Edmund Lee presents 10 of the most representative Hong Kong comic

Old Master Q has been the most widely recognised comic from Hong Kong since the sixties. Created by Alfonso Wong under the name of his son, Wong Chak (who has since inherited the franchise and is interviewed on p96), the comic follows the hilarious adventures of Old Master Q and his sidekicks, Big Potato and Mr Qin. Old Master Q is dressed in traditional Chinese costume from the turn of the 20^th century, and the “Q” in his English name actually comes from Lu Xun’s satirical character “Ah Q”, a reference that suits how much disdain he has for fashionable things while he privately desires to be modern.

Before In the Mood for Love, there was 13-Dot. Probably the most successful girls’ comic to have ever emerged in Hong Kong, 13-Dot was considered a fashion bible among the younger generation thanks to author Lee Wai-chun’s compulsive interest in changing costumes for her characters whenever they go from one room to the next. Projecting a modern image of women amid Hong Kong’s blossoming economy, the comic follows the teenage daughter of Prosperous Town’s richest man, the popular Miss 13-Dot (whose name refers to fun-loving and mischievous girls in Shanghainese), as she goes on a series of fanciful adventures using her family’s fortune.

Oriental Heroes (1969; titled ‘Little Rascals’ before 1975)

Little Rascals was started by Wong Yuk-long, the godfather of local comics, in response to bullies on the street. Having essentially established the aesthetics of Hong Kong’s kung fu comics, the story revolves around a group of youngsters living in public housing, who use violent means to deal with gangsters. With its name changed to the more positive Oriental Heroes and the action moved to Japan in 1975, the comic enjoyed continued success (at times selling more than 100,000 copies) despite it being frowned upon for its graphic violence. The comic is still published today by other artists, and has seen more than 1,500 issues so far.

Originally published as a supplement to Wong Yuk-long’s Drunken Master, Ma Wing-shing’s Chinese Hero quickly gathered a large fan base and eventually shot to superstardom as an innovative series appreciated for its gripping stories and realistic style of drawing. Not just another good vs evil kung-fu epic, Chinese Hero’s protagonist in a Chinese tunic suit, Wah Ying-hung, is a tragic figure who is destined to live in solitude. The comic had a circulation of 60,000 in its first few years of publication and peaked at more than 200,000 copies per issue, still the highest sales record for a local comic.

After leaving Wong’s Jademan Comics in 1989 and thus losing the rights to his title Chinese Hero, Ma Wing-shing started a new franchise, Storm Riders, which came pretty close to matching the popularity of its predecessor. Storm Riders is about the turbulent martial art lives of the benevolent Wind and the heartless Cloud (whose names combine to form the Chinese title), who both trained under an evil warlord to become great warriors. While this year will see an animated film based on the original comic, the sequel to the series’ first live action movie, The Storm Riders (1998), is also scheduled for a 2009 release.

Teddy Boy is one of several triad-themed comics produced by the creative team of Cowman, Lun Yu-kwok and Man Kam-hung. While their Portland Street, Red Light District, and Kong-wu Big Brother all also hit the market in 1992, it’s the Teddy Boy phenomenon that had the largest impact on our cultural landscape. Narrating the story of five good friends who grew up together in Lam Tin’s housing estates and following their rise and fall in the criminal underworld, this graphically gory series was criticised for heroicising gangster figures, but remained extremely well received by its audience – resulting in the hugely popular Young and Dangerous movie series and its countless spin-offs. Amazingly, the comic has been released as frequently as twice a week since 2003.

Easily Hong Kong’s most popular teenage romance comic, Lau Wan-kit’s Feel 100% tells of the romantic triangle between two best friends, Jerry and Hui Lok, and their female friend, Cherie. Drawn in Japanese style and released in annual paperback-sized volumes over 16 years (a rather unusual local publishing pattern), the series literally grew up with a generation of readers thanks to its humorous musings on the meaning of love, and spawned four filmic adaptations and a TV series before its finale in 2007.

Hong Kong’s most famous piglets may look deceptively childish, but as all genuine Hong Kongers can tell you, in addition to silly fun the stories of McMug and MuDull also regularly display a good grasp of the essence of Hong Kong’s grassroots culture – sometimes beyond the comprehension of young children. Drawn by Alice Mak Ga-bik and scripted by Tse Lap-man, the story initially focused on the character McMug before subsequently switching to McDull, the dim-witted but strong-willed piggy with a birthmark around his right eye. The first McDull feature film, My Life as McDull (2001), grossed $14 million at the local box office.

Perhaps better recognised as the graphic illustrator of the Japanese translations of Jin Yong’s novels, Lee Chi-ching was the first Hong Kong comic artist to stake a claim in the Japanese market with his Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1993) being the first ever collaboration in comics between Hong Kong and Japan. Lauded for his traditional Chinese painting technique, Lee’s subsequent work, Sun Tzu’s Tactics, chronicles the life of the famous military strategist during the conflict between the kingdoms of Wu and Chu at the end of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The series won Japan’s first International Manga Award in 2007, which is often referred to as Japan’s ‘Nobel Prize for Comics’.

Chan Mou has taken many local comic fans by surprise, particularly as Chan made his name in Taiwan in the nineties before becoming known here. In the universally applauded The Ravages of Time, Chan deviated from the norm and chose a young Sima Yi – a relatively minor character in the popular Three Kingdoms tradition – as his main character. Along with its realistic portrayal of characters and imaginative character settings, the comic demonstrates its depth with a focus on military tactics and mind games, reflecting on the historical period from a modern angle. Chan’s meticulous drawing technique and well-crafted story, both of which are not highly valued in Hong Kong, arguably rank with Japan’s best and have ensured the title’s popularity across Asia.