APPRECIATING CERGAM THE INDONESIA’S COMICS AS MEDIUM OF HISTORICAL EVENT THROUGH FICTIONAL STORYTELLING

Abstract

This article discusses some trending style in later Indonesian comic book publication, which provides a nostalgic nuance through its illustration by using only black and white drawing technique. The story itself is fiction, yet it brings back the sense of a historical event on the past. For the sake of discussion on Indonesia comics, so called Cerita Gambar (cergam), on how the picture stories of Indonesian comics restored a sense of nostalgia colored by the background of historical event as we can read in the two titles that are being studied here in this article, titled Katumbiri Regenboog (2022) authored and illustrated by Yaya Riyadin, and Karimata 1890 (2019) authored and illustrated by Toni Masdiono. This study argued that the art from the point of view of formal, artistic and aesthetic appreciation on historical background which is nuanced the fictional story of cheerful images by those two cergamis can be a form of reservation of the past brought back to the current popular medium such as Cergam, the Indonesian comics. The carefully chosen of printed media and illustration techniques carried by both illustrators enliven the artistic and cultural value to fictional stories with a historical nuance. This made suggestion if a comic is inspired or based upon a historical event, even if the story is fiction, yet it can instill memories of those historical events itself. With such eloquence of the visual language of comics drawing, it is achievable to make it preserved the historical moment that still anchored to its objective realities however fictional it was made.