You are joking, right?

I always wanted to see manga styled comics that depicts our own social lives. Instead, what we get in Gempak are watered down imitations of the Japanese settings, with authors shamelessly naming the characters in Japanese and mimicking typical Japanese school life. If i want a Japanese setting, i would read Japanese manga.

Some attempts to relate more to Malaysian kids' life did pass, but the artists that managed to do this often disappear after 3-4 mags. I suspect that something wrong happened between them and Gempak's editor, which i know had some dirt on his own.

Ujang used to have a few manga-styled artists, but they often got stamped out by Gayour,,who claim that the style is 'not Malaysian' Ironic since Ujang's and Gila-Gila's styles were heavily influenced by the US-made MAD magazines. Then again, these morons didnt learn history.

For me, art styles are nice, but its the CONTENT that matter. I always wanted a manga that I can relate with as a secondary school student IN MALAYSIA, not some foreign setting like Japan, from our own manga style artists, but people think of me as weird.

In my opinion, manga style artists can sell more books if their storyline and settings are more relatable to the Malaysian crowd.

Of course, i tried doing it myself, but i lacked the skill so i could never make it happen.

I really hate e-book. As if we don't spend enough time on electronic gadgets. 

I know there are many advantages about e-book, but I still prefer flipping physical book page by page.

Most of it was just pointless DeviantArt drama. Admittedly, i was kinda... 'loud' and 'aggressive on my opinions about how local Jap style artists should make their content so a lot of them didnt take it very well. I also sucked much more at drawing back then, so they took me even more lightly.

At the time, many Jap style local cartoonists, even when they make original comics, i saw all of them as little more than masturbatory works about their own fantasies with Japan. Their artworks arent just Japanese by art style, but also tried to be so with their subject, storytelling and setting. But since they are not Japanese, they felt like hollow imitations of their favorite works. As a Malaysian, i could not relate with ANY of their works even though a good amount of them are Malay Muslims like me.

I was very vocal against it, they thought "who the fuck is this guy?", got annoyed with my aggressiveness and eventually ignored me. For them, they just want to draw what they like. End of story. They do have every right to, but i was too harsh when talking about it.

I still stand by the opinion that our local artists wont gain any notable attention until they start drawing subjects that are more familiar with their own lives instead of what they saw and fantasize from their favorite Japanese works, but no one will give a fuck because I lack the skill to have any sort of credentials on the matter.

This is why i am even more resentful of Ujang's editorial staff, for preventing Jap style artworks from becoming mainstream enough to produce stories relatable to average Malaysians（Malays especially) instead of all this high fantasy stuff or Japanese anime school settings.

Oh shit, not Nizam Bachok... It was Taufan!

Both great, great lines etc.

Taufan is the guy.. Very reminiscent to the old HK comics.

IINM early in Gempak got a whole series of Hikayat something2 with Silat instead of Wuxia. With all the Pencak and Jurus and Petala lol Heckline's favorite.