Following yesterday's post which featured British and American comics, it's only fair that my readers should know about Indonesian ones.
Presumably the Jakarta Post reads Jakartass because today's edition carries two articles, here and here, reporting that responding to the nostalgia of the heyday of Indonesian comics in the 1970s and 1980s, a Jakarta publishing company has breathed new life into the popular local superhero Gundala Putra Petir, reprinting the original books for staunch fans.
The publisher, BumiLangit, has reprinted the first and second titles of the original Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala the Lightning's Son), publishing 7,500 copies for each title.
fr. komikindonesia.comHasmi, who studied at the Indonesian School of Fine Arts in Yogyakarta and a language school, first published Gundala in 1969. He was inspired by American superheroes, especially Flash Gordon and Thor.
"Gundala wears a black costume, while Flash wears red. Flash moves as fast as lightning while Gundala is only as fast as a typhoon, but he can fire lightning while Flash cannot."
"It ended because I was lured by another comic project to depict the glory of then president Soeharto. Me and some other artists and comic creators in Yogyakarta thought we would be rich after the project," Hasmi said.
At the end of the day, the project turned out to be almost a complete bust and the publisher of Gundala never contacted Hasmi again after he abandoned Gundala.
"I was too ashamed to contact them," Hasmi said.
I'm not surprised. I would be too.
