Visual Design for the Universe of Wayang Comics

Iwan Gunawan

for International Journal of Comic Art

Introduction

The Indonesian people identify several puppet or wayang-related terms such as ‘wayang
kulit’ or shadow puppet (or leather puppet), ‘wayang golek’ puppet (wooden marionette),
wayang theatre (played by human actors). Wayang theatre or they call it also ‘wayang
wong’ in Java, which is played by human actors tell stories taken from the two largely
known and read epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Most of the stories used by wayang
performance are based on the plot taken from those two epics. On that account, the word
“wayang” which comes from the word ‘shadow’ (a technique of playing marionettes using
the shadow effect) oftentimes is connected to “Ramayana” or “Mahabharata”. The
meaning of the term “wayang” has shifted from that of a technique in performing art forms
to all forms relating to those two epics. So, comics which the general public refer as “komik
wayang” is comics that tells stories that have something to do with the epics Ramayana and
Mahabharata, including about Arjuna Sasrabahu and about the origin of the deity universe
(Javanese Hinduism) in the Indonesian archipelago.

‘Komik wayang’ or Wayang Comic is basically a blend of two cultural domains. Wayang
rooted in Asian literary tradition while the concept of comic comes from the visual culture
concept developed in the western world. Wayang comic is a form of new creation based on
the media of telling old stories, especially the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The
design in terms of character appearance, setting and nature is all the result of the
imagination of the stories around those two epics. These stories have gone through a
number of adaptation processes, from oral tradition, written text, performing art involving
the puppet shadow, wooden puppet ‘puppet theatre’ and wayang wong.

An opinion says that Asia also owns a tradition of visual story telling like we find in
Indonesia when we, for example, talk about the reliefs in Borobudur temple, or the
“Wayang Beber”. In terms of structure, those two forms are so similar to that of the comics.
Nevertheless, wayang comic that we are so familiar with is likely to be more proper if we
see it from the point of view of the comic history coming from the West. Comic emerged
thanks to the remarkable development of the print media technology. Comic strips, which
initiated the comic forms, were disseminated through newspapers or magazines in the
Western world. Afterwards, among those genres that gain popularity in the West such as
roman, detective stories, jungle adventure, science fiction or superhero, “wayang” culture
had penetrated to become the content of the comic in Indonesia.

When vehicle changes take place, there is always a need to adapt the characters’ visual
design. Every media requires different design, which is adapted to the technique of
delivering and visual culture context at that time. Even in the comic itself, the character

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design does change, despite the fact that the traditional visual culture tracks are still the
features of the character design.

Adaptation from Ramayana-Mahabharata text

“Wayang” has been adapted many times. Some people believe that the Ramayana and
Mahabharata epic are true story taken place in the past. The “event” was written as literary
text which is turned into performing art, and then along with the development of
technology media, this has gone through adaptation process into other vehicles like short
stories, comics, films, animations, radio plays or games. Feature films based on the stories
in Mahabharata have been also produced in Indonesia. D. Djajakusuma made a film titled
Lahirnya Gatotkatja ‘The Birth of Gatotkatja’ in 1960. In 1983, a film titled Pandawa Lima
starred by Indonesian actor, Alan Nuary, was made. In 2006, television station RCTI aired
the animated version of Mahabharata puppet based on the wayang comic by R.A. Kosasih
made in 1956. This production didn’t receive good acceptance; from 38 episodes they have
produced, only 13 of them that were broadcasted.

“Wayang” content is a priceless wealth in promoting cultural industry, especially in

Indonesia. In this country, wayang culture reaches many regions; it has become and existed
as performing arts. Apart from being a cultural product, all of them have turned into
promising financial profit products for the producers, artists and the supporting parties, and
the tourism conscious.

Wayang as media

Reliefs in Temples

Reliefs in temples, which were sculptured on stones of the Hindu temples, constitute of
rectangular shapes; each of them tells one scene. The Hindu temples in Central Java have
different appearance compared to those of East Java. The different is on how they draw
human and the attributes/clothes on the human figures on the reliefs. The drawing of
human figures on Central Java temples is more similar to the style of Indian temples. Its
anatomical drawing is more realistic while in East Java it tends to the style of the leather
puppet. The reliefs in Prambanan Temple tell the stories taken from the Ramayana epic.
The division of “drawing” panel on the reliefs are based on the important scenes from the
story of Ramayana. The stylization of the objects in these Ramayana reliefs is so fine; the
anatomical drawing is of human proportion.

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Picture 1. Reliefs of Sukuh Temple, located on the border of West and East Java

Wayang Kulit/Shadow Puppet or Leather Puppet

Leather puppet is a two-dimensional marionette made of animal skin and horn. On wayang
kulit, human is depicted using stylisation with heavy decorative elements. This leather
puppet lives in Central Java, East Java and Bali. Different from the leather puppet in Java,
Balinese leather puppet has its own way of distorting human image, which is more
anatomical.

Leather puppet is about playing with lighting, by directing the light to the
puppets/marionettes toward a piece of screen the shadow of the marionettes will appear on
the other side as silhouette. The audiences will watch the movements of the silhouettes or
they can also see the movements of the marionettes on the side of the puppet master. The
puppet master will play his/her marionettes accompanied by gamelan music.

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Picture 2. Shadow Puppet/Leather Puppet

Wayang Golek/Wooden marionettes

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They say, wooden marionettes were created an inspiration of leather puppet and they
developed well in West Java. The difference with the leather puppet is that wooden
marionettes are made from wood so they are of three-dimensional form. The structure and
proportion of their body is similar to the leather puppet; the head is way bigger and the
limbs are very long.

Picture 3. Wooden Marionettes

Wayang Orang (Wayang Wong)

According to Soedarsono, leather puppet influences the wayang orang, or we may say that
wayang orang is the personification of the leather puppet. On wayang orang, it’s the real
people (actors) who play the roles of the characters so that it makes up a dance-theatre
performance. The dancers appear pretty much like those of the leather puppet’s characters.

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Picture 4. Wayang Orang

Publishing Wayang Comic

Wayang comics (and stories) are well received at all corners of Indonesia and this is an effect
of the industrialization process. With the support of this publishing industry, stories of
“wayang” are easier to access as the circulation of comic was good and it reached many
cities in Indonesia. Let alone the nature of print media that can be enjoyed at all times
because we can buy, keep, or carry it wherever we go. Comic media is also relatively easier
when it comes to message delivery. The factor of language (regional language) usually is a
constraint since wayang comics were written in Indonesian language. The language of
image is relatively easier to understand. Image language helps the plot of comics to be
easier to understand. In the 20th century comic became one of the media that helped the
epic Mahabharata and Ramayana gain so much popularity among wide audience in
Indonesia.

In 1953 wayang comic began as comic strips in the magazine; among others are Comic Strip
Bunga Gangga dan Perwitasari by IKS Sulianto, in Terang Bulan Magazine 1953, Gatotkotjo
and Pergiwo by B. Djie III in Terang Bulan magazine, 1953, and Rama and Shinta also from B.
Djie III in Terang Bulan in 1954. Melodi Publishing, in 1954, published the first wayang comic
in the form of book titled Buriswara Merindukan Bulan ‘Buriswara Yearns for the Moon’, by
R.A. Kosasih.

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Picture 5. One of the earliest Wayang Comic Strip. Gatutkotjo & Pergiwo, by B. Djie III, in
Terang Bulan magazine 1953

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Picture 6. The first wayang comic Burisrawa Merindukan Bulan ‘Buriswara Yearns for the
Moon’ by R.A. Kosasih 1954

This comic came before any other comics like the series of the epic comics taken from
Mahabharata and Ramayana published by Indian publisher Amar Chitra Khata using the
title Krishna in 1969. From such adaptations, there must be a change occurred in the visual
appearance, both the characters with their costume, property being used and the setting.
This transformation requires change of the visual appearance because each media has its
own unique characteristic. It’s necessary to pay more attention in the change of appearance
taken into account that the audience or readers have also changed and got influences from
all directions in appreciating the works of art and value a cultural product.

Erlina, the owner of Maranatha Bandung Publishing House, revealed that “the golden years
of Maranatha was in the 70s – 80s. At those years comics of H.C. Andersen were printed as
many as 2500 copies per day per title. This particular kind of comic was so demanded by the
agents who had gathered at the publishing house. As many as 500 copies were reserved for
in-house needs considering they also opened a store located in the house. “... the agents
directly paid for the comics as it’s guaranteed that they would be sold out. Maranatha
always chose the good works of H.C. Andersen...” (interview with Erlina, May 2012). The
collaborative work of the publishing house and the comic artists was the key to the success
of comic industry of that time. Maranatha was the only comic publishing house in Indonesia

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who has survived since 1960s when it was first established up until 2014. Markus Hadi, the
late husband of Erlina started this comic publishing in 1964. At that time, apart from writing
new comics, Maranatha also took over hundreds of comic titles from one of the biggest
comic publishers in Indonesia known as Melodi. This takeover had created serious problem
for Melodi in terms of management while in terms of business Melodi was actually still
enjoying good profit. Melodi played an important role in the history of Indonesia’s comic
publishing house in 1950s to 1960s because beside it was successful in terms of industry; it
also made a number of innovations in offering the concept of comic. We can claim that
Melodi pioneered the format of comic compilation (some comic titles in one book) and the
book format (previously the popular one was the comic strip format in mass media).
In terms of story, Melodi has been the frontrunner of the comics with local content such as
comics with wayang stories and folktales. In my search, I ended up finding that in October
1966 out of 454 titles of the comics there were some 44 titles of wayang genre.
Melodi publishing house was long closed, today we have only Maranatha who specially
publishes local comics. A big publisher like Elex Media (Gramedia Group) who also
concentrates in publishing comics tends to work on translated comics from Japan and
Korea. It’s also the case of M&C (also part of Gramedia Group) who only produces
translated comics from Hong Kong and Europe. Maranatha enjoyed its industrial success in
1970s to early 1980s. Maranatha is located in Bandung, to be exact at Jalan Inggit Ganarsih
no. 150. Apart from being a publisher, Maranatha also has a shop and acting as agent. Its
comics are still widely distributed in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. Both
Maranatha and its predecessor, Melodi, have worked on the comics of wayang genre. Their
success was also the result of the good response from the comic audience.

The most used book format for this wayang comic in 1950s was 14.5 x 19.5 cm. There was
an exception for the series of Wayang Purwa by S. Ardisoma, which took the format 17 x 24
cm. In 1970s, wayang comic was published in bigger format of 17 x 25 cm. In general these
comics were the reprint copies of the Melodi publisher in 1950s by Maranatha publishing
house. The process of reprinting into different format has resulted in disproportional
composition in some publications; they came in more diverse and innovative composition.

Pioneers of Wayang Comic in Indonesia

As discussed earlier, the pioneer of Wayang Comic is R. A. Kosasih with his first title named
Buriswara Merindukan Bulan ‘Buriswara Yearns for the Moon’. Afterwards he did comics – a
serial of wayang comics of Ramayana and Mahabharata with the orientation to the books
originating from India like Bhagawad Gita and so forth. The other pioneer is Saleh
Ardisoma. Not like R. A. Kosasih, he had a tendency to work on wayang comics originating
from the carangan stories (subtheme) or stories already adapted to Indonesian wayang that
were frequently used by the puppet masters in their wooden marionettes performance. The
prominent works were Wayang Purwa and Ulam Sari Series. Oerip S. Just like S. Ardisoma –
with the orientation in subtheme stories, which are stories adapted from the main story like
Ramayana and Mahabharata. His widely read work was Arjuna Sasrabahu. Oerip S. was
consistent in producing comics; his works and R.A. Kosasih’s works are still available in
bookstores.

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Further development of Wayang Comic

The period of 1950s to 1960s was the golden years of the comic artists who wrote about
wayang. At that time wayang comics were the favourite of a wide audience of readers so
that many publishers and painters were attracted to take on comics. In the early 1960s
comics with martial art theme, superhero of new generation and teen novel started to
appear. Comics with this theme started to dominate in 1960s to 1970s. The market for
wayang comics decreased as the result of the comics of martial art genre.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, foreign comics translated into Indonesian language
started to dominate the market. Indonesian comics were not easy to find in big stores. This
situation lasted until 1997; in 1978 the Maranatha publisher made efforts to reprint the
wayang comics by old painters like R.A. Kosasih and Oerip S., both in the form of re-
drawing of the same stories and the old works which were reprinted. These Maranatha’s
wayang comics, despite the different condition of that in the 1970s, they survived the
bookshelves in main book stores and special comic kiosks up to now. In 1983, the Misurind
publisher published series of Ramayana comics by Jan Mintaraga and Mahabharata by
Teguh Santosa, but, unfortunately, the publication wasn’t a success story. They stopped the
series because in terms of marketing these series weren’t profitable. In 1994 Jan Mintaraga
launched a title of wayang comic, Rama Sinta Legenda Masa Depan ‘Rama Sinta the Future
Legend’ which was a work of collaboration with Dufan Ancol. This entertainment park also
built a pavilion using the same design and concept as the comic.

“Concept Art” of Wayang Comic

When transforming the drawings of characters, property and setting into visual forms, a
comic artist has to deeply study the verbal text from the story. The basic of the comic
creation is what is called the Concept Art. This term is used to refer to a designed picture,
which serves as the guidance for the creation of characters, property and setting of a story
starting from the concept to the visual design. Concept Art, which constitutes of visual
design aspects serves as the guidance when a story is adapted to various media like comic,
animation, film or video game. All those media along with the plot, story and scenes will
constitute a universe of the story. In this article’s context, the universe is the universe of
pewayangan ‘the wayang world’.

The late RA Kosasih, the late S. Ardisoma and the late Oerip S. are three leading figures in
Indonesian comics among many other comic artists who paved the way for working on
comics in the early 1950s. They obviously didn’t use the term Concept Art when they
worked, they didn’t consciously go through the process of designing characters, setting and
property, but they actually had done that stage despite the fact that it wasn’t documented
in one design drawing. They did it directly when they drew the comic panels.

Those three pioneers had different style in drawing and storytelling. R.A. Kosasih, widely
known after creating the wayang comic of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Along with the
Melodi publisher, he worked on the Ramayana and Mahabharata comics in 1956 with the
orientation to the Indian texts published by Balai Pustaka at that time. Different from R.A.

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Kosasih who still worked on the initial draft, S. Ardisoma did his comic using wayang story
from the subtheme stories often used by the puppet masters. His work that is so close to
the heart of his fans is Wayang Purwa, which tells the origin of the punakawan , the gods in
Java and their offspring who were the kings in the universe of wayang, followed by the story
of Arjuna Sasrabahu. Oerip S, just like S. Ardisoma, did many comics based on subtheme
stories. Oerip S used to work with a writer who is also a puppet master named Moech. A.
Affandie. The works of Oerip S, which are popular, are Arjuna Sasrabahu and Gatotkaca
Sewu. Those three artists have enjoyed their success in 1950s until 1960s.

The setting in wayang comic, in general, contains of interior and building design. The plot of
the wayang story centres at the palace. On that account, the type of building dominating
the comic pages is the palace. The drawing of palace and its interior by the artists remind us
to the palaces found in West Java (Cirebon) and Central Java (Surakarta), Hinduism-
Buddhism temples in Java, Bali’s temples and mosque.

Picture 7. Some traditional architectures in Java that might be the inspirations for early
Wayang Comic artists.

In terms of costume, the design style appears to be so influenced by the style of the
costume drawing (including gelung ‘wayang hairstyle’) from the puppet of the performing
arts. R.A. Kosasih revealed that his idea about the wayang figures in comics was influenced
by the figures in wayang orang (actors) of the West Java. He said that when he was young
he often watched Sundanese wayang performance and also the characters of the wooden
marionettes. He preserved the form of gelung1, which was the gelung Supit Urang because

1 Some kind of javanese traditional hair bun

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this is the special feature of the wayang in general and especially it can become the figure of
a wayang character. This form of gelung in wayang comic is finally seen as a crown. R.A.
Kosasih also had simplified the complex ornaments existing in the accessories and clothes
of the wayang characters.

Picture 8. Gelung (traditional hairstyle) that became crown in RA Kosasih design.

Furthermore, wayang comic is still being published, both as reprint or new works. There are
wayang comics of Teguh Santosa and Jan Mintaraga in 1983, which had given new breath in
the world of comics in Indonesia. They both worked on wayang comics in coloured format
and different design. They also had published comics based on futuristic concept art.

Other than that, I also want to say that there has yet any wayang comic works between the
years of 1980s to 2000s that showed innovation in terms of visual design. Only in 2011 there
were two wayang comics that were quite prominent: Bharatayudha by Caravan studio and
Garudayana by Is Yuniarto. Those two comics are worth discussing because their
storytelling approaches can reach younger audience and the design of the characters are
different from their predecessors.

The design concept of R.A. Kosasih

R.A. Kosasih is one of the early comic artists who made wayang comics. He adapted the
design of wooden marionettes and wayang orang in order to create characters and forms of
the characters/figures. A number of points are the considerations in designing characters
and setting in wayang comics are:

a. Preserving the form of specific gelung, which is the form of gelung Supit
Urang. He did this because it’s this form that serves as the specific feature of
wayang in general and it is the characteristic of a certain character. The form of
this gelung in wayang comic finally becomes the shape of a crown.

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b. Simplification of complex accessories used in the wayang design in
performing arts.

c. In adapting costumes it should be based on logics. The costumes in

imagination should be able to support the movement of the characters. For
example, by excluding the badong element as it is considered potential to
disrupt the movement of the characters.

d. In designing the palace form, he referred to the palaces he found in Java

and Bali, for example the Yogyakarta palace, Temples, Bogor Palace and so on.

e. In general R. A. Kosasih wanted his wayang comics to have the image of

Indonesia. For that reason, he always attempted to refer to other forms of arts,
which he considered able to provide and support the image on his comics.

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Picture 9. Character Design of R.A. Kosasih

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Visual Design of S. Ardisoma

1. Ardisoma had a unique style in his design; he drew detailed setting both
buildings and nature. R.A. Kosasih and Oerip S. acknowledged this.

2. The main characters in S. Ardisoma’s characters had slender body. The body
proportion is comparable to diagram of human body proportion change from
wayang orang, a concept offered by Sukasman, a wayang artist who did researches
on leather puppet.

Picture 10. Study in leather puppet proportion to human by Sukasman compared to body
proportion designed by S. Ardisoma

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Picture 11. Drawing of detailed palace in S. Ardisoma’s comics

Visual Design of Oerip S

Like R.A. Kosasih, in designing his wayang comic universe Oerip S revealed that he
referred to the form of wayang, which has already been long in existence. It applies also in
drawing the setting. Palaces and buildings were adapted from the palaces in Java and forms
of temples. However, the design is different.

The characters in Oerip S’s comics possess a body that is proportional both the good
knight/warrior and the lady. The antagonist character of warrior is generally described in
overweight body.

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Picture 12. Anatomical drawing of Oerip S that reminded us of the anatomical drawing of
Burne Hogarth

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Picture 13. Oerip S. preserves the form of praba2 found in the characters in leather puppet.

Character design by Is Yuniarto and Afif Numbo (Caravan Studio)

Wayang comics are still produced until now. Some comics are in the same traditions of style
with the old ones. Some are tried to create new approches in the character designs.
Baratayuda by Caravan studio (Afif Numbo) and Garudayana by Is Yuniarto is two Wayang
Comics serials that published regularly, began in 2009, and still continuing.

The significant influence of the manga style to the character design created by Is Yuniarto is
for fact not to be separated from the manga influences of Dragon Ball Z by Akira Toriyama,
Master Keaton by Naoki Urasawa. While the character design of Afif Numbo in the
Baratayudha comic shows some manga style influence although it’s not significant. Afif
was more influenced by the character of Tim Burton, works of Sean Galloway, Hellboy by
Mike Mignola beside a little influence of manga style coming from the work of Fujiko F.
Fujio’s Doraemon and Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z.

Creative approach used by the two comic artists in designing the characters is the
simplification of the form; this can be seen from the drawing of the wayang attributes in
each character design, the simplification of the characteristic forms in Leather Puppet
Wayang.

Other than the simplification of the forms, the comic artists also use references from the
form of characters from the Japanese and American comics that have influenced them
significantly.

2 praba is part of the costume in wayang characters. It was thought to be a light that come from
the characters body that stylized, become some kind of ornament in the back of the character

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Picture 14. Comparison of the character design of Gatotkatja by Afif Numbo (left) and
Gatotkatja by Is Yuniarto

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Picture 15. Character design of Baratayuda by Afif Numbo

Picture 16. Character design of Garudayana character by Is Yuniarto

Conclusion

“Wayang” is one of the contents that provides special characteristic in the media of story
telling in Indonesia. Due to the complexity of the stories and characters in it, “wayang” has
always been the source of inspiration for the new creations or adaptations. The visual
designer of the characters always uses two foundations in their work, that is, departing
from previous visual media or from the previous comics and they adapt them with the visual
culture which is dominant at that period. Kosasih and his colleagues started from

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performing arts and influenced by visual culture of the Western comics. Caravan design and
Is Yuniarto started from the previous wayang comics by borrowing the visual style of the
Japanese comic and American animation. The process of wayang comic creation as part of
the popular culture cannot be separated from the taste or preference of the public. There is
always an effort to satisfy public taste as extensive as possible, and it can be reached or not
depends largely on how the visualization of wayang comic develops.

References

Achadiati, Y. Zaman Mataram Kuna. Jakarta: Gita Karya, 1988.

Atmowiloto, Arswendo. “Komik itu Baik (1): Komik Wayang Siapa Tak Sayang?” Kompas, 10 Agustus
1979. Page 1, 12.

Bonneff, Marcel. “Sebuah Cermin Ideologi: Cerita Bergambar Indonesia.” Citra Masyarakat
Indonesia. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. 1998.

Bonneff, Marcel. Komik Indonesia. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. 1998.

Budiatnoko, Agus. “Studi tentang R.A. Kosasih dan Karyanya.” Thesis, Faculty of Art and Indonesian
Art Institute. Yogyakarta 1987.

Iryanto, Afif, “Pengaruh Gaya Manga pada karakter komik Garudayana dan Baratayuda 2009 – 2010”
Thesis, Faculty of Art and Design, Jakarta Institute of the Arts, 2010

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics, New York: Harper Prennial, 1994

Mulyono, Ir. Sri. Wayang, Asual-usul, Filsafat dan Masa Depannya. Jakarta: Gunung Agung, 1978.

Soedarsono. Wayang Wong, the State Ritual Dance Drama in the Court of Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta:
Gadjah Mada University Press, 1990

Sudjiman, Dr. Panuti. Memahami Cerita Rekaan. Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya, 1988

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