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making comics with a local feel
Avid fans: Two junior high school students read re:ON comics at a train station
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Avid fans: Two junior high school students read re:ON comics at a train station.
re:ON Comics is looking to grab the attention of local fans who might like a local take on American superhero comics or Japanese manga.
'We also have comics that tells the lives of local superheroes, such as The Grand Legend of the Ramayana and Galauman,' said comic artist Chris Lie, who founded re:ON in February 2013.
Published by PT Wahana Inspirasi Nusantara, re:ON's 140-page compilations typically comprise five comics, he said.
Volume 1, for example, featured Andik Prayogo's Lay Lay Cat, Is Yuniarto's The Grand Legend of the Ramayana, Hendry Iwanaga's Hyper Fusion Cyborg Idol Rinka, Angie Natalia's Journal of Platina Parlour and Rii Wels's Lemon Leaf.
Writers for re:ON can stretch their imagination, with a few caveats: stories must have local themes or settings, Chris says, while a focus on teen themes is a plus.
Ockto Baringbing's Galauman, for example, tells the story of Gabriel Laurent, a teen who becomes a superhero with an armored suit when he feels galau, which is local slang for excessive sensitivity to others feelings about you.
Baringbing created Galauman since the word was trending among young people, especially those who were still jomblo (single) and looking for love.
'The target is teenagers at the junior and senior high school levels. They, of course, are familiar with the term galau,' said Chris, who designed action figures for the Spider-Man, Transformers and GI Joe film franchises and who developed art for the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings films.
He said re:ON's writers confronted social issues, such as C. Suryo Laksono, whose Tawur (Brawl) talks about the street fights common among local high school students ' as well as the sad state of the local educational system.
The group currently has 50 active comic artists, up from 6 in February 2013. Only 16 have their titles printed by the company; the rest are posted online.
He said that he gave the published writers four weeks to draw a single book, since PT Wahana publishes a new volume every six weeks. 'Any Indonesian person can submit their comics to us.'
While none of re:ON's regular writers learned their craft at school, their performance cannot be underestimated. Andik Prayogo's Baratayuda, for example, was named Best Children's Comic by Anugrah Komik Indonesia in 2011.
Andik said that he drew ideas from many sources, such as the news, the experiences of his friends and even dreams.
When inspiration strikes, he can finish a 24-page-comic in three hours, Andik says. Without inspiration, he might average a page a month.
Research is key when writing fiction, Andik says. As an example, he cites his book on a young boy named Bagas, who drives off marauding invaders of his nation. Andik researched the weapons, uniforms, fashion and architecture of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia.
'Researching is the hardest challenge when we are writing a comic related to history,' he says. 'We cannot make mistakes in describing history, even though it is just a fictional story.'
Chris said that some of his authors and artists wanted to provide an experience outside the panels of their books. Hendry, for example, also included a CD in his Hyper Fusion Cyborg Idol Rinka comic that included samples of her voice and several songs.
Meanwhile, all the volumes have tutorials and templates on making comics for would-be artists.
Business is booming, according to Chris. Volume 10 sold out within hours of its launch in Yogyakarta, while Volume 11 went through a 17,000 copy print-run, up from the 10,000 copies printed for Volume 1 in July 2013.
He envisions a return to the golden era of local comics in the 1970s, when titles such as Harya Suryaminata's Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala, Son of Thunder) and Ganes TH's Si Buta Dari Gua Hantu (The Blind Man from Ghost Cave).
'We created re:ON Comics with the aim of reviving local comics in Indonesia,' Chris said. 'This depends not only on the writers, but also on the readers. 'The challenge is how to maintain and increase the number of readers of local comics. This industry will not die if it has many fans.'
