Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education and Culture, seems to take pleasure in shocking fellow Indonesians, particularly conservative-minded parents and educators with his out-of-the-box suggestions on altering and improving current schooling and learning methods.
At the recent Indonesian Millennial Summit, he exhorted participants to give children comic books as a first step towards developing a reading habit. Judging from the critical comments in the media that followed, clearly not everyone approves, particularly those who regard comics as trashy reads and not real literature.
I would be the first to disagree, luckily having been brought up by parents who strongly believed that reading anything was the basis of a good education and who brought home comic books for their children to read every week. Their message was clear: reading is supposed to be an enjoyable experience, not something that is forced—educational yet entertaining.
In addition to comic books, my siblings and I also read illustrated versions of The Count of Monte Cristo, Gulliver’s Travels, and other titles published by Classics Illustrated. Over time, we graduated from these graphic books to texts without illustrations. The experts may be right: comic books can help younger readers to better understand narrative concepts, story structure, and character development.
In Indonesia, the comic book genre began during the pre-independence era, with political cartoons complementing early periodicals. Soon, enterprising artists like R.A. Kosasih discovered the value of turning legends from the Javanese classic Mahabharata epic into entertaining visual storytelling. During his lifetime, Kosasih published 40 series of comics based on stories from this classic epic, which were eagerly devoured by readers all over the country. There have been other artists since, but Kosasih contributed strongly to the growth of the Indonesian comic industry, which today has been enriched by influences from other countries, such as the Japanese manga comics.
While some may argue against comics becoming main stream, there is no question that comics have generated great interest among artists and writers who have developed their own ideas of storytelling. A few Indonesians now contribute illustrations for the well-known publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics. While comics may not be the core output at Lontar, we have produced one title The Furniture Salesman Who Became President, an interesting commentary on local politics. Visit Lontar’s office to pick up this book and a large array of other books in translation.
As we venture into the new year, we wish you all the best in the months ahead and thank you in advance for your continued support and contributions.
Yuli Ismartono
yismartono@lontar.org