From the Fujiko brothers’ “Doraemon” to Toriyama’s “Dragon Ball,” manga has taken the world by storm, spreading far beyond Japan to become cultural staples and blockbusters. Thai creator Adisak ‘Das’ Pongsampan’s “Before Becoming the Buddha” manga received the Bronze Award from the Japan International Awards 2023 and recently won the Seven Book Awards prize in 2024. Despite the popularity of digital comics, he’s still holding onto the love of physical comic books and decided to create his own publishing house to push himself onto the global scene. BK speaks with Das about his start as an illustrator at 12 and where the future of comic books is going. 

I used to draw online comics like ten years ago when they first became popular. I worked on them for five years but felt like it wasn’t really my style, and I thought my skills were at their lowest too because I was used to drawing on paper. Reading on a screen makes artwork look small; readers scroll through so quickly, and there is big dialogue covering the details that seem so tiny. Lately, publishers barely hire new illustrators, and they have strict deadlines and require a lot of work. Sometimes, I don’t have enough time to fine-tune the work as much as I’d like. There’s hardly any rest. During covid, I started my own publishing house. I printed, sold, and did everything myself. It turned out to be much better than I expected. I connected directly with readers, and they could support me directly as well. After that, I wanted to challenge myself with big projects, like drawing “Before Becoming the Buddha” for instance.

This story was very difficult actually. Few people write about it because it requires a lot of research. But when I was nine years old, I thought about drawing the Buddha after seeing sculptures at Buddhist temples. But, well, I wasn't good at drawing back then, so I stopped. When I became an artist and kept reading and researching, I realized the opportunity, including the inspiration from traveling abroad to see works such as the Gandhara Buddha statues in India. The statues have a Greco-Roman style that I find beautiful. This led me to study Tripitaka (the Pali Canon or the Buddhist texts) more deeply and start drawing. I couldn't sketch anything in the beginning. I looked at references like images of Indian people's faces, Buddha statues, and Western sculptures. It took over a year to come up with just one draft.

At first, I thought about submitting to the Seven Book Awards, but I missed the deadline. Then I happened to see the competition in Japan, so I decided to send my work without any expectations. I had already given it my all. This award is on a global level, with entries from nearly every corner of the world. You could call it the Oscars of manga. To be honest, I don't know why they chose me—maybe the cover caught their eye. The funny thing is, my work was only sixty pages long, while others were around two hundred pages. When I got the Bronze Award, I was satisfied, but the problem was that no one in Thailand knew about it. I had to promote myself and do everything on my own, as usual, until I gradually became known. If I had stayed quiet, no one would’ve known. You have to push yourself, you know.

I don’t know if you’d call it 'success’ because I already succeeded when I was 15. Everything after that has been about maintaining that dream—keeping what’s in my heart from changing. It’s been 30 years now, and I’m still drawing. There have been ups and downs, but I’m still happy with the work. I think doing things on my own gives me complete freedom. If I’m not satisfied with a piece of work, I won’t publish it. But if I’m working with someone else, I have to rush to meet deadlines even when the work isn’t fully polished. Some people sell off their work and don’t own it, but I don’t want that.
 

I love reading books, but not online because it's distracting and I don’t remember things as well. I enjoy visiting both Thai and foreign bookstores, which provide a lot of inspiration—not just from comics, but from all kinds of genres. Whether it’s about trees or architecture, I can incorporate everything into my work. When a book is on the shelf, I can immediately remember where the information I need is located—what page, which book, which section. I can just walk over and grab it right away. This pattern works much better than digital because it’s harder for me to visualize what I need. Traveling abroad helps a lot too; seeing artworks in different cities and museums can always give you something.

I do have a project, which is finishing the third volume of “Before Becoming the Buddha,” and I just published “Monster Steak” which I initially made for fun, but it received interest from the West with requests for an English version to be published as well.