Malaysian Komiks, this was a fun subject to research. Since there’s no Wikipedia page, that makes it all the better to find material to get the story out. With help from the sources of course.
Malaysian Komiks: A Lot Of Dualities
This breed of comics shares a lot with Singapore’s, back when they were sister colonies of the British Empire. That brought over the Brit’s newspaper comics. Inspired by this, a Chinese-language newspaper used it to rally support against the Qing dynasty. Wait, did I read that right? Yeah the Brit’s weren’t the only thing Malays had to worry about. They still had to keep it secret from the Brit’s though. Not that it stopped Imperial Japan from getting involved by WWII.
Frankly today, some of the content can seem… divisive. Sure it gave Malays a sense of slow-burned national pride. But it also said stuff like Chinese and Indian migrant workers being a bad influence. As well as the dangers of Arabic Islam’s influence. They even applied smoking and alcoholism as poison from outside.
The Malay Flavor
So yeah…after the war, Malays still tried to show Malaysia’s uniqueness while toning down the xenophobia. They still had stuff like Mickey Mouse and Flash Gordon, but after being under several oppressive thumbs, showing off your culture might just be the way to go. Of course most of these were adaptations of classic Malay literature in the romantic adventure genre. Stuff like Malay Annals and other stuff most of my readers haven’t heard of.
But then newspapers started publishing standalone stories too. 1978 was when things really started to begin with Karangkrath Group’s Gila-Gila. Most comics in this magazines were satirical of their eras. Meaning major investment in Malaysia’s industrial sector and the Alliance Party forming to urbanize the country. With it comes the highs and lows in archetypes who spoke to the youth.
By the 90s, Malay Komiks had to go against their own grain. One of Gila-Gila’s creatives made his own magazine called Ujang. For a while it surpassed Gila-Gila till it’s publisher failed. Pretty soon, another magazine called Gempak had to add more themes and genres in addition to spotlighting movies, games, and anime. Come on, you gotta give readers something to pick up at the 7-Elevens. It managed to stick around this way.
To this day you’ve still got newspaper strips that satirize Malay life like Kee’s World.
What’s Some Great Malaysian Komiks?
Okay but what about specific titles? Most Malaysians will probably be familiar with a fella named Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid or Lat for short. Especially his premiere comic Kampung Boy, an autobiography of Lat’s family life growing up in rural Perak in the 1950s. So successful in capturing the era, it had sequels.
Another bit is how many foreign comics influenced the local market. Besides American comics like superheroes and Archie, there are plenty of Hong Kong martial arts epics as well as Old Master Q especially for the Malays of Chinese descent. Which is a bit ironic with the colonization history. I guess we should mention manga having a sizable audience in this crowd too.
Those have inspired Malays to make series like Lawak Kampus. It’s a long-running series of high school life through an absurd lense. Plus it features celebrity cameos; so yeah, manga flourishes plus Archie.
To this day Komiks are still popular in Malaysia complete with blog posts dedicated to getting into the industry. In fact as of this post there is a web comics portal for creators to put their content up on called Matkomik.
Can We Find Them?
As for Malaysian Komiks that go to other countries, I don’t know about a lot of them. But, Black Sands Entertainment is offering the comic Andika, The Neosantara Saga. It’s a highly recommended 12 issue series still going through productions that already won several awards.
Anything else besides this and Lat’s stuff isn’t showing up on internet searches. But if Andika means anything, the ink’s not dry yet for Komiks.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.