As Comic Con begins, geeks sense a shift from consuming to producing their own stories

By Coconuts Bangkok

May 9, 2014 | 12:16am Bangkok time

While the 21st Century has seen the geek ascendent, it’s an especially good time in Thailand as otaku superfans united by last week’s toy expo prepare for three days of hysteria for cosplayers, comics nerds, gamer geeks and the like at the first Thailand Comic Con starting today.

More significantly, it’s another sign that Thailand’s age of importing and emulating pop culture may be numbered. Not long ago, geeks had two choices: imported Japanese or imported American properties. Today there’s a sizable industry of local imprints, most of which still resemble the manga of their parents, neatly divided into the cliches of action, romance, or Chinese swordsman action/romance.

Yet for more than a decade consumers have been connected to a limitless world of media without borders. They’ve been exposed to more, so they demand more. The same forces of demand that have arguably led to a better music, culture and creative scene in Bangkok in recent years mean there’s an appetite for better, serious Thai comic books as well.

“There is an increasing demand, and everyone is looking for new and original content,” writer Chanasinj “Sunny” Sachdev, 27, said.

Sunny is part of the team behind Exhibit A of this phenomenon: “Malangsaab,” or “The Roach,” which officially launches today at Comic Con.

The Roach may not be the hero Bangkok needs, but it’s the one his creators feel it deserves.

And apparently Bangkok deserved a really damn ugly hero.

“That’s the point,” exclaims co-writer Pakarn “Bai” Kiatpinyo, who compares people’s aversion to the cockroach to the culture-pervading ugliness of injustice, inequity, hypocrisy and hierarchy no one wants to look at.

Described as “a cross between Batman and Banksy,” The Roach is a character more familiar to today’s savvy consumers of morally ambiguous narrative.

“We didn’t even have to make up the universe,” Bai mused. “Bangkok is already an interesting enough place. Where else do you have schools next door to brothels?”

Along with artist Vasan “Toy” Suwannaka, the team behind Malangsaab are like other young people who shoulder a certain discomfort with what passes as the status quo of justice, freedom and egalitarianism in the kingdom.

Malangsaab creators Chanasinj Sachdev, 27; Vasan Suwannaka, 25; and Pakarn Kiatpinyo.

So they decided to create a full-color, episodic comic in the vein of the thin-format American comic books, but place their story right in a Thai context.

After all, the blockbuster success of Marvel Studios and other franchises has driven global demand, but sometimes audiences need a break from Americans in tight underwear.

However much as Batman scowled through a New York-inspired Gotham, The Roach does his thing in “Bangpoot.”

Like Batman, Malangsaab is just a dude – no superpowers here. After all, how useful would spawning one million babies be?

So that all sounds fine, as the best fiction serves social commentary – but Malangsaab had better be fun to read. The signs are promising given the creators’ intention to incorporate many familiar elements that make Bangkok the wonderful-terrible place everyone loves-hates, three-legged limpy dogs and all.

Recognizable characters will enter the narrative, such as issue No. 2’s Loong Loy, a muddled street laborer addicted to huffing glue and smoking yaba.

“His action figure will come with the electrical post he always climbs when he’s high,” Bai said. “You know, Thai-drug addict style.”

Villains include the yet-unnamed Pixelator, who wields a destructive arsenal of reality-censorship. Then there’s The Panda, who hides an arms smuggling empire behind something widely tolerated: trafficking endangered species.

They’ve put a year into developing the comic and it shows in the production values – Toy’s colors and inkwork are vibrant and tear up the pages with action and humor.

The comic will be printed in Thai with an English edition and possibly other languages to follow via electronic edition. Maybe through iTunes; they’re not sure. Print editions will likely be sold at B2S and other specialty comics shops, Bai said.

With local publishers like Let’s, Siam Inter Comics, Bongkoch Publishing Co. Ltd. not taking many risks, The Roach will be published independently by its creators.

Meanwhile other Thai properties in the connected world of geek-serving industries are being developed. At last week’s toy expo, figures based on late street artist Mamafaka’s Mr. Hell Yeah character and the gonzo creatures of Nonworld were being displayed alongside mecha from Japan and Walking Dead zombies from North America.

But it’s still an uphill climb. For The Roach, they’ll have to convince more readers to put down the same recycled manga stories and try something new. Even distributing the comic is a challenge. The shelves in stores which sell comics are designed for squat, thick volumes. Last time they tried to sell an thin-format comic book, they found sales staff buried them behind some magazines.

Will there be a day when Japanese teens are poring over IP imported from Thai artists and writers?

“I don’t know,” Bai said. “But that would be pretty cool.”

Malangsaab launches today at Thailand Comic Con.