Myanmar.
ကာတွန်း, ရုပ်ပြ
Myanmar
1937
ကာတွန်း, ရုပ်ပြ
Burmese comics grew out of newspaper cartooning in colonial Rangoon.
Ba Gale, later famous as the comedian Shwe Yoe, published the first cartoons by a Burmese artist from 1915 and the first Burmese-language cartoon in Thuriya in 1917, and Ba Gyan made the first Burmese comic book, Ko Pyoo and Ma Pyone, in 1937. After independence, the monthly Popular Cartoon led by Aung Shein and long-running character comics by Win Maung, Thawka, Maung Nyein Chan and others made comics a mass entertainment, even as political cartooning was held back after the 1962 coup.
51
22
1937
1960s
Artists from Myanmar in the archive.
Comics from Myanmar in the archive.
Ko Pyoo and Ma Pyone, the earliest comic from Myanmar in the archive.
The decade when the most new comics from Myanmar began.
ကာတွန်း, ရုပ်ပြ
Myanmar in 4 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Myanmar.
ကာတွန်း, ရုပ်ပြ
4 chapters
Chapter 1
1912
to 1945
Colonial beginnings
1912
to 1945
Chapter 01
Colonial beginnings
The first cartoon printed in Burma appeared in the Rangoon Times in 1912, drawn by the British railway official Martin Jones under the name Myauk, and the Burma Art Club trained young Burmese artists in Western drawing. Ba Gale's first cartoon appeared in a Rangoon college magazine in 1915, and his cartoon in the nationalist paper Thuriya in March 1917 was the first in the Burmese language. Ba Gyan and Hein Soon made Burma's first animated cartoons in 1934 and 1935, and Ba Gyan's Ko Pyoo and Ma Pyone (1937) was the first Burmese comic book.
1948
to 1962
Chapter 02
Independence and the comic book
After independence Ba Gyan's cartoons mocked both the government and the communist insurgents, and he declined Prime Minister U Nu's invitation to discuss drawing only cartoons of peace and unity. In the 1950s Aung Shein's monthly Popular Cartoon brought comic books to a wide public, Ba Ka Le's colour comic Lu Htu Aung Than was printed in Manila in 1952, and Pe Thein founded the Myanmar Cartoonists Association in 1957. With no television to compete, periodicals full of comics were a main entertainment for young readers.
1962
to 1988
Chapter 03
Comics under military rule
After Ne Win's 1962 coup, politically minded cartooning languished, and the field revived in the 1970s as book publishing grew. Character comics flourished, among them Myint Thein's San Shwe Myint from 1965, Maung Maung Le's Thamankya (1968), Win Maung's Mi Maw May Ma, Thawka's Ah May and Maung Nyein Chan's Sai Baydar, while the state publisher Sarpay Beikman launched the children's weekly Shwe Thway in 1969.
1986
to today
Chapter 04
Children's journals and new generations
Swe Min (Da Nu Phyu) began his Tut Pi comics in Shwe Thway in 1986, and Wa Lone started drawing for the Pa Lote Tote Kalay journal in 1998. The cartoonist Win Aung, detained from 1989 to 1994, later edited the Shwe Yoe Yoke Sone journal, helped run the 2015 festival marking a century of Burmese cartooning, and has led the Myanmar Cartoonists Association since 2019.
The comics to know
- Ko Pyoo and Ma Pyone1937 · graphic novelBa Gyan. The first Burmese comic book.
- Lu Htu Aung Thanလူထုအောင်သံ1952 · graphic novelBa Ka Le. Colour comic book based on U Nu's play, printed in Manila.
- Popular Cartoonပေါ်ပြူလာကာတွန်းcomics magazineAung Shein. 1950s monthly that brought comic books to Burmese readers.
- San Shwe Myintစံရွှေမြင့်1965 · comic book seriesMyint Thein. Character series begun in a magazine in May 1965.
- Ah Mayအမေgraphic novelThawka. Comic book reprinted many times and translated abroad.
- Sai Baydarစိုင်းဗေဒါcomic book seriesMaung Nyein Chan. Best-known series of an artist who made more than 220 comic books.
- Myaing Yarzar Tut Piမြိုင်ရာဇာတွတ်ပီ1986 · comic book seriesSwe Min (Da Nu Phyu). Began in the children's weekly Shwe Thway.
The people to know
- Ba Gale (Shwe Yoe)ဘကလေး (ရွှေတလေး)1890 to 1945Drew the first cartoons by a Burmese artist (1915) and the first Burmese-language cartoon (1917).
- Ba Gyanဦးဘဂျမ်း1902 to 1953Made Burma's first comic book and, with Hein Soon, its first animated cartoons.
- Hein Soon (U Hain Zun)ဦးဟိန်စွန်းBorn 1902Hired by Myanma Alin in 1939 as Burma's first salaried cartoonist.
- Aung Sheinအောင်ရှိန်Born 1928Led the 1950s comic book boom with Popular Cartoon and created many characters.
- Pe Theinဦးဖေသိန်းBorn 1924Founded the Myanmar Cartoonists Association in 1957.
- Win Maungမောင်မောင်အောင်Born 1956Creator of Mi Maw May Ma; taught cartooning courses from 1972.
- Thawkaသော်ကBorn 1939Creator of the comic books Ah May and Chit Lun Thu.
- Maung Nyein Chanမောင်မောင်အောင်Born 1956Comic book artist of the Sai Baydar series.
More artists from Myanmar
All 51 artists- Ngwe Kyiငွေကြည်Born 1948 · cartoonist
- Maung Nyein Chanမောင်ငြိမ်းချမ်း1948 to 2010 · comic book artist
- Min Sweမင်းဆွေDied 2010 · cartoonist
- Paw Oo Thetပေါ်ဦးသက်1936 to 1993 · painter
- Wathoneဝသုန်1947 to 2008 · painter
- Win Aungဝင်းအောင်Born 1962 · cartoonist
- Maung Yitမောင်ရစ်cartoonist
- Wa LoneဝလုံးBorn 1975 · cartoonist
- Lay Yooလေရူး1952 to 2018 · cartoonist
- A Pi Kyèအော်ပီကျယ်Born 1959 · cartoonist
- Ba Ka LeဦးဗကလေးBorn 1918 · cartoonist
- Maung Maung Theikမောင်မောင်သိုက်1946 to 2011 · cartoonist
More comics from Myanmar
All 22 comics- Maung Superမောင်စူပါcomic
- Detective U Shan Saစုံထောက်ကြီးဦးရှံစားcomic
- Hpyauk Seikcomic strip
- Zayakaticomic strip
- Yadana Pondရတနာရေအိုင်graphic novel
- Shwe Thwayရွှေသွေးဂျာနယ်1969 · comics magazine
- Mi Maw May Maမိမော်မေမcomic book series
- Akyan Paing Thaw Nga Khwayအကြံပိုင်သော ငခွေးcomic strip
- Myanma Yoya Hathaမြန်မာ့ရိုးရာဟာသcomic strip
- Zaw Maung's Mistakesဇော်မောင့် အမှားများcomic book series
- Chit Lun Thuချစ်လွန်းသူgraphic novel
- Thamankyaသမန်းကျား1968 · graphic novel