Thai comic artists are displaying their artworks online to show support for medical staff, the frontline soldiers who risk their lives to combat Covid-19 in many countries worldwide, in an online campaign titled "Support Our Heroes".
Comic artist Kannika "Amo" Rachjareon started the campaign on March 20 via her Facebook fanpage, calling on anyone who would like to encourage the real-life heroes by sharing their drawings, photography and music with a #SupportOurHeroes online. Participants publish their work and tag at least one person so they can do the same. Look for the hashtag on Facebook or Twitter to see more. Here are a few of our favourites.
Kannika "Amo" Rachjareon (fb.com/amokannika) started the campaign with this picture of a hero (or heroine) in a hazmat suit carrying a briefcase that we hope to be the cure for Covid-19.
Um Jirayu, aka Mee Lamer (sleepwalking bear in English, fb.com/umjirayu), shows us a hero in a hazmat suit with determination in his eyes as he's about to brace for something ominous ahead of him.
Chickenz (fb.com/ChickenzComics) won my favourite pick for his picture looks like it's straight from a Marvel or DC comic book. Our hero and heroine in white sci-fi suits are zapping away the red virus creatures against the backdrop of Bangkok's cityscape complete with our skyscrapers and temples. Super kewl.
Popular Thai cartoonist Jod 8riew (fb.com/OmeagaJod) is obviously inspired by the transformation trope found in Japanese superheroes known as "henshin". The transformation device here is the face mask. The analogy is that our doctors and nurses are empowered by face masks so they can go out and fight the coronavirus disease, aka the monster. Su su.
Character Dairy (fb.com/CharactersDairy) contributes seven pages of his comics strip, which is inspired by Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, to honour the brave medical staff. Our hero, in a medical coat, gathers the power of support from people and throws a huge energy ball to obliterate the virus creature. Take that, Covid-19!
Not all heroes wear capes, in real life, some of them wear masks. Redkamdesu (fb.com/redkamdesu) illustrates this statement to a tee with this comic strip as the superhero version of a doctor punching the purple virus monster into oblivion.
