Marriage Comic

'About us: Puguh & Sisca'

 I couldn't believe I've lost this comic's master file! All of my hard work, references photos, interview transcripts, doodles, first sketches for more than 5 months went missing. But fortunately I could still download the high resolution renders from our correspondence letters, so I can show it off to people, haha!

A friend of mine was married at October, 2014. He asked me somewhere in April, 2014, to make pages of comic about his and her life before their marriage. I agreed and apparently, I had splendid adventures, trailing the couple's whereabouts some years before with my bike for references. I also had myself visited some places in Yogyakarta that I had never been before.

I broke the script - of which they were willingly and gladly provided - down into 6 parts, each consists of 3 coloured pages. I sent them each part's a draft then proceeded to colorings before continued to the next part. That way, I could easily focused on each story, what I was going to do with it.

I decided to put different colour tone for each part, to enhance the mood of each story, and I think one of the best part is the third (page 7-9) one. The idea of the part is the couple's struggle to earn their relationship, although distance had them separated. One of the only ways to communicate was the short-message-service (SMS or texts). It was just digits and letters, but apparently shorten the couple's distance. One of their meetings was a place called 'Ullen Sentalu', a private museum that took place at near-top of Kaliurang Hill.

I once biked there. It was chilly, 15 km steep and long road to go, but it paid off. I got the mood and photos for reference. Interestingly, it was raining lightly, quite similar with the time the couple had a trip.

The Lady and The Lepidopterae

My siblings captured two caterpillars and feed them with lemon leaves. They apparently turned into chrysalises and then morphed themselves into two beautiful butterflies. The process took around 3 weeks, from small caterpillars until they were ready to take their new adventures with their splendid-coloured wings.

I really wanted to see how they hatched, but alas, I could never have the privilege for both.

It's odd though, the night before the last chrysalis was hatched, my friend's only child was died. The infant was in their family for around a week. I keep wondering about the feeling of a father or a mother whose infant had only come in to the family in a very short time. In fact, I dare not to.

But I know in some ways, butterflies often serves as some kind of... metaphor for spiritual journeys.

Coincidence? Well...

Karena Ini Adalah Kekawin

Sebenarnya komik ini kubuat untuk mengikuti lomba-entah-apa-namanya Mei lalu. Lupa nama itu lomba, haha. Dan tentu saja engga menang, saya ngga punya bakat untuk memenangkan lomba gambar dalam bentuk apapun, kecuali lomba menyanyi waktu kelas 2 SD dulu :D

Tapi kupikir, tema komik ini sesuai dengan peringatan Hari Guru Nasional hari ini, 25 November 2014. Tahun lalu saya memposting satu halaman tentang asal-muasal dua huruf pertama alfabet ('alpha' dan 'bayt' :D ), tahun ini tentang cerita nusantara dan metafora di balik cerita itu. Bila Kau seorang kutu buku yang gandrung dengan cerita atau dongeng nusantara, kupikir banyak yang bisa digali dari metafora yang tertuang dalamnya, seperti 'Negarakrtagama' dengan cerita diskusi para binatang hutan yang tempat tinggalnya dibakar oleh seorang raja :D ...

I made this comic and had this enlisted into a contest last May. I forgot its name, because I didn't win it. Apparently I don't have some kind of gift to win any drawing contests, except a singing contest about twenty years ago, haha...

I think this comic's theme fits the celebration of National Teacher's Day today, November, 25th. Indonesian teachers should be proud of this celebration and I think they're struggling their best to build better education for Indonesian children.

Last year, I posted about the origin of first-two-letters-of-alphabet ('alpha' and 'bayt'). This year is about our national tales and its metaphor. If you were a book reader or a book worm who has a keen eye for Indonesian fairy tales; kakahwin, if you will; I think there are a lot of things we can dig out from them. Negarakrtagama is one of them, with its story about the tale of animals, whose forest was being burnt out by a so-called rightful king of the realm that day.

Does it ring a bell to you?

PS: the language is in Indonesian

Inktober Part 4

The 4th part consists of less steampunk theme and more fable combined with modern warfare environment.

Enjoy.

Inktober Part 3

Yes, yes. These are today's batch. The third one.

Enjoy :)

Ngomik 24 Jam

October, 24th was the Hijriyah's new year's eve. Uh, nope. It was the day when thirty-something members of Forum Komik Jogja gathered and celebrated a day of comic-making at Jogja Digital Valley. Adapted from 24 Hours Comic Day, it encouraged all of participants to finish 12 pages minimum of comic-pages in 24 hours.
Well, though it was 'only' 12-pages-challenge, there were some participants who couldn't finish their job in time. Shame on you, guys LOL ... please, just kidding.

These pages are in Indonesian. Enjoy!