Malaysian Cartoonists At The Far End Of Industry Heat Death
I read this wire piece on veteran Malaysian cartoonists for the novelty of reading something about cartooning in that part of the world that wasn't the depressing spectacle of Zunar being sued or harassed by an army of ding-dongs in that country's judicial and police systems. I found it entertaining and affecting all on its own. It's basically a portrayal of what's happened to four cartoonists once their industry took the best of parts of them and then faded in the face of growing technology and the popularity of other media. It's sort of like what very well could have happened in the US in the 1990s if there wasn't this significant hardcore fandom and pernicious arts element to the industry here. The individual stories are sometimes funny -- at one point there was apparently a movement in Malaysia to make cartoonists into singers, which I hope to God happens here -- but the overall melancholy seeps through.
