Reimena Yee
Author-illustrator of
The World in Deeper Inspection
The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya
- 2018 Eisner Award Nominee
- 2019 McDuffie Award Finalist
- ALA List of Best Graphic Novels for Adults 2020
- The A.V Club Best Comics of 2020
- A Junior Library Guild Selection
- ALA List of Best Graphic Novels for Children 2021
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
- The A.V Club Best Comics of 2021
- Outstanding Artist Ignatz Awards Winner 2022
- Comic Arts Awards Australia Nominee 2022
Twitter: @reimenayee
Instagram: @reimenayee
About
Short bio:
I'm a strange and fancy graphic novelist, illustrator and designer originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'm currently based in Melbourne, Australia. I am the co-founder and co-organiser of UNNAMED, and I am an editor and admin assistant at Hiveworks Comics. At both places, I am part of a team which provides community and resources for Southeast Asian comics creators and international webcomics artists respectively (sometimes they overlap).
Long bio:
Media Kits
For use in media publications.
General Media Kit (link)
Contains author photos, selected illustrations and pages and a list of preferred questions/topics.
I've also prepared media kit folders for each book, which contains selected pages, concept art, promotional material and a specialised question list. Please email me to obtain the media kit for the book you need.
Selected Interviews & Articles
To Read a Carpet, LA Review of Books, 2022
Creating her own world, The Sun Daily (Malaysia), 2021
Eisner-nominated Malaysian artist Reimena Yee blurs the line between history and fantasy, The Malay Mail, 2020
Malaysian comics creator Reimena Yee weaves her own path to the future, The Star (Malaysia), 2020
An Interview with Reimena Yee, Author of Séance Tea Party; On Making Comics, Ghosts, & Growing Up, The Quiet Pond book blog, 2020
REIMENA YEE on the ghosts, gutters, and graveyards of SÉANCE TEA PARTY, The Beat, 2020
Artists You Should Know: Reimena Yee blends culture and history into rich emotional tapestries, The Beat, March 2018
The ‘Other’ Vampire, Farrago Magazine, August 2016
Licensing, Interviews and Such
Are you available for...
An interview: Yes, over email and via podcast. Please peruse the media kits above to prepare.
A panel, workshop or author appearance: Depends on my schedule and the timing of the event (I am based outside of the US). Please ask over email. I may require compensation for travel, materials and time.
A portfolio review: Yes, but I require financial compensation.
Can you answer my questions for an assignment?
I am sorry but I really don't have time nowadays to help with assignments. Fortunately I've done a few interviews (under the Media Kit section above) and I'm very open about my process in this FAQ (scroll down further), my blog and my Resources page.
How do I contact you?
I only respond to media and professional correspondence by email: reimenayee @ gmail
Who is your agent?
Jen Linnan of Linnan Literary Management.
Questions about licensing...
An illustration: If you'd like to license a drawing or illustration (which is NOT commissioned work by a third party client), please email me for permission and rates by stating your intended usage.
This includes intending to use already-made artwork for tattoos, but by courtesy. See this post for my specific stance on tattoos.
I'll be opening a storefront for clipart and stock illustrations in the near future.
A graphic novel/comic for translation and foreign rights: If you're a publisher or editor from another country and would like to publish my work for your local market, please email me, my agent and/or my original publisher to negotiate a deal.
A graphic novel/comic for media adaptation: If you'd like to adapt my work into another medium, please email me and my agent to obtain permission and negotiate a deal.
NFTs & Blockchains
- I'm NOT INTERESTED in joining any NFT-related project. Or any speculative art market for that matter, even if it's cash. All offers will be blocked and deleted.
- Any of my art found on a blockchain marketplace is unauthorised, stolen, fake and a scam by disreputable persons. None of those NFTs are original, none of the proceeds go to me, and none of those NFTs will have any value at any point in the future as they are not authorised and never will be. You better invest your tokens on something else. Alternatively, if you genuinely like my art, you can cash out your tokens and support me by buying my books or my Ko-fi.
Craft, Art and Process
What are your tools?
Photoshop CS6, Huion H610 Pro tablet, Huion Kamvas Pro 13, Macbook Pro 2012
iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate, Astropad
Scrivener, Airtable, Notion.so, Goodnotes
Sketchbook, notebook, mechanical pencils (black and red leads)
What is your process?
The process changes slightly depending on the work I'm doing, but generally, once I have a concept/story for an illustration or a comic page, I sketch out the composition or page layout via thumbnails (on a piece of paper or an iPad Pro). For illustrations, I usually have several thumbnails from which I pick the best one, and for comics, I only have one thumbnail per page. The stages are more straightforward after that. I do a fully realised sketch in the actual dimensions of the work so I can correct any issues with placement and fine details, then immediately jump into the rendering.
With my own comics, there is a writing stage before all this drawing. Please read The Onion Method: How I Outline a Story, and The Onion Method: How I Art Direct a Graphic Novel.
My Resources page contains links to Twitter threads where I've documented every stage of my comics creation process for each book, alongside selected blog posts where I talk more generally and deeply about how I come up with ideas, bring an illustration to life, write stories, and exist as a creative.
Where can I find out more about your craft and your creative process?
Influences
What are your early influences?
Neil Gaiman, particularly The Graveyard Book; Dave Mckean's comic experiments; The illustrations of Chris Riddell; Hanna is Not a Boy's Name, by Tess Stone; Neopets; Frakenfran, by Katsuhisa Kigitsu; The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar
What are your influences now? How do they inspire you to make the art you do?
I'm inspired by the world and all that contains within. I love history and art history, and the things people have made with their hands across civilisations. I love science, because it teaches me how the world works, and that there is so much to pursue and be fascinated by, whether it's the small or big things. This scholarly interest in existence, of being a person interested in their surroundings, is what influences me to look deeper, to learn about how and why we live, to break and reshape the way we see our past, present and future. All the work that I make is an expression of this pursuit.
What authors/books/media are your inspiration?
Comics:
Through the Woods (and other webcomics), by Emily Carroll
Beauty, by Hubert and Kerascoet
Wandering Island, by Kenji Tsuruta
Books:
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres
The House at the Edge of Night, by Catherine Banner
Anything written by Alexander McCall Smith
The Epic of Gilgamesh, Andrew George translation
The Odyssey, Emily Wilson translation
The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
Film:
Amelie, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
The Fall, Tarsim Singh
The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet
Prince of Egypt, Dreamworks
Most of the Studio Ghibli catalogue
Whisper of the Heart
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Pushing Daisies
Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, by Satoshi Kon
Satyricon, Federico Fellini
The thoughts and craft of Ursula K. LeGuin
All of Josh Groban's music, 20 years and going!
