Labour of love: Azrin has devoted recent years to illustrating comics based on the national History textbooks for upper secondary students.
DURING his boarding school days at Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) Kuantan in Pahang, Azrin Ahmad developed a passion for drawing cartoons.
His artwork captivated many of his schoolmates, especially after he created a cartoon series featuring a hero named Jaafar, also known as Jeff, who owned a pair of special boots that transformed him into a star football player.
That schoolboy passion is very much alive as the 57-year-old has devoted recent years to illustrating comics based on the national History textbooks for Forms Four and Five students.
The idea for the history project, which he called his “labour of love”, came to him as a result of helping his son prepare for his Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations in 2017.
“I tried to help him get better results by preparing some mind maps for the Forms Four and Five History subject.
“But he never referred to the mind maps. He didn’t find them appealing as study material with mostly words and very few pictures, and didn’t use any of them,” Azrin recalled.
From then on, the father of four, who is an accounting and finance graduate, started thinking of ways to make the History subject more interesting, even after his son had graduated from secondary school.
“That was when I decided to recreate the History lessons in comic book form,” he said.
In 2019 – after two years of pouring his heart and soul into the endeavour – Azrin completed Buku Komik Sejarah Tingkatan 5 in ebook format.
“I would spend around two to three hours in the evenings drawing the cartoons and making sketches.
“I’m very detailed with my artwork, so one panel could take hours and one page could take several days to finish.
“Because I enjoy drawing cartoons, the fulfilment came from each completed panel, and that sense of accomplishment overcame the fatigue,” he said, adding that his sons were impressed by the comic panels and the discovery of their father’s talent.
“The ebook had some sales but people kept asking me for the print edition. When I wanted to print it, the syllabus changed,” he shared.
Azrin, who holds a full-time job in logistics, did not let the setback deter him from continuing with his goal of making History more appealing to students.
“I wanted to keep the momentum going.
“Given the changes, I decided to focus on the Form Four syllabus because the updated Form Five syllabus was not available then,” he said.
He released his Komik Sejarah KSSM Tingkatan 4 in 2022.
Azrin, who resides in Selangor, shared that the book was narrated using pictures of characters based on photographs from the Internet.
“Reading a descriptive paragraph on the outbreak of World War Two is interesting, but seeing it in full colour and comic panels makes the story more vivid and, I hope, easier to understand and recall.
“The goal is to help students ‘see’ the past, and the people who played key roles in history, more clearly in their minds,” he said, adding that not all students have easy access to computers and the web to refer to photographs on the Internet.
Azrin also said he sprinkled humour into the book in hopes that readers would find amusement while reading.
“I read the textbook quite thoroughly to understand the material that students have to learn.
“Everything I included in the comic is based on the official syllabus and approved textbook. I went through the material topic by topic, line by line, to ensure that I grasped every aspect to make it understandable for students,” he said.
Azrin said the reviews for the book had been very positive.
“One parent who is a headmaster told me that the book helped his son become interested in studying History. His son later scored a B for the subject in his SPM when previously his grades for the subject were not very good.
“I hope the book can help students learn better and be inspired to know more about Malaysia’s past while getting better grades along the way. We need a proper understanding of the past to build a better present and future for ourselves,” he said.
Despite his love for cartooning, Azrin never formally studied any art-related discipline.
“I had to learn digital tools from scratch, which is not easy for someone who prefers analogue,” he said.
Azrin recently completed another comic publication. Titled Komik Sejarah MRSM Kuantan, it was produced in commemoration of the college’s 50th anniversary, upon the special request of the MRSM Kuantan @ Kuatagh alumni.
“It is a special honour as I was a student there for five years. The cartoon series depicts the daily life at college, highlighting the friendships, experiences, adventures, as well as misadventures of student life.
“It is a nostalgic and important project for me that I hope will also resonate with the alumni and teachers,” he said.
For those who wish to create educational content for students, Azrin had this to share; “Understand the curriculum, the material, and how best to present the material for maximum learning and enjoyment.”
Weng Sam, 21, a student in Penang, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team. For updates on the BRATs programme, go to facebook.com/niebrats.
