The anthropomorphic Subway sandwich, Sabweh, is the creation of Ernest Ng, the cartoonist behind the popular webcomic page, Bro don’t like that la, bro and more notably, his Covid Ball Z series, a satirical take on how Malaysians were dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
We spoke to Ernest over Zoom who was ironically, down with the ‘Rona when he was supposed to see his character’s debut at Pavilion.
In our interview we wanted to ask about the origin story of the character and we found out some pretty interesting facts.
Fans of his may already know that Sabweh first debuted in one of his webcomics where he imagined what fast food brands in Malaysia would be like in school:
4/5 pic.twitter.com/CnWM90mwM0
— Ernest Ng Bro (@ernestngBRO) August 30, 2019
Characters like Mekdi and Kepci were among the ‘students’ in a classroom and among them was studious Sabweh sitting at the front of the class.
Sabweh was described as someone who sat in front of the class, was an A-class student, and brought his own lunch to school. The typical nerdy kid also wore glasses and had his hands firmly grasping his bekal makanan.
As we all knew someone like that in school, we asked Ernest if the character was inspired by somebody.
“He (Sabweh) is one of the characters that resonates with me because back in school, I was always the one who had to sit in front and I brought food to school—my mom always packed me sandwiches for school,” Ernest shared.
“So Subway is related to my sandwich, that’s why Subweh gets to sit in front because it relates to me,” he continued.
We asked him why he preferred to sit in front and he shared, “It’s actually my dad. My dad is like the very kiasu, very Chinese kind of dad. Every 1st of January when the school reopened we’d have to wake up very early, then he’d bring us all to school (Ernest and his brothers) and he’d pick out our seats for us.”
“Basically we were forced to sit in front by my dad.”
With such classic tiger parenting, Ernest admits he was actually on the path to be in the medical field. His brothers made it, however, his elder brother is a specialist in the UK while his younger brother is an engineer.
We think chasing his passion worked out better for him, but hey, nothing beats a quality education and a safe career.
In terms of the collaboration with Subway, it was an example of preparation meeting opportunity as Ernest had done some work with Subway already and introduced his character Sabweh to them. The Subway team loved it and the character debuted on their raya packets.
Later, the team saw further potential in the Sabweh character and decided to turn it into a 3D model for the billboard at Pavilion KL to promote Subway’s Tuna sub and limited-edition Seafood Patty Sub.
Sabweh is now going on the road with two roadshows planned in Tiffin at the Yard from 8 – 10 July and Queensbay Mall in Penang from 15 – 17 July. Titled the Subway Mini World, the exhibit will feature miniature Malaysian landscapes crafted by MinNature Malaysia.
If you haven’t seen the billboard in person yet, have a look below and head to Pavilion KL to celebrate this great achievement by a local artist.