Cheeming Boey (born 12 April 1978) is a Malaysian artist. Primarily known only by his last name Boey, he is best recognised by his

illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

on foam coffee cups, his daily

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

''I Am Boey'', and his autobiographical

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

''When I Was A Kid''.''POP Club Magazine'', May 2012
MPH Online Bestseller List for local non-fiction.
/ref>''Samurais Squids Zombies and Daft Punk in Styrofoam''
interview by La Belle Nuage, ''Lost in a Supermarket'', February 2012.
interview by Tom Berg, ''OC Register'', June 2009.

Early life and career

Boey was born in Singapore and grew up on a song bird farm in Malaysia. He initially went to the United States to study Advertising at the

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU, or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...

(AAU) in San Francisco, but later switched to

Computer Animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

. After graduation, Boey returned to AAU to teach in the Computer Animation department. In 1999 he began working for game developer

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

as a lead animator on ''

Diablo II ''Diablo II'' is a 2000 action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS X. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror themes, was conceptualized and des ...

'' and ''

Diablo III ''Diablo III'' is a 2012 online-only action role-playing dungeon crawling game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment as the third installment in the ''Diablo'' franchise. It was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in May 2012, ...

''. During that time, Boey briefly left Blizzard to work at

Factor 5 Factor 5 GmbH was a German-American Independent business, independent software and video game developer. The company was co-founded by five former Rainbow Arts employees in 1987 in Cologne, Germany, which served as the inspiration behind the st ...

on '' Lair''. Today Boey writes full-time and does freelance design work. His clients include;

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

Vittoria Coffee Vittoria Coffee is a brand of coffee products manufactured by Vittoria Food and Beverage of Australia. Founded in Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of citie ...

, and

draftfcb FCB (previously Foote, Cone & Belding) is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was merged in 2006 with Draft Worldwide, adopting the name Draftfcb. In 2014 the company rebranded itself as F ...

. He is also a travelling lecturer and has spoken at Ted X Weldquay. Boey currently has a weekly comic published in ''The Edge'' (Malaysia).

Projects

Graphic novel and webcomic

In 2007, Boey began a daily webcomic about the experiences of his day. He currently posts six days a week. Boey's book, ''When I Was A Kid'', is meant to be a prequel to the blog of his adult life. In May 2012, ''When I Was A Kid'' became a local non-fiction best-seller in Malaysia. He is currently focusing on distribution in Asia, but his book is available internationally through the

Blurb A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust jacket of a book. With the development ...

website. Boey published his second book "When I Was A Kid 2" in July 2013 and it was a success.

Coffee cup art

Boey began illustrating on polystyrene foam cups in Southern California; first because he had no paper, and then out of appreciation for the results. Artist A Day selected Boey for Best Illustrator in 2011. He has said he is inspired by artists such as

Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...

, Kieth Haring, Moebius, Lat, and

Doraemon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. First serialized in 1969, the manga's chapters were collected in 45 volumes published by Shogakukan from 1974 to 1996. The story revolves around an earless robotic ...

. Many of his pieces are also inspired by his travels and personal experiences. Today, his works are featured in galleries in the US and Asia.''Styrofoam & Fine Art''
interview by Carolyn Edlund, ''Artsy Shark'', February 2010.

''Start with Sharpie'' Campaign

In 2011, Sharpie took notice of Boey's cup art and featured him in their ''Start With Sharpie'' advertising campaign. Director Shal Ngo's Sharpie commercial, ''Sharpie: Coffee Cups to Canvas'', featuring Boey and his cup art, was a recipient of the 2012 TED ''Ads Worth Spreading'' award.''The Lucrative Styrofoam Cup Cartoons of Cheeming Boey''
by Andy Khouri, ''Comics Alliance'', September 2011

Listing of selected work

;Publications *''I Am Boey'' (webcomic blog, weekly comic through ''The Edge'' (Malaysia)) *''When I Was A Kid'' (webcomic, book series) *''How Was Your Day'' ;Gallery Presence *Coffee Cup Art ;Video games *''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

'' *'' Lair'' *''

'' *''

Awards

*1999 — Indies Film Award, Best Animated Short for "Olive" *2001 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Interactive Achievement Award, Game of the Year for Diablo II *2012 — TED Ads Worth Spreading Award, Start With Sharpie *2013 — Popular Books Malaysia, Readers' Choice Award *2013 – New Man Magazine, Young Entrepreneurs nominee *2013 – BMW and Men's Uno Malaysia, Men of Substance Award: Most Influential Artist of 2013 *2015 — Popular Books Malaysia, Readers' Choice

References

External links

*
I Am Boey
'
Behance GalleryCheeming Boey
on

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boey, Cheeming 1978 births Living people Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Malaysian people of Chinese descent Malaysian comics writers Malaysian comics artists Malaysian illustrators Malaysian webcomic creators Malaysian graphic novelists Academy of Art University alumni