Balinese comics reach new heights

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

What do you get when you put a small boy, his attentive parents, a chubby little pet pig, dozens of ducks, two awkward villains, a seemingly innocent swarm of bees, Balinese landscape, and a simple story line together?

A Shakespearean novel? Well, guess again.

The last time somebody attempted to put those things together, they managed to come up with a very good comic, which stole the attention of the three judges at the Lintang Comic Competition, who comprised a comic creator, a noted author and an enthusiast of comics.

It was a remarkable achievement, considering that by the last week of the competition the three judges had suffered deep mental fatigue after being badly battered by waves of low quality and shallow imitations of Japanese and American comics submitted by dozens of participants.

"The first three weeks was a test for both our eyes and patience because most of the comics submitted were poorly-drawn imitations of Japanese or American comics. Needless to say, most of them did not have a solid storyline," said one of the judges, I Wayan Gunasta, a comic creator known for his works on the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

So when the comic Si Komeng and the Duck Thieves arrived, all the judges felt they had finally got the long overdue break they deserved.

Komeng's story line is simple. The main protagonist, a Balinese boy named Si Komeng, has to outwit two harmless local villains, who use various methods to steal Komeng's ducks. Set in the idyllic landscape of Bali, full of ricefields and crystal- clear rivers, the comic book is a refreshing and fun read.

Without portraying any gory details -- there is no violence or extreme expression of pain, injury and blood in this 29-page comic -- Komeng depicts the moral values of right and wrong, courage in the face of diversity, commitment and responsibility, the love of nature, the power of forgiveness, and ultimately, the victory of good over evil, the kind of values any parent would love their children to learn about.

Komeng was created by 24-year-old Rizal Hadi, who, surprisingly, did not have any formal education in graphic or animated art. Currently working as a hotel employee in Kuta, Bali, Rizal has been creating comics since elementary school. Deeply fascinated by the works of Stan Lee, Rip Kirby, and Indonesia's Hans (the creator of the famous Panji Tengkorak character), Rizal confessed that Komeng was the most rewarding piece of work he had ever accomplished.

"We picked Komeng as one of the competition's three best comics, mainly because its creator was able to present original characters and a vivid story line, which incorporates local culture, values and daily life that young readers would find easy to relate to. It is not a story about a superhero fighting alien monsters in a far away city dotted with skyscrapers. Instead, Komeng is basically a story about the little boy next door," one of the other judges, Aryantha Soethama, said.

"Of course, it does not feature superb drawing and coloring, or the deep symbolic and prophetic story of, let's say, the DC's best seller Kingdom Come, or the grim psychological and moral questions of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. But, these are serious comics for adult readers, and in this competition we were trying to come up with the most appropriate comic for children. And, we found Komeng not only an appropriate comic, but also a very good one," another judge, the comic enthusiast, said.

It is hard not to fall in love with Komeng, a full-spirited smiling little boy, who cuddles his pet pig Gobleg in the morning, innocently drooling next to his flock of ducks in the afternoon and spending the rest of the day thwarting the devious "duck-napping" schemes the two idiotic villains come up with.

Somebody who has fallen madly in love with Komeng is Mas Ruscitadewi, chief editor of Lintang, the four-page children's supplement of leading local newspaper Bali Post, which sponsored the competition.

"Initially, we were very pessimistic and the possibility of receiving a good comic seemed minuscule, but then came Komeng, followed by several other high-quality comics. All we could say was 'wow!'," she said.

The other two comics that earned praise, and later shared the three-winning prizes with Komeng, were Yama Duta and I Gesah dan Ni Gesih.

Yama Duta, created by 27-year-old animator Agung Tri Budhiasa, with its precise lines and fine drawing, depicts a battle between Yama Duta (the agent of justice), clad in a mythical Balinese- Hindu warrior costume, and the dark force led by an evil sorceress. The most interesting point about Yama Duta is its creator's bold attempt to include in the story line the debate about whether predestination is a valid religious concept or not.

I Gesah dan Ni Gesih, created by Ketut Suwitra, became a competition winner because its text was both in Bahasa Indonesia and Balinese. It depicts the hardships two orphaned children have to endure and their perseverance and courage to achieve a happy life.

"We organized this competition to provide fun, educational entertainment for children. The results of our polling clearly show that children love comics. Instead of flatly prohibiting them from reading comics, or letting them digest serious, often gruesome adult comics, why don't we try to provide them with good-natured and healthy comics?" Ruscitadewi said.

The first issue of Lintang was printed in October 1999, and is currently published twice a month with a circulation of more than 50,000 copies. Featuring a mix of children's stories, children- related news and features, poems, drawings, educational columns, and, of course, comics by local creators, Lintang's popularity among local children has skyrocketed over the years.

Dubbed "the children's newspaper", Lintang also organizes drawing contests, poetry-writing competitions and weekly gatherings, where participating children have the chance to present their achievements in various art forms.

At least 58 comic books were submitted to the competition -- the first ever in Bali, by comic creators from Bali, Java and West Nusa Tenggara, but only a few made it to the judge's shortlist.

The creators of the competition's three best comics were awarded with a cash prize of Rp 2.5 million each. And Lintang has pledged to finance the publication and distribution of the winning comics.

"We are still calculating everything, but 1,500 copies of each comic seems a good figure. In addition to the three winners, we have also selected 10 other comics, which we will periodically publish in Lintang. Naturally, we are willing to pay a handsome fee to each of the creators," Ruscitadewi said.

Yet, for Ruscitadewi and the competition's three judges, the one true reward of the competition is the realization that Balinese comic creators are not shallow imitators, but real creators, who have a lot to offer local children. Komeng, Yama Duta, I Gesah dan Ni Gesih are surely just the beginning.