Work-Life Balance: Malevolent Managers and Folkloric Freelancers

When a menacing multinational arrives on our shores, familiar creatures like pontianaks, manananggals, raksasis, and ba jiao guis are forced out of their jobs. Some give in and sign up for mundane corporate life – but others would rather fight than join the broken-spirited hordes of the (desk)bound. Benjamin Chee’s comics and Wayne Rée’s prose intertwine in this collection to bring you familiar Asian mythology in an even more familiar setting: the realm of dead-end work, glass ceilings, and truly hellish bosses.

Benjamin Chee (Co-Creator)
Benjamin Chee created the comics and illustrations for Work-Life Balance. He enjoys mashing up genres and themes, so after making several books with titles like Charsiew Space and Lychee Queen, he ended up asking Wayne Rée for permission to adapt the wild west short story, Mr Memphis, into a Wuxia comic… leading to them making this book together. His comics are collected in Liquid City Volume 3, Asian Monsters, and SOUND: A Comics Anthology. He is terrified of horror movies and hasn’t yet fully comprehended why he is part of this book with its abundance of hantu. Find him online at www.charsiewspace.com

Wayne Rée (Co-Creator)
Wayne Rée wrote the prose for Work-Life Balance. He’s the co-creator of the comic, Worlds Apart: A Conversation About Mental Health (with Nurjannah Suhaimi), and the fan favourite audio series, Ghost Maps (with Kyle Ong). His short stories have appeared in LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, Infinite Worlds Magazine, The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories and Fish Eats Lion Redux. He first collaborated with Benjamin Chee on Mr Memphis. His least favourite job ever was when he worked as a social media manager. His favourite job ever was when he worked as a night-shift security guard. Find him online at www.waynereewrites.com.