Camillus Perera passes away

Sri Lankan cartoonist Camillus Perera, who created popular cartoon characters like ‘Gajaman’ and ‘Siribiris’ has passed away this morning (December 17) at the age of 84.

Meanwhile, family sources also said the final rites will be performed this evening.

His characters have been published in various newspapers ranging from the Sunday Observer to Sivdesa. Perera began work as a cartoonist in 1966 developing characters for the Observer and “Dakkoth Padmawathi” for Lake House’s film magazine.

In 1972 he created Gajaman, his most popular character. Gajaman first appeared on Sathuta, a Lake House comic art publication and from 1975 to 1984 occupied a spot on the comic publication Sittara.

In April 1984 Perera produced a magazine devoted to his work titled Camillusge Gajaman. Its success, with over 200,000 copies sold, prompted the follow ups Camillusge Samayan in December and Camillusge Gajaman 2 the next year.

Both sold between 200,000 – 300,000 copies and resulted in the formation of Camillus Publications.