Lat (cartoonist)

Datuk Mohammad Nor bin Mohammad Khalid is a Malaysian cartoonist. He was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2002. His best known work is The Kampung Boy, which is published in several countries. In 1994, the Sultan of Perak bestowed the honorific title of datuk on Lat.

About Lat (cartoonist) in brief

Datuk Mohammad Nor bin Mohammad Khalid is a Malaysian cartoonist. He was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2002. His best known work is The Kampung Boy, which is published in several countries across the world. In 1994, the Sultan of Perak bestowed the honorific title of datuk on Lat, in recognition of the cartoonist’s work in helping to promote social harmony and understanding through his cartoons. Lat’s style has been described as reflective of his early influences, The Beano and The Dandy. He has, however, come into his own way of illustration, drawing the common man on the streets with bold strokes in pen and ink. A trademark of his Malay characters is their three-loop noses. Aside from writing and publishing cartoons, Lat has ventured into the fields of animation, merchandising, and theme parks with his creations. His name and works are recognised internationally; foreign cartoonists, such as Matt Groening and Sergio Aragonés, admire his art, and foreign governments invite Lat to tour their countries, hoping to gain greater exposure for their countries through Lat’s cartoons of his experiences in them.Lat was born on 5 March 1951 in a kampung in Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia. His father was a government clerk with the Malaysian Armed Forces, and his mother a housewife. Lat idolised local cartoonist Raja Hamzah, who was popular with his tales of swashbuckling Malay heroes.

He passed the Special Malay Class Examination, Special Type Primary School—National Type Type School—in Ipoh, state’s capital, in 1960. The boy did not aspire to academic attainment and his father’s job moved the family from one military base to another across the country until they settled back at his birthplace in 1960, at the age of 11. Lat was the eldest child in his family, and he often played in the jungles, plantations, and tin mines with his friends. His friends shortened it to “Lat”; it became the name by which he was more commonly known in his kampsung and later in the world, and he was known as ‘Lat’ The boy was a stocky boy with a cherubic face, which led his family to nickname him bulat. His friends shorten it to ‘Lat’, and his friends nicknamed him ‘Bulat’ Lat was a newspaper reporter before becoming an editorial cartoonist in 1974. His works are staple features in national newspapers such as New Straits Times and Berita Minggu. After 27 years of living and working in Kuala Lumpur, Lat moved back to I poh for a more sedate lifestyle in semi-retirement. He adapted his life experiences and published them as his autobiographies, telling stories of rural and urban life with comparisons between the two. Lat also works for the government to improve trance genre, and to improve the city’s social security. He is known for his gentleness and gentleness.

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