Critical voice of comics expose social issues
Comics have developed further and become even richer as they are given a more profound tinkering by combining them with certain litetray touches and other techniques to give rise to what is called "graphic novels".
The term, coined by Will Eisner, refers to such works as the Fables series by the Eisner award-winning Bill Willingham or Peter Kuper’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphose, a vague political conspirancy in the Tintin series by herge (Kidnapping of Calculus, King Ottokar’s Royal Mace and Picaros), a parody of history and technological invention in Mark Allan Stamaty’s Too Many Time Machine, and even Joe Sacco’s Palestine, journalistic notes illustated as a comic strip and which won a prestigious award for non-comic strip works.
Anyone who has read pengumuman: Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah!(Announcement: No such thing as low-cost schooling, Resist Book, 2005) will agree that this particular comic strip delivers more than just pictures.
A hybrid between comic strip and social analysis, the book provides a parody of the condition of the educational system from kindergarten up to university, dripping with sarcastic humor.
Like Eko Prasetyo’s earlier books, Orang Miskin Dilarang Sekolah (The poor may not go to school) and Orang Miskin Dilarang Sakit (The poor may not get sick), Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! is the author’s criticism on social dynamics and problems- proof, according to him, that the government has failed in addressing poverty.
While illustrations in the two earlier titles serve to reinforce the text, in Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah!, they have fully taken over the text as the narrator: The strip about the experience of attending university, for example, shows a sketch of an empty university library juxtaposed against a crowded student cafeteria.
Observe also the illustrations comparing extracurricular activities at private and state schools. On the left hand side, the sketch of an expensive private school shows extracurricular activities involving computers, the Internet and ballet, while on the right-hand side, extracurricular activities at state schools involve boy scout and dancing only.
Without the help of long texts, the illustrations, made simply without any particular attention to neatness, make the reade smile- it is naughty and wild spirit that runs through this 144-page comic strip. Readers will agree that Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! shares a critical spirit akin to those by the same author in his Dilarang Miskin (Being poor is forbidden) series. Even so, illustrations – despite their teasing nature and the lack of neatness in their creation- play a much greater role in this book than those in the aforementioned series.
Inspired by Matt Groening’s School is Hell, which has gained fame through serials The Simpsons and Futurama, Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! is both critical analysis, as well as a medium, of the writer-cartoonist’s indictment against educational system, one of the country’s chronic social problems. (Reportedly, the publisher actually wanted to translate Groening’s books into Bahasa Indonesia, but failed to procure translation rights).
Indeed, cartoonist Benny Rachmadi and Muhammad Mice Misrad, better known as the Benny and Mice duo, have already made a similar attempt to speak out against social issues through their comic series Lagak Jakarta (Jakarta lifestyle). Of course, several other, more senior Indonesian cartoonist, such as Libra with his Timun, Dwi Koen with Panji Koming, Pramono, G.M. Sudarta, Augustin Sibarani and Kho Wang Gie, perhaps the earlier of them all, with their Put On, have also attempted the same.
However, in Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah!, the cartoons created by Terra Bajraghosa, characterized by their lack of neatness in their execution in exploring the themes, closely resemble the work of Dav Pilkey in the Captain Color series, Brtish humorist Ian Walsh’s in the
The Idiot Book and also Matt Groening’s work. The narrative power of Terra’s pictures is as strong as that of the texts by Eko, who has published on religious and social themes.
The cities of Yogyakarta and Bandung, the birthplaces of a great number of underground cartoonists, have, through this literary hybrid, succesfully presented the comic medium as more than just a creative indicator that, unfortunately, sometimes serve just as a means of visual experimentation for dilettantes, but also as a mode of expression that is no less critical than literary and non-literary books, music, and films.
It seems that the period after 1990s has witnessed the beginning of an awareness that underground comics are not simply a means of resistance against mainstream comic strips, but are also a medium of indictment. In fact, comic strips began to be adopted in this capacity with the publication in Yogya of the anthology, Subversi Komik (Comics of subversion), in 2004.
Unfortunately, the following series series failed to see light of day.
Meanwhile, in the case of a hybrid of literature and cartoons, writer Seno Gumira Ajidarma, collaborating with Asnar zacky, pionereed this genre with Jakarta 2039, Kematian Donny Osmond (Death of Donny Osmond) and Sukab Intel Melayu (Sukab the malay spy), followed by Erwin Primaarya with Taxi Blues (2002), a comic inspired by one of Seno’s short stories.
The publication of Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! deserves our appreciation in two important respects. First, it shows that underground comics, unlike their initial function, are not simply a creative indicator. Second, in terms of thematic exploration, this book shows that Indonesian comics, which have long dealt mostly with humor and parody, still retain their power to criticize.
It is public knowledge that for quite some time, the country’s comics – confined to functioning only as a creative indicator and providing humor and parody – had fallen into the trap of the market system of the industry. First, the cartoonist creating mainstream comics have sacrified their idealism by not only copying precisely the style of Japanese manga, but also by agreeing to their publishers’ requirement that their names be made to sound Japanese, so their comic strips would appear to have been publsihed in Japan.
Second, cartoonist must join publishing project funded by foreifn non-governmental organizations or institutions, as well as government agencies and even political parties specializing in the humanities. In the case of a number of comics that have been published under this arrangement, the have lost their power of criticism and have in many ways become highly verbal.
This is understandable because such comics, despite the sham creative indpeendence that they seek to impress people with, are made to order and, as such, manifest the mission set by their "sponsors". It is true that when comics are produced under this support scheme, Indonesian cartoon workshops can survive financially. However, the distribution of comics created by cartoonist under this scheme are limited. Besides, just like underground comics, such works serve merely as creative indicators and are not powerful in terms of visual experimentation or narration.
Third, comics as a product in themselves- for example as an animated film, as TV series Joshua Bocah Ajaib (Joshua the wonder boy), Saras 008 or Panji Manusia Millenium (Panji the millenium man), a feature film or a toy- might be mass produced, but their distribution period is brief and they will quickly disappear following the distribution cycle.
Tidak Ada sekolah Murah! is quite successful as a literary hybrid. However, it is not without its shortcoming. In terms of content, the book has its strong points, but is weakness lies in its placement in bookshops – a trifle in the eyes of our book industry and therefore not given sufficient attention.
It is a shame to see interesting and powerful comics share the same shelf as children’s comics. And unlike the two Batman comics – Child of Dreams and Batman Hong Kong – which are specially labeled as adult reading, Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah!, unfortunately is yet to be similarly labeled.
Regardless of this shortcoming, Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! has attracted both comics fans and readers of books on social affairs and humanities. If comics targeting adults are published in future, be they original or translated works (like Rampokan/Loot by Peter van Dongen, published in 2005 by Pustaka Primatama), deatiled labeling will be needed so that the public may learn that comics are not merely kid’s stuff, but are also works of art that offer the broadest space for critical interpretation.
In Signs in Contemporary Culture: An Introduction to Semiotics, Arthur Asa Berger writes that comics actually contain much reading material- but only if we care to do so. If we take care in reading Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! we will find out just how powerful a comic can be – beyond merely graphic experimentation.*
The publication of Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! deserves our appreciation in two important respects. First, it shows that underground comics, unlike their initial function, are not simply a creative indicator. Second, in terms of thematic exploration, this book shows that Indonesian comics, which have long dealt mostly with humor and parody, still retain their power to criticize.
It is public knowledge that for quite some time, the country’s comics – confined to functioning only as a creative indicator and providing humor and parody – had fallen into the trap of the market system of the industry. First, the cartoonist creating mainstream comics have sacrified their idealism by not only copying precisely the style of Japanese manga, but also by agreeing to their publishers’ requirement that their names be made to sound Japanese, so their comic strips would appear to have been publsihed in Japan.
Second, cartoonist must join publishing project funded by foreifn non-governmental organizations or institutions, as well as government agencies and even political parties specializing in the humanities. In the case of a number of comics that have been published under this arrangement, the have lost their power of criticism and have in many ways become highly verbal.
This is understandable because such comics, despite the sham creative indpeendence that they seek to impress people with, are made to order and, as such, manifest the mission set by their "sponsors". It is true that when comics are produced under this support scheme, Indonesian cartoon workshops can survive financially. However, the distribution of comics created by cartoonist under this scheme are limited. Besides, just like underground comics, such works serve merely as creative indicators and are not powerful in terms of visual experimentation or narration.
Third, comics as a product in themselves- for example as an animated film, as TV series Joshua Bocah Ajaib (Joshua the wonder boy), Saras 008 or Panji Manusia Millenium (Panji the millenium man), a feature film or a toy- might be mass produced, but their distribution period is brief and they will quickly disappear following the distribution cycle.
Tidak Ada sekolah Murah! is quite successful as a literary hybrid. However, it is not without its shortcoming. In terms of content, the book has its strong points, but is weakness lies in its placement in bookshops – a trifle in the eyes of our book industry and therefore not given sufficient attention.
It is a shame to see interesting and powerful comics share the same shelf as children’s comics. And unlike the two Batman comics – Child of Dreams and Batman Hong Kong – which are specially labeled as adult reading, Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah!, unfortunately is yet to be similarly labeled.
Regardless of this shortcoming, Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! has attracted both comics fans and readers of books on social affairs and humanities. If comics targeting adults are published in future, be they original or translated works (like Rampokan/Loot by Peter van Dongen, published in 2005 by Pustaka Primatama), deatiled labeling will be needed so that the public may learn that comics are not merely kid’s stuff, but are also works of art that offer the broadest space for critical interpretation.
In Signs in Contemporary Culture: An Introduction to Semiotics, Arthur Asa Berger writes that comics actually contain much reading material- but only if we care to do so. If we take care in reading Tidak Ada Sekolah Murah! we will find out just how powerful a comic can be – beyond merely graphic experimentation.*
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