[PRESS RELEASE] Hitting a New Stride: Difference Engine Presents Five New Titles in 2025

18 March 2025, Singapore — Difference Engine (DE) is excited to unveil its biggest slate of titles yet with five new comics to come in 2025. With new releases across age ranges and genres, the Singapore-based independent publisher continues to spotlight Southeast Asian creators with upcoming titles that build upon narrative worlds in the form of sequels, compilations, and highly anticipated follow-ups.

This year’s lineup opens with To the Last Gram the newest addition to the DE Shorts imprint which is DE’s range of short comics shedding light on social issues through stories of lived experience. In To the Last Gram, Shreya Davies unpacks the experience of eating disorders (ED) through the lens of Divya, a young Indian girl growing up in 1990s–present day Singapore. This fictional coming-of-age story echoes various accounts of ED encountered by Davies through her research from online personal blogs to intimate observations of real-life experience. With deft hand and sensitive touch to the subject, Davies’ introspective writing leans into Divya’s emotional journey as she navigates the changes within her growing body alongside the desires and expectations that come with it. Divya’s experience is made all the more visceral by Vanessa Wong’s surrealist illustrations which play with scale and perspective to illustrate the world as seen through her eyes. Combined with Davies’ nuanced dialogue, To the Last Gram takes a gentle approach as it unravels the way ED is intertwined with racism, gender, and can affect even those who grow up in diet-free households.

Fans of Difference Engine’s 2024 webcomic Tiger Girls can look forward to holding the Southeast Asian-inspired dystopian fantasy world in their hands with a print edition featuring intricately beautiful cover artwork by Claire Low that would be a coveted addition to anyone’s bookshelf. With the comic’s manga-style illustrations rendered in full colour, readers new and familiar can immerse themselves in Tiger Girls’ sprawling archipelagic dystopia and its lore written by Felicia Low-Jimenez. Taking a real-life Chinese superstition and pushing it to the extreme, life on the Tiger Girls’ island is made treacherous by a looming threat: a mainland government that seeks to kill all girls of the Tiger zodiac, believing them to be bringers of bad luck. With the bones of a young adult story and a narrative that, at its heart, questions our arbitrary beliefs in old prejudicial myths and stereotypes that still impact women today, readers can look forward to an expanded Tiger Girls world through bonus content such as additional concept art and a new short story written from the perspective of a fan-favourite character.

If To the Last Gram is a sign that there are still lesser-known stories that deserve to be heard, How Are You Feeling? returns us back to the core spirit of the DE Shorts imprint: that shared struggles and challenging experiences should not be confined to hushed tones and awkward conversations. This anthology brings Difference Engine’s first three DE Shorts comics together in one volume for the first time: A Drip. A Drop. A Deluge: A Period Tragicomedy by Andeasyand, Worlds Apart: A Conversation About Mental Health by Wayne Rée and Nurjannah Suhaimi, and Bearing Witness by Vinita Ramani and Griselda Gabriele. Putting these stories about mental health, periods, and pregnancy loss side by side highlights the intersecting conversations about the ineffable experiences that we might find ourselves in. The titular question “How are you feeling?” hopes to open readers more to that which needs to be said and the assurance that we are less alone than we think we are.

Those eager to read more Southeast Asian creators no longer have to wait with bated breath. Following a hugely successful open call for short comic submissions responding to the theme of “delay”, DELAY: A Comics Anthology brings together twelve Southeast Asian creators and creative teams from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Curated by guest editors Charis Loke and Paolo Chikiamco, expect the stories in DELAY to take readers on meaningfully meandering paths with pieces that bridge subconscious worlds and reality, explore the taste of delay, push back against the point of no return, and detour through the cosmic encounters in everyday life. DELAY features creators of diverse backgrounds and experiences including veterans Cesar Miguel Escaño and Ferdee Bambico, returning DE creators such as Cathlyn Vania and Nicolette Lee, as well as creators like Paati Philosophy, Peter Lin, and Angela Wu who will be making their comic print debut with DELAY.

Finally, 2025 will conclude with Magical Sweet Gula 2, a delicious second course of Johanes Park and Jessica Leman’s middle-grade magical girl series featuring Gula Gulali, a Magi with the power to turn the most mundane items into delectable Southeast Asian desserts. In a Terran world where magical powers don’t exist, Gula’s abilities often lead to silly spectacles and kue-related kerfuffles that land her in a bit of trouble with schoolmates and teachers. Through all of these sticky situations, Gula’s adventures lead her on a journey to find belonging and friendship in a world that sees her as different. Young readers can expect Gula’s adventures to continue in 2026 with the final book of the trilogy.

Difference Engine Co-Founder and Publisher Felicia Low-Jimenez shared, “To be able to present the most titles we’ve ever had in a year is a testament to how there’s a real appetite for more Southeast Asian stories. We see how hungry our readers are for more content by creators across different parts of Asia and hope that our growing body of work opens even more opportunities for us to collaborate with other creative voices that haven’t been heard.”

Check out Difference Engine’s 2025 catalogue 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 Difference Engine

Difference Engine is an 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.