Melbourne-based cartoonist Gavin Aung Than of Zen Pencils fame is coming to India
Could you imagine a tribute to our heroes and icons in the form of comic book stories Gavin Aung Than, a Melbourne-based cartoonist, has been at it for a few years now — adapting inspirational quotes by famous people into comics. Each hand-drawn comic panel, which is later digitised, has been compiled into the cartoon blog Zen Pencils. And boy, have they become popular!
Even as a child, he was always scribbling in his folders and schoolbooks, but he never pursued it as a career, putting it aside for the safer path of design. But working a corporate graphic design job, he says, made him miserable and he wanted to do something different. That was also when he began reading biographies, and noticed how quotes by Gandhi, Teddy Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and others were widely shared on social media.
“That’s when I got the idea to base an entire website around these quotes and combine them with my cartooning to produce something new. I left my job at the end of 2011, and the first Zen Pencils comic I did was the No Regrets comic. It was very relevant at the time, as I was dreaming of quitting my job — so that’s what I drew in the comic,” he recalls. While a few comic-quotes are inspired by his own readings, people are also allowed to submit quotes or ask for someone to be drawn. One such story is of the late APJ Abdul Kalam, titled Life’s Pursuit. “I got a lot of requests to do a APJ Abdul Kalam quote from Indian readers after he passed away and I learnt all about the great man thanks to my readers,” he says. Another recent comic is My Spirit is the Roaring Sea, and it stands out from the others because the poem is an original piece by Gavin, written and drawn by him because he couldn’t find a quote cool enough to describe his heroine — a young warrior girl fighting a demon.
Needless to say, these inspirational comics are his calling. “Initially, I thought it was just a unique idea that would make a good concept for a web comic. But now it’s grown into something bigger than I could’ve have imagined, and I really enjoy bringing these great words to life and making them accessible to a new audience,” he tells us.
That’s also one of the reasons he’s coming down to India for the Mumbai Film and Comic Con on December 19 and 20. “I’ll be signing my new book, doing a talk and participating in some panel discussions. I’m very excited to be visiting India for the first time,” he concludes.
