UMP Press explores Educomic segment

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) Press achieved another milestone by successfully publishing the first educomic titled UMP Comic Series: Survival Statics by the Mekanika and Ariff AV team.

The team is led by Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering Technology (FTKMA), Dr. Luqman Hakim Ahmad Shah.

Survival Statics is a comic based on a scholarly subject put together with an interesting story to easily understand the statics subject matter.

Developed countries such as Korea, Japan and the United States of America have long used comics in their education systems.

In Korea, there are many comics based on scholarly subjects. Some have even been translated for the market in Malaysia, such as the comic Oh Senangnya Sains Kimia bersama Dao dan Bazzi.

While in Japan, it is famous for scholarly reference books that use the manga (comic) approach.

According to the Director of UMP Press, Muhammad Azli Shukri, publishing scholarly comics is the first step for UMP Press to explore the educomic segment in publishing scholarly works for technical fields at the tertiary level.

“It is time for university publishers in the country, especially in the science and technology cluster, to invest and create opportunities in the growing creative industry, and even pioneer strategic collaborations between publishers, academics and art activists in producing fresher and contemporary scholarly works.

“Comics is a tool that triggers inquiry to readers, and it has proven to be effective as a medium for disseminating knowledge in developed countries.
“This 75-page comic is sold at RM30 per copy,” he said.
He added that apart from comics as the main content, there are additional explanatory notes on the topics covered in each chapter.

“There are also QR codes that lead the readers to videos explaining the topics to make it easier to understand.

“There are three chapters in the first series of this comic, namely The Invitation (Introduction to Statics), Seantero Island (Vector Analysis, Free Body Diagrams and Problem Analysis), and Deeper Into The Jungle (Moment of Force),” he said.

According to Educomic Survival Statics project leader Dr. Luqman Hakim, he has long desired to see scholarly comics like this.

“The first project and experiment with UMP Press in 2015 to produce scholarly comics was successfully realised through the publication of a semi-comic module titled Easy Step by Step Guide to Shear Force Bending Moment Diagrams Analysis.

“The idea to publish scholarly comics came while studying in Japan in 2004.

“Studying there is very challenging because all subjects are taught in Japanese.

“Fortunately, the field of engineering uses a lot of numbers and equations, not long-winded sentences,” he said.

He further explained that at that time, a Japanese friend introduced him to an interesting additional reference book of Physics with various pictures and simple explanations.

“I am delighted because that was the first time I enjoyed reading university-level books.

“I was aware of many such books in local book stores. The explanations are easy to understand and interesting to read because they use graphics, caricatures, analogies and simple words.

“This includes a series of books that I love called The Manga Guide.

“This book uses a full comic format to explain higher education subjects such as Fourier Analysis and Statistics.

“I get a lot of benefits from reading these comics to understand and appreciate more subjects taught in class,” he said.

Comics like this had helped him study up to the PhD level.

“This is the basic idea for my team to produce the Survival Statics comic.

“Survival Statics tells the story of five university students named Mohan, Lam, Ash, Jason and Is, who are short of money.

“This forces them to participate in a programme that offers a lucrative cash reward of RM1 million known as Survival Statics.

“Within three days, they are required to go through and solve several challenges related to static on a remote island.

“Like it or not, they have to unite and use all their knowledge to get out of the island safely and uncover the identity of the mysterious organiser,” he said.

Can they pass the tests on the island, and who is the mysterious organiser?

Follow their story in the latest Survival Statics Part 1 comic published by UMP Press.

By: Athirah Ruzaini, UMP Press

Translation by: Dr. Rozaimi Abu Samah, Engineering College/Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology