MY SOUL MATE

Two souls share a body to complete a lifelong dream in author/illustrator Kee’s supernatural YA graphic novel.

Chung Chuen Ming has always wanted to be a comic book artist. His first job out of school was as a junior assistant at a comics company, where he hoped to be able to eventually achieve his dream. However, the longer he was there, the more he realized that he spent time working on everyone else’s pieces, and never his own, so he quit. Now, he plans to devote his time to finishing his personal work. But with only 40 pages to go, Ming has a heart attack and ends up dead in his apartment. While wandering as a soul without a body, Ming is drawn to a comic studio and finds himself taking over the body of another artist working there. One second, Cheung Shan is working on a piece for his boss, and the next, he’s no longer in control of his actions. Fearing that he’s possessed, Shan does some rituals in order to free himself from the spirit that’s attached to him—but instead, it allows Shan and Ming to see each other and communicate. They make a deal: Shan will allow Ming to use his body while he’s asleep in order to complete Ming’s comic manuscript in time for a nearby comic contest. But Shan’s coworkers notice something is different about him and soon plot to free him from his situation. In this standalone, Kee effectively pens a story of two souls working together to achieve lifelong ambitions and help each other grow at the same time. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear the two souls have come to an understanding, and both characters blossom, despite their strange arrangement. Everyone around them seems oddly quick to jump to possession as the reason for the strange events, but this lends itself to some amusing and emotional moments. The illustrations, executed in classic, grayscale manga style, feature appealing, small details, such as the tether that ties the two main characters to their shared body, which add subtle paranormal flourishes to the visual storytelling.

An inspiring and motivating tale of soul cooperation.