Laughing all the way to the top

The Malay Mail, Tuesday, January 5, 1999. By Azman Ahmad

He was an average student in school but when it came to drawing, Reggie Lee always scored the highest marks and has long since become a top cartoonist.

As a self-taught artist and someone who loves drawing since his childhood days, Lee now has four cartoon joke books to his credit. Revolving around the everyday lives of Malaysians, the books are titled Reggie Lee, Made in Malaysia, Good Morning Malaysia and the just released Good Morning Malaysia 2.

"I've come a long way since I started contributing my cartoons to magazines and then newspapers," says 42-year-old Lee who hails from Air Itam, Penang and is the fourth of five siblings.

"At one time, my family expected me to be a tailor as it has been our family's core profession for generations."


Good Morning Malaysia 2, another collection of cartoons about Malaysians, was launched by Cultural, Arts and Tourism Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Mohamed Noh Rejab at Sunway Lagoon last week.

Lee says his love for cartooning was inspired by foreign comic books which he subscribed to during his teenage years, specifically Britain's The Dandy and the Beano, and MAD Magazine from the USA.

"After completing Form Five at St Xavier's Institution in Penang, I took up commercial art at the Baharuddin Vocational Institute in Singapore. I did not complete the course as I decided to earn money by contributing cartoons to a magazine called Posh," says Lee.

Upon returning here, he did cartoons for MAD-styled Malay humour magazine Gila-Gila for more than seven years, from 1979.

And in 1991-92, Lee got his first crack at being a newspaper editorial cartoonist through his Reggie's Eyes cartoons for the Malay Mail. Today, Lee's cartoons are regularly featured in another local English newspaper.

For more than two decades, his drawing talent saw him working for advertising firms, both local and international, including Leo Burnett, BBDO and Bozell.

"My last job was as associate creative director with Peter Beaumont & Friends. I quit advertising three years ago to enable myself to work at home and at my own free will," says Lee, who started a company called Real Colours (M) Sdn Bhd with partner Aesos Lai a year ago.

Lee's creativity in the advertising field has won him many accolades, including the Clios (the advertising world's equivalent to Hollywood's Oscars), two local Kancil awards, also the Max Lewis and New York Film Festival awards.

"I'm glad I'm now able to work on my cartoons at home and no longer have to endure traffic jams," says Lee, who's married with two children.




"My ideas for the editorial cartoons also come from my eavesdropping other people's conversations at coffee shops, shopping complexes, cinemas, wet markets and the pubs."

Through the Real Colours company with Lai, Lee has introduced a range of merchandise such as T-shirts, postcards, mugs and watches, all based on his familiar cartoon characters.

"My postcards have sold more than one million copies and is a favourite among tourists," says Lee, noting that as a cartoonist he's selling fun to create laughter in society as a remedy for stress and life's complications.

Lee is currently working on some ideas for his future publications which include tourism-related jokes, as well as educational books.

Lee's merchandise can be found in all major souvenir outlets throughout the country, including Memory Lane, Wellsave Supermarkets, the airports and even the National Museum.