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THE HISTORY OF MALAYSIA CARTOON INDUSTRY
By FAKHRUL ANOUR (AYOUR)
The word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time. Cartoons defined as drawings formed by an exaggeration or a distortion of a subject for an effect of satire and entertainment. The original meaning was in fine art, and there cartoon meant a preparatory drawing for a piece of art such as a painting or tapestry. The somewhat more modern meaning was that of humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers. Even more recently there are now several contemporary meanings, including creative visual work for print media, for electronic media, and even animated films and animated digital media.
When the word cartoon is applied to print media, it most often refers to a humorous single-panel drawing or gag cartoon, most of which have captions and do not use speech balloons. The word cartoon is not often used to refer to a comic strip. The artists who draw cartoons are known as cartoonists.
Malaysia is a country in the southeast of Asia with population estimated (by February 2008) around 27.496 million. The people of Malaysia come from a number of different ethnic groups mainly — Bumiputra (65%), Chinese (26%), Indian (8%) and others (1%). Though Malay is the country official language, freedom use of other languages mainly English, Chinese and Indian in electronic or printing media are fully allowed. Thus Malaysia provides a multi culture cartoon industry based on their ethnic and language preference though Malay medium take more of the market percentage.
Cartoon industry started in Malaysia almost simultaneously with Indonesia during the late 1920s in conjunction with the development of newspapers. In that context, not only did cartoonists illustrate culture, but they also recorded, criticized or commented upon current events, known as editorial cartoons. From there, the industry evolved to different medium such as magazine or electronic media to become not only as editorial cartoons but also comic, strip and animated cartoons.
During the early phase of Pre-independence Period (1930s – 1957), two major newspapers written in Jawi; ‘Warta Jenaka’ & ‘Utusan Zaman’ played vital role on introducing regular and freelance community of cartoonists. In addition to entertainment, most of the cartoons functioned as instruments of criticism and satire, in line with the goals of the papers to raise racial consciousness towards their rights and their future. The cartoons contained political, social and economic criticism concerning the community especially Malays, as well as humorous subjects. One of the major subjects in early cartoons was the effect of colonization in the way of life. Many cartoons recorded and criticized the influence of Western Culture, especially on those who considered the western way of life more attractive.
* A cartoon by Abd. Manan entitled ‘Barat Tinggal di Barat, Timur Tinggal di Timur’ (The West Must Stay in the West, the East Must Stay in the East) in ‘Warta Jenaka’ (7th September 1936) is not only an anti-Western statement, but it also criticizes those who are fascinated by the West. It shows a couple of monkeys symbolizing Malays who are aping Western attitudes.
When came into Post-independence era after 31st August 1957 (Independence Day), the social, economic and political conditions of Malaya played a very important role in shaping the form and content of local cartoons. By this period, new publications of newspapers were introduced which begin the era of multi language freedom in media. There are two types of cartoons, namely, strip and single-x-frame. Most of the strip cartoons deal with social issues related to attitude, modernization and moral crisis. Meanwhile single-x-frames depicted most local and international contemporary events which only began to thrive in the 1980s. By this era, Berita Harian (first published on 1st July 1957) claimed to feature the largest number of cartoons among newspapers in Malaya at that time.
SINGLE-FRAME
Editorial cartoon by Peng which was published in Berita Harian newspaper dated 7th September 1957 for weekly column called ‘Berita Harian Hidangan Hari Sabtu’ (Berita Harian’s Saturday Column). Translated from English, these cartoons were originally drawn for the ‘Straits Times Saturday Forum’ in The Straits Times, the English version of Berita Harian.
STRIP
The strip cartoon ‘Keluarga Mat Jambul’ (Mat Jambul’s Family) by Raja Hamzah in Berita Harian dated 14th May 1961. This series was said the first to introduce strip cartoon in Berita Harian.
Late 1960s, imported comics from Indonesia has encourage a new transition of style with more realistic drawing compared to cartoon feature. By right, this realistic drawing mainly influenced by western comics such as Spider-Man and Superman, but with local content, the popularity has appeared to attract the readers. When cartoons comic mostly appeared in newspapers, these realistic drawing comics were published as graphic novels or magazines
Achir Suatu Kemesraan’ (The End of Intimacy) was one of the famous Indonesian matured comic series back in 1970s.
Comic industry in Indonesia used to be hyper-active before people started to complain about bad moral issues that was implanted in youngsters’ mind.
In 1970s, Malaysian publisher, Raz Studio published a realistic drawing comic magazine titled ‘SALINA’. It introduced a new breed of comic artists instead of cartoonists such as Rizalman, Zawawie HO, Sang Arif Budiman, S Zain, Samudra Perwira, S Mohammad and R Rahimah. This comic magazine has lasted for more than 10 years thus encourage cartoon industry to follow the same method by publishing magazine for cartoons.
As 1973 approached, western cartoons and comics were terminated in line with the policy to encourage the development of local themes and cartoons. It also echoed the search for a national identity as proposed in the National Cultural Congress of 1971. Cartoonists had to abide by rules and laws related to the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984, which among others, prevents the discussion of social and political issues deemed to be ‘sensitive’. These policies determine what is politically and stylistically acceptable in terms of criticism, form and content of local cartoons.
In 1978, the first Malaysian cartoon magazine ‘GILA-GILA™’ was published by Creative Enterprise Sdn. Bhd. The success of the magazine encouraged more publishers to produce similar publication until many years later the success was took over by ‘UJANG™’ and ‘APO™’ published by Moy Publication Sdn. Bhd. The increase in the number of cartoon magazines, the emergence of new cartoonists, the exhibition given by the public and by the government turned the 80s into the golden age of Malaysian cartoons. During this period, most of them inspired by western cartoon magazines such as ‘MAD™’ & ‘NUTS™’ but with their own identities that reflected the local culture.
continue...........
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Local Manga/comic fan club =D, we support our local artists!! 
Sep 26 2009, 01:36 PM
