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Digital comics gear up for more fans
A man takes a closer look into comics at an exhibition
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A man takes a closer look into comics at an exhibition. JP/Indah Setiawati
What comes to your mind when you hear the word comics? You may think about Japanese Manga, American comic heroes Batman and Superman or popular European comics Asterix and Tintin.
At a glance, we would know Japanese Manga with its various genres still takes the majority of space at any bookstore or comic rental shop.
Some Japanese comics are made into television series or even into into the silver screen as seen in Naoki Urasawa’s comic titled 20th Century Boys.
South Korean comics, known as Manhwa, also has steadily gained popularity in Indonesia. The comic industry in South Korea has spread its wing to television and the film industry.
A television drama adapted from the Full House comic, for example, has become a hit in some Asian countries and will be adapted into a 3D animated movie.
With such vast development of comics in Asia, Indonesian comics seem to be left far behind.
After its glory days in the 1970s, local comics such as Si Buta dari Gua Hantu (The Blind from the Ghost Cave) and Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala Son of Lightning), slowly disappeared and gradually lost their old readers.
Independent comic artists and studios attempted to revive the scene in the early 1990s when comic artist groups such as Komik Nusantara, Animik and Apotik Komik started to emerge.
Now, numerous independent comic artists and studios produce comic books. However, how far should they go to rejuvenate the local comics and catch up with the development of the creative comic industry?
Dewis Akbar, an active member of Anime Manga Haven (AMH) — a subforum in the Kaskus social forum — said it was about the time for web comics to rise. He said a comic author needed to go a long way before having their works published in the media or printed in a book.
“The Internet becomes the answer to this problem. People can publish their work in blogs and showcase the comic in our social forum to get feedback and more ideas,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.
Dewis, working as an IT freelancer, was speaking on the sidelines of the Contemporary Indonesian Comic Exhibition at Bank Mandiri Museum, which runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5.
The AMH forum held a workshop on digital comic on Saturday, which will also feature a compilation of 10 selected web comics.
“The price of the comic compilation is around Rp 15,000 [more than $1], which is under the production cost, because we just want to promote the local comics. People can see the comics on websites,” he said.
Diki Andeas, the creator of Chicken strip, may become an example of a successful digital comic maker.
What started as a simple illustration of a chicken boy for his blog in 2001 later became a character in the form of a white and red chicken in the comic strip.
Visited by almost 600,000 people, the blog that highlights daily life issues and topics on information and technology is now available in the form of a book, published by one of the giant publishers in the country.
The computer programmer stated in his blog that he did not use traditional drawing tools such as pencils or pens, but purely a mouse and digital graphic software.
“This was because I did not have a scanner to transfer the manual drawing. But, later I got used to this style,” Diki said in his blog chickenstrip.wordpress.com.
Dewis said local web comics had a promising future because the number of Internet users in Indonesia was growing. According to Internet World Stats, Internet users in Indonesia reached 30 million this year, a sharp increase compared to 2 million users in 2002.
Dewis said he had joined the AMH forum since 2002, when the number of Kaskus members was still 10,000. Now, the members of the biggest social forum in the country have grown to more than 2 million, while the active users of AMH have reached approximately 22,000 people.
“AMH previously functioned as media to showcase the members’ work and share information on technical matters to make comics,” he said.
Later, the subforum consisted of six smaller forums that discussed different themes. The Anime forum discusses old and new animation serials. The Fanstuff forum contains discussion and displays various works, including comics, short stories and novels.
Manga, Manhua and Manhwa forum discusses Japanese, Hong Kong, South Korea and Indonesian comics. The Western Comic forum discusses everything about US comics and the AMHelpdesk discusses guidance and tutorial on manga and anime.
“The fanstuff, which has been active for around six months, now has around 2,000 users.
Dewis is not able to make comics, but he has been reading comics since he was a kid. After realizing the potential of the forum, the man from Bandung was determined to be a part of the process to popularize local comics.
“I hope someday our local comics can be adapted into films and merchandise, becoming an entertainment equal to novels and movies,” said the man who arranges meetings with AMH forum members in Bandung and sells merchandise from comics.
Rizki Trinada, another AMH user who collaborated with his friend to make a comic, hoped comic authors could become established professions in the country.
“We really want local comic publications to become an industry, not just a side job,” he said.
Beside publishing the digital comic on blogs, there is now online media to publish the work. Ngomik.com offers a decent space to publish local comics and can be accessed through your mobile phones.
The comic-book authors can also earn money by setting a cost for people who want to read their comics. They will also get paid if their comics attract many readers.
