Lat was born Mohd Nor bin Khalid in March 1951, in a kampung (village) house in Kota Bahru, Malaysia. He grew into a chubby little fellow and was nickname Bulat, or Lat.

Words from Lat about his life in the kampung (extract from "Lat 30 Years Later"):

"To say my family was a crazy would be an understatement. Growing up in the kampung, I remember being surrounded by family members who seem to have nothing else to do except joke and be merry.

My father was like most fathers in that he would scold us and get angry but he was never all that serious. He was a joker and we learnt, from very young, never to take what he said for granted. Even when he sounded serious, he was probably making fun on things.

My mum was the more serious one buy even then she had her moments - once she actually went to a photo studio to pose in a saree (Indian dress) with her sister.

Ours was a closely-knit community and the kampung folks were similarly jovial. The way the spoke and ask questions hinted of mischief. I think it was because we were so close that we could have such a relationship. After all, you don't speak to strangers this way.

Without the distractions of modern living, we had to find out own diversions. One of the first thing we did was to mimic others. I still remember the Chinese grocer name See Han who would speak in a very slow melodious voice. We had a lot of fun mimicking that.

I also remember the mak ciks and pak ciks who would, just by their appearance, make you roll over with laughter. In the 1950s, for instance, when it was fashionable to have rambut karan (saloon perm), watching the kampung women on parade with their hair done up was really hilarious."

School Days, Fun Days, and Early Influences

I remember school days well. Our teachers and headmasters would tell us during assemblies, "School days are the best days of your life." And the whole bunch of us at the back of the hall would be laughing away. Only in later years would we discover how true it was.

School days were when we discovered a lot of things about ourselves. The first thing I discovered was how I could have fun with drawing. Although I was drawing even before I started school, this was different. Art class was fun. Imaginative composition was the thing I loved most. The teacher would give a subject: draw people running or chasing after a kite flying loose, that sort of things.

Over the years Lat has published thousands of cartoons and sketches, for the newspaper, magazines, books to animated series. I have collected most of Mr Lat's books and would like to share some of his strips with you. Click on the image to see the full cartoon! The full image are pretty large in size, as I wanted to keep the quality of the pictures. Therefore each are about 300-450k in size. Enjoy!