Comics and Cartoons

by Hla Min

Updated : June 2025

Sayings

• Laughter is the best medicine — feature in Reader’s Digest
• Need less nerves to smile than to frown
• A cartoon a day keeps the blues away
• Comics & Cartoons have no age boundaries

Comics

During our times, we read

• Beano
• Dandy
• Topper
• Beezer
• Film Fun
• Joke & Humor book(s) : D. S. Saluja had 200+
• Annual & Special Edition
• Can be bought from book shops like Smart & Mookerdam
• BSPP era saw the publication of Shwe Thway & Teza

Early Cartoonists

• Published in newspapers, magazines & books

To name a few

• Shwe Ta Lay
• U Ba Gyan
• U Heng Soon
• U Aung Shein
• U Pe Thein
• U Than Kywe
• U Ba Htwe
• U Kyaw San (“Ka Sa”)
  …
• The “Cartoon Festival” was held in U Ba Gyan Street (around Tazaung Daing).

• In the mid 1950s, there was a rift between the two factions of AFPFL. Some cartoonists took sides and a “price war” started. The cartoons, which sold for 60 pyas were then given away at bargain prices (any where between 10 and 50 pyas).
• About a decade ago, my spouse paid K10,000 for a copy of “old” cartoons published in the Rangoon Times.
  Some are political satire.

RIT Cartoon Box

• Started by U Myint Pe (M72) & team with the Patronage of Saya U Khin Maung Phone Ko (“Phone Ko”, C64) and Saya U Aung Myint (Kyant Ba Hone, Pet69)

• “Phone Ko” was known for his Vietnam cartoons

• “Kyant Ba Hone” looked like “Nick Kelly”, but the contents are different.
  

• Maintained by three (or more) generations of Cartoon Boxers
• Cartoon Box was “ordered to close” after 1988
• History of the Cartoon Box is published in the Swel Daw Yeik Magazine for SPZP-2012
• Collection of RIT Cartoons was published in time for SPZP-2012
• Pamphlet of RIT Cartoons distributed at Shwe YaDu in 2014 and SPZP-2016
• Some (e.g. “Aw Pi Kye”) became professional cartoonists and exhibited their works in Myanmar and beyond (e.g. Asian Cartoon Exhibition)

• RIT Main Gate was named “U Lu Paw” (at the suggestion of Ko Win Thein (M67))
• U Myint Soe (C68, GBNF) & U Myint Thein (M69, GBNF) are fondly called Maung Kabar

Sample RIT Cartoons

Posts

• Cartoon Box
• Ko Kyant
• RIT Cartoons
• Swel Daw Yeik Magazine