KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — The Japanese version of Kampung Boy comic won second place in Japan’s Gaiman Award for the overseas comic category.

According to a statement, the comic by Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid, or popularly known as Datuk Lat, beat 14 other comics from several countries including the UK, Spain, China and South Korea.

According to the results announced on Saturday through the website www.gaiman.jp, the comic from the US, Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, was accorded first place. Third place went to Jolies Tenebres from France.

“Generally, overseas readers love reading Kampung Boy and choose the book because it portrays the culture, harmony and unity of Malaysian society in the eye of a local village boy,” the statement said. “The illustrations of real characters in a village setting draw readers close to the characters and make the comic book an easy read.”

Kampung Boy was translated by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Japanese language lecturer Hieda Natsue. It was edited by Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) lecturer Associate Professor Soda Naoki.

Jointly published by the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books and Tokyo’s TUFS Press, it was launched at the Tokyo International Book Fair in July.

Now it is also used as a teaching aid for Southeast Asian Studies at TUFS because of its uniqueness.

Datuk Lat’s works have been translated and published in 12 languages including English, Arabic, Mandarin, Tamil, French, German, Indonesian and Korean. — Bernama