Note: Agents, editors and publishers, you can view pitches from now through the end of October at: https://kidlitgn.com/submission-details/
One of KidLitGN’s missions is connecting comics lovers, creators and publishers from around he world. This year, we are excited to talk with DIFFERENCE ENGINE (DE), an independent comics publisher based in Singapore.
Inspired by stories from Southeast Asia and committed to publishing diverse, well-written, and beautifully illustrated comics of all genres and for all ages, DE has curated titles in their catalog that reflects both the heritage and the future of Asian comics on the global stage.
DE’s Publisher and Co-Founder, Felicia Low-Jimenez is here to answer our questions.
What is the comics culture/industry like in Singapore?
Singapore is primarily an English-language market and as a result, we’ve always read comics and graphic novels published in the West or titles translated into English. However, as most Singaporeans are multilingual, we’re also very comfortable reading in other languages as well. East Asian content like manga and anime have always been very popular with readers, and more recently, webtoons have made comics even more accessible to readers. There has also always been a fanbase for Western superhero content amplified by popular TV series and movie franchises.
How and why is DE founded?
I’m a writer with a background in book retail and merchandising and was approached by the founder of Potato Productions, Lee Han Shih, who is a huge comic book fan. He was keen to start up a comics publishing company and thought the mix of experiences I had and my love for comics and stories would make me a great fit as Publisher and co-founder of the company. To be honest, it was all very random but has turned out really well 😀
What is DE’s publishing process?
DE has a very collaborative publishing process. Once we sign a creator, we assign an editor and in-house designer who will work with the creator every step of the way from structural editing, visual editing and design, all the way up to planning the cover and the overall branding of the project. As we approach the publishing date, our marketing, sales, and events team will talk to the creator(s) about building a campaign, including events or programmes that reflect the theme and vibes of the story to engage readers. We believe our role is to ensure that our creator’s vision is brought to life in as true (and as fun) a way as possible!
To use one of our latest releases To The Last Gram as an example, our in-house project manager and designer, along with the freelance editor assigned to the project, worked with the writer Shreya Davies from the very start to develop the story from beginning through to the middle and end. Together, they were able to transform what started off as a prose story into a comics script. Thereafter, the editorial and design team continued to collaborate closely with Shreya and the comic’s illustrator Vanessa Wong to ensure that the development process would proceed smoothly, but also that both creators’ creative visions for the project were reflected in the work in the best way possible.
When and why did DE decide to expand globally and why did you choose to start in America?
It was always our plan to expand our readership regionally first before doing so internationally. It was why from the start, we chose to bring on regional creators in addition to those based in Singapore. Singapore is a key market but we are also aware that the size of our population is small – to be sustainable as a comics publisher, we needed a much larger audience. The US was a logical first choice given the size of the English-language market as well as its diverse and international population.
How is your experience so far working with an American comics distributor? What are you excited about and what might be some foreseeable challenges?
It’s no secret that Diamond Comics has had a pretty rough year, and that’s something that has impacted our business. Overall however, we would say that it’s been an incredible learning process for the whole team from editorial to logistics to marketing and PR. We’re excited about all the opportunities that are available to us worldwide, especially when readers are so much more open to international comics content than ever before. What will always remain a challenge for us is that we’re not based in the US, which means that we need to work with partners and consultants who can represent us there. That being said, we will continue to make regional and international appearances as much as we can!
What are some innovative ways DE uses technology to reach overseas audiences?
One of the challenges of being based in Singapore/Southeast Asia is that we’re unable to attend events and conventions regularly in the US and internationally. So we figured that we needed an asynchronous and interactive way to reach readers worldwide. To that end, we developed a free web-based game Internal Damnation which was a tie-in with our prose-comic hybrid Work-Life Balance: Malevolent Managers & Folkloric Freelancers by Wayne Reé and Benjamin Chee.
In 2024, we also published Tiger Girls, written by myself and illustrated by Claire Low which became DE’s first webcomic. We ensured that the webcomic would be mobile-friendly because many countries in Southeast Asia are mobile-first when it comes to reading content. We also worked on alt text for every comic page to ensure that it was accessible to as wide an audience as possible. We’ve recently published a print version collecting the full webcomic with additional bonus content!
Earlier this year, DE held its first global open call for a comics anthology about videogames. Why did you decide to invite international creators to participate and why videogames?
The Free to Play editorial team comprises writers who are all also video game fans and they were the ones who pitched it to us! We were intrigued by the idea of a project that was multi-medium given our previous experimental projects like Work-Life Balance which is a prose-comics hybrid, so it was an easy “yes” for us. Across the DE team, we’re all also avid fans of all kinds of art and media from tabletop role-playing games to embroidery, and video games are certainly no exception! We’re always fascinated and inspired by the many ways stories can be told, and Free to Play definitely spoke to that impulse.
We’re definitely still fully committed to highlighting the amazing talent that exists in Southeast Asia, but Free to Play also gives us a great opportunity to create a space where regional creators can have their work be seen in conversation with creators from all over the world. There’s such a global community coalescing around video games and we’re excited to see it reflected through a culturally diverse lens.
Where can American audiences find DE content?
All our comics are available at https://differenceengine.sg/ and you can keep up with us through social media (@differenceenginesg) and our newsletter! We also have a number of titles available in select US bookstores and libraries as long as their librarians and store buyers order them in, and are working hard to have more titles available within the US soon! For our interactive projects which can be found online, they’re accessible through our website under the specific book pages: https://differenceengine.sg/
Find the mentioned projects here:
https://differenceengine.sg/comics/to-the-last-gram/
What a cool, behind-the-scenes look at this global indie publisher! I’ll have to check out their books. 🙂 Wishing them much success as they expand!