HCM CITY — Local publishers are trying to push foreign comics off bookstore shelves with cool comicbooks with Manga style illustrations about Viet Nam's history, but the kids aren't buying.
The Kim Dong Publishing House recently released a new comic series on the history of Viet Nam titled Hao Kiet Dat Phuong Nam (Southern Land's Heroes) hoping to make young readers interested in Vietnamese history through comics.
The 20-episode series tells stories of Vietnamese heroes like Truong Dinh, Nguyen Hue, Nguyen Trung Truc and Bui Thi Xuan, focusing on the funniest, most interesting stories with funky illustrations by Nguyen Dong Hai.
Writer Hoai Anh said he used the most gripping details on historic events and characters to create the series.
For example, he tells how the Vietnamese army used leeches and mosquitoes to defeat the enemy in the episode Chien Luy Thap Muoi (Thap Muoi Defence Line), about hero Vo Duy Duong (aka Thien Ho Duong), who led the revolution against the French in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
The Phan Thi Communication, Education and Entertainment Company is also publishing a series of comics on the country's history called Truyen Hay Su Viet (Best Stories of Viet Nam's History) on Vietnamese dynasties like the Ngo dynasty from 938 to 967 and the Ly dynasty from 1009 to 1225.
To attract young readers, Phan Thi's cartoonists use the Japanese Chibi drawing style, made popular by Japanese and South Korean comics.
Many local publishers, including the Giao Duc (Education) Publishing House and the Tre (Youth) Publishing House, have comics about historical events and characters to compete with the offerings from Japan, South Korea and China, which they say contain inappropriate subject matter like gratuitous sex and violence.
But young Vietnamese comic buyers aren't impressed with the publishers' latest ploy saying the stories are like textbooks and the pictures aren't cool.
Nguyen Anh Minh, a ninth grader in Binh Thanh District, said Vietnamese comics bored him.
"I like Manga and Manhwa with their creative plots and their action drawings," Khoa said.
‘Bad for the soul'
While locally published books on good subjects are being ignored, others about ghosts and inappropriate comics fill the bookstore shelves nationwide.
Series of books on ghosts like Truyen Khong Doc Luc Nua Dem (Stories not for Midnight) by Nam Thanh, published by the Thanh Hoa Publishing House are easy to find on the shelves of Nguyen Van Cu Bookstore in HCM City's District 5.
A sixth grader of the city's secondary school who was reading a book Nguoi Moc Rang Nanh (Man with Fangs) said his mum wouldn't let him buy it so he came to the bookstore to read it in his freetime.
The spread of such books is becoming big problem according to parents worried that the adult content would be a bad influence on their kids.
Pham Thu Thuy in District 8 said her child brought home a pile of books one day, and locked himself in his room to read them.
"I was shocked by the content matter of his books – sex and murder. It was enough to influence adults not just kids," she said.
She wondered why books with such drawing were allowed to be published.
Writer Nguyen Ngoc said children cannot distinguish between good and bad so they can be bad for their soul. — VNS