Lat: The Malaysian Icon And 'Kampung Boy' At Heart

Award-winning cartoonist Dato' Mohammad Nor Khalid, better known as Lat, unravels the art of authentic storytelling while sharing his fondest memories of 'kampung' life

With the air of a man still in awe of his success, Lat pauses a moment before reflecting on his local and international accolades, and a prolific career spanning over five decades.

"All the way from Malaysia to Japan and India, Canada and America, people from abroad have given me recognition and honoured me with awards and invitations to give talks on comics and art—I even went to Capitol Hill, all because of cartoons," he smiles, betraying some likeness to the bushy-haired, grinning Mat caricature of his world-renowned Lat comics.

"It's a great honour, and I’m very thankful. But it's heartening to see that people in Malaysia seem to remember my work well even today, though I’ve stopped drawing for the newspapers for so long now. They still look for my books and view my cartoons on the internet. The Kampung Boy has come a long way, eh?" he enthuses, referring not to himself, but to the 1979 book that launched him into global acclaim.

Kampung Boy has since been translated into 14 languages around the world, circulated at the Frankfurt Book Fair, adapted into a TV series, and acclaimed by fans that include Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.

Above Lat in his younger days (Photo: Courtesy of Lat)

Born Mohammad Nor Khalid in 1951 in Kota Bharu, Perak, Lat's vivid recollections of close-knit, communal life in the kampung (village) fuelled his formative years, as did the constant travelling across different states in Malaysia, largely due to his father's job as a clerk in the army. In school, these experiences and observations became the subjects of sketches that he would produce in art class.

"I was no good in arithmetic and I was no good at science," he quips. "But in primary school, I was crazy about language and imaginative composition in both English and Malay. In art class, I remember something I drew over and over again for years because I liked the subject: kampung kids running after a loose kite, running to and fro among the trees, and not looking where they were going."

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Above Photo: Courtesy of Lat

Working as a reporter for Malay daily Berita Harian and later a cartoonist at News Straits Times, Lat recalls the pressure he felt as a small town youth trying to keep up with the fast-paced Kuala Lumpur. "I was 19 when I went to Kuala Lumpur to work as a crime reporter. I didn’t know how to fit in with the KL crowd. I was shy. I always kept thinking they are too far ahead of me and I just don’t know how to deal with it. I'm grateful for the friends that I made who helped me in whatever ways to fit in. Until today, I am still in touch with them."

Success came quickly and unexpectedly for the shy young artist when one of his first comic strips, Tiga Sekawan, was published in 1964 in Penang.

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With the release of Kampung Boy in 1979 and over 25 volumes that would follow, Malaysian audiences were won time and time again by the conviviality, warmth and humour of his stories which depicted familiar scenes of local life and Malaysians from different walks of life in a lighthearted way, often offering subtle social commentary in the process.

For his contributions to arts and culture both in Malaysia and abroad, Lat was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2002 and presented with the prestigious Merdeka Award in 2014 by Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah of Perak. As an artist, he's worked with renowned brands like Faber Castell and dUCk, and has been back at the drawing board hard at work on his second Mat Som book, which is due to come out in a few months.

Above Photo: Courtesy of Lat

The spunky 70-year-old has also been working on drawings that will soon be featured in an art gallery next to Rumah Lat, a real-life traditional house in Batu Gajah, Perak, fashioned after the one he was born in. Despite the pandemic delaying its official opening, he looks forward to the day when he can welcome guests to enjoy the nostalgia of this heritage-inspired structure, an architectural symbol of his cartoon legacy.

When it comes to remaining relevant in the modern cultural space, Lat's tenacious hold on the heartstrings of Malaysians across generations is in itself an enviable feat. Read on for thoughts and musings from the artist himself about the power of authentic stories that stand the test of time.

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Above A sketch of Rumah Lat, a real-life traditional home in Perak that will soon open to visitors (Photo: Courtesy of Lat)

Any memorable tales to share about the making of Kampung Boy?

The original cover for Kampung Boy was a watercolour painting I did while I was living in Lucky Garden, Bangsar. I walked down past the mamak shop to the newsstand in Lucky Garden to buy my watercolours—a cheap RM3 box, and I think it was the same brand of colours we used in school. I went home and coloured it exactly the way I used to colour in school; my colouring had never improved from my school days. I used too much of the brown colour on the wall of the house. I remember saying, "This looks awful, what shall I do?" I learned somewhere that if you wanted to alter colours, you needed to add white. So I added some white on the wall on each plank. As it turned out, it’s one of my favourite drawings till today. By looking at it, you might say it was drawn by someone who is probably still in primary school.

Is there anything you wish you had done differently in life?

I made a lot of friends in my life, both as a kid, a young adult and a working man. But I've realised there were people that I could have been friends with along the way and I never got the chance. They were people I saw on the way to school, on the bus every day, but they were on the other end of the bus and I never said hello. What’s wrong with saying a simple hello? I think I regretted that.

Above Photo: Courtesy of the Merdeka Award

What’s your secret to creating long-lasting content that resonates with an audience?

It's really hard to say. For someone like me who draws comics and cartoons with stories, we just have to tell it the way we see it. I tell a story that I know well, whether it's about life in the kampung, the little details I recalled as a 10-year-old child, the things friends did at school, in the river, in the mining ponds. Readers seem to like stories that are sincere, raw.

You may not be able to impress people with your knowledge and thoughts, but perhaps you have some unique experience that can get people interested or amused.

Topics

Lat malaysian artist merdeka iconic malaysians arts and culture cartoonist Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid

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Lat: The Malaysian Icon And 'Kampung Boy' At Heart