was like making it all over again.”
Despite the international accolades that Fried Rice has received–the webcomic also won the Ringo Award for Best Webcomic in 2020 and was also nominated for the Harvey Award for Digital Book of the Year besides the Eisner Award–Eng was in no rush to release a print version immediately.