Yogyakarta Komik Weeks at Sonobudoyo Museum

The Yogyakarta Comics Weeks exhibition which was held at Sonobudoyo Museum's Temporary Exhibition Building was an event initiated by the DIY Culture Office in collaboration with comic artists from the Mulyakarya community to hold exhibitions starting on October 8-21, 2019. A total of 60 comics were exhibited in this event.

In its journey, Indonesian comics have a fairly long history. The history of Indonesian comics is active since the era before independence. Whereas at the Yogyakarta Comics Weeks event this time, it deliberately did not carry a specific theme because it had a focus on introducing to the public especially young people or millennial generation about the history of comics in Indonesia.

In this exhibition, also presented works from two important figures of Indonesian comics namely Abdulsalam (1913-1986) and Hasmi (1946-2016) who have the original name Harya Suraminata. One of Abdulsalam's works presented was titled The Story of the Occupation of Jogja. Abdulsalam's work was published in 1952 and became the first comic book in Indonesia. The comic titled The Story of the Occupation of Jogja tells the story of the Dutch Military Aggression that was about to occupy Yogyakarta. The story of the Occupation of Jogja was a kind of visual diary that brought up some real events during the military aggression at that time.

Yogyakarta Weeks Comics exhibition also displays the works of Hasmi (Harya Suraminata). Hasmi is a comic artist known by various groups through his Gundala Putra Petir. Hasmi's work was once staged in theater, ketoprak and even recently was made into a feature film. But in the cast of Yogyakarta Comics Weeks, Hasmi's work presented was not about Gundala Putra Petir, but titled Keris. This was done so that the public would also recognize that Hasmi's work was not only Gundala, but there were other comics.

Yogyakarta Weeks Comics Exhibition presents 60 works. Thirty works from the Kukuruyug #5 comic contest winner organized by the DIY Culture Office. Meanwhile, 30 other works from Yogyakarta comics as well as from outside the region were selected from curation results. One of them is a comic artist's work from the United States.