Comics to Cosmos: A Singaporean Space Cartoonist's Journey

Twenty-five-year-old Singaporean Mr. Jarrod Chua is reaching for the stars with his edutainment brand Spaceytales to make STEM education playful, fun, and out-of-this-world. 

Mr. Jarrod Chua with a telescope at Science Centre Singapore’s Observatory. Photo credit: Jarrod Chua

Mr. Jarrod Chua started Spaceytales, an Instagram page posting space cartoons, during the coronavirus pandemic. His smiling, charming celestial object characters made hard-to-grasp scientific concepts relatable and soon went viral, racking up an impressive 30,000 followers across platforms and over 3 million views to date.

Mr. Chua's comics have explained everything from what a light year is to the difference between asteroids, meteors, meteoroids, and comets, along with spotlighting fascinating objects in the cosmos like the giant pink exoplanet GJ 504b and issues such as orbital debris.

His first big break came from none other than NASA. The American space agency commissioned the then-undergraduate at Singapore Institute of Technology to create a postcard about the James Webb Space Telescope for public outreach in 2020.

Since 2020, Spaceytales has evolved from a popular Instagram account into a space edutainment brand featuring Mr. Chua’s talking planets and spacecraft in comics, merchandise, and physical exhibitions. 

Mr. Chua has worked with organisations such as Science Centre Singapore to The Office for Space Technology & Industry, ArtScience Museum, ST Engineering, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Singapore Institute of Technology, and more to bring STEM topics to life with his distinctively adorable, quirky art style.

The Void Deck editorial team had the opportunity back in May 2025 to chat with Mr. Chua–who also happens to be a former Science Centre Singapore intern–on Spaceytales’ origin story, the lessons he’s learned about exhibition design, and what planet he identifies the most with. Read more to discover about his unusual and inspiring pathway to a STEM career!

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

VD: How did you become interested in space?

JARROD CHUA: Since young I've always gravitated somehow towards the space books at the library. My mom would always bring me to the library on the weekends and I guess for some magical reason I just like to gravitate towards the space section and from there I picked up this interest in space. 

Going to my teen years, I guess from a philosophical point of view, I just really like the awe-inspiring nature of space, how it's the final frontier for humanity. I think, as an optimist, humanity would eventually become a spacefaring civilisation. And so I am very eager to always learn more about what's out there and how I can help humanity as a whole move towards this goal of becoming a spacefaring civilisation so that we don't go extinct down here on Earth.

Mr. Jarrod Chua peering through a telescope at Science Centre Singapore’s Observatory. Photo credit: Jarrod Chua

VD: You mentioned your first hook being the space books. What inspired you to start drawing comics and think about illustration as an avenue for you to explore space?

JARROD CHUA: I picked up a graphic design module in Singapore Polytechnic and that's where I started to hone my skills in graphic design. During the COVID-19 circuit breaker, I was in national service, and my unit sent me back home on a stay-home restricted order, [so] I decided to pass the time by creating Instagram pages [as a] creative outlet. From there, none of them took off. 

But one day I just decided to combine my passion for space since childhood with this skill of graphic design. And why comics? I guess I thought it was a fun medium that was very visual and less "wordsy" so that I could sort of release my creativity but at the same time communicate a bit of science facts.

VD: Your content's very playful and humorous, your comics for Science Centre Singapore's previous blog I Saw the Science managed to explain big technical concepts like the Hadron Collider or planetary defence in a fun and funny way. How do you inject the humour and write the science jokes, but also stay true to the science facts?

JARROD CHUA: Oh, that's a good question, because sometimes my comics do get fact-checked by people. I do have a considerable following who are PhD students, scientists, researchers, and they are not afraid to sound out every time I make a mistake, but that's good. 

For example, there was one comic I did called Rare Earth Theory, it was about whether life on Earth is considered rare and all that. But a scientist from NASA actually DM'ed me and said it should be called "Rare Earth hypothesis" not theory, and he stated his reasons. And from there I actually highlighted that in an Instagram story to document this quite, I guess, funny experience, and you know, this community decided to all DM me around the same [time]. 

[So] I thought, why don't I create this community of factcheckers that sort of give a "stamp of approval" before I hit that post button? They were very kind to do this because they were volunteering on their own time.

I guess that's one of the challenges that I face because I do need to balance having it [be] entertaining but at the same time factually correct. And this is just one of the many safeguards I have in place. Another one is that I usually will cross-reference several websites, the reputable ones like NASA, ISA, all the space organisations before coming to a conclusion with the facts.

This brings me back to a quote that Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, it goes something like, first, know all your facts and then you can twist it to your leisure. Him being one of my idols, I try to tailor that in my approach as well.

Spaceytales illustration on mental health for Science Centre Singapore's former blog I Saw the Science. Graphic credit: Jarrod Chua/Spaceytales.

Spaceytales illustration on astronaut health risks for Science Centre Singapore's former blog I Saw the Science. Graphic credit: Jarrod Chua/Spaceytales.

VD: Speaking of Neil deGrasse Tyson, do you have any STEM content creators or science communicators that you admire? 

JARROD CHUA: Neil deGrasse Tyson was actually one of the main reasons I started Spaceytales because I really like how he simplified complex science topics into a format that was really digestible and entertaining at the same time for the general audience. I really admired his way of doing it and he was one of the main reasons why I decided to simplify space concepts into a way that was appealing and entertaining to the general audience as well. 

Another guy that I really like is Bill Nye the Science Guy. That whole science community is really awesome, and I take inspiration from them.

In terms of Singapore, I really admire our local community as well, [for example] @TheWeirdandWild by Qiyun Woo. [We're] doing different topics, but it's sort of the same gist where she's trying to simplify concepts from environmental issues. MJ Bio Girl I would think is someone as well that is really just simplifying the environmental facts and making it entertaining as well. So that's the international idols and the local idols, yeah.

VD: The people you mentioned have had interesting journeys with STEM content creation. How have you grown as a STEM content creator over the years?

JARROD CHUA: From the start, from an artistic standpoint, I think my art was quite bad back then during my first few comic posts, so I really improved on that, [learned] how to capitalise on some comic rules, like how to express emotions more with comic lines and how to make use of Instagram's algorithm more to spread it to a wider audience. 

From an artistic and social media point of view, I think I've adapted and picked up things that would help improve the quality of STEM output. From a STEM point of view, I guess from the heart of Spaceytales it has always been the same, [if] I find something cool and fascinating, and I'll take that and I'll try to simplify it an make a story out of it with some characters.

VD: Along the way, you also did an internship at the Science Centre with the Transmedia team. How was your internship experience?

JARROD CHUA: I really enjoyed my internship with the Science Centre. It was my first time working in a science centre, a scientific institution. And I really like how I got to [see] first-hand the interactions between educators and the marketers and other departments, because I guess in a way what I'm doing is on a very personal, micro level. But in like a government scale macro level, this would how this would be how it [played] out. And it's really fascinating and nice to see how all the different departments work together to produce and give Science Centre its USP in that sense.

Mr. Jarrod Chua doing some hands-on production work by carrying a backdrop for filming during his transmedia internship at Science Centre Singapore. Photo credit: Jarrod Chua

I really like how I got to meet some pretty cool characters. I remember one time I met Minister Chan Chun Sing at one of the filmings. And how I got to go down to this animal farm, it was quite cool to see the animals and see how they produce the milk and all that. I got to experience first hand how to simplify the facts given by Science Centre educators to become the transmedia outputs that we have.

Mr. Jarrod Chua with camera tripods while filming in a laboratory during his Science Centre Singapore internship with the Transmedia team. Photo credit: Jarrod Chua

VD: The past few years you've brought Spaceytales from digital art into physical interactive experiences. What are the biggest lessons you've learned about exhibition design from your experience working on Dot in Space?

JARROD CHUA: The biggest lesson I've learned was that there are other elements to take into account when designing exhibitions as compared to graphic work. One of them–very important–being the experiential design and spatial design. 

Because with graphic work, you sort of have the luxury of forgoing the ergonomics of things, because at the end of the day, you'll know that people will probably experience it through their phone. The ergonomics of that [is] very simple. It’s just figuring out the aspect ratio and I [post] based on that. 

For Dot in Space, it was a different ball game. Because with exhibition design I had to factor in the varying heights of the patrons, how much walking space there would be for people, the flow of traffic, the lighting, the materials, how reflective the material would be to the lighting for people to see properly, the modularity of the exhibition design, etc.

So all this came into play and I had the privilege of experiencing this first hand because the Dot in Space team from Science Centre that I worked with was really nice in terms of giving me a lot of creative leeway to create this and experiment as we go along. So that really allowed me to experience first hand the troubles and the benefits of creating exhibition designs.

Mr. Jarrod Chua at the Dot in Space exhibition 2024. Photo credit: Jarrod Chua

Mr. Jarrod Chua at the Dot in Space exhibition 2025. Photo credit: Jarrod Chua

VD: One last question: I saw your ‘What Planet Are You?’ personality quiz on Spaceytales' website. I have to ask: what planet are you?

JARROD CHUA: I think I'm Neptune. I [heavily] referenced Neptune to the INFJ MBTI personality type. From an astrology standpoint, it's also one of the more spiritual and dreamy personalities.

I was trying to personify the physical traits of the planet to make this personality quiz work. At the end, [for example] Mars has very rugged terrain and the deepest trenches and the highest mountains, so I personified Mars [as a] rugged sort of daring and bold adventurer. 

For Uranus, it’s the only planet that rotates on its side, [so] I tried to personify it as very quirky, sort of beating to his own drum kind of planet. [Editor’s note: Try the quiz yourself and find what planet you are here.]

Experiment and Play at Science Centre Singapore's Curiosity Shop!

Check out Science Centre Singapore’s Curiosity Shop for fun, educational STEM toys, books, gadgets, and souvenirs including Spaceytales planet plushies. Don’t forget to check out our exclusive Science Centre Singapore and KidsSTOP™ merchandise like periodic table pun tote bags and Rex Explores activity kits! Curiosity Shop is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00am-5:30pm unless otherwise stated.

Written by Jamie Uy
Published 21 August 2025