Padung comes up with the Noo Hin comic books at his Bang Yai residence in Nonthaburi, continuing the original series where she's still back home in the Northeast and the newer series set in Bangkok that made her all the more famous, "Noo Hin Inter" and "Noo Hin in the City".

Meanwhile his creation became the star of a blockbuster film. And yet, still, there was little sign of the cartoonist.

Now, however, Coke has recruited him for its advertising campaign, which plays up what's great about Isaan, and Padung - an Ubon Ratchatani native - is ready to chat. He's proud of being from the Northeast.

"Isaan people are always happy, but they're also fighters," he says, showing off his drawings for the ad campaign - vivid depictions of the region's lively celebrations, starting with the rainmaking Bun Bungfai Rocket Festival.

Then there are people in ghost masks for the Phi Tha Khon Festival, and a koon, the cheerful yellow flower of Isaan. There's a bamboo kratib basket for sticky rice and a hai pla ra pot - everything you need, Padung says.

Framing all of these images are musical instruments.

"When I hear the phin or the kaen," he says of the northeastern lute and wind instrument, "my eyes brim with tears. I'm sure other young people from Isaan feel the same way when they leave home."

And of course, in the middle of all the artwork, there is Noo Hin, the naive yet cheeky maid. She's not only funny, Padung says, she's a hard worker, typical of all good Northeasterners.

"Most Isaan people have very little education, so they get the dirty jobs that no one else wants to do. They've become the driving force that keep things moving."

Asked whether he's like Noo Hin - "innocent" but mischievous - Padung laughs heartily. He's a hard worker for sure, though.

With an ambition to become a professional painter, he moved to Bangkok to study at Poh Chang College of Arts and Crafts. He says he can draw anything, with photographic precision, but believes his real talent is in comics.

In college he supported himself by selling original comic books for Bt1 or Bt2. Before Noo Hin came along, his strips were about wars or ghosts, but there was little interest among publishers. He decided to get less serious and concocted Noo Hin, and the response was immediate. To this day he receives piles of fan letters.

In the past few years Noo Hin has undergone a few changes. Her eyes aren't as squinty as they used to be (though they're never moon-sized like the characters in Japanese manga). She's long since left Isaan to be with her rich and amply endowed boss Milk - and she's become a movie star.

Padung is hoping there will be more Noo Hin films - perhaps one where she goes home for a visit - and he wouldn't mind seeing Milk in a bikini scene. (He's kidding, but a lot of male fans aren't.)

He admits the bigger eyes and even bigger boobs were a matter of "going with the current" in a bid to get more manga-loving youngsters reading "Noo Hin", but he's aware that his little maid has a lot to teach kids about culture and tradition.

Meanwhile Padung's fans have provided other suggestions. One wanted to see Noo Hin attend a concert by South Korean pop sensation Rain. Another advised him to write a Noo Hin version of the Japanese movie "Death Note". He complied in both cases.

Getting to see Rain was a bit of a problem on a maid's meagre wages, even when Padung "reduced" the ticket price to Bt200, but Milk helped out. The Noo-Hin-writes-death-notes story was pure impish fun.

Noo Hin, of course, came from a hardscrabble background, digging up crabs and foraging for ant's eggs for dinner. But to Padung, these represent happy times and delicious meals.

Isaan people are always so tired from working hard, he points out, that everything tastes great, but more important is the ability to cherish the small pleasures in life.

"There's this purplish bush called aeng-a. Whenever my friends and I saw this plant, we knew there was water beneath it. We'd have so much fun digging into the dirt for the water!"

Lessons to be learned, yes, but Padung insists there's no lecturing in his comic books. "I don't intend to teach anything."

And while he'd love to see kids in the Northeast get a better level of education, he frets about things like mobile phones. Such modern contraptions, he says "lack the authenticity of being Isaan.

"Once you move forward, it's difficult to pedal backwards."

Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

The Nation