[PRESS RELEASE] BIGGER, BOLDER WORLDS: DIFFERENCE ENGINE PRESENTS FOUR NEW TITLES IN 2026

28 January 2026, Singapore — Difference Engine is thrilled to announce its 2026 catalogue featuring four titles by creators from Singapore, Southeast Asia, and for the first time, from beyond the region. 2026 also marks the start of the Singapore-based Southeast Asian comics publisher’s international distribution with Consortium which will see these four titles released worldwide from end-2026 onwards.

Difference Engine’s 2026 lineup begins with a bit of magic with Magical Sweet Gula Book 2: Monster Mayhem releasing in April. This is the second volume of Jessica Leman and Johanes Park’s middle-grade trilogy that puts a Southeast Asian spin on the magical girl genre. As a half-Magi living in a non-magical Terran world, Gula Gulali’s power to turn objects into kue and other Indonesian sweet treats often lands her in sticky situations. Just as Gula begins to find balance between being herself and fitting in, everything is turned upside down in this sequel when a cooking contest at school brings out the competitive spirit in Gula’s schoolmates. Will Gula be able to save her school from this magical chaos after her friends have bitten off more they can chew?

Get your loadouts ready this May with Free to Play: A Video Games Anthology, a multi-disciplinary collection of comics, short fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and multimedia works celebrating gaming and gaming culture. This marks Difference Engine’s first publication featuring creators from and beyond Southeast Asia, and includes much-anticipated contributions by Nebula and Hugo award-winning speculative fiction writer Ken Liu, Eisner and Ringo award-winning creator of Fried Rice Erica Eng, poet and 2022 Dublin Literary Award judge Alvin Pang, and speculative fiction writer Wen-yi Lee.

Exploring gaming as both personal and cultural discourse, some highlights include Singapore Book Award winner Myle Yan Tay’s short comic with Natalie M. E. Tan where a knight realises that there’s more to his life than following its rules, World Fantasy Award winner Gabriela Lee’s short fiction about a game character who starts to recall slivers of his past life, and New-York-based Lebanese writer Noor Tannir’s creative non-fiction essay on cycles of digital death in Fortnite as a mirror of a reality permeated by grief. Two interactive multimedia pieces will also be featured as print works that lead to digital experiences beyond the physical book as part of their narrative worlds: a comic-memoir by Zhen uses QR-code accessible memories to reflect on how girls and women are treated in gaming spaces, and Sarah Mak and Nic Chan’s interactive story oscillates between a young woman’s mundane reality and a “playable” mobile multiplayer online game as she reckons with her identity.

This August, Indonesian writer and illustrator Kathrinna R. brings us a middle-grade fantasy of epic proportions, Tanaraya #1. An award-winning indie comic creator who has cultivated a strong and passionate social media fanbase for her comics content, this is the first of Kathrinna R.’s multi-volume graphic novel series inspired by Indonesian mythology. When young Emas, the princess of the floating queendom of Ang Kha Sa, is kidnapped and taken to the Underland below, she starts to question everything she’s been told about the two domains and her role in all of it. From Underland’s beautiful but endangered landscapes and the mythical Yaksa giants believed to be its guardians, Emas’ quest to put the pieces together digs deep into the stories we tell about ourselves and our relationship with nature, but also foreshadows the unravelling of her own secret… that she is the Yaksa Slayer.

From one journey to another, Xocolatl: Language in an Alien Spacetime’s grand interstellar adventure begins like any trip does – in an immigration interrogation room. Written by author and translator Adan Jimenez and illustrated by Josephine Tan with a November release, this graphic novel follows Dani, a writer, artist, and translator from México, as they travel to the planet Eyi to start a new chapter of their life. The endless string of questions by bewildered Eyi immigration officials, peppered with misconceptions about Human culture, ultimately lead Dani down a rabbit hole where they recollect their eventful life against the backdrop of interplanetary geopolitics and unpack what family, gender, history, and art really mean. Equal parts absurdist and incisive, Xocolatl is a sharp critique of how stories shape our identity and what we lose and gain in translation.

Difference Engine’s Co-Founder and Publisher Felicia Low-Jimenez shares, “This year’s catalogue encapsulates Difference Engine’s own journey –  of taking steps towards bigger and bolder ideas that may feel daunting but come together in the best way when you’re collaborating with people who believe in the project as much as you do. We’re proud to work with creators who tell stories with such thoughtfulness and ingenuity, and hope each book allows readers to see the world a little differently.”

Beyond 2026, readers can expect sequels for the Tanaraya and Magical Sweet Gula series; Unbecoming Maya, Andeasyand’s first full-length graphic novel after her short comic A Drip. A Drop. A Deluge: A Period Tragicomedy; Alon, an ecocritical young adult graphic novel steeped in Filipino mythology by Julius Villanueva of Ella Arcangel fame; Stigma, Style by filmmaker Cheryl Wong and Marie Toh; INSPIRITS: Homework, Exams, and Other Monsters, the first of a new graphic novel series by Nicolette “Wanlingnic” Lee.

Difference Engine’s full 2026 Catalogue can be found here.

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

About Difference Engine

Difference Engine is an award-winning independent comics publisher based in Singapore. Powered by stories from Southeast Asia and beyond, we are inspired by diverse, thought-provoking tales told through captivating illustrations by creators both new and experienced.

Like how the invention of the difference engine impacted the world, our goal is to create comics that nudge readers to look at the world differently. As a team of creators ourselves, we see each comic as a collaboration, a conversation, and an opportunity to experiment beyond the printed form to push the boundaries of what comics can be.

In addition to our main publishing line, Difference Engine also publishes DE Shorts, an imprint of short comics that explores a wide range of social issues through lived experience.

Difference Engine is a Potato Productions company co-founded by Felicia Low-Jimenez and Lee Han Shih.