Life begins at 52 for Gundala creator

Life begins at 52 for Gundala creator

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

French philosopher Roland Barthes wrote in The Death of the
Author that "the author is dead".

Barthes' theory was proved last week when Hasmi, creator of
the comic book Gundala Putra Petir, met and dined with a number
of fans at a restaurant in South Jakarta.

The author and his fans engaged in a lively yet comical
discussion.

"Nemo (Gundala's sidekick), a character actually based on
myself ... is a coward and a loser," said Hasmi. This is a
frequent claim made by Hasmi, that he is a loser, especially in
the area of romance.

One of the fans, Andy Wijaya, swiftly responded, "No! Nemo is
not a coward." This was immediately followed by an equally hearty
reaction from another fan, Hartono Soenarto.

"Oh, yes, he is," Hasmi responded.

"No, no, no. Once Nemo jumped into a fight and he fought
courageously until he was beaten," Andy said.

"Well, he was only being reckless, not courageous," Hasmi
retorted.

"No, he is brave, he's not a coward," Hartono and Andy said in
chorus.

Hasmi merely smiled and stopped trying to argue with the young
fans.

"Well, he was probably a coward at the beginning but became
more courageous at the end," Andy said in a softer tone.

End of discussion. It seems Barthes was right once again: The
author is dead, the characters he creates take on a life of their
own in the minds of readers.

Hasmi, whose real name is Harya Suraminata, seems to realize
this and lets the fans have their own opinions about Nemo,
Gundala and other characters.

Hasmi himself is of course far from dead; he looks healthy
despite having to deal with diabetes for the last 10 years and
his habit of smoking clove cigarettes.

In fact, some could say his life has just recently begun
again.

Born on Dec. 25, 1946, Hasmi married for the first time in
1999 at the age of 52 and his first child, a daughter, was born
last year.

Now at 58, his 1970s masterpiece, Gundala Putra Petir, has
been reprinted and the publisher and the comic community have
asked him to create new Gundala stories as part of efforts by the
Komik Indonesia community to revive Indonesian comics.

At a book signing event, fans queued patiently for Hasmi to
sign their comics, both reprinted and original versions.

Hasmi, who studied at the Indonesian School of Fine Arts in
Yogyakarta and a language school, first published Gundala in
1969.

Inspired by American superheroes, especially Flash Gordon and
Thor, the Gundala character was an engineer named Sancaka who was
doing experiments on creating lightning rods for people.

His experiments led Caesar Crons, the ruler of the lightning
kingdom, to choose him as his adopted son and the kingdom's
military commander.

Sancaka received a special uniform from Crons and then his
adventures as Gundala began.

Gundala's adventures survived until 1982 with the 23rd title
in the series, The Letter from the Next World.

"It ended because I was lured by another comic project to
depict the glory of then president Soeharto. Me and some other
artists and comic creators in Yogyakarta thought we would be rich
after the project," Hasmi said.

At the end of the day, the project turned out to be almost a
complete bust and the publisher of Gundala never contacted Hasmi
again after he abandoned Gundala.

"I was too ashamed to contact them," Hasmi said.

He then earned a modest living as a freelance illustrator for
children's magazines and school textbooks.

Besides Gundala, Hasmi also created other superhero characters
like Kapten Mlaar, Maza Si Penakluk and Kalong.