Comicamp 2 is an annual event presented by HDR Comic Café and Japanese Pop Culture Event Organizer  Japan Culture Daisuki. The second iteration was held at Mall Dinoyo City rooftop, Malang, from 29 to 30 April 2017. Similar to the first iteration last year, Comicamp 2 presented many local creators from Indonesia and introduced them to Malang’s public. Various performers, guest creators, and guest cosplayers also enliven the event with their appearance.
In the first day, this event is quite crowded, even though the rainy weather caused some disrupting noises. But the first day still went nicely, with some of the guest creators sharing their experiences on the stage, including Akhmad Fadly and Papang Jakfar
The first guest creator was Akhmad Fadly, a comic artist from a local comic circle named Perakit Komik Malang, and also the comic artist of Dewa Ruci. One of the tips he shared in his session was about creating a story core before drawing a comic. He explained that to create a story core, a comic artist have to create a simple premise that only consists of a single sentence. From that premise, then a comic artist build conflicts for main character so the man character could solve that problem until he can reach his destination.
To support this theory, he gave Naruto as an example. In Naruto, the premise is simple: Naruto wants to become a Hokage. From this simple premise however, Masashi Kishimoto created many problems for Naruto, from being rejected by society in his childhood, betrayed by his close friends, and involved in a great war against vicious enemy. From those problems, Kishimoto was able wrote about 700 chapters of manga until Naruto finally reached his dream to become a Hokage.
The second guest creator was Papang Jakfar, the winner of Malang City Official Mascot Creator Competition, which resulted in his creations, OSI and JIÂ were selected to be the official mascots of Malang City. He shared his creative process when he first created the mascots. OSI is a lion with mane of leaves, while JI is a streaked weaver bird (Ploceus manyar) wearing the scarf of Indonesian Scout organisation.
The third creator on stage was one of the creators of Roh Garuda (Spirit of Garuda) comic, Widi. Roh Garuda is a comic about five characters that are inspired by the five symbols in Indonesia’s Coat of Arms, Garuda Pancasila. He created this comic with his friend, Ricky, for a character design competition. They actually lost the competition, but they didn’t give up and developed those characters into their own IP. Right now they are still developing Roh Garuda as a comic in webtoon challenge, but their aim is to create an animated feature. One of the key point in becoming a creator for them, is to never be afraid to create your own work. It’s okay to create a bad work in the first time. But what matters is to express the idea into form and develop it, just like they did with their works.
Some guest performers also make turned up the visitors’ enthusiasm. JAV Guitar, an acoustic guitar music group, entertained visitors with their soothing live guitar concert. Visitors calmly enjoyed their performance and gave them applause. The Star Captain and FIBeats dance cover groups, however, entertained visitors with their energetic dance group, leading to some lively chanting from enthusiastic visitors.
In this same day, HD’R Comic Cafe also released their own boardgame. Visitors can try this boardgame that day in their booth.
On the other side of the event near the entrance, two guest cosplayers, DD Tenka (Singapore) and Onnies (Thailand), were selling their merchandise. They also opened signing and photo session with visitors who bought their merchandise or having VIP tickets.
The first day finally ended with the anisong remix performance from DJ Zennith.
To be continued on the next page
