Appeal for help in grooming and promoting creative talent

The Hong Kong government should do more to promote local creative talent to a global audience, says the publisher of a local comic poised to make its Hollywood debut.

Simon Squibb, chief executive officer of Fluid Comics, the publisher of the graphic novel DevaShard, said the government could help local talent sell their creativity to the mainland and western countries.

CreateHK, an agency set up to drive the creative industries, could come up with better ways to groom local creative business and talent, he said.

A government programme that encouraged locals to take up internships at advertising agencies did not go far enough, he said. 'They are foreign agencies and it's not cultivating creative talent,' he said. 'If DC and Marvel Comics come and set up in Hong Kong, InvestHK will help them to compete against us, but they won't help us to compete against them. There is something wrong here.'

Last year, his company spent HK$300,000 to take part in Comic-Con, an annual fan convention in San Diego, and succeeded in landing a movie deal. 'We can make money back from the movie and later on the game deal, but other companies maybe can't. There are lots of really creative talents and companies here but they can't [all] go to San Diego,' he said.

Spencer Douglass, Fluid's business development director, said help on promotion was urgently needed as Hong Kong talent was relatively unknown and competition around the region was getting fiercer.