T'kidum

How many people in Brunei have seen this? When I first saw it on the magazine shelf at Pustaka Remaja two Sundays ago, I thought, wow! A Brunei own comic book. That's a first. It was reasonably priced at about $4.90 but I thought compared to other comics from Malaysia and especially from UK or USA, $4.90 is nothing, besides talent has to be paid for and when it's Brunei own talent, we have to make our sacrifices. So I settled down as soon as I got home to read it. It has its own ISBN number 999 17-32-12-8 and it was issue no.1. It was published by Brunei Press. Then the date of the publication struck me. This comic book was printed in June 2003. Three years ago!

Where was I three years ago not to have noticed this? But to make amends I read the comic from cover to cover. The front cover has got the five cartoon characters but the back cover has the cartoon caricature of all the cartoonists. I am reproducing both the front and back covers of the comic so that you can all go out and grab whatever copies that are left on the magazine shelf at Pustaka Remaja.

The five cartoonists are Rahim or Rhyme (cuboiart.blogspot.com) better known for his Cuboiart and Si Cuboi books; Noh (Malai Yunus Malai Yusuf) for his Malaiku books published in 1992, 1994 and 1996; Suhaili Omar who used the pseudonym Alai; Kahamarul (ROL) and Denny Azriman@Jeman or Jenah. All these five are our local cartoonists.

According to the blurbs in the inside of the front and backcovers, Rahim as you know has Borneo Bulletin readers tickled pink with his accurate but humourous depiction of the local scenes. He graduated as a Chemical Engineer and began his cartooning with his Si Cuboi series in Media Permata. The series were compiled into two books Koleksi Si Cuboi and Si Cuboi 2. Noh taught hismself art and has represented Brunei in Japan and Malaysia in Cartoonists Conferences. While Alai started off as a serious artist and did not have any intention to draw cartoons. He was attracted to draw cartoons when he saw them in Borneo Bulletin and had his first cartoon published in 1991. Rol on the other hand is an illustration artist and his creations can be seen in the Media Permata, Weekend and Sunday Bulletin and some of his drawings have been exhibited in Asia and Europe. Jeman had been drawing as soon as he knew how to hold a pencil and part of his earlier drawings appeared in the well known Malaysian comic. His first drawing appeared in BB in 2000 and ever since he had became a serious cartoonist.

I want to know whether anybody had ever seen the next issues after this issue no.1? It would be a pity if T'kidum did not continue as I thought the cartoons are among the best local cartoons I had ever seen related to our country, Brunei Darussalam.

Comments

anakbrunei said…
This is the first time I've seen this book too! I think there's a serious gap in the marketing machinery for DBP. But you mention it was published by BP, so if it was BP doing the marketing, then I am surprised cos the way they marketed their other publications like Cuboi, and that other ubiquitous book, 'Punched' Lines: Sit-down comedy from Southeast Asia', T'kidum would have been a household name by now!
baz said…
yeah how sad, where have u guys been not to have seen such a comic book, its been advertised here and there (even sold in the stadium bertutup's various book show few years ago, if i m not mistaken)...

anyway, kids nowadays even hardly know that RTB exists, which means that our next generation is more exposed to the outside world's media (astro is a must!!!)...

ROFL its hardly surprising that kids nowadays can miss such publications (so dont blame BP's marketing, i saw the advert many times and besides u cant compare with Cuboi's very established esp in Borneo Bulletin :p).

anyway, even myself wont bother to turn on brunei channel (except for the 8 o'clock news!) but then again i hardly watch TV.
baz: yeah, u r rite. it must have been fairly visible when it was launched, i guess we are, what you call, looking without seeing or is it the other way around. too much astro and too absorbed not to see the local scene! it just goes to show how much is going on in our little country that we are not even aware of.

what i am interested in is the follow up? did i miss that one too?
Anonymous said…
To be fair, Brunei cartoon has been there since Si-Tuyu first appeared in Pelita Brunei since late 1960's by our locally bred-and-born Graphic Artist MSI (Awang Md Salleh Ibrahim). For people who are not familiar with Si Tuyu, please ask your parents and/or grandparents about it. It used to be a big hit in Pelita Brunei due to its acute observation of changes in sociopolical scenes in Brunei; especially with respect to 'old-timer' Si-Tuyu who sees everything in an honest (and yet probably naive) perspective. In fact, I think Pelita Brunei had just released some of Si-Tuyu collection for its recent anniversary a few months back. Check it out!
Anonymous said…
Yeah, to tell the truth I dont actually realized that this book is out there. Gosh! It's pretty ugly to have miss something important here as I know one of the cartoonist cuboi cum my cuz. Sorry cuz for not noticing the book. I think i'm too busy looking for books like sidney shieldon etc and magazines. But after this I will go to any bookstore to look for this book & try to be supportive to our local & talented cartoonist. Keep up the excellent work.
wow thats new to me. Pretty intruging stuff!
Anonymous said…
Dear Sir BR, WOW u found it.. hehehe It was more like a trial for us. Was it a success ? not sure, I certainly say NO. Where it went wrong? I don't know (well may be a little bit), but what went right was we had fun doing it and BP gave their good support publishing the comic. Do we want to do it again? absolutely.. BUT not sure how, not sure when..
Anonymous said…
:sigh: thats what happens when u have lack of promotion within the country itself... such talent with less exposure is such a pity, should promote it the same way as we promote tickets to concerts...
Anonymous said…
astahhhh batah jua sudah ni buku nya ani. behampaian posternya kata si baz, banar jua tu. di borneo bulletin pun ada iklan nya perasahan ku. dulu dulu ada ku membali sabuting di anu macam exhibition di stadium tetutup. masa atu baru ya keluar buku nya. hehehe. karang ani di pustaka remaja (nama so eighties!) ganya bejual. nahhhhhh, kaling pulang dulu membaca, org brunai nya lambat membaca hehehehe. cali kan BR? ada yang pasal perahu. or was that si Noh. hahahah antah tapinya ada pulang yang CORNY membari kan mengumban tapi i'd actually give it a good review. ORANG BARUNAI GANYA PAHAM CALINYA.
anakbrunei said…
Ok so it was BP (Brunei Press) and not DBP (Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka) doing the marketing. I cant for the life of me remember seeing this comic, but I guess you put it right BR, when you're not looking...
Anonymous said…
Even with the more visible books like Cuboi and 'Punched' Lines, how many copies are actually in circulation?

Lately I find that more of our people are reading malay novels, it seems to be easier to get hold of a malay novel than a good english novel.
baz said…
anon, thanks for the info, i cant believe that one of my wife's uncles is called si Tuyu!!! ROFL!!!

seriously, id better get him to sign an autograph too... maybe during raya, as he already attended our majlis tahtim al Qur'an / bersungkai yesterday...

anyway, this is turning out to be a great post, Mr BR sir... i mean comics can touch the hearts & minds of our Bruneian youths, although now that I have two young kids myself, i cant really consider being a youth anymore but then again i still read them comic books... but the main thing is we have to instill postiveness and love towards our nation on them even if through comics by all means...
Anonymous said…
Hey. I have that book. Got it on the very first day it was launched! The book itself was offically launched at OGDC and T'kidum is a Brunei word for smile. Those artists draw for Borneo Bulletin too. Here in Down Under, my bestfriend read it too so I guess, it makes us, err... special?. Certainly, it puts Brunei on the map.
Anonymous said…
T'kidum has been out for ages! what Brunei needs is more of these stuff..we've got loads of local talents..I've got all the 'Malai Ku' series by Noh and the material he uses in his works are hilarious..ill say it was like Brunei's version of Lat!

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