“Go Away”: The Complicated History of Manga in Thailand, from Mixed Receptions to Selective Adoptions

Abstract

“Hello friends of Thailand” wrote mangaka Tezuka Osamu in the short column he composed for the first issue of his Thai-translated series Jungle Emperor Leo in 1968. Manga had just entered the thriving Thai market. Foreign comics participated to a creative maelstrom with cartoonist Raj Lersroung applying the Filipino inking technique to his 1970 Bat Ghost comics, a startling amalgamation of Batman and Kamen no Ninja Akakage. Artists kept up with the trends while Japanese live-action and animated TV series took over Thai screens.

By 1983, a majority of Bangkokian children preferred Japanese comics over Thai ones. Local cartoonists and scholars expressed bitter feelings and mixed receptions towards the Doraemon phenomenon. Tutelar artist Payut Ngaokrachang ultimately asked visiting Japanese cartoonists who wanted to meet him to simply “go away.” Within ten years, the local trade would be swept away, unable to compete with unlicensed Japanese comics. The 1995 national copyright bill helped the local scene to rise again, with the surprising assistance of Japanese publishers which required magazines to feature Thai comics along with their manga series.

The new generation of Thai artists was heavily influenced by manga styles which they applied to Thai traditional folktales or challenged to question Thai identity in a globalized world like in Suttichart Sarapaiwanich’s alternative comics. From Thai mangaka Wisut Ponnimit and his beloved Japan-originated Mamuang character to Izary addressing rape culture in her shōjo-inspired pages, this seminar aims to explore the unique ways Thai cartoonists responded to the growing popularity and influence of manga since the 1960s in their country.

About the Speaker

Nicolas Verstappen is a Belgian lecturer and comics scholar at the International Program of the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He is the author of the Eisner Award-nominated book The Art of Thai Comics: A Century of Strips and Stripes (River Books, 2021). His academic research mainly focuses on the History of Thai Comics, Comics as a Language of Symptoms of Psychic Trauma, and Experimental Comics Composition. Numerous works by his students are displayed on his website From Dusk Till Drawn.