Myanmar Comics: Plunge Into An Emerging Media

Myanmar comics are a huge investment in cultural shifts. Maybe people are seeing just how passionate the Burmese media can be now. When two classmates turn a piece of colonization into freedom of Burmese expression, it’s worth that respect alone. Of course with regular hostile takeovers between generations, preserving what comics there are is a priority. Thankfully both old and new have a place on the internet.

Myanmar Comics Beginning

The first Burmese comic is anything but flattering. A Burmese woman humiliated at a Western Party perfectly illustrates then Burma as a British colony. The guy who made this got together with some high school staff to start a club to promote Western art. Only flip side to this is how comic art gets (relatively) better support than in the UK. The West is still snobbish towards the medium at this point. Thankfully two local artists in the club manage to turn this around.

Burmese Burners

Ba Galay, best known as Shwe Yoe, made a magazine in Burmese to keep morale up. His caricature style allowed him to speak his mind in his native tongue and English newspapers. British colonials are one thing, but bootlicking Burmese are just as bad to him.

Ba Gyan takes Burma’s sequential art a step further. He was actually the inventor of Burma’s first comic book Ko Pyoo hnit Ma Pyone. Don’t ask me what it’s about, I can’t find anything other than historical reverence. Maybe it was a collection of strips he rearranged from his political/humor panels.

So what happens after Burma’s independence? More unapologetic political opinions without even a hint of nuance! Not that Ba Gyan favored conservatives or communists. Even when prime minister U Nu asked for him to promote peace and unity, he rejected the filtered messaging. For Ba Gyan, hiding the uglier layers of a freed Burma is still censorship.

The Censored Age

For a while it looks like Burmese comics doesn’t have to worry about censors or what kills the medium’s momentum. TV wasn’t widely available until the ’80s. Long before that period, artists basically have free reign to be as expressive as possible. Until the socialist military coup forced everything to be propaganda, as they do. By the 70s, the book publishing industry tries to bring back some life into everything under its label. But anything specific isn’t easy to find. Even harder to find behind a language barrier.

Others’ Myanmar

It wasn’t until Burma changed its name to Myanmar that comics start to become more prominent. Along with the shift to democracy, most people out of Myanmar started to illustrate their views of the country.

Some are better than others. You know exotic locales full of danger in the West. Meanwhile Japan makes a manga about Suu Kyi, the chancellor who served most of her career under house arrest. …And is currently in jail because of the junta in charge.

How Myanmar Comics Avoid Arrest

Before the junta took over some people try to get Myanmar’s comics out to the most people possible. Such as with Shwe Toons, some people’s try at Webtoons in both Burmese and English. Or at least the website is, it might be hard to read some things. Even with classics like Bobo, basically a Peanuts style slice-of-life comedy. Then there’s Mi Mann Lay, a romance title.

Honestly this website is more like a preserve for Golden Age titles. Except for that educational series Tayza that got a revival in 2020. But I don’t know if it lasted long with the junta.

Not that the junta seems to be cracking down on comics or freedoms of speech and expression. The comics on the Doh Hlay platform trying to keep people aware of human rights issue are still around. Then there’s White Merak Comics Studio. After 2022, it seems to exist only in name; it’s app can’t be downloaded any longer. Despite all of the hype for animated and interactive elements.
But one publisher and app seems to be doing fine. Putet Comics manages to keep its app going, especially with its family oriented functions.

Unlike many military dictatorships, this one doesn’t really seem to care or waste time trying to censor anything. Because most of these publishers are trying harder to keep themselves afloat with the insurgencies effects on the economy.

Are Myanmar Comics Going Anywhere?

For now it looks like Burmese comic fans is more focused on preserving the medium more than trying to push it forward. It’s sad considering how it started with British colonialism. But passionate people unafraid to express their opinions make some big impacts. Enough for people to try and show the world what Myanmar can do. Now they just need to survive a civil war.

Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.