Indonesian Comics: Zig-Zagging Between Indigenousness and Transnationalism

Abstract

That in the 1970s a genre published by Maranatha in Bandung bore the name “HC Andersen” (named after the Danish author of fairytales, Hans Christian Andersen) indicated the existence of transnationalism relative to the Indonesian comics scene. That in the 1980s, because of foreign comics popularity, Indonesian comics “wallow[ed] in the dust of neglect, " and to be distributed, had to be hidden within the pages of translated Western imports, exemplified, partially, at least, the colonial mentality of readers.