Local comic industry needs synergy: Observer

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's ailing animated cartoon and comic strip industry has resulted in children knowing more about the Japanese comic character Dora Emon rather than Indonesia's own legendary Gatotkaca, a leading cartoonist said yesterday.

Dwi Koendoro said a synergy of experts in the fields of literature, entertainment, communications and business was needed to revive the ailing industry.

Dwi -- creator of the famed Panji Koming comic strip, published by the leading Kompas daily, and owner of an animation production house -- said such synergy was needed so local cartoonists, filmmakers and publishers could work and progress together to revive the stagnant industry.

"Comics and animated films have many things in common, such as in the creative process," Dwi said at a press conference announcing an upcoming seminar and exhibition on comic books and animation films here next December.

The seminar and exhibition organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture and associations of cartoonists and animated filmmakers will be held from Dec. 17 to Dec. 22 at the ministry's arts building in Central Jakarta.

According to Dwi, an ill of the ailing film industry is the fact that most filmmakers and producers still focus more on "short-term ways of thinking" or mere profit making.

"This way of thinking may well bring down the booming television industry in the next two or three years," he warned.

Dwi said filmmakers were often surprised by the fact that it took about six years to finish the making of Walt Disney's animated film Sleeping Beauty.

Dwi maintained that such an unhealthy climate resulted in the "loss of the country's local geniuses" in comics and animation.

Asked about information on the comparison of sales between local and imported comic books, Dwi said none was available.

Rahayu Hidayat of the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Letters, said the Indonesian comic industry boom was in the 1950s and 1960s.

"Indonesian comic books sold like hotcakes back then because many newspapers published comic strips in abundance," said Rahayu, who has done extensive research on the subject.

"Now only a few newspapers, like Pos Kota and Republika, publish local comic strips," she lamented.

Both Dwi and Rahayu agreed that total marketing was needed -- in which the sale of comics was integrated with the sale of animated films, T-shirts, school apparel and so on -- to help boost readership of Indonesian comics.

Another cartoonist, Iman Suyudi, was pessimistic that a revival of the Indonesian film and comic industry would happen soon.

He claimed that publishers often discriminate against local cartoonists when paying them.

"Local cartoonists are only paid between Rp 15,000 (US$6) and Rp 40,000 per comic strip, while foreign cartoonists get paid Rp 60,000," Iman claimed.

But he still expressed hope that a synergy between local experts in the animated film and comic strip industries would bear some fruit. (aan)