Indonesian cartoonists

Indonesian cartoonists

From Kompas

Millions of Indonesian children are now very familiar with
Chinmi, the main character in the Kungfu Boy comics by Takeshi
Maekawa. Chinmi has a peculiar way of overcoming his enemies,
i.e. by using the Japanese art. Chinmi, the steel-handed boy has
had big success, which makes cartoonist Takeshi Maekawa very
popular among Indonesian children.

Many have probably envied the success of the Chinmi cartoon. I
believe many Indonesian cartoonists have the same abilities as
Takeshi, so why are none of the Indonesian cartoons published and
on a par with the Japanese cartoons?

At first, I suspected the attitude of the publishers towards
Indonesian cartoons. Perhaps the publishers have regarded the
Indonesian cartoons as a step-child or thought of local cartoons
as unpromising. Therefore they only wanted to publish foreign
cartoons.

But my guess was wrong. Comics publishers said that they do
not receive any comics from Indonesian cartoonists. According to
the publishers, they would surely treat and appreciate local
comics in the same manner as foreign ones. What are the
Indonesian cartoonists doing? Do they not feel guilty in this
case? In fact, psychologists are very concerned about this
situation.

It's time for local cartoonists to wake up and make a start.
And in this context the third parties -- writers of children's
stories, psychologists, educators and other related bodies should
also think the matter over.

M. NUR HIDAYAT

Humor magazine

Jakarta