Local comics try to draw a better image

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): Local comics, dogged by damning tags as vulgar and unsophisticated, have their work cut out for them in winning over readers.

Lack of public appreciation, talented artists, professionalism and innovative ideas are major obstacles, Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said when opening the first exhibition devoted to the works here last Friday.

Closing tomorrow, the event is part of the seven-day Comic Week, organized by artists and the Indonesian Comic Society.

Wardiman said the situation should be dealt with immediately.

"Indonesian comics bear a stigma as cheap and vulgar works rather than valuable artworks and educative media for the public."

Local artists, he added, would be hard pressed to promote their products and educate the public of their worth.

Veteran artist Ian Mintaraga admitted the problems.

In the past, he said, comics were mainly published by underground publishers and small companies which regarded the business more as a home industry.

"Underground publishers set their own criteria. Absence of quality control and censorship resulted in second-rate products."

Vulgarity and profanity were cheap tricks to get readers, Mintaraga said. "I myself would not allow my kids to read those comics."

He was not alone, as many parents in the 1960s and early 1970s tried to prevent their kids from viewing "polluting" comics.

The local industry remains far removed from the professionalism of the West and Japan, in which works are an art form clumped under pop art.

Director General of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Edi Sedyawati, argued the government had introduced measures to enhance the artistic quality of comics.

But she said local artists had frequently turned their backs on cultural sensitivities in pop art and comics.

"As Indonesian people, we have our own identity. What's more, our culture and traditions are very distinctive. Why should the artists explore others?"

She complained that many local artists were content to ape works from overseas.

"How can we improve our comic industry if we only copy other people's works?"

Art critic Jim Supangkat agreed that most local comic artists lacked innovative ideas.

He said this dated back to the 1950s, when the artists were heavily influenced by European and American works of the 1930s for drawing techniques, story themes and the arrangement of their storyboards.

The artists opted to be faithful to the Western approaches rather than modifying techniques.

"These approaches would have likely affected the arrangement of the story plots through sequences of drawings. (Instead) the results were only duplications of Western comics.

"This was one of the shortcomings which hindered the progression of comics in Indonesia."

The exhibition serves as a chronological detailing of the history of comics in the country, starting in the 1930s with the creation of strips such as Kho Wan Gie's Put On, published by Sin Po newspaper in the early years of that decade.

Nasroen AS was also famous for his Mentjari Poetri Hidjaoe, published by Ratoe Timoer in 1939.

In the 1950s and 1960s, dubbed the golden age of Indonesian comics, a crop of talented artists featured R.A. Kosasih, who created many local versions of wonder women like Sri Asih, and John Lo, S. Ardi Soma and Kwik Ing Hoo.

Inspiration came from local myths and legends, Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata and Western superheroes.

There was a thematic shift from the 1960s to 1980s as new stories dealt with teenage romances, produced by Mintaraga, Zaldy and Jeffrey.

A new genre emerged exploring indigenous martial arts heroes -- among them Si Buta dari Goa Hantu and Si Djampang, both by Ganes T.H., and Panji Tengkorak by Hans -- attracted thousands of readers.

Heroes in the Western tradition included Gundala Putera Petir by Hasymi, Godam by Wid NS and Kapten Halilintar by Mintaraga.

In the early 1980s, a deluge of foreign rivals spirited away much of the business from the local industry. This development was compounded by rapid growth of audio-visual media.

Mintaraga acknowledged that survival would be dependent on a willingness and ability to change with the times.

"It is very difficult to compete in the global comic industry. In order to survive, we have to explore original and imaginative ideas from our own sources."

Effi Fadjari Pattirajawane, director of the magazine division of the Gramedia Group, said there was also an urgent need for comic artists who had both vision and strong business instincts to confront the sophistication of foreign works.

She said local comics had several strikes against them because they were regarded as unimaginative and unappealing by younger readers, raised on a richer diet of captivating Western and Japanese works.

"Effective strategies are urgently required to bolster Indonesian comics, including setting up a strong marketing network to ensure the comic business flourishes for domestic players."

Effective promotional campaigns would get the word out about positive points of local works, she said, adding that local artists could selectively borrow from foreign examples.

"We can learn a lot from American giant Walt Disney in producing high-quality and marketable comics. The company also produces assorted tie-in merchandise, such as T-shirts and accessories taken from comic characters as part of its promotional efforts."

Effi believed the prospects for expansion of local comics were promising as sales for foreign works were sizable.

Gramedia prints about 40,000 copies per title of translated versions of Walt Disney comics. The number is double for popular Japanese comics like Dora Emon and Sailor Moon.

She disproved traditional assumptions about the readership demographics.

"About 60 percent of our readers are adults. It is not true that comics are only read by children. Comics are part of our cultural assets."