Comics, novels available for rent

JAKARTA (JP): Book rental shops are a boon for Indonesians who can't afford their favorite comics or novels.

They can be found in small towns as well as big cities like Jakarta. Unlike video and laser disc rental shops, however, most book rental shops are not located in main streets, let alone in shopping malls.

Subandi's shop is down a narrow alley along Jl. Pahlawan in Bogor, West Java. Tens thousands of books neatly sit on shelves in the living room of his modest house.

He has 3,300 novels and 1,200 comic books. Some them come in sets of more than 10 books. Surprisingly, there are several English romance novels from Mills and Boone at the top of the book shelf. A limited selection of video cassettes are also available.

Subandi bought the English romances from their original owners who came to his shop a few years ago.

"Some people rented the English novels to study English," he said.

The novels people like best are the Chinese silat (traditional martial arts) stories by local author Kho Ping Hoo, he said.

Subandi, a pharmaceutical factory worker, enjoys reading comics and fiction and started his business eight years ago.

Rental fees range from Rp 25 to Rp 250 for three days, depending on the book. Subandi usually sets the fee at 10 percent of the book price. Many of the books are old, grubby and smell bad from being mauled by hundreds of hands.

His clients include children and young adults from the neighborhood and other districts.

The Donald Duck albums, which are popular all over the world, are also available but not many children read them. Indonesian children go for the Japanese Doraemon, according to Subandi. Local wayang, silat and funny comics used to be the favorites.

Obviously, the popularity of local comics has faded away not because people do not like them.

"There have been very few new local comic books published in the last three years," Subandi said.

"I used to go to the Senen market in Jakarta to buy new books once a week. But now I only go to the city once a month," he said.

A few years ago Subandi could make Rp 20,000 a day, but his daily earnings have dropped to as low as Rp 5,000 since the downfall of local comic books.

He and the children will be overjoyed if more local comic books where in circulation. (sim)