‘The Daily Morning’ Cartoonist Pradeep (left) with Camillus Perera (centre) and other cartoonists in 2017

• Exploring the late Camillus Perera’s enduring legacy

A cartoonist with a few strokes of a pen can send strong messages to people, revealing or highlighting social issues, corruption, and so on. Camillus Perera was one such cartoonist, and his work remains relevant and important. The cartoonist passed away on Sunday (17), and his death leaves a void in a field that has the ability to change mindsets and urge social change.

The Daily Morning Brunch reached out to cartoonists who were influenced by Perera in order to understand the depth of his impact as well as what Sri Lanka’s next generation of cartoonists can learn from him.

Influence on cartoonists

The Daily Morning Cartoonist Pradeep spoke about how Camillus Perera’s depiction of politicians has influenced not just him but cartoonists in general. “Camillus Perera had a political cartoon series published in an English newspaper. I had a collection of them because of the way he had depicted politicians.”

Pradeep explained: “The way Camillus Perera depicted the character of a politician influenced not just me but cartoonists in general, with his Magodisthuma character influencing everyone’s depiction of a politician, especially their physical features. I feel that every cartoonist in Sri Lanka still follows this image.”

He added that Camillus Perera was a senior in the field, and some do not know about the technical aspects of his work. “His death means that the next generation of cartoonists will not learn from his experience or expertise. After the late Wijesoma, Camillus Perera was among the most popular. Even though I haven’t spoken to him much, and met him once in 2017, I feel his loss greatly.”

A legend in the industry

Camillus Perera’s work influenced artist Lalith Senanayake when he was still in school. Senanayake noted that Perera was, to his knowledge, self-taught, following foreign artists but developing his own style, which suited local audiences.

“His jokes were extremely advanced. His were social jokes, where the jokes were meant to fix society. It wasn’t an insult, but an attempt to bring society to the right track,” Senanayake said, adding: “When I worked with him, I saw that he worked with software. So he very much lived in both eras, where he worked during the time of hand drawings as well as digital drawings. He is truly a legend in the cartoon industry.”

Senanayake pointed out that Perera’s work was understood by everyone and that he catered to all segments of society.

One of the most notable characteristics of Perera was that through characters like Gajaman, he sent a message to society. People still remember Gajaman, proof of its impact. “This is not something every artist can do, and it is a mammoth task,” Senanayake said.

“When I was in school, I would copy his work, which had a huge influence on me, from newspapers and comic books. When I was studying, we didn’t have the internet and accessed foreign material at the British Council. So it was from Camillus Perera that I really learnt about cartoons. I never thought I would get to meet him or work with him,” Senanayake shared.

Senanayake recalled meeting Perera in 1993 at Camillus Publications, and explained that at the time, the belief was that artists weren’t wealthy. “However, I was shocked to see how Camillus was. In 1993, when I met him, he had a large office, dispatch vehicles, and other resources. This made me think about all the work an artist can do.”

Senanayake said he thought Perera had great management and marketing knowledge. “This is something upcoming artists should also work on, because no matter how much we create cartoons, paintings, or sculptures, there is no point if we can’t take it to the market. This is one of the biggest lessons we can learn from Camillus Perera.”

Beyond politics

To Ranjan Paranavithana, Camillus Perera stood out as a cartoonist not just because of his work as a political cartoonist but also by creating a large number of characters. “Some cartoonists build only a character or two, but Camillus Perera had over 20 characters throughout his career, representing various categories; representing the various characters that make up society. This is how he built his work as a cartoonist.”

Paranavithana shared that he had an interest in cartoons when he was in school, and when he left school, he started working with Perera, who was chief editor of Siththara at the time, and oversaw several newspapers, including children’s publications. “He let me draw for the children’s papers as well as cartoons. In 1980, I drew a cartoon character as a comic story, titled Mamber Haamu, which was a lot like Perera’s Magodisthuma, a political character.”

“Camillus was a genius in Sri Lanka’s cartoon field, drawing for several generations and only stopping when he was too ill to draw,” Paranavithana added, sharing that younger generations today are mainly focused on political cartoons. This applies to newspapers as well, he said, where even editors see cartoons as solely political. 

“I feel a cartoonist can take any angle, depicting with a stroke of the pen a story of a hundred or thousand words. If you take a sports page, even that can feature a cartoon. This is something that we can learn from Camillus Perera, whose cartoons covered all sectors and fields,” he explained.

Beyond cartoons

Gamini Abeykoon met Camillus Perera soon after leaving school. This was in 1980, when he was the editor of Siththara and was drawing Gajaman. “From 1981 to 1985, I worked at Siththara with Camillus Perera, and in 1985, we broke away from Siththara to start Sathsiri, a newspaper that was led by Perera. Within 2-3 months, it crossed a circulation of 250,000, and one-and-a-half years later, Perera established a separate press in Dematagoda, Camillusge Gajaman Samaga Sathsiri. This was extremely successful at the time, and started printing other newspapers as well.”

Abeykoon shared that Perera was a very good person, and had several artists as well as other staff working under him. “I worked there until 2000, and he did a lot for us,” Abeykoon said, adding that Perera was also helpful beyond work, and never hesitated to help an artist who was facing financial difficulties. “He had a lot of humanity,” Abeykoon recalled.

“In the early 1980s, Gajaman had a huge impact on all cartoonists, not just politically but in all other aspects as well. His characters attacked politicians but they also reached readers in a very beautiful and easy to understand way about politics. After Wijesoma, he was one of the best cartoonists,” Abeykoon said, adding that while many have tried to follow the same style, Perera’s work stands apart.

Taking the field to new levels

Aruna cartoonist Hasantha Wijenayake noted that Camillus Perera took the art of cartoons to new heights by establishing his own publication, creating a hub of artists. Today, he said, the industry has weakened, but there is space to bring it back to what it could be.

“There is space to do something new. It need not be in print and can be online. But I think there is a lack of unity in the field,” he said, adding that many limit themselves to newspapers.

He shared that he has studied Perera’s work, and noted that his work covered social issues as opposed to only taking a more direct political approach like today’s cartoons do. “I didn’t get to associate with him, though I would have loved to. I would have learnt a lot from him. He was the biggest character in Sri Lanka’s cartoon field.”