24 Hour Comic Day, Malaysian Style
Date: 19 Dec 2006

NEWS DETAILS

Better late than never, right?

Slightly over two months after 24 Hour Comics Day 2006, a group of 20 creators/artists/cartoonists from Malaysia finally took up the challenge to write and draw 24 pages of comics in 24 hours.

Based on an original concept by Making Comics creator and the leading theoretician in the comics field Scott McCloud, the Malaysian challenge was first mooted by former Silver Surfer artist Milx two months before the international 24-Hour Comics Day event in October. Cedko Gan of Cedko, who’d organized the Cedko Cartoonist Conference in April, made it a reality this past weekend at the inaugural Sci-Fi & Fantasy Festival 2006.

Gan described the event as “super successful, [with a] mix of different levels of cartoonists - professionals (American comics & local comic houses) and non-professionals (newspaper reporters, home maker, food operator, students, lecturers. IT, etc)

“[The] quality of work [was], not surprisingly, above average. Cedko has always believed that Malaysians are a very talented bunch.�

“The 24-Hour Comic Day is something I wanted to do at least once in my lifetime,â€? grand prize winner Alan Quah told Newsarama after the event. “Before I started, I really wanted to make sure that I can throw in some integrity to the pages. That would mean not slacking too much in terms of quality. I’m glad I manage to do just that within the time frame. We started out quite well, the plan is to draw a page an hour but as pages passed, things got a little out of hand. [laughs] I think by the time I reached page 12, I’m already an hour behind. So there was a lot of chasing to do. In the end, I think me and my partner in crime, Sheldon Goh (who sat next to me) didn’t sleep at all. Somehow, with his motivation I manage to make back the time loss and even have time for a quick breakfast with 20 minutes to spare in the end. This is an experience I will cherish forever. I’m sure I will be able to put it to good use when it comes to drawing for my paid gigs.

Hafidz Mahpar, who judged the event together with Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, a representative of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDec), the agency responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in Malaysia; and Kinsun, who did three issues of Batman in 2004, said that “Alan has always, as far as I know, been known more for his art than for his story; but I was happy to discover he could also write a darn good story!

“His comic is about a fight to the death between two artists in a fantasy realm where things drawn such as guns — become real. Darn symbolic of a comic drawing competition, don’t you think?

“Some parts of the art were intentionally left in pencil form (as per the story’s requirements),
which shows that Alan was thinking out of the box. It’s not just ink. For a lot of the cartoonists, their way of thinking out of the box was to have a double-page spread (well, Alan had this as well).

“Alan’s art is so detailed and polished that it looks like it took a few days; at the very least — to draw. It’s amazing that he did it in 24 hours. Shows great discipline. But my concern is whether Scott McCloud or [24-Hour Comics Day founder] Nat Gertler would believe that Alan’s stuff was done in under 24 hours!!â€?

“It’s not typical to have any prizes for the top 3 comics at overseas 24-Hour Comics Day events. The goal was simply to finish within 24 hours, period. All who finish are winners. No losers. Indeed, all the 18 Malaysians who completed the 24 pages, in my view, are winners. You’re the pioneers, and you did Malaysia proud!â€?

by: Benjamin Ong Pang Kean
source: NewsArama.com

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