Comics Around The World Part 2
Welcome back to our Comics Around The World series! This week, we’re back in Malaysia visiting another talented artist, Hanie Mohd!
Hanie Mohd is a self-described cat-and-food loving geek. After spending time in advertising and animation, she returns to her first love: comics!
Bob Francis: Have you always been into comics? What do you enjoy about making comics? Who are your influences and inspirations?
Hanie Mohd: The earliest recollection I have about anything that remotely pertains to an ‘artistic background’ is when I was 5 – I would fill the inside covers of picture storybooks and my kindergarten exercise book with doodles – much to the annoyance of my parents. I told them the drawings in the exercise book were ‘homework’. It was not, by the way. I had the worst time trying to erase everything so my teacher wouldn’t kill me. (laughs)
I’ve always liked looking at pictures and reading words, so liking a material that combines both come naturally to me. I think I may have started reading comics first through Gila-Gila, a MAD-type local comic magazine, and moved onto Archie comics in my tweens – and I think this may be when I first started drawing my own comics – by copying OFF Archie comics! . It sort of just took off from there – in high school I discovered manga, and that too became a huge influence to me artistically.
I think what I like best about making comics the sheer joy I get out of creating my own world and characters, and the stories that I am able to tell through the visuals. It’s one thing to tell stories through words and speech, and another through drawings, and the latter is a challenge I truly enjoy undertaking. As a kid I often felt like there’s tons of things in my head that I couldn’t quite express, and when I do express them (or as best as I could) verbally, no one seemed to understand me! And that’s where drawing comes in for me – it’s also a form of expression, an outlet where I can sufficiently express my ideas into shapes and forms that people can identify with.
I suppose my very first (or perhaps an influence that I am old enough to be aware of) is Dan DeCarlo, who was an artist for Archie comics. The others would be Harry Lucey, Samm Schwartz (also of Archie comics), Kosuke Fujishima (Ah My Goddess, Stop! You’re Under Arrest), Bruce Timm (I adore the sleek lines of his females!) Pixar artist Bill Pressing, retro cartoonist Shane Glines and so much more, too many to mention! In terms of storytelling I love the sensitive nuances of artist/writer Craig Thompson, the elegant storytelling style of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, the otherworldly tales of Neil Gaiman and the sharp, witty sarcasm of Terry Prachett. It’s hard to pinpoint a specific influence and inspiration though, to be honest – I read a lot of materials from both ends of the spectrum and I think all of those materials do in some ways influence AND inspire me directly or vice-versa.
l do hope to publish my own graphic novel one day! I’ve been regularly publishing my stories in an annual comic zine, YongumiX (which is a collaborative effort between a group of comic-drawing friends) for a few years now, and a comic of mine, written by geek culture writer Jill Pantozzi will soon be published in an all-women anthology called Womanthology. I really hope to branch out one day and have more contributions in comic collectives/ anthologies, but ultimately the dream is to write and draw my own book!
BF: What’s on your art table, and where can we find your stuff?
HM: My computer, my 7 year old Intuos II tablet, my sketchbook, a toolbox filled with sketch cards, pencils and pens, an array of markers, a cup of water and my cat (who kept drinking out of that cup of water even when she’s not supposed to).
I am currently a freelance artist primarily working on official sketch card sets for companies like Rittenhouse, 5finity and Upperdeck. I’ve worked on licensed cards sets like Marvel Masterpieces, Captain America and Thor, just finished up a Josie & the Pussycats card set and am currently working on a Red Sonja card set, released by Breygent-Dynamite.
End of this year my friends and I will be producing the 7th issue of YongumiX and as usual I will have a short story in there! This will be available at the Comic Fiesta 2011, in December. We actually had the previous year’s issue (YongumiX 6) reviewed here
I will also have a comic out in Womanthology, an all-woman anthology published by IDW and set to come out in January 2012 (the listing for the book is here)) The comic, entitled ‘The Dream Weaver’ is a collaborative effort between Jill Pantozzi (writer), Neoma Lindley (colourist) and myself (penciller). I’m actually really excited for this book because there’s so many wonderful artists and writers working on it – it’ll be one hell of a read!
My previous works includes credits in Saladin: The Animated Series as the assistant director. I was in charge of the animatics and final compilation of the storyboards. You can find my works in my artblog: http://haniemohd.blogspot.com and in my deviantart:http://oniyon.deviantart.com, as well my tumblr: http://haniemohd.tumblr.com
BF: What’s your view of the Comics Scene in Southeast Asia in general, and in Borneo, specifically?
HM: Hmm.. this one is hard to answer and I AM from Southeast Asia, AND the Borneos (laughs). Let’s see. To be honest – first impression that anyone might get is that: “There’s not much happening here. The comic scene is lackluster compared to say, America.” I guess to a certain extent it is and at the same time it’s not. It’s hard to explain! Whatever it is, I think it’s going in the right direction. There’s a lot more people into comics than you’d expect around here, and there’s certainly a lot more awareness and attention paid to the medium in recent years than before. And there are actually companies set up dedicated to making mainstream comics for the masses, so that’s a lot of opportunities there for both readers and creators.
As a child into comics, I used to fret that there wasn’t anyone who shared the same interest due to the lack of interest in comics (or so I thought) but as I grew up I found people who are NOT only into comics, but have gotten into it for a long time, or that they knew a lot of other people who are into, or that they’re into it because their families are into comics – so really, for me it’s like a whole world just opened up ! I finally broke into the treasure trove and found a whole bunch of other comic-heads – whom I thought never existed but they’re there all along. I just needed to find them. And that to me, just about sum up the scene here, at least in Kuala Lumpur and in Kuching (where I am currently at in Borneo). There’s more going on in the comic scene than you’d expect – you just need to know where to find them. And once you found them, it’s like they’ve always been there and you can’t imagine life without them.
As for comics preference in Borneo – there’s a lot more emphasis on mangas here than any other comics, I think. Manga is a huge hit among tweens and teenagers – having gone through the same phase myself, I can attest that this is true. Another factor is that I think it’s because manga is easily available, and cheaper than other forms of imported comics. That’s because there are companies that obtains the license (or maybe they don’t – I remembered reading pirated copies of Dragonball Z as a child [laughs]) to translate them into the local lingo and these are sold really cheap so they’ll easily fall within the budget of a typical kid. The standard Marvel/DC comics and indie press comics (Oni, First Second etc) are a lot more expensive and the normal newspaper stands don’t carry them. You’d have to go to a bookstores like MPH, Borders or Kinokuniya to look for them, and we don’t even have Borders or Kinokuniya in the whole of Borneo. So there’s an accessibility issue. And in my own experience – there are some books that I want that I’d have to order online because no bookstore would ever carry them here. Shipping costs are normally very expensive – and again, that just wouldn’t fit in the budget of a typical kid. To be honest I am only able to buy my own comics when I started working (and even then I’d still have to hold back a lot of time and not splurge TOO much!).