In conversation with Mr Kiasu creator Johnny Lau







 

 

     




By ANAND GURNANI

| 
3 September, 2009 - 16:02




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The AYACC conference held in Guiyang, China in early August was  truly a memorable one and amongst its many highlights, it brought  together under one roof, a sterling line up of Animation & Comic  Industry Personalities from more than 20 countries from Asia and the  world over. One of the masters from Singapore, Johnny Lau, the creator  of the record breaking, iconic character brand ‘Mr Kiasu’ in an  exclusive conversation with Animation Xpress Asia Pacific, shared the  meteoric rise and history of Kiasu. He also spoke about his approach to  the animation and entertainment business and also about his next  initiative Bubble Gum Crisis, a feature film franchise and 360* brand in  the making, whose first feature was green-lit for US$ 30 Million a few  months ago.


 Excerpts




How long have you been involved in the field of comics and publishing?
I was 15 when my comic work first got published and my first comic book happened when I was 17, that was some 30 years ago.

How did it happen, I am sure you don’t plan a career at that early an age?
I did. When at 15 I saw my work published, I knew this was what I wanted to do. I struggled for two years, and then did my comic book as well. At that time it was my great ambition to go to Hong Kong and work for Tony Wong who was the king of comics there. But my father told me that he would not send me to HK and he instead wanted to send me to do and study something similar in Los Angeles, that something similar was “Architecture”.

Architecture?
Yes AR CHI TEC TURE! didn’t sound anything like comics to me, however the next thing I was in Los Angeles all by myself. The first day I was in class, everyone around me was drawing straight lines with set squares and I couldn’t draw straight lines to save my life, so I was already in trouble from the beginning and the lecturer was like “What the hell are you doing here?”

I subsequently discovered my classmates could draw buildings and straight lines and interiors but none could draw humans, so I said let’s make a deal, you draw buildings for me and I draw humans for you.

By year two, I was taking film classes and other creative classes without my father's knowledge and took as many other courses without majoring in them, so that while on the front it appeared that I was still studying architecture, on the back I was devoting a lot of time to film making, fabric painting, glassware, etc. I also took side courses for marketing.

I basically neglected architecture and for the first 3 years of the five year classes, I barely passed. Everyone thought I was a slacker but in fact I was spending a lot of time doing other courses elsewhere, by the fourth year of architecture I started applying whatever I had learnt into architecture. While people around me made straight buildings with cardboard paper, I would be doing sculpture with porcelain to create my buildings, my buildings would also have water flowing out and music as well. In my last 2 years I got perfect A and I made the DINS list in my final year.

That’s when I started developing a love for other creative forms, which subsequently shaped what I do in my work today.

So while you were studying architecture, and other creative things, did you kind of drift away from Comics which you said was the career option of your choice?
No. My love for comics was always on. While studying in LA, one of my favourites was the comic Life in Hell, by Matt Groening' and this was before he had created The Simpsons. It was published in the campus newspaper. Not many people knew him then, but I used to read him everyday. His work and approach influenced me directly to decide that when I come back to Singapore I want to start not just a comic studio but a comics business. The difference between the two is it being business driven in the comic industry rather than it being purely about creativity. I have learnt from Matt that creative and ideas can be a big business as well, at the same time I was also case studying Jim Davis who is the creator of Garfield, every Monday morning, he would just brainstorm for the strips for the week with his staff members and he would draw just the head and face of Garfield and the rest of the strip and the body was done by the team.


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When did you create Mr                        Kiasu 
 I created my character Mr Kiasu in 1989. Kiasu is                        a word in the Chinese dialect Hokkien which literally means                        ‘afraid of loosing’. It’s a part of Singapore                        colloquial language today, when someone is risk averse,                        we say “don’t be a Kiasu” though at that                        time the term was not popular.


I started out thinking that                        some publisher could publish for me and I went around knocking                        doors and they were all slammed on me. The feedback was                        change the name to pure English since at that time the government                        was against Singlish, they wanted proper English like the                        Queen’s English.


So I decided to self publish,                        and I got together a group of people and decided from day                        1 that I will be like Matt Groeing and Jim Davis and run                        it as a business, I would spend more time crafting the business                        rather than sitting in front of the table and drawing.


How did you manage both,                        the creative and business part? How did you traverse both                        the domains at the same time?
 I made a very hard decision to partner another comic                        artist. I would start the sketches and he would finish it.                        It was quite new as a concept, and difficult to explain                        to people who knew that I was a cartoonist, “Why is                        it that you don’t do it yourself?” was what I                        was asked. At that time I could not tell everybody that                        I was interested in the business part. But by devoting my                        time to business, I was able to meet the press and media                        and sell them the idea of the book from day 1 and build                        the brand. And unlike others, I was never published in the                        newspapers first, I went straight to a book, without any                        name and track record, which were unheard of. I was self                        publishing going straight to the book and I even managed                        to convince a merchandising company to print 3 designs of                        TShirts of the character, we produced 500 T-shirts, 300                        mugs and 1000 car bumper stickers and I launched it in a                        book fair in Singapore and I timed it with all the journalists                        to come up with the article at the same time.


What about the finances?
 I was self publishing, I didn’t have money, so I asked                        my printers if they could give credit of 60 days instead                        of 30 days. They finally agreed to. Another one of the most                        common wisdom I defied was that before I came out with my                        book, the bestseller had sold 500 copies, and people warned                        me to not print more than 500. I printed 3000 books of 140                        pages black and white.


So you defied conventional                        wisdom and went with your gut?
 Yes and everybody thought I was nuts and my distributor                        told me Johnny you will loose your pants and your underwear.                        And then when I launched, the TV people saw the newspaper                        articles and they wanted to interview me and then radio                        too wanted to interview me and all this before the book                        came out. The peg was “Local cartoonist being enterprising                        and even having merchandising coming out.” The book                        fair where I launched was for 10 days and I sold 1000 copies                        in 10 days and that covered all my printing costs and I                        was left with 2000 copies and they were sold in the next                        two weeks.


Book 1 which was published                        in 1990 has now gone into 22 reprints and has sold 60,000                        copies till date.


Wow!
 The next 10 years I focused on publishing 1 new book                        of Kiasu every year, and every time I printed a new one,                        the previous was reprinted as well. For one decade our book                        was the Number 1 book in Singapore and not just for comics                        but across all books. By 1993 McDonalds approached us to                        come out with a special item called the Kiasu burger which                        was an extra large burger, they did TV Commercials to promote                        it and toys, and it sold 1.2 million burgers breaking all                        Mc Donalds records of that time in Singapore. Because of                        Mc Donalds, we became a household name.


During that time, I thought                        of leveraging on the Kiasu burger opportunity and I went                        to a record company to create a singing and rapping album                        with Mr Kiasu and we timed it with the Mc Donald’s                        launch. 10,000 copies with five songs which I co-wrote and                        coproduced and we then came up with a radio show called                        Radio Kiasu. It was a Spoof show.


So I took the brand and expanded                        into different areas and because of my year one merchandise                        experience, by the time it got to Mc Donald’s, we signed                        up 40 licenses, including cakes, cereals, caps, shampoos,                        sneakers and then I thought ok now I am learning the business,                        why don’t we get all the licensees together and add                        more value to all.


We approached Takashimaya                        and created our own space called Kiasu Corner selling our                        merchandise there.


Now that’s truly                        inspiring!
 I had what I call the beginner’s luck as I was                        not trained as a business man. What I have learnt in a nutshell,                        is that do 1 single idea. And rather than like a lot of                        my peers who focus on creativity alone, I focus 50% of my                        time on the business.


And what happened next                        with Kiasu?
 Even after 40 licensees, we did not find it scalable; there                        was a limit I felt to this brand. And I subsequently decided                        to wind down the merchandising aspect. Opportunities came                        along again and we did the Mc Donald’s merchandise                        again and then we did Mr Kiasu into TV series, Mediacorp                        wanted to do sitcoms based on Mr Kiasu and there                        were two full seasons of sitcoms and my company got royalties.                        This was in 1998/99.


I had maxed out with the                        brand and by the end of 9 years I told my writers and colleagues                        that the tenth year would be it. So I stopped new series                        after the tenth year. First ten years we had new series                        every year and in the next ten years we just reprinted it.                        Next year we celebrate the 20th anniversary and will do                        a commemorative book.


What other ventures and                        initiatives did you involve in?
 In the past ten years, I did many things; I got into the                        dotcom boom, pitched to VCs about creating online comics.                        Like everybody else I went to Silicon Valley and raised                        money and started something online but in a very short time                        I decided I wanted to go mobile and this was when the mobile                        was monotone in Singapore. I had nowhere else but Japan                        which was ahead of the time in mobile. By then I also knew                        that creativity and business have to come hand in hand.


We even had an office in                        Chennai, this was in 2000 and went on until 2005 that was                        also the time I started thinking about Japanese Animation,                        I am director of AIC, the company has been around for 30                        years, and I became a small stake holder and director and                        set up a Singapore entity.


The same company which                        is now creating Bubble Gum Crisis?
 Yes. It was around 2006, that I told my partner that I would                        like to make motion pictures from the Anime Properties that                        AIC owned. I did my pitching to the Americans who were not                        sure if they wanted to go ahead with my pitch. But after                        the success of Transformers 1 in 2007, I changed my pitch.                        In Bubble Gum Crisis the four leads are the four girls with                        a day job who get superhuman at night time and fight bad                        robots. Its Charlie’s Angels meets Transformers, and                        the idea sold. We signed for 30 Million USD for Bubble Gum                        Crisis.


So what’s your approach                        with Bubble Gum Crisis?
 I want to do something more than what is being done by Japan,                        but at the same time looking at the success of Marvel comics                        into film. At AIC, we have gathered many IPs throughout                        the years and I would like to leverage these properties                        into Motion pictures. I was just in HongKong talking to                        toy makers for Bubble Gum…, I want to use all my experience                        that I have gathered in creating brand Mr Kiasu and                        scale up the Bubble Gum Crisis brand. We are exploring 360                        Media Entertainment platforms.


I just feel that it’s                        a much bigger platform.


Singapore being such a small                        market, I had to look globally. English being almost like                        my mother tongue gives me the advantage and with the strong                        link to Japan, I feel I have that unique selling point.                        And I will be using the Hong Kong / China manufacturing                        base for creating merchandise. I can go back to comics for                        Bubble Gum as well. If at all we are successful, and we                        make a sequel, I would also come out with comic books and                        limited episodes of animation as well.


Brand is something I am now                        experienced in building, so I will be focusing now on the                        story, which will have the spirit of Anime, but made for                        the US market and not even any other market. If that can                        be achieved in terms of script, we have a limited budget                        of USD 30 Million not USD 300 Million so I will want to                        create some spectacular scenes and moments, but it need                        not have to be a very expensive VFX extravaganza. It has                        to be memorable and that is the focus.


I am a big believer of looking at stars who people think are past their time and help reinventing them. They are helping us and we are helping them. I stayed in LA for many years and every corner I turned, there was a star or a writer or a director and LOS Angeles is a place where you can find real talent. The Finance & Distribution deal for Bubble Gum Crisis is done and covered for US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan and we are only now securing Japan.

We are currently in pre prod stage, and film release is targeted by Q2 - Q3 of 2010.

What is Go Home all about?
Go Home is a kind of anthology of comic and visual story works which was done in 12 days by 12 different artists creating 12 different satires, which is conceived, moderated, published and initiated by me. I worked together with ASEF (Asia Europe Foundation) to invite them to Singapore and made them do the entire thing in 12 days. I had them do the whole layout in Singapore. They had to sign every page they finished. They did the drawing and illustration and the story and the writing in 12 days and went back and did the inking afterwards.

What your comments on AYACC?
There is this part of me that did not want to give up comics all together. And the world is becoming a smaller place and I thought we should come together as much as possible, as many times as possible to come together and creating something that we all feel. Which is why I am in Guiyang, I know John Lent for 17 years and when I saw him and Mr Liuyi Wang trying to bring us all together, I just came here.

I think Guiyang is a fantastic platform to bring all the different countries’ representatives together for a week. I know many other cities in China has similar initiatives and intention- which I think is great. The key for Guiyang’s is to find a unique vision and area to focus on, and it can succeed in just one unique feature that will sets it apart from the rest. All the successful ideas, companies and event does that, so I think AYACC can become that.

From Comics to Toys to Mobile to Internet to Merchandise to Film, you have been involved in all…how same and different are these businesses?
All these businesses are different. Merchandise is all about manufacture, distribution and retail. In animation the considerations are totally different and if you do comic books, again there are another set of rules you have to follow. The only common thing is that they all need content and they all need to leverage themselves and crossover to other industries. So if I speak to a toymaker, I will be speaking a different language at 1.pm and 2-3 pm I am talking to a film distributor talking a very different language and if I speak to a comic book artist it’s different.

It’s been a very interesting 20 years. When it comes to the Film business and the US market for Film, I am new in this business and everybody I am signing is a veteran and established in this space and they are like Johnny you are a baby. But I think I know a few things.

Indeed!