Local comics try to draw a better image

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."