[PRESS RELEASE] It’s About Time: Finding New Rhythms in “DELAY: A Comics Anthology”

6 September 2025, Singapore — The wait is nearly over: Following a successful open call drawing over 80 comic pitches from creators across Southeast Asia, eleven stories selected by editors Charis Loke and Paolo Chikiamco will reveal their final form in DELAY: A Comics Anthology which will be published by Difference Engine on 6 October 2025. 

Comprising writers and illustrators across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, these creative teams bring their own perspectives to the theme of “delay” through narratives that challenge the unrelenting pace of time. The anthology’s stories peer into the interstices between moments, are situated across spaces and silences, and articulate the frustratingly familiar experiences of longing and anticipation that seethe against our impulse to rush headlong into the future. Taken together, the stories in DELAY give rise to a sense of Southeast Asian time and the different chronologies that emerge throughout the region.

 “DELAY serves up a variety of meditations on topics that will resonate around Southeast Asia: migration, identity, memory, family, and societal expectations of a successful life,” Loke shares. These currents are felt throughout the anthology beginning with “Ad Astra”, the opening story by Nicolette “Wanlingnic” Lee, and “The Adventures of Sunday Domingo (feat. Yaya Precy)” by Julius Villanueva as they consider those whom life has passed by and forgotten, whether you’re a lost spirit tethered to a cemetery or a domestic helper whose silent labour allows others to thrive. The subject of missed milestones also emerges in explorations of coming-of-age and growing up where challenges both personal (“Ma, Pa, Delayed Ako”) and even political (“Syncopation”) come up against youthful hopes and ambitions. Delving further into more character-focused pieces, Farid Nad (“Astray”) and Cathlyn Vania (“The Other World”), both returning contributors from Difference Engine’s previous anthology SOUND, provide a glimpse of time forgotten as plot gives way to inner worlds shaped by emotions and feelings. The connection between time and interiority also brings us to “Time For That Later” and “DELAYED” which explores the asynchrony between individuals with dementia and their caregivers as they grasp at a shared but ultimately transient present.

DELAY also brings together creators both new and experienced, featuring veterans of the Filipino comics scene Cesar Miguel Escaño and Ferdee Bambico (“A Day in the Life”) alongside debut comic creators like Paati/பாட்டி Philosophy (“Fish Curry Tastes Better the Next Day”) and Eliot Lime (“Limerence Station”). Both debut creators bring influences from other art practices to the slice-of-life genre — food artist and researcher Paati/பாட்டி Philosophy teases out the parallels between human connection and a pot of curry stewing in myriad flavours, and animator Eliot Lime plays around with a collage of art styles clashing together in chaotic symphony.

The stories in DELAY are themselves a culmination of their own temporal journeys as each creative team underwent a year-long period of close editorial guidance with Loke and Chikiamco to develop their pitch into a finished story. Co-founder and Publisher of Difference Engine Felicia Low-Jimenez shares, “Putting together an anthology in this way takes a lot of time and effort, but we fully believe in this process of co-creating and collaborating with the writers and illustrators we work with. Through SOUND and DELAY, we’ve had the privilege to be part of individual creative journeys and connect with new creators which is at the core of the work we do at Difference Engine.”

Reflecting on the anthology’s collection of stories, Chikiamco says, “While the stories in the book all touch upon the theme of “delay”, I ultimately hope that they inspire the urge in readers to set aside the pace imposed by modern society, to pause and reflect, to stay and read.” Loke concludes, “I hope the stories become mirrors for readers to see themselves in, and doorways to live in timelines of their own making.”

DELAY: A Comics Anthology retails at $27.90 SGD (w/o GST) and is now available for preorder till 6 October 2025 through the following channels: 

• Difference Engine’s webstore: www.differenceengine.sg
• Wormhole: www.wormhole.com.sg

Download the DELAY: A Comics Anthology press kit here.

Follow Difference Engine on:
Website: https://differenceengine.sg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/differenceenginesg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/differenceenginesg

For enquiries, contact:
Olivia Djawoto
Marketing and Communications Manager, Difference Engine
olivia@differenceengine.sg

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Charis Loke has been found drawing book covers, fantasy maps, board games, street protests, in the jungle, on a boat, and by a glacier. As an editor and curator, she’s worked with close to a hundred Southeast Asian comic creators and artists, including co-editing SOUND: A Comics Anthology, published by Difference Engine. She’s illustrated for Netflix, Orbit, Macmillan, Subterranean Press, and Mekong Review, among others, and has an MA in Visual Sociology with an interest in mapping as arts research.

Paolo Chikiamco, from the Philippines, is a lawyer and writer of prose, comics, and interactive fiction. His prose has been published in anthologies such as The Sea is Ours and The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction, and his interactive wrestling novel Slammed! was released by Choice of Games. As an editor, he put together Alternative Alamat, an anthology of stories that reimagine Philippine myth and folklore. As a comics writer, he has collaborated with some of the country’s most talented artists on work such as Mythspace, Muros, and A Sparrow’s Roar.

ABOUT DIFFERENCE ENGINE

Difference Engine is an award-winning independent comics publisher based in Singapore. We are inspired by stories from Asia, and we are committed to publishing diverse, well-written, and beautifully illustrated comics of all genres and for all ages. We collaborate closely with Southeast Asian creators, both new and experienced, with genuine and thought-provoking ideas to share. Difference Engine was founded in 2018 and is part of the Potato Productions group of companies. 

STORIES

Ad Astra (Nicolette “Wanlingnic” Lee)
Syncopation (Aime Marisa & Bonnibel Rambatan)
Time For That Later (Wayne Rée, Nadia Daeng-Rée & Abigail Goh Tian-I)
A Day in the Life (Cesar Miguel Escaño & Ferdee Bambico)
Astray (Farid Nad)
Ma, Pa, Delayed Ako (Hansel Dimapilis)
Fish Curry Tastes Better the Next Day (Paati/பாட்டி Philosophy)
DELAYED (Peter Lin & Angela Wu)
Limerence Station (Eliot Lime)
The Adventures of Sunday Domingo (feat. Yaya Precy) (Julius Villanueva)
The Other World (Cathlyn Vania)