Balinese comics reach new heights

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.