I first got to know of Tony Wong's 'Little Vagabonds' comic series when I had my haircut at the mobile barber's. That old man used to hand me one of those A5-sized comics (old, and torn, without its cover), while he snipped away.
Since then, i've been saving every single sen of my pocket money to buy a copy of the latest serial.
The 'Little Vagabonds' narrates about a group of seven homeless teenager boys who earn a living by fighting off local thugs and providing protection to residents in the neighbourhood. This series was created amidst the Bruce Lee kungfu movie boom, kids my age were so obssessed with the kicking and punching depicted in the pages, that we sometimes mimic and relived the action during our occasional brawls.
I used to pry open the fastening staples and 'stole' a few blank pages from my school exercise books, and learned to draw by imitating Tony Wong's strokes and styles. (Mum didn't seem to have the slightest idea why my exercise books got so slim.)
It was a twist of fate that i get acquainted with some friends who had the same hobby as mine,and we eventually wanted to embark on a 'Dream'.
In the 1980s, three of us garnered enough courage (but not enough finance) to start a comic publishing company and made our first step towards realising our 'Dream'.
Needless to say, we did not have sufficient financial support to see us through the 'striving' stage. So it went bust.
The later years saw us struggling between contract jobs and minor stints, marginally enabling us to survive.
Our circle of 'cartoonists' and 'comic artists' have always been ignorant about the trappings in real life. We have ourselves 'locked' inside our boundaries, until one day, a group chief editor at the Not-So-Trustable local English daily said this: "Yes I can open up a column for you today, but what am I to do if you got run down by a car tomorrow?". I was dumbfounded.
We got to realise that 'living' is not just about picking up a pencil and brush and keep on drawing. Then the group broke up and we went separate ways, in search of other ways of earning a living.
Some of us had well-to-do parents, so they could have something to fall back on. The rest, including me took the hard way, going through all the thorns and roses, till what we are today.
Those 8 years or so of 'dreaming to become the Malaysian version of Tony Wong' left us with memories, where we cooked 2 packets of instant mee, allowed the mee to soak in the boiling water 'so that the mee gets fatter and we have enough to feed 6 people'.
Putting aside the wasted efforts and non-achievements, we had nothing to regret.
These days, we try to gather our buddies and sit around a table full of 'beer, herbal tea and satay', and we take a trip down memory lane....
Since then, i've been saving every single sen of my pocket money to buy a copy of the latest serial.
The 'Little Vagabonds' narrates about a group of seven homeless teenager boys who earn a living by fighting off local thugs and providing protection to residents in the neighbourhood. This series was created amidst the Bruce Lee kungfu movie boom, kids my age were so obssessed with the kicking and punching depicted in the pages, that we sometimes mimic and relived the action during our occasional brawls.
I used to pry open the fastening staples and 'stole' a few blank pages from my school exercise books, and learned to draw by imitating Tony Wong's strokes and styles. (Mum didn't seem to have the slightest idea why my exercise books got so slim.)
It was a twist of fate that i get acquainted with some friends who had the same hobby as mine,and we eventually wanted to embark on a 'Dream'.
In the 1980s, three of us garnered enough courage (but not enough finance) to start a comic publishing company and made our first step towards realising our 'Dream'.
Needless to say, we did not have sufficient financial support to see us through the 'striving' stage. So it went bust.
The later years saw us struggling between contract jobs and minor stints, marginally enabling us to survive.
Our circle of 'cartoonists' and 'comic artists' have always been ignorant about the trappings in real life. We have ourselves 'locked' inside our boundaries, until one day, a group chief editor at the Not-So-Trustable local English daily said this: "Yes I can open up a column for you today, but what am I to do if you got run down by a car tomorrow?". I was dumbfounded.
We got to realise that 'living' is not just about picking up a pencil and brush and keep on drawing. Then the group broke up and we went separate ways, in search of other ways of earning a living.
Some of us had well-to-do parents, so they could have something to fall back on. The rest, including me took the hard way, going through all the thorns and roses, till what we are today.
Those 8 years or so of 'dreaming to become the Malaysian version of Tony Wong' left us with memories, where we cooked 2 packets of instant mee, allowed the mee to soak in the boiling water 'so that the mee gets fatter and we have enough to feed 6 people'.
Putting aside the wasted efforts and non-achievements, we had nothing to regret.
These days, we try to gather our buddies and sit around a table full of 'beer, herbal tea and satay', and we take a trip down memory lane....
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