The Comics which shaped our childhood

I am not a good writer but I thought I should write about the cartoonists who made our childhood enjoyable back in the day. Therefore what I am writing here is a tribute to all the cartoonists and cartoons around the globe through out the history. Here in this blog I will write about a selected list of cartoons (comics) and cartoonists.

Back in 1990s and 1980s when we were small kids and teenagers, we waited to read the children's newspapers (Wijeya and Mihira to name 2 of them). When we received the newspaper by hand, the first things we read were the cartoons. After that we waited until next week for the next edition of that newspaper to read the next episodes of those cartoons. Those days we used to collect those newspapers for few reasons and one major reason for collecting those children's newspapers were to read the comics on them. Sometime back we had many years (probably around 3 decades of papers, collected and borrowed from our elderly cousins) of Mihira and Wijeya papers with us. I can remember that I fabricated stories on my own imagination after reading them. I was good at drawing comics myself and I used to draw the cartoons myself as well by looking at those cartoons. It was same with our siblings and cousins as well. When He-man, She-ra, Robin-hood and Knight-Rider were our heroes on Televisions we had a separate set of heroes on newspaper comics.

Wijeya and Mihira were the two leading children's newspapers at the time in Sri Lanka. Most of the kids used to read them. There were some other famous newspapers like Vidusara, Bindu, Budhusarana, Sukiri etc. Those newspapers had very good articles to read for children. There were columns specifically written for some target examinations as well. Also they were relatively cheap as I can remember. Some of these newspapers are still available and popular among kids.

Mihira Logo

Wijeya Logo

When it comes to the comics on those newspapers, I will list down few of my favorites;

Mal Mama - Wijeya
Pandithuma and Yodha Ralahami - Mihira
Aththa Muththa Kaale - Wijeya
Kele Kathawa - Wijeya
Ibe Yanthraya - Mihira
Punchiththa - Mihira
Udin Wetunu Kumaraya - Wijeya

Most of my favourite comics series were created by;

Mr. Piyal Udaya Samaraweera
Mr. Hingulwala Dissanayake
Mr. S. A. Dissanayake

Mal Mama (Makage yalak - yakage malak) may be one of the longest running comics in the history. I recently bought a Wijeya weekly for my kids and noticed it is still there. Its creator Mr. Piyal Udaya Samaraweera is still famous among everyone since he still draws cartoons for other newspapers like Lankadeepa etc. His other famous comics are Lankonis, Kele Kathawa etc. Mr. Samaraweera's cartoons were simple, fun to read and they had a variety of things that can happen, which made the readers curious to read the next episode.

Mr. Piyal Udaya Samaraweera

An old episode of Mal Mama

Ibe Yanthraya was one of the most memorable comics I read those days because Pandithuma, who was the main character other than his friend Yodha-Ralahami (Yodhaya) always created very strange and unusual inventions. All of those inventions were full of faults and Yodha Ralahami was the one who showed the faults to Pandithuma in this comic. It was hilarious and it was bit similar to the inventions done by 'Wile e Coyote'. Mr. S. A. Dissanayaka (who passed away in 2019) was the creator of this cartoon. He had many other comics like Punchiththa, Batakola Achchi etc. I think the specialty about his cartoons was that they gave a very strong message to the readers.

Mr. S. A. Dissanayake

Yodhaya cartoon

Aththa Muththa Kaale which was a great comic created by Mr. Hingulwala Dissanayake was another favorite of mine. His stories like this one was based on Jana Katha. Readers got the opportunity to learn a bit about the history as well when reading Mr. Hingulwala Dissanayake's comics on Wijeya. And the drawings were very neat. I used and tried to follow his style a lot and I think I was successful in doing so as a kid. He didn't stick to any specific character in his comics like Mal Mama for Mr. Samaraweera and Pandithuma for Mr. Dissanayake. But I can be wrong there. I have seen that he had written so many children's books as well.

Mr. Hingulwala Dissanayake

Aththa Muththa Kaale cartoon

Some of the famous characters were;

Mal Mama
Punchiththa
Aththa Muththa Kaale
Boo
Pandithuama and Yodha Raalahami
Batakola Aachchi
Udin Wetunu Kumaraya

Mr. S. A. Dissanayake's cartoon characters

Sometime back I used to collect some earlier editions of these cartoons as well. As a result I managed to find the first episodes of Mal Mama. It was a completely different comic in its first episode. Mal Mama was a fat guy and the comic was in Black and White unlike the later colorful versions with only 3 or 4 blocks. I will try to post the first episode in this blog if I can manage to find it. But at the moment I have only few earlier episodes left with me. Is there a way to buy or collect these comics as books?

103rd episode of Mal Mama around 1984

68th episode of Mal Mama around 1984

It is sad to hear that some of these artists didn't get enough recognition of excellence in their field. I may be wrong about it but I think they should be awarded for the creations they have done. In this article I would like to ask whether I can find the compilations or archives of these comics mentioned here. If someone can publish them as books, there will be fans who are eager to read them. I have read some other comics through out my life including very famous ones like Asterix and Tin Tin as well. People in different age groups still read them through out the globe. Our Sri Lankan comics can be famous just like them as well. Even though some people used to say that comic is a bad medium for youngsters and should be avoided by parents and teachers, I think they are really enjoyable. There were some other famous cartoonists as well; Camillus Perera, Daya Rajapaksha, Wickrama, Maali, P. B. Welikumbura to name only a few. There were films and dramas based on their comics. This blog is a tribute to all the cartoonists who had lived, who are living and who will be living.