What is “One Baht Cartoon book”?

Article : Puchong Rojsangrat

          “One Baht Cartoon” is Thai comic book, black and white, color covers, traditional work by hand drawn on paper. Content ends in the chapter (A5 size, approximately 16 pages.) priced at 1 baht per book (price during the 1960s-1990s) (1 baht equals approximately 4-5 Cent). Almost all of the content is about Thai ghosts, Thai drama people’s life and folk Thai culture that all reflected in the aspects of merit, sin, good and evil (What goes around, comes around.) in Thai Buddhism.

         "One Baht Cartoon" are easy to read and have uncomplicated content. The reading population is therefore large. Because, besides being cheap and having simple content as well, someone called this type as "low-class comic". This may be due to the affordable price of low-income groups such as labor groups, straightforward content, and a simple drawing style.

         The style of "One Baht Cartoon". It works with black ink only; no gray tones or screen tones. It looks like a real figure, but the shape looks hard, unnatural pose. The view of the work is a simple plane, such as seeing on the side or the front view. There is a wide and close distance. It does not appear as a perspective, isometric, or other angle. In addition, the scenes and architectural scenes are drawn simply, not in detail, not exquisite. That is all very different from Japanese manga.

         One Baht Cartoon is not as popular as Japanese manga in Thailand. According to bookstores in Thailand that sell Japanese manga, more than 70–80% of all comic books are from other sources. "One Baht Cartoon" are still selling consistently. There are both famous cartoonists and anonymous cartoonists whose works have been published and distributed in large numbers over the past decades.

         Nowadays, "One baht cartoon" is no longer sold for 1 baht and is difficult to find in bookstores. I recently found that the price is 15 baht a book. However, almost all Thai people still call this comic type "One Baht Cartoon." One Baht Cartoon in the old era was auctioned for a relatively high price as an aesthetic object (some work shown at a museum). It is a Thai comic that has been passed for a long time until the new generation accepts it as an art object.