MustRead, RM15.00, ISBN 978-967-0078-71-7
Historical Nonfiction, 2025

Rentap 1 is the first in two volumes chronicling Rentap’s rebellion against James Brooke in the 19th century. Written by a panel of academics from the Sultan Idris Education University, this is clearly meant to be a comic book for a teenage crowd. 

It’s not a bad effort, but I am more interested in this because the images are made entirely with AI. 

Anyway, the story is faithful to the general narrative in school history textbooks, so Rentap is the Iban warlord that staged an uprising against James Brooke in Sarawak in the mid-1800s. His uprising spans a bit over a decade or so, making him one of the more successful rebels, especially given that the average length of rebellions back in those days is about a year. 

Sadly, Rentap’s story is a rather unexciting one, as he and his men basically stayed put in a location that everyone in that time and place already knew of, until Brooke’s soldiers finally took Bukit Sadok in about 1861. Still, the fact that it took all those years and three major skirmishes to achieve that victory suggests that Rentap’s men, outnumbered and out-armed as they were, did put up a pretty good fight!

This volume covers Rentap’s childhood to Rentap’s first major victory and the establishment of their stronghold in Bukit Sadok. It’s pretty cliché in that young Rentap is super special, being able to hit every target near and far with his blow dart and all, while under the tutelage of the grandpa that is also the sage old coot of the tribe.

Amusingly, the story glosses over the reasons of Brooke’s clampdown on their lifestyle — while Brooke is far from a benevolent hands-off ruler, it was historically established even among local historians that Rentap and his ilks are especially mad because Brooke put an end to headhunting, slavery, and piracy — likely because it would make Rentap less of a saint. 

Anyway, the story isn’t special, what I am more intrigued by is how the illustrations turned out.

As it is, the current limitations of AI art still hold here. 

• Facial features and clothes worn by the same character tend to differ from panel to panel, although I’m sure the designer must have done some post-production tinkering to make things as consistent looking as possible. Still, it’s easily noticeable that a character’s necklace, hair, and other things change from one panel to the next.
• Everyone, young and old, look hot because the AI can’t do ugly people. Seriously, I have never seen a bunch of photogenic men in such a large number before. It’s like an old Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue with a tribal theme.
• Because AI still has problems creating dynamic, action-packed scenes, most of the panels have images of people basically posing or doing simple actions. Everyone generally stands straight or lies down flat, for example, so the images can be on the stiff side. No dramatic battle scenes or anything that could have lent some genuine epic grandeur to the whole story.  
• The results aren’t bad, really, although it’s easy to see even without reading the publishing credits that the illustrations are made with AI. There is a posed or staged feel to each image that isn’t always apparent had it been done by a human being. 

One thing that really tickles me is that Rentap from all accounts was born somewhere in the early 1800s. He started showing Brooke his third finger in the 1840s, so he should be in his late 30s to mid-40s by then. Yet the images of him make him look like he’s in his 20s. I’m not sure whether this is by design or not, but it’s amusing to me for some reason.

Aside from the AI, the narrative can be confusing, as the story doesn’t make the passing of time clear. As a result, it can feel like Rentap and Brooke’s soldiers had a party over a few days, when history suggests that the events in this book took place over a span of five years. 

Fine, one can argue that this thing is for kiddies so the authors had simplified things for the sake. Still, it can be a bit more… authentic, right? 

As something made by AI, this one is okay, although it has a “stiff” quality to the images and narrative that never quite succeeds in capturing history or generating tension. The whole thing still reads like a textbook chapter — while not entirely boring, it isn’t particularly exciting either. Still, if it succeeds in getting kids to read or get interested in history, it can’t be a bad thing after all.