Birat!`s Comic Artist, Ahm Ahmad (Interview)

Mohd Amrizal Ahmad also known as Ahm Ahmad become famous among the fans of Malaysian comic artist in Instagram through his comic, Birat!. Ahm Ahmad had been producing comic independently as part-time job. During our interview, Ahm Ahmad stated that he had been into comic drawing since he was small. Grew up with the legend of Malaysian comic`s industry era, Majalah Gila-gila and Ujang, Ahm Ahmad was inspired to make his own comic legacy. After moving in to Kuala Lumpur from Johor, Ahm Ahmad was persuaded by his friends and finally began to draw officially around 2014 and 2015.

As an artist who wrote, drew and published his own comics, Ahm Ahmad acknowledged that it is not a simple task. The main challenge to draw comics was to find Ahm Ahmad`s stroke. Every artist have stroke which means their style of drawing. The stroke needs to be original and more importantly, the artist is comfortable by the stroke itself. In the industry, a stroke determine the artist`s identity and the taste of his own fans. Ahm Ahmad was struggled between anime stroke from Japanese and Malaysian traditional stroke as he described, “to get the stroke was actually a war with our self”. The style of his drawing today was discovered over practicing through a long time. Adding to the challenges, the acceptance from the audiences requires a lot of process. Most of the cases, the idea was good enough for the artist, but still did not get as much attention as expected from the viewers. By seeing Birat! comic, we can see how long and how much hard works that it requires for the comic to stand as a very sensational comic in our country today. 

                        

Birat! is a one-page comic strip that had 1-3 lines only, ideas and drawing originally from Ahm Ahmad. It begins as a hobby and uploaded the comic pages to his instagram account, @ahm.ahmad. Surprisingly for him, Birat! received a lot of positive feedbacks among his early followers. That overwhelming great response made he become happy and decided to continue until he had more than 6,500 followers in his instagram page today. For a Malaysian comic page, that amount is a huge number. Why Birat! as the title? Ahm Ahmad himself explained that the name was a spontaneous word that he personally love. Birat is referred to a word in Malay language, which means “giving impact”. Many of his comic lovers had asked the same question, but Ahm Ahmad suggested the reader to define the meaning by themselves. For Ahm Ahmad himself, he just wanted to give an impact through the simple word. More importantly, Birat! was initially produced as social criticism and potrayed daily scenario through drawings.

Birat! entered the comic industry as a free comic in various social media applications as a way to introduce to public. It was the most efficient platform to find out the reader`s interest and how they responded to every content that he posted. He gained the confidence from the family and close friend`s support before posting his artworks. When asked about his most favourite artwork, Ahm Ahmad directly pointed towards his comic page of a two birds, sitting on an electric cable. Both of them talked about how they managed to reach that high. A bird reminded them they managed to get that high because of cable. In Malay language, cable have the same meaning as connection. That two birds illustration remains as the most shared page in social media, due to its relatable criticism towards Malaysian culture of everyday`s life. In 2019, Birat!`s zine had been compiled into an official comic, published by Kata Pilar. Although most of publishing process had been covered by publisher, he still needed to market his book to the public as usual.

Other than Birat!, Ahm Ahmad also provide his drawing skill for his 101 Perkara Baran comics, book covers and illustration for Catatan Seorang Doktor, Mission Impossible, Jurutera and other books from his publisher, Kata Pilar. Ahm Ahmad described that inspiration comes from the unexpected way, no timing and we need to be always ready, whether noted it down or save it on your phone. More inspiration came from reading and watching movies. He quoted, “We did not have to necessarily have to read comics only, to draw comics”. Despite involving in comics activities, Ahm Ahmad had gave a talk about self-publish comic at National Art Gallery Malaysia, exhibitions and forums. Ahm Ahmad wanted people to know, that they can actually publish their own comic, before being called by publishers. It is a waste for people who can draw but doing nothing. Hardwork, passion and strong support system are essential for every comic artists. Another golden advice for future artists, draw every day because drawing is a continuous learning process.

For Ahm Ahmad, comic culture is significant to influence the community, to preserve the culture hand identity to our next generation. Before our interview ended, he did shared his last words about his visions with us. He hope that his comics may reach to everyone, make everyone laughing and loved by every people around the globe. He hope that comic evolved from an entertainment, into a medium to make people think as to influence people to become a better person. We would like to thank to Ahm Ahmad, the artist of Birat! for spending his precious time with us.