Lat: Well, before Liquid City, there were two volumes of Rosetta, another anthology series edited by Ng Suat Tong, also from Singapore, which compiled works by various comic artists throughout the world. Then came Liquid City. These are all what I consider to be new kinds of drawing for the present-day generation. It involves a lot of modern-day techniques of drawing, using computer-assisted techniques.

 

Well, we're doing it for the second time 'round. It's a new group of artists who have either already got a good following or are beginning to gain a following. They express today's comic style; I belong to the old style. I feel good to have been invited and to have the opportunity to join in, although I may be from another era. To be able to be in the same collection with the present-day generation – to me, that's a good thing. The anthology is a good mix. You find people presenting different kinds of subject matter in their comics. And I add in the old style, which to me can sometimes be quite evergreen.

 

It's not like I'm always ready for this sort of thing, because I have my own routine. When the editors contacted me and say they've got this project, I said I'd join in. I said yes, I've got some stories, I've got material – without thinking too much about where I'm going to get it from, since each one of us only had to contribute a few pages! There are always some leftover drawings or drawings that have never been used – I can always open up drawers to look for them or to get ideas. Some of these were parts of long stories that weren't continued for some reason or another. The latest one in the second volume of Liquid City, “Night at the Stadium,” was from the 90s. It was part of a book that I thought I would do, but I got distracted and I got involved in other things. In this case, it was the animation project for Kampung Boy in 1995–1997. Once that happened, I had to forget all these things that I had been scribbling for a couple of years earlier. So I picked these bits and pieces, joined them together and turned them into a short story. That's what happened with the Liquid City series.

 

“The Trip” was a title that I thought I would never use, because if I were to think of a story with the title “The Trip”, I think I must have heard it sometime in the 1960s. But in this case, we see a guy jumping off a lorry after hitching a ride, so the title accompanying it would certainly have to be “The Trip,” because that's the beginning of the story. It is a short story, but I wanted to tell people that there's this trip that somebody is making. It's as simple as that. I must say that I didn't spend much time writing the dialogues or the captions!

 

 

The story is part of a long story about a young man visiting his brother in the slums in the big city. In 70s' Malaysia, there were still areas occupied by squatters in quite big numbers. I had relatives staying in these squatter areas where I would even spend nights, taking shelter after a trip. Visiting relatives or friends meant that you would spend the night over at their place, so that was the experience.

 

Although I didn't go through the same sort of story as “The Trip,” I did spend time visiting friends and relatives in the squatter areas when I was young, during the school holidays. I think it's a very good experience because it shows that, among the obligations we had to do then, you had to find a place to stay when you went to the big city, and one usually ended up with close relatives at this kind of place.

 

Today, you don't see those areas anymore – or maybe they just don't look like squatter areas of before anymore. They may look more like nice houses with compounds and so on. But we definitely still have a squatter problem today, although not as massive as in the old days.

 

Well, whether in Kuala Lumpur or Ipoh or Penang, I have certain areas that I consider as my own – places where I used to hang out and where I can feel comfortable, even in Ipoh today. Ipoh is divided into two parts – the old town and the new town. And the old town, to me, is still the same. I can just be anywhere. I know where to go, to see the scenery or the shops, which are still the same. It doesn't mean that I want things to stay the same. I'm from that area, and it makes me happy just to be in the places I'm very familiar with. In Kuala Lumpur, no matter how busy it is, there are certain areas I can feel easy and relaxed in, spots that seem to have been kept in a time capsule.

 

I don't really miss the old Kuala Lumpur or the old Ipoh. If anything, it's the company of friends or people I knew that I miss. But as time goes by, everything changes. Your friends move away, you move away. The good thing is, there's always some connection. Just yesterday, I received a phone call from someone I knew long ago. He's still working in a shop in Kuala Lumpur. He'd called me to tell me that he'd appeared in an advertisement in a newspaper – on page 40-something, at the back of the paper. Anyway, that's for me to find out today. I didn't manage to find that newspaper yesterday, because I had a busy day with meetings. Maybe I'll pay him a visit today.

 

You see, it is good to keep in touch, because that keeps you going also. And you'll find that there are always other people who still want to get in touch with you. Sometimes you live in the same city or town for many, many years, and you just cannot find that person that you've been thinking of, because it's not in the habit of some people to keep in touch. You may be living in the same town, but you don't see each other. But there are people who live far away, friends or distant relatives you keep hearing from. They are always keeping in touch, they're always there; there's always a simple message or joke from them on your mobile phone. People are divided into many types. And then there are meeting places where you always are, like a club. Sometimes, you find that you've lost many friends already, but there are some remaining ones you can still keep in touch with. But as time goes by, you have to make new friends and try to keep in touch with the old ones.