Celebrating the best of comics

Malaysian Reserve

6 days ago

CAFKL is a creator-focused event celebrating the best of illustration and comic art regardless of language and cultural barriers
by AZALEA AZUAR
ON MAY 31 and June 1, the third floor of Farenheit88 Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur (KL) was trans- formed into a hub of creativity and imagination where visitors expressed themselves in quirky costumes and artists showcased their masterpieces, while pages of zines were being flipped through.
This year, Comic Art Festival KL (CAFKL) returned for its ninth edition and was a hit among the youngsters.
It is a creator-focused event that celebrates the best of illustration and comic art regardless of language and cultural barriers and is organised by Malaysia's longest-running anime, comics and games (ACG) event, Comic Fiesta.
While it highlights the best of Malaysian artists, it also serves as a platform for international artists to break through this market as well as share their experiences.
Advice from Professional
During last year's edition, CAFKL featured digital-first content company The Woke Salaryman for its digital art demo, meet and greet session, as well as book panel.
However, for this year, Comic Fiesta has partnered The Japan Foundation, KL (JFKL) and NPO Asia Manga Summit Japan to bring veteran mangaka (a manga artist) Kurata Yoshimi back to CAFKL's stage.
He is the artist of Japanese cooking manga Aji Ichimonme which began its serialisation in 1987 and is still ongoing until today.
During his panel, 'Storytelling in Comics', Kurata advised aspiring comic artists to think about what they want to give birth to and what they want to put out in the world, in order to achieve their own distinct and identifiable art style.
While using trends is a good way to set a reference because you understand the market better and gain a clearer perspective of the world, Kurata believes that it is better if an artist can inject their own unique style. And by 'style', he also included the artist's own unique perspective.
One of the unique creative processes he shared was by using folded paper to create a background for his story. Then he would place a model or a toy which would be used as a reference for his characters.
Starting out is always difficult. So how does one seek inspiration and motivation?
Kurata suggested thinking about what one personally finds to be an interesting story. It does not matter whether it is a fun story or a sad story, what matters is that you cher- ish the story a lot.
However, those who plan to create a long serial comic would need to be mindful and pay attention to other people's stories.
For instance, Kurata travels to different parts of the world and observes how these chefs prepare and cook their dishes.
He also considers the backstory of these chefs and how it influences them to cook these dishes, and these are the inspirations of storytelling for Aji Ichimonme.
Kurata also highlights the importance of daydreaming as a quality for creators.
By dreaming and fantasising about your 'what if' moments in your day-do-day life, you may be able to think of ways to use those moments to create stories.
For example, an artist can start by imagining they are a professional footballer.
They can then start developing more ideas and creative expressions based on that initial thought.
Apart from Kurata, JFKL and NPO Asia Manga Summit Japan also brought in the artist behind the Obey Me! Manga, Nitou Subaru, and Mag Garden Corp Kansai Divi- sion editor-in-chief Goto Ryosuke.
Comic Fiesta also partnered Singaporean independent comic publisher to bring its creators Claire Low (Tiger Girls), Shreya Davis (To the Last Gram), as well as Malaysian artist Nadhir Nor (Afterlife: The Boy Next Realm).
Meanwhile, renowned local talents who made an appearance were Kael Ngu, Jason Chan and Kadokawa Gempak Starz English editorial chief editor Fey.
Nurul Hasanah notes that each exhibitor in CAFKL had their own distinctive style
Focus on Original Art
Malaysia has many ACG events, but CAFKL stands out with its focus on original character (OC) designs, as opposed to promoting fanarts.
The festival featured a total of 300 artists as well 227 doujin booths, both from Malaysia and internationally.
Hailing from Indonesia's biggest technology centre full-time artist Nurul Hasanah decided to make her way into the Malaysian market last year by boothing during Comic Fiesta 2024 which was held at KL Convention Centre (KLCC).
This time, she decided to try out her luck at CAFKL.
'When I found out about CAFKL, I think it's a really good market for OC artists that make original art. So, I really want to give it a try,' she told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR).
Nurul Hasanah, who is known by her artist name, Nuy, noted that each exhibitor in CAFKL had their own distinctive style.
She found it to be very inspiring and considered it a great experience as she was able to discover art styles that were different from what she had seen back in her homeland.
Nurul Hasanah also felt that the local art in Malaysia boosted her confidence in the path she had taken with her own art.
Her artist's creative process stems Bandung, from her everyday life experience, but she prefers to express it symbolically. 'For example, when I'm angry, I don't draw girls being angry, but I draw girls being surrounded with the colour red just for the symbolism,' she said.
Nurul Hasanah added that before joining CAFKL, she primar- ily drew cuter subjects that aligned with market demands.
But afterwards, she realised that she could focus on creating what she enjoyed, such as the 'sad-girl' themes.
While participating in art events in both Malaysia and Indonesia, she noticed a similar struggle that artists in these two countries faced, which is marketing their artworks.
They may be motivated to create new artwork, but struggle in terms of promoting or selling it. Nurul Hasanah admitted that she faced the same dilemma.
'You just need to be confident. Because for me, I just tried to apply here (to join CAFKL) and I got accepted. So we're just going try to do what we want to do.'
Everyone comes here for original artworks and I can get some commission, says Law
For part-time illustrator Law Kah Weng, this was his second time joining CAFKL. He was interested in opening a booth there as he heard that the festival was more focused on showcasing OCs and original works.
'Everyone comes here for original (artworks) and I can get some commission works,' he told TMR.
Law works full-time for a printing company, but in the art realm he is known as Tangyi.
His work encompasses young cute girls drawn in shojo–anime style but with a Victorian twist.
'I create my original characters and design their costumes for each of them,' he said.
Each character is inspired by a personal story or experience from his life.
Law joined CAFKL last year and he observed that the crowd this time was larger. He also noticed that the demand was inclined towards cute and pastel-coloured artworks.
One of the most meaningful interactions with his customers was being able to explain the process and story behind his artworks.
Finally, he encouraged artists who are more interested in creating OCs rather than producing fanart to consider joining CAFKL.
Comic Worm is a bonding activity where each participant draws one page to form a story
Fun Activities
For those who did not have booths and were not involved with the panel or demonstration sessions, CAFKL had activities where you could showcase your amazing drawing skills and creative ideas.
Even those who had never drawn a stick figure before also took part in these activities, just for the fun of it.
Its hit activities, Comic-on-the-Spot and Comic Worm, returned in this edition, ready to awaken young and new talents.
Comic-on-the-Spot required participants to create their own comic based on a given script and the best part was that they could use their own character. Comics that had been completed were then put on display.
Meanwhile, Comic Worm was a kind of bonding activity among different participants where each one needed to create one page to form a story.
There was also the Speedpainter Showdown where you could have a go and challenge other people. Whoever completed their drawing first won.
At 5pm on both days, CAFKL held a live drawing session, with Saturday's session featuring Guru Ammir and Guru Muda Azhan from Tradisi Fitnest, and Mervyn of Mix-Fit Gym on Sunday's session. Participants were gathered in a circle around the models and drew them as they posed in different positions.
This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition