Author | Emma Matson
If you suggested to a young Gavin Aung Than that he would one day, be crowned a “New York Times Bestselling cartoonist,” he likely would have brushed it off with a polite laugh.
“I wouldn’t have believed you that’s for sure. That was my dream at the time, but it seemed like such a far-off possibility. It would have been a nice reminder to keep dreaming big,’’ he said.
The humble and talented Curtin Design graduate is now living his dream as an award-winning cartoonist – whose work has featured in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed.
Thanks to hard work and bold choices Gavin has taken a lifelong passion and turned it into a successful and rewarding career.
Gavin said while cartoons and comics were always a love of his growing up, it wasn’t necessarily pursuits encouraged by his parents, who had moved from Myanmar to Australia in search of a better life for their family.
“My parents moved here so that I could have more opportunities, but they didn’t encourage watching cartoons and drawing all day,’’ he said.
While Gavin ended up shelving that idea, after completing a Bachelor in Design at Curtin in 2002 and he began working in the graphic design industry – comics were never far from his mind.
Through his role at a newspaper, which included designing the children’s pages, Gavin saw an opportunity to submit his own comic: Dan and Pete – a comedic superhero comic strip about the adventures of the “world’s greatest superhero,” Dan, and his best friend Pete.
A move to Melbourne further inspired Gavin to publish more of his own work.
“I saw that people were having success putting comics online and I thought, I can do that,’’ he said.
Buoyed by readers’ enthusiasm and positive feedback to his clever artistic reimagining’s, Gavin decided to quit his corporate job and sell his house to pursue his craft full-time.
Gavin said taking that giant leap of faith into the world of freelancing, was incredibly risky, but completely worth it.
In 2012, Gavin launched the Zen Pencils website and carved his name in comic history.
Zen Pencils’ tagline, “Cartoon quotes from inspirational folks,” says it all.
“It takes famous quotes, poems and book excerpts and adapts them into fun and inspirational comics,’’ Gavin said.
His work on Zen Pencils has been collected into four books, two of which landed on the New York Times bestseller list for graphic novels.
It also helped to grow an international following of fans and to establish his name in the United States: A book tour in 2014 saw him present across the country, culminating in a dream-come-true appearance at San Diego Comic-Con.
“I worked on Zen Pencils full-time for over six years, completing over 200 comics read by thousands of loyal fans from all over the world. It is the body of work I am most proud of, and many readers told me that Zen Pencils changed their lives for the better.
“It certainly enriched my life in a way I didn’t think drawing cartoons could.”
Zen Pencils enabled Gavin to pursue his art full-time and led to more published books and speaking events across the world.
It is the website’s positive and uplifting impact on people, though, that has made all the stress and effort so worthwhile.
Such was the success and admiration for Zen Pencils, Gavin’s drawings have been recontextualised into short films, transformed into animated films – and even tattooed onto fan’s bodies.
His illustrations were also included in Brené Brown’s latest best-selling book Atlas of the Heart after Brené reached out in admiration of his work.
These days, Zen Pencils is on hiatus while Gavin focuses on the creation and publication of picture books and graphic novels for children.
It is no surprise that his books are imaginative and original worlds in which to leap – and that they grew out of his long-term obsession with the superheroes from the cartoons and comics of his youth.
Baa Baa Black Belt is an hilarious picture book series about the misadventures of a sheep who thinks he is a karate master.
The middle grade graphic novel series Super Sidekicks is a fun-filled action adventure about four superhero sidekicks who are fed up with taking orders from their adult super partners and decide to form their own super team.
Gavin’s latest creation, Creature Clinic (a middle grade novel about a hospital for mythical creatures) will be released next month.
“At the time a pitch I had proposed to my agent was knocked back, so I was racking my brain for a new idea,’’ he said.
“I remember bingeing the TV show The Good Doctor with my wife and thought why not have a hospital-themed book for kids, but instead of humans the hospital treated mythical creatures?
“Also, around that time, my second daughter was born prematurely and had to spend a month in the NICU, so I was going to the hospital every day, which helped me expand the initial concept. My daughter is about to turn five soon so that shows you how long these things take.”
Gavin’s advice for others on the pathway of creative pursuits?
“It’s all pretty much up to you to put in the work, put in the practice, build those reps,’’ he said.
“Don’t do it to make a living; you have to do it for the pure passion for it, and hopefully, a by-product of that is you get to make a living.”
Gavin said he was incredibly grateful for the opportunities he has been afforded thanks to living in Australia where reaching your dream is a possibility.
“My parents worked their butts off so I could have the choice to follow my passion, even if it annoyed them at first,’’ he said.
Now, he concedes, his parents are rightly proud of his talent – and the happiness and positivity he brings to the world by drawing, watching cartoons, and thinking about comics all day long.
Join Gavin to celebrate the launch of his newest graphic novel, Creature Clinic at Beaufort Street Books on Sunday 18 May at 10.30am. This is a free event, but bookings are essential to ensure enough equipment for a drawing activity. Book now.
Discover more of Gavin’s incredible cartoons and picture books here.
