P-Project take their humor to comic books

By Hera Diani

JAKARTA (JP): People who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s undoubtedly have fond memories of the local comic books that colored these years.

Titles like Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala, Son of Thunder) Godam and Panji Tengkorak were eagerly purchased and read, passed around among children and teenagers enthralled by the adventures that jumped out from the pages.

Comic books written by artists like Jan Mintaraga and Teguh Santosa, which were based on classic wayang (traditional puppet) stories such as Mahabharata and Ramayana, were also big sellers.

But today, in much the same fashion as Indonesian films, local comic books have been overshadowed by Japanese and U.S. titles.

"That's why we wanted to make our own comic book. There are hardly any, if any at all, local comic books right now," said Iszur Muchtar, a member of comedy group P-Project.

Iszur was speaking on Monday during the launch of the group's comic book Si Lender, a 121-page black-and-white book about a hero by the same name.

"I grew up reading local comic books like Gundala. It's too bad that children now grow up with imported comic books. Not that all of those books are bad, but it would good if there were local ones as well," he said.

According to Iszur, since the Bandung-based group was established five years ago they had been discussing the idea of producing a comic book. But the idea was kept on the shelf because the group was busy with other projects.

That all changed when they met artist Pidi Baiq, a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology's School of Art and Design.

Iszur's fellow P-Project member Daan Aria said they chose Pidi to draw the book because he had the same vision and sense of humor as the group.

"It took us a long time to collect ideas, the kind of story, the hero and everything," he said.

The result was Si Lender, whose storyline was written by P- Project.

"We then contacted the publisher Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. They accepted our ideas and here it is now," Daan said, adding that the comic book was targeted at teenagers and adults.

The book is set in the 13th century, during West Java's Padjadjaran Kingdom. The basic story is that the villain Kartasinga steals King Wastakencana's magical belt.

The king sends Sutawangsa to retrieve the belt from Kartasinga, who apparently has traveled through a time tunnel to the year 2010.

As one expects from P-Project, the book is funny. The dialog is humorous, peppered with Sundanese, and the illustrations are imaginative. At one point, the angry king spits and Pidi draws the saliva traveling in a curve and inserts a physics formula for parabolic force.

The font, however, is a little too stiff and not an ideal fit for the illustrations, and sometimes there is a lot of blank space in the panels.

According to Pidi, it took him six month to draw the book. "The group gave me the story and then I matched it to my style. Before that I also did a survey of the comic book community to see what they wanted to see. I'm not just drawing, you know," said the artist, who once published the comic book Kapten Bandung.

As for the Sundanese words, Pidi said that since he and P- Project are from Bandung they are familiar with the language.

According to Denny from P-Project, beside promoting culture, they also want to revive the Sundanese language with the book.

"Even in Bandung, young people no longer speak it," he said.

Ten thousand copies of the first edition were printed, with a price of Rp 12,000 (US$1.40).

Daan said the group originally wanted the book to be in color. "But if it was in color the price would have been Rp 48,000. That's too expensive, so we left it black and white," he said, adding that the book could be found at Gramedia bookstores around the country.

The group plans to release a total of 13 books in the Si Lender series.

"The next book will be released in October," Daan said, adding that P-Project had invested some Rp 15 million ($1,765) in the project.

The group said they were optimistic the comic book would prove a success.

As for Pidi, he hopes Si Lender will inspire other comic artists to publish books.

"Even P-Project, who are not supposed to or obliged to make comic books, were able to do it," he said.