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Teguh Santosa's comics get new life
Technology has given many of the countryâs popular comics from the past a new lease on life
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Technology has given many of the country's popular comics from the past a new lease on life.
The works of prominent comic writer Teguh Santosa have been manually and digitally remastered by a special team to save the books from fading or being damaged.
Dhany Valiandra, son of the late artist, recently held a thanksgiving ceremony in Malang, East Java, to mark a plan to republish Teguh's popular work Sandhora ' a historical piece that he penned in 1969.
Sandhora was followed by a sequel, Mat Romeo (1971), and concluded with Mencari Mayat Mat Pelor (Searching for Mat Pelor's remains, 1974).
Apart from improving the quality of the pictures, Dhany also improved the comics' language ' from the old literary style in the original version to a more current style to suit the tastes of young readers.
'I mostly replaced the old spelling style,' Dhany said. 'I've also rewritten their conversations without changing their core stories.'
Teguh's Mahabharata and Bharatayudha were previously remastered and republished in 2009.
When all of the remastering is finished, Dhany said his family planned to hold an exhibition titled 'Teguh Santosa's Comic Art Exhibition, Retrospective 1965-2000', in Malang in October this year.
'The year 1965 was the beginning of his comic drawing activity while 2000 was the year he passed away, on Oct. 25,' explained Dhany, who now lives in Yogyakarta.
Hundreds of Teguh's comics enlivened the heyday of the country's comic industry back in the 1980s ' before the influx of foreign works around the turn of the millennium.
Teguh was known as the creator of many martial arts figures and he was the first Indonesian comic writer hired by global comic publisher Marvel Comics as an inkman for the serials Conan, Ali Baba and Piranha.
Comic researcher Seno Gumira Adjidarma previously said that Teguh's style of presentation was unique compared to the latest comic styles. 'If the strength of Japanese manga is in their movement, Teguh's works are like paintings. His surrealism gives his scenes the effect of a painting. We love staring at them. Although the costumes are weird, the imagination is strong,' Seno said.
Dhany said the upcoming exhibition aimed to introduce Teguh ' as one of the country's comic artist pioneers alongside renowned names like RA Kosasih, Ganes TH, Wie NS and Hasmi, who together have created famous characters and heroes ' to the younger generation.
The event, he said, was also an attempt to bring back Teguh's comics to Malang, where he was consistently engaged in his early career as a comic artist.
'I think this line of profession is less appreciated compared to painter or others although they're all artists,' Dhany said. 'My father's works have been displayed in Singapore and Jakarta but not yet in Malang, his hometown.'
Born in Malang on Feb. 1, 1942, Teguh was a high school graduate who honed his drawing skills in the Sanggar Bambu art group in Yogyakarta in 1966.
His passion for the art came from his parents, father Soemarmo Adji and mother Lasiyem, who owned the Krido Sworo ketoprak Javanese theater troupe.
Teguh also delved into various books, from history, archeology, religion, politics and Javanese fortune-telling to wayang shadow puppets, and later infused them into the soul of his stories.
He also learned the works of distinguished artists like Kentardjo, who illustrated Naga Sasra dan Sabuk Inten (Royal Heirlooms), to the pieces made by Frank Frazetta, Dan Barry and Alex Raymond ' the men behind Flash Gordon.
Dhany said that for Teguh, his comics were a way to showcase his idealism and express his concern, such as on readers' lack of interest in local comics, rather than just to earn a living.
'In his diary, father refers to his 'greening' effort in the arena of comics against an erosion of idealism,' he said.
From his modest house in Jl. Anjasmoro 10, Kepanjen district in Malang regency, the father of four used to turn his sketches into captivating stories on a plain wooden table in his room.
Dhany recalled that his father would say a prayer and have coffee prepared by his mother before he started drawing. 'He would then enter his room, shut the door and allow nobody to disturb him,' he said.
Even as a kid, Dhany, who was born in 1967, knew that wonderful ideas would come to his father who often listened to film soundtracks while working.
'As a child I was frequently taken to watch movies,' Dhany recalled of his father, a film buff. 'He could see as many as four films a week in Malang.'
He said Teguh's creative process would begin as music-induced imaginations were transformed into narrative drawings.
'Father drew comics in a storyboard fashion so they tended to be filmic and detailed from costumes, property to historical data,' said Dhany.
Sandhora, inspired by the movie Angelique, is about a woman of Spanish descent who falls in love with an indigenous man, named Mat Pelor, in a 19th century setting. The story spans the period from the end of the Diponegoro War in 1831 to the 1970s.
Dhany said the name Sandhora was derived from Titik Sandhora, a famous pop singer at the time, while her face was modeled after a Surakartan dancer who had a Eurasian look.
The comic has reportedly attracted filmmakers, including noted director Hanung Bramantyo.
Dhany said he did not know about a movie plan but any filmmaker wanting to turn the comic into a film would have to follow his father's wish ' the movie should be in black and white, just like Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List.
The upcoming exhibition is also intended as the first step in a bigger plan to set up the Indonesian Comics Museum in Malang.
'I also would like to contribute my father's works to an arts institute to serve as a record in the development of Indonesian comics.'
' Photos by Nedi Putra AW
