Exploring ‘creative limitations’ and their effects on the Malaysian comic industry: socioeconomic and structural constraints

Historically, Malaysian comics have demonstrated a significant cultural and economic value to the country such as being an entertainment medium for the people and playing a role of political tool. However, as comics gained popularity over the years, turning it into a mainstream media, creative limitations; which in the context of creative industries can be defined as challenges that may arise from any form of restrictions and industry policies which commonly affect creative autonomy and creative process, began to emerge, shaped by commercial, structural, and institutional pressures. Additionally, despite comics being an important cultural tool, institutional and scholarly attention regarding the medium remains scarce, which dismisses the structural constraints comic creators may face in their practise of making comics. Thus, this paper aims to address this gap by exploring how creative limitations, through socioeconomic and structural lens, impacts the Malaysian comic industry and how local comic creators operate within these constraints. This research will employ a qualitative approach through data collection from past studies to illuminate existing problems and discover gaps, and through in-depth interviews of comic creators such as artists, writers, editors, and producers to gather direct information via lived experiences. Utilizing Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural production as the base framework, this study will analyze the interactions between commercialization of comics and comic creators’ autonomy, shedding light on how these creators negotiate systemic constraints. This study is expected to offer deeper insights into the current status of the comic industry, especially the working realities of local comic creators. Moreover, it is anticipated that the findings will help contribute to the efforts of making the comic industry to be sustainable for the future of Malaysia’s cultural and creative industries.