Not many people know who is He, but for some cartoon fans, especially who grew up reading our local Humor Magazine, GILA GILA, in the 80’s, may remember this face who appeared every fortnight on the cover.
His name is Mohd Ariff Azahari.a.k.a Abg Ariff.
He is now in his late 60’s and lives with his family in Kuching, Sarawak. East Malaysia.
The Mascot
Why Abg Ariff’s face was chosen as a mascot?
There were so many versions of stories being told. I decided to listen to Jaafar Taib, the creator of the character and the Big Boss of Gila Gila (GG) who simply said, because he had the ‘Malay Look’, very much local and relevant to the Malay language magazine. Abg Ariff worked as a photographer in Creative Enterprise, the publisher of the longest survived magazine in the country.
But it was some 30 years ago. Gila Gila is celebrating their 40th anniversary, this year (1978-2018)
I remember, when GG was first published, in April 1978, It was really looked like a Malaysia version of the famous MAD magazine. But over the years, the approach had transformed into its own identity.
If GG is initially the clone if MAD, Abg Ariff is the answer to Alfred E. Neuman, the mascot, the face that everybody loves to hate.
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Alfred E. Neuman
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Ariff Azahari
The obvious diference between Alfred & Arief (hey their names are also alike!) was that, MAD maintained Alfred as a mascot from day one, whereas GG keep changing them for unknown reason...
(Pardon, its in Malay)
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On the right is a quite recent of Abg Ariff’s photo. Can anyone recognise?
One day, Abg Ariff send me this photo of his and requested me to draw his portrait after seeing my previous works using water color. As a favor, I obliged.
So, this was how it went out to be...
Till we meet again in the next posting..
Bye.