Category Archives: Books

The monkey teacher is back again.

Reading Roald Dahl in the past, I thought that I can easily match up to the master’s writing standards when I grew older. It is only after the passing of time that I realised I was wrong – children’s books are undoubtedly hard to write – especially when you’re not a child. But Otto Fong has done it again; he has once again condescended to write his new comic book for primary schoolers and slow to mature lower secondary students. As you can see from the cover, the topic this time is ‘Light’.

There are pranksters:

A call for pay increases for teachers (perhaps a result of Otto reminiscing about his secret desire in his days as a teacher):

And even backsides:

Otto graciously drew the naked Sir Fong from the back, leaving his member well hidden. It is obvious that backsides aren’t as private as members since everyone has one, so backsides can be safely drawn without raising the anxiety of any parent.

‘Google’ somehow became ‘Ogle’, which may actually be a better name for the search giant since it is what most people do on the internet in their rooms when nobody is at home anyway:

I even got my name in print:

Well, I was glad to have been Otto’s proofreader.

Visit Mr Otto Fong’s blog: http://www.sirfong.blogspot.com/

*If you’re slightly confused, the author’s name is Otto Fong (who is a human and a former teacher at RI) and the name of the main character in the book is Sir Fong (who is a monkey and is a teacher in a school full of bunnies). And if you’re alert, you would have noticed a ‘Sir Kong’ in the third photo – that’s the “upsized” version of Sir Fong.

In my days as a misspent youth (those who know my real age will understand what I mean), one of the comics that influenced me the most is Mr Kiasu. Its distinctively Singaporean neighbourhood flavour still manifests itself in my love for finding the lighter side of my daily monotone, and perhaps even in my Singapore collar pin and keychain.

And of course there was a comic version of Michael Chiang’s Army Daze, which introduced me to Chiang and maybe increased the chances of my being court marshalled when I enter NS.

I still remember Indonesian artist Nunk’s Sepakbolaria, published in Singapore as Soccer Joy. This one taught me how to laugh at soccer even if I can’t play it very well with short legs. Then again, there is always a Zola or Roberto Carlos or Makélélé. At least I think my name is more pronounceable.

Who can forget Bart Simpson? I used to read The Simpsons as I couldn’t catch their American accents on TV. Reading Bart at primary school, it is no wonder that I did not get most of their jokes. I understood a lot of it very much later. And I am sure that till now, I still do not catch everything.

As I aged, I discovered in Foxtrot, Baby Blues, and Non Sequitur something interesting to read in Singapore’s newspapers other than the sports section and the obituaries. My former favourite Bizarro has been looking out of sorts and singing to a different tune since last year or so. Perhaps like me, he changed his style.

Mr Otto Fong’s comics are a bit different from these that I’ve mentioned. As Mr Kiasu creator Johnny Lau notes in the foreword, ‘it is rare [that one uses] science as the core subject for the comics medium’.

Sir Fong’s Adventures In Science: Got Mr Fong’s latest book at the Toy and Comic Convention at Suntec today.

He’s still a newbie so he has to sit at his booth all day and autograph them for everyone.

His potential must be immense if he can spot the similarity between binoculars and bras. I wonder what kind of porn does this guy watch.

Despite the poblem engrish, I still daresay his English is better than most Physics teachers’.

At $13, the book is slightly on the expensive side for a Singapore comic. I guess it’s because he’s self-publishing under his new company Ottonium Comics. (No, my economics grade does not warrant me the right to give an exposition on economies of scale.)

Otto’s blog is at http://sirfong.blogspot.com/