The story
Gempak debuted on 1 June 1998, at a time when Malaysia was attempting to recover from the 1997 economic crisis. The economic crisis brought a hard impact on the Malaysian comic industry.
To gain a place in the Malaysian comic market, Art Square Creation incorporated the "info-comic" approach, which became the main formula of Gempak's success, and the new standard format for many Malaysian comics. It took 18 months for their success to take off without any help from other media advertisements. Starting as a monthly issue for the first three years, it has come to be published bi-monthly (since June 2001), with many demands that the magazine should go for weekly issue.
Their concept of an info-comic magazine has become a trend followed by many recent comic magazines, including one of Malaysia's biggest publishers, Karangkraf Sdn. Bhd., who began releasing a new info-comic magazine titled Jom (later ceased publication). The success of Gempak also resulted in the success of its publisher, Art Square Creation Sdn. Bhd., who expanded to become Art Square Group with three subsidiaries: Art Square Creation Sdn. Bhd, Anjung Taipan Sdn. Bhd., and Gala Unggul Sdn. Bhd. All Art Square Group products are now labelled under their own brand "GEMPAK STARZ."
Gempak, under Art Square Creation, won the Persatuan Penerbit-Penerbit Majalah Malaysia (MPA) award under other category special Malay magazine ("majalah pengkhususan" (Bahasa Malaysia)) 2007.
In December 2015, Kadokawa Corporation through its Hong Kong subsidiary Kadokawa Holdings Asia Ltd (KHA), acquired an 80% stake in Malaysian Art Square Group (MSG).
Kadokawa Gempak Starz era
Following Kadokawa Corporation's acquisition, MSG was renamed to Kadokawa Gempak Starz in January 2016.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kadokawa Gempak Starz, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3