Hsu Mao-sung (許貿淞), one of Taiwan’s earliest and most popular comic-book artists, died on Saturday at the age of 82.
Hsu died of heart failure at his home in New Taipei City, his daughter Elizabeth Hsu (許綺芬) said on Sunday.
Born in 1937 in Kaohsiung, he developed an interest in drawing at a young age.
Noting that his father drew portraits before people had cameras, Hsu Mao-sung had said that he learned how to draw by watching him.
At a cousin’s suggestion, he started drawing comics in his early 20s, launching a career that spanned six decades.
He mainly created martial arts-themed works at a time when that was a focus of films and novels, although many of the plots were similar.
However, the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government started censoring comics in 1962.
While many quit the field because of the censorship, he persevered.
In an effort to stand out, Hsu Mao-sung began incorporating elements of hand puppetry shows into his comics, which he said was the key to his success.
Within two years, he had become a household name. At the time, comic books were sold in specific stores and people would start lining up at 6am to buy them. His comics often sold out within an hour of being put on the shelves.
The golden era of Taiwanese comics ended in 1962 when the KMT administration began to crack down on them. The government set up a committee to “review” comic books, which imposed strict limits on what could be portrayed.
The characters in Hsu Mao-sung’s works were not allowed to fly or even jump too high. Images of blood or of people being killed were forbidden.
“The people reviewing our drawings made a mess of our artwork,” he said in an interview in 2017. “They had no sense of art.”
After censorship was introduced, nearly half of the approximately 500 comic book artists in Taiwan quit the profession within a year, he said.
“I was angry at the time and sad,” he said.
“I often asked myself: What kind of government would suppress a country’s comic book artists?” he said.
He continued to teach the craft to his apprentices and established a publishing house, providing a gateway for local artists.
In the 1980s, Hsu Mao-sung began drawing religious comics. His final masterpiece was a 760-page hand-drawn comic book about the life of Buddha, which took 10 years to complete and was published last year.
Hsu Mao-sung in 2017 received a Special Contribution Award from the government for his contribution to Taiwan’s comic industry.
Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) yesterday mourned Hsu Mao-sung’s death.
“He created throughout his life and was an inspiration to younger generations,” Cheng said in a statement.
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