INSTEAD of hard-hitting political satire, comic artist Ernest Ng Thye Sern devises light-hearted banter to illustrate current events in his hit series 'Covidball Z'.
His formula has proven to be commercially successful, with tens of thousands of copies sold and fans eagerly awaiting more. Not bad, given that the first physical copy of the comic book rolled out less than a year ago in September 2020.
As at May, he has already released the much-celebrated comic's third edition, and he is now currently applying final touches to the fourth issue which is expected sometime in July.
For the uninitiated, 'Covidball Z' provides a rib-tickling and other-worldly take on events that have transpired during Malaysia's handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
In the graphic novel, one can find amusing depictions of a muscular and shirtless prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (renamed Muhidin), his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Tun Mahadir), and a sword-wielding Health director-general Tan Sri Noor Hisham Abdullah (General Hisham) who battle the villainous and alien Covid forces.
The 'Covidball Z' series arrives after his previous releases such as 'Bro Don’t Like That La Bro: Here Comes The Bros', 'My Bad Bromance', 'The Brofessionals', 'Back To School', and 'Back To School 2: Second Class', many of them inspired by the 35-year-old's younger days.
Initially, 'Covidball Z' started out as a "fun" project Ernest created due to boredom while under the first lockdown last year, but several pages snowballed into chapters, and from then on, an entire graphic novel, he said.
Yet, despite lampooning the nation's ultra-sensitive leaders in 'Covidball Z', Ernest seems to have found a way to provide comic relief to fans while evading undesired trouble from authorities.
"To me, insulting people is something I don't want people to do to me as well," told The Vibes recently.
"Roasting is fine. When you 'kutuk' (insult) someone, it has ill intent. But if you roast, it's all for a joke. If people roast me, I'm totally fine with it. What I'm essentially doing is that I'm roasting, but lightly. It's just a nudge on a topic that has happened."
The upcoming issue comes less than three months since he published the latest installment, and with the Covid-19 situation in the country showing no end in sight, Ernest did not discount the possibility of 'Covidball Z' having at least 6 total editions altogether.
"When I release a new book, there's always extra pages and extra chapters that are not posted online mainly for two reasons.
"The first is that before I post it online, sometimes I feel the storyline does not make sense or it's too stupid. And sometimes I tend to veer off to be a bit too fictional. Sometimes I still want to play with my own story. I try to experiment to mix with the reality and fictional aspects of the story."
This, he says, would allow him to generate better flow to the storyline and hopefully lead to a better ending.
"So I add all the chapters to make the stories flow better and to have a more centralised general story that hopefully leads to an ending, instead of just random compilations of recent news and issues."
No formal training
Ernest, who grew up in Melaka, said he had never had any formal training in graphic design. Interestingly, he noted that he studied Mass Communications at a local private university, focusing on broadcast and television.
Yet, although he studied a different field, his passion had always been in illustrating comics.
During his primary school days, Ernest said one of his ambitions was to become a comic artist, but he was not serious about it at the time.
"I've been drawing since I was five years old. I've been drawing comics a lot since I was a kid."
In the past, Ernest had said he was deeply influenced by 90s cartoons such as 'Powerpuff Girls' and 'Dexter's Laboratory', but Japanese anime and manga series 'Dragonball' was perhaps his biggest reference.
"I always see Covidball as an alternate universe of this planet. The current dimension, the current universe that we're in, there's a different, alternate universe where the virus is an alien being.
"I wanted these characters to have a life of its own and to be their own people, although they're based on real people. That's why I sort of switched out the names to sound like they are counterparts (of real people) but essentially they are cartoon characters all the way."
Apart from comics, Ernest has had side stints acting in Malay television dramas. Recently, he was photographed with veteran actor Datuk Rosyam Nor for an upcoming show but remained tight-lipped on the details. However, he said the television series is expected to be released sometime this year.
Based on real-life events
Ernest says the bulk of the plot in 'Covidball Z' comes from news events that inspire the comic and most of them were gained from Facebook and Twitter.
"My friends, my peers are all very in the know, and actually they are like journalists and all that, so sometimes they share the articles they have written, and then I will check it. And usually, I know they're legit journalists. So I know this is not fake news."
"And sometimes someone shares something which I feel I'm not so certain (about it). I will actually go and verify it. I would actually contact my journalist friends and ask, 'Hey, is this rumor of this (issue) is it really going on?' because sometimes the news is not even out yet."
"But most of the time I'll just open Twitter and go to the trending page to see what's trending now. That's how I get my news sometimes."
Although it would not be too hard to decipher the political messages in his books, Ernest maintains that he is neutral and keeps his political beliefs personal.
"I've never really seen myself as seriously political. I just see myself as more of an entertainer or comedian trying to shed light on some issues.
"Sometimes the issues tend to get heavy, but I would just like to make people smile. I think that's the objective by the end of the day because we're living in depressing times and it's how we digest the news and get through it day-by-day together. I hope my comics make people laugh." – The Vibes, July 4, 2021
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