Lion Born - #1 Premier Issue : Sachi Ediriweera and Chris Lissman's revival of local comic book tradition

Lion born, #1 premier issue created by Sachi Ediriweera is a something that a Sri Lankan reader would expect from a Sri Lankan artist in the present days.

Below is an artwork by Sachi.

This comic book is extremely creative, and an amazing  artwork. The artist builds on a unique artistic framework for himself. And that is something I never experienced personally as a reader since "Neelo" a Sri Lankan fantasy comic from the 70's and the current political satire in daily and weekend newspapers.

This is a comic book which is based on the following historic legend of Sri Lanka.

Lion Born is based on Sinhabahu (Sinha = Lion, Bahu = Hands) who is a legendary king of ancient India, mentioned in Sri Lanka texts. He was a father of Vijaya of Sri Lanka and King of Sinhapura.

According to the Mahavamsa folklore (the chronicled history of Sri Lanka), Sinhabahu's father was a lion and his mother a princess of Kalinga. His hands and feet were lion's paws.

When Sinhabahu was sixteen, he escaped with his mother and sister, Sinhasivali, and arrived in the capital of Vanga. He later killed his father for a reward and was offered, the throne of Vanga.

He refused the throne, instead found the city of Sinhapura, in the country of Lala. He lived there with his sister Sinhasivali, whom he made his consort. They had thirty-two children, of whom Vijaya was the eldest and Sumitta the second.

Lionborn has made a delicate twist to the story from Mahavamsa and made it more like a realistic story giving it a fusion of dark artistic touch and also some action packed comic book tradition in every strip it was drawn.

Now in summary Lion born is in every way what the art of Sri Lanka needs right now. It's a strong depiction of the Sri Lankan culture and folklore in a unique way to the artist, that opens freedom of the writer to express his feelings and emotions to the reader allowing them to have a mutual experience.

When a Sri Lankan watch Lord of The Rings (LOTR), Harry Potter or any other western fantasy or historic film and thinks of where is something from our country? Lion Born will provide the answer filling the gaps of the Sri Lankan modern art and literature.

Lion Born gives a more of a Batman (DC Comics) kinda effect to the story. The character "Lion born" or Sinhabahu is drawn like Batman with him in his armour and his acts of vigilantism, protecting vanga, according to the mahavamsa itself.

Therefore the writer manages to keep in touch with the folklore as well without overly deviating and damaging the roots of the culture and history of Sri Lanka.

It was a very powerful storyline with darker aspects of violence infused with shady artwork. Shady artwork mostly has a "noir" like background to the story presented in the comic book. Creating more of a "historic noir" fusion in the comic book.

Overall this is a strong comic book adaptation of local folklore to bring one of the greatest comics of to the local scene with western fusion of language and artwork.

References

Newspaper article found on a website

·         

      - Alles, M. (2017). Article Title – Of Lion Born and Heroes. Newspaper – The Sunday Leader. [Online]. Available at : http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2016/09/11/of-lion-born-and-heroes/(Accessed date : 2017/03/05)

·         - Attanayake, D. (2016). Article Title – Lion born Marriage of Comic and Lore. Newspaper – Nation. [Online]. Available at : http://nation.lk/online/2016/08/13/lionborn-marriage-of-comic-and-lore.html (Accessed date : 2017/03/05)

Reading and calculating : The study of accounting

It's been a year (2016) so far in the career of accounting and it's been tough. And it's all on me. It's due to the lack of skills and knowledge I've personally gathered during work and education as a student and a professional.

Therefore I thought of bringing out a summary of the study of accounting as a subject and a profession.

Accounting is a subject and a career where you basically read and calculate. That is the fundamental two activities involved.

Now this small summary of an article will expand on inception of accounting as a subject to it's practical learnings I made by myself as a professional and a student.

Now the first thing that came to my mind is accounting an art? or a science?

It's both actually. It is based on the following analysis.

Accounting is the science of recording and presenting the financial data of an economic entity by observing, detecting, investigating and identifying the economic events via established collecting, testing, analysing and presenting methods. Therefore it is evident that accounting is a science.

Definition of art is as follows.

Art is the study of the implementation of techniques and methods.

 Accounting is an art because it presents the financial findings by following and implementing a universally accepted method. (GAAP)

Therefore it can be concluded that accounting can be classified both as a science and an art.

History and the beginning of accounting was linked to a person called Luca Pacioli.

Luca pacioli, who was born in 1445 in Sansepolcro, Italy and died in 1517 in Sansepolcro, Italy was the founder of double entry system which is the foundation of accounting.

Now this article will not analyse the conceptual framework of accounting and subject areas like the following given below due to its immense coverage of accounting theory and practise which requires a lot time and space to elaborate its core meaning and usage. 

(01) The objective of financial statements 
(02) Underlying assumptions 
(03) Qualitative characteristics of financial statements 
(04) Elements of financial statements
(05) Measurement of the elements of financial statements and minimum compliance framework 

But the following aspects of simple accounting areas will be discussed in this article for understand accounting's role and it's perspective for businesses in functioning in the modern world.

Mainly there are five (05) types of financial statements.....

(01) A statement of financial position as at the end of the period
(02) A statement of comprehensive income for the period
(03) A statement of changes in equity
(04) A statement of cash flows
(05) Notes, comprising a summary of significant accounting policies

Accounting in Sri Lanka are regulated by Sri Lankan Accounting Standards (LKAS) and auditing is regulated by Sri Lankan Auditing standards (SLAus). These are based on International Accounting Standards (IAS).

Many of my accounting and auditing functions have been very average this year in performance.

Anyway I was able to learn many related concepts through practice and self-learning. A special note on reperformance activities should be made due to the inaccuracies I made during the audits.

Personal experience as an amatuer auditor was extremely tough. I was not very productive. This was due to lack of skills and knowledge in the respective field i've garnered throughout the year.

I was also exposed to analysing accounting financial statements for risk management through an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system while doing my internship at a licensed commercial bank (Sampath Bank PLC). It was from June 2015 to December 2015.

I was also exposed to the study of annual reports before approving loans to them. Using basic financial statement ratios, the credit officers projects the companies feasibility as a debtor to continue with him as a client for the bank.

And to be honest I was an avid commerce student during my higher studies.

I studied commerce and accountancy as an optional subject to ordinary levels [O/L] (2007) and deeply studied commerce subjects for advanced levels [A/L] (2010).

I did not get selected to a local government university but did financial accounting, management accounting and business accounting for my business administration degree program (2013 - 2018) at NIBM and NSBM.(National Institute of Business Management / National School of Business Management)  And I also got qualified for AATSL (Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka - AATSL) in 2011 which is an entry level qualification for accounting and auditing.

I am currently a CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) student who's studying in the operational level. I mostly do self study.

And also during the first year of my study as an accountant / auditor in summary work was extremely basic. But the struggle in the profession is understood.

And I also basically got myself managed to get the article signed for the first year (Executive level) for CA (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka) membership for future accounting experience at KPMG Sri Lanka.

So overall it was a tough but primary achievements were available during the year of 2016 in the study of accounting.

Dimantha myself, reading and calculating.

References

Images

·         Title: Calculator (2017). Format: (Jpg.). Available at : https://pixabay.com/en/calculator-solar-calculator-count-168360/ (Accessed date : 2/26/2017)

Websites

·         Website name: history.mcs.st-andrews (1999). Page title: Luka Pasioli. [Online] Available at : http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Pacioli.html (Accessed date : 2/26/2017)

·         Website name: iEdunote.com (2017). Page title : How Accounting is both Science and Art ? [Online] Available at : https://iedunote.com/how-accounting-art-science (Accessed date : 2/26/2017)