Indonesian comics battle to reach a wider market

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The lights have dimmed and the tables are cleared. The festivity of the 4th National Comic and Animation Week (PKAN 4) at the Yogyakarta Cultural Center's Societeit Building has diminished, but the desire to popularize Indonesian comics is stronger than ever.

For comic illustrators and others in the animation world, this means keeping up the hard work.

Wahyu Suginato, chairman of PKAN 4's organizing committee, said that the comic industry's prospects were good, judging from public enthusiasm toward the exhibition, which was held from Sept. 6 to Sept. 12.

"The week was a success for us, especially in terms of the number of visitors and participating comic studios.

"We had some 500 visitors every day and more than 20 studios participating in the exhibition, not to mention those from art schools and universities," he told The Jakarta Post.

Wahyu, who is also co-founder and former chairman of the Indonesian Comic Community (MKI), said that he believed people in Indonesia had actually shown a great interest in comics.

However, their interests were satisfied by translated imported comics from Japan, Europe, America, Hong Kong, and Korea, which have dominated the Indonesian comic market since the 1980s.

Comic strips like Doraemon (Japan); Tintin (Belgium); Lucky Luke and Asterix (France), Batman and Superman (the U.S.); and Tiger Wong (Hong Kong) are but a few examples.

"We had some Indonesian comic strips published here by local publishers, but they were not good, both visually and as a story. That accounts for why people read imported comic strips rather than local ones," Wahyu said.

He said, the Indonesian preference for imported comics had sparked the emergence of an independent movement among young Indonesian comic illustrators, especially art school students.

The establishment of comic studios like QN, which stands for Qomik Nasional (National Comic), in Bandung, West Java and Apotik Komik in Yogyakarta in 1995, marked the start of the movement.

Other comic studios followed, growing steadily in number.

Comic illustrators call themselves independent because they attempt to maintain independence from the publishing industry.

They photocopy their comic strips instead.

"That way we can produce more affordable comics which will reach a wider market," Wahyu said.

The first Indonesian comics were published in the 1930s when Khowangie came up with the Put On comic strip, run in Sinpo newspaper.

Then other names emerged, such as Taguan Hardjo who developed the comic industry in Medan, North Sumatra, in the 1950s. One of Taguan's famous comics was Kapten Yani (Captain Yani) published in 1960.

However, the comic strip boom in Indonesia during the 1970s was flooded with numerous teenage romance comic strips, influenced by the residue of the "flower-power generation."

Also, during this period, numerous martial arts comic strips were published, like Ganesh TH or Si Buta dari Goa Hantu (The Blind Hero from the Devil Lair); Djair Warni or Jaka Sembung.

The decade was also marked with the emergence of local comic superheroes such as Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala the Son of the Thunder) and Godam, in an effort to battle against the popular U.S. superhero-comics such as The Flash, Fantastic Four, Batman, Superman and Spiderman.

In the 1980s, the development of the comic industry in Indonesia slowed to a halt due to the enormous increase in the number of imported comic strips from the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Wahyu said the lack of synergy between comic illustrators and publishers here was the main reason why the industry couldn't compete with the imported comics.

In many cases, according to Wahyu, publishers often felt frustrated by the illustrators' rate of productivity. On the other hand, the comic illustrators were uncertain about relying on comics as their bread and butter.

"This is the toughest thing that we have to deal with if we want to develop a good comics industry here.

"We must assure comic illustrators that they have promising careers. We must convince publishers that the profession deserves adequate financial rewards," Wahyu said.

He also gave his assurance that the comic industry in the country was indeed promising, especially considering that a number of companies, non-government organizations, and even political parties had begun to use comic strips.

Wahyu said,"They have realized the power that a comic has to effectively communicate a message."

But, added that it would take years to build the local comic industry.

He said that MKI had been trying to boost the industry ever since it was established, with the support of the government on March 17, 1997.

Since 1998, for example, MKI and the government -- in this case the Ministry of Education and later the Ministry of Tourism and Culture -- had been holding biennial comic and animation exhibitions.

They also hold comic festivals and competitions, one of their objectives being to introduce comics to the wider community. MKI is preparing the 3rd National Comic Week to be held next month at Malang State University in East Java.

Wahyu said that MKI praised the presence of the Indonesian independent comic movement. In MKI's view, the movement had helped increase the production of comic strips in the country. Never mind that they were privately produced or photocopied.

The increase in these "independent" comic strips, he said, had attracted local publishers, including noted Bandung-based Mizan and Jakarta-based M&C publishing companies.

Alfi's Dua Warna is an example of M&C's production line, while Mizan has been publishing numerous comic strips which convey Islamic teachings since 1995.

According to a Mizan staff member, who ran the publisher's booth at the PKAN 4, Mizan aimed to publish no less than 30 new comic strips monthly.

"Initially, the print-run is 500 copies, but they can be re- printed should the market demand it," he said.