Comics craze boosts the Indonesian comics industry

By A. Ariobimo Nusantara

JAKARTA (JP): Take your child to a bookstore and you can bet your bottom dollar it will be the comic section it will make a beeline for.

The comic corner is usually the most crowded part of a bookstore, especially during school holidays. For many of the kids, comic books are far too expensive and they have to be content with reading them at the bookstore without being able to take them home.

It is a common view in all Indonesian bookstores, children from all kinds of backgrounds absorbed in the pages of comic books.

The craze for foreign comics, especially Japanese ones, is impossible to combat. Not only would such efforts be useless, the phenomenon appears to be closely connected with the international syndicates of the publishing world, especially Japanese publishers like Alphane Rose, Kodancha Ltd. and Shogakukan Inc.

In the West, the main players are the Marvel Group (USA), Oberon b.v. (the Netherlands) and Jademan (Hong Kong).

In Indonesia, comic books have long been the bogeyman of educators and parents. That is why none of the Presidential funds earmarked for books in the 70s and 80s, reportedly a chunky Rp 651.6 billion, were not spent on comics.

When poet and literary figure Sapardi Djoko Damono said that comics could be useful in the classroom, his suggestion was promptly scoffed at by educators, on the assumption that comics foster laziness, have scant educational content, and are only for fun.

Mass culture

Comics are basically picture stories. However, not all picture stories can be called comics. Only when a picture story is splashed with squares and balloons can it be called a comic. The modern comic is approaching its 50th anniversary, dating back to the comic strips which first appeared in the American media.

Later, comic strips were bound into books and a new phenomenon was born.

In line with the rapid growth of the publishing world, comics have gained a foothold in the media as an art product. Not surprisingly, comics are no longer just considered juvenile reading matter in America, Europe and Japan.

The attraction lies in the simple visuals, turning reading into an easily digestible pastime. The picture series are fascinating and packed with action, with dynamic, rhythmic and cinematic stories.

Japanese

Any discussion of comics will inevitably involve a discussion of Japanese pop culture, which has taken the world by storm.

Sailor Moon, Doraemon, Dragon Ball Z, are just part of the Japanese cartoon world threatening the supremacy of legendary products as Superman, Goofy, or Donald from the USA.

Toei Oyama, director of the international department of Toei Animation, once said: "Japanese comics and cartoons became successful because of their prime quality."

Kwon Young Sup, president of the Korean Cartoonists Association, admitted that Japanese comic pictures are, indeed, of much better quality.

The Japanese comics industry is now in the lead. In Japan, the themes of comics are no longer only fictional, but also have educational content, such as Benkyo Manga, or Jitsumu Manga, a comic favored by political parties and share brokers. Another comic book, Hadashi No Gen, a semi-autobiography of the artist, Keiji Nakazawa, was the first translation of a Japanese comic story published in Europe and distributed among school children.

According to a survey, one can finish a comic book of 320 pages in 20 minutes; i.e. four seconds of reading time per page.

However, the secret of the Japanese comic is not just the high quality. Its success is also due to the Japanese appreciation of comics. After all, comics have been around in Japan since the 19th century.

Comics became known at the time of the great artist, Hokusai Katsuhita (1740-1849), who carved pictures on paper with a wooden chisel. The prints featured funny themes called toba-e. Since then the technique and appearance of Japanese comics has become more standardized, and the manga, or komikussu, was born.

An interesting development is the Japanese concept of comics as an extension of information, capable of heightening the senses of young and old. It is this perception, which, in the end, made comics a culture of the Japanese people.

Indonesia

Comics made their debut here in the 50s, in the form of American lookalikes. Indonesian comics reached their peak in the 60s and 70s. Famed Indonesian comic writers in those days were R.A. Kosasih with his Sri Asih and Mahabharata, Ganes TH, who created Si Buta dari Gua Hantu, Hans Jaladara and his Panji Tengkorak, Djair, from whose pen Jaka Sembung flowed, and Jan Mintaraga, the brain-father of Pulang dari Bukit.

Their comic were published by small publishers who churned out no less than 15,000 to 30,000 copies in their heyday. However, in the 80s, volumes dwindled to a mere 1,000 copies. And according to one comic publisher, in 1993 comic publication ground to a halt altogether.

Local comics also came in for a battering during the 60s, when the then Soekarno government made a political decision to eliminate everything remotely connected with America; comics were thus regarded as subversive.

Rise

The story of Indonesian comics has seen a lot of movement. At a time when Indonesian comics were in the doldrums, attempts to revive the art started in 1990. In the second half of 1994 several cartoons were screened on TV and in the cinemas.

Around the same time, major publishers, who initially showed no interest in local comics, joined the scramble to fund local comics.

But that is not all. Several comic strips have begun to liven up the pages of Indonesian papers. Hooplaa, a tabloid for children run by Dwianto Setyawan & Co., blatantly have comics as their main ingredient. Their present image is far removed from the cheap comics of old. Local comics are now produced in a dead serious manner clearly reflected in their distribution and promotion.

The first local hit was Ramashita, executed in a futuristic style and published by Dunia Fantasi. The ideas have not changed, but the visuals have. The buildings, weapons, and costumes of the comic characters are very modern. Next came Elex Media Komputindo with their series Imperium Majapahit by Jan Mintaraga, although they have not veered from their original style. Giving this work a closer look, it actually could be used as an aid in teaching history to school children.

Shadow puppets have also taken a leap forward in time. Take for instance, Kisah Para Awatar: Pewaris Senjata Legendaris Pewayangan (The Story of The Avatars: The Inheritors of the Legendary Shadow Puppet's Weapons) published by Awatar Comics in Jakarta. Aside from the use of futuristic idioms, it is obvious that this comic, rendered in full color, has undergone digital processing.

Other producers, such as Qomik Nasional from Bandung, are now in the process of making the series Kapten Bandung and Caroq.

These comics are no longer made the way they used to be. Jan and Hasmi made their comics all alone. In those days, they had to come up with the ideas and also draw the pictures. In fact, they had to handle everything themselves. Today, it is a different story. A magazine in Jakarta once quoted Firman of Qomik Nasional: "Comics have a future if teamwork is used."

The upward climb of Indonesian comics raises several questions: Can local comics compete against foreign ones produced in a more innovative and professional way?

To quote Dwianto Setyawan, a writer of children stories and the chief executive of DS Group: "We are really facing writing problems, not illustration hardships."

Ganes TH said that readers need something new. Offering the same old thing just won't do.

Dwi Koendoro, managing director of PT Citra Audivistama, said that Indonesian comics have a tendency to "talk to themselves". They do not satisfy people any more. A good comic should be communicative, it should not be patronizing, even if it is educational. It should be attractive, pleasant and inspiring.

Murti Bunanta, chair-person of Lovers of Children Stories, believes that comic materials could become suitable reading material for children.

"They could use history as their theme, like the tale of the Vikings, or literature like Moby Dick. However," she said, "comics are really a bridge to lead children towards a love for literature. Getting to know a piece of literature thoroughly is not done by scanning through comics alone. But comics could make the going easier."

It is a shame that at present most parties seem to dismiss comics out of hand. Comics can be informative and entertaining.