In anticipation of my trip to Malaysia I’ve been revisiting one of my favourite graphic novels,”Kampung Boy” by Lat, an illustrator and writer from Malaysia. His work which I’ve enjoyed since I was little, courtesy of my Malay relatives, has actually been very popular for a long time in Southeast Asia. But I was very excited to see that this book, along with the follow-up “Town Boy”, is finally available in the Western World, I’ve seen them on shelves in comic book stores and certainly available through Amazon. I wonder what took so long. These very funny autobiographical insights into childhood in a rural Malay Village (Kampung) and teen years spent in the city of Ipoh go beyond cultural borders. The rite of passage is universal after all.
http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/kampungBoy.html
http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/townBoy.html
