Eduactional Comic

Education through comic had existed since long time ago. Education comic means a comic that can give certain lesson to reader through media of comic. The lessons which are inserted in the comic are various such as physics, chemistry, social, mathematics, and so on. These comics are made to make even complicated lesson can become easier to understand because according to William Materson “…pictures tell any stories more effectively than words.”(qtd. In “Strength of Comics in Education” 3). Archy dan Meidi is one of educational comic. A comic which teaches basic physic in form of daily life story. It is just one example of educational comic. Further, new subject should be included in comic so, the comic not only will teach conventional lesson in class but also morale and so on.

Comic has more than one definitions. Comic can be referred to comedian but what we are talking about is comic book. Will Eisner define comic book as “the printed arrangement of art and balloons in sequence, particularly in comic books."(qtd in. comics, 2010). R.C Harvey also offers a definition of comic which is "... comics consist of pictorial narratives or expositions in which words (often lettered into the picture area within speech balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures and vice versa." (qtd in. comics, 2010). Whatever it is , a comic clearly should have picture and balloon text to make reader understand what the picture is “doing” actually.

Masashi Kisimoto created a comic called Naruto. A fantasy comic which takes ninja world as its background. In General, this comic takes reader to the life of ninja. Spells, Ninja Moves, Super Villain, as its main attraction to readers. Naruto is brave, anti injustice, helpful and friendly. These traits indirectly makes the reader at least make him as good example. This comic has no intention to make it as education comic. but the morale of the story is a good lesson to learn.

There are also a lot of comics that are fully intended for education and giving education. The best example here is Archi and Meidy Comic. Yohanes Surya is one of famous physic professor in Indonesia. He has idea to make learning physic in simple way and easy to understand. He choose comic as media to makes his idea comes in reality. The comic focuses on Archi and Meidy, ordinary children who love physic so much.  Every chapter in this story tells every day physic case and its solution. Of course the solution is in picture so we don’t have to imagine anything. This idea is greeted well by education world in Indonesia. The comic uses Japanese style or called manga, cute characters, etc. by reading this comic, at least people will understand that giving education not only can by attending the class, but also through media that most people like. I definitely agree in this comic, the content is easy to understand to those who can’t understand physic. Unfortunately, this comic is made in Indonesian language foreign language maybe have to learn Indonesian language first to understand this book

There is also one kind of comic genre, its called criticism comic. This comic mainly criticizes something or someone. Benny and Mice is good example, Benny Rachmadi and Muhammad Misrad (the Creators) use comic strip style in the comic. The comic strip is simply a sequence of cartoons that unite to tell a story. Comic strip doesn’t need too many panels or picture, 4 until 8 picture is enough and the messages is clearly delivered. Back to Benny and Mice, most of the stories in the comic criticize Jakarta and all of its elements. In my opinion, Benny and Mice educates people through critics and they actually want to open readers mind that most of anything that people do every day is not good and not appropriate but we still do the same “not good things” and “not appropriate things”. Again, this comic is not presented in English language. Moreover the jokes or satire in this comic would not be understood by foreign people because only Indonesian that understands what this comic means.

Last, Herge create a comic named the adventure of tintin. Tintin is a reporter from Belgium. In every book, he always do his journey to solve the mysteries with his friends : Captain Haddock who always make literally nice curses, an absent minded professor, Professor Lakmus, the twin detective dupont and dupond, and his cute Dog, Mulo. In every book, tintin always in different country including Indonesia. From this, reader can learn the surrounding where tintin are, outfit, culture, and so on. I remember when I first knew that a ship which wave yellow flag means ship with infected passenger by disease. It was told in one of tintin book. Definitely, this is one of good example. The element of education is not so strong. Its true because this comic is to entertain actually.

After analyzing comics above, a conclusion has been made. Considering the rarity of culture themed comic, the idea of making educational comic about cross culture understanding will be a fresh idea. The comic will be designed like a comic in general. It will be more than 20 pages. This comic should be in English so foreigners can read this book too. The comic will have story line and the education about cross culture understanding will be inserted in the story itself. Education of cross understanding will not be delivered directly but through example that the characters have done. In other words, this comic is not lecturing reader, but the reader should take conclusion from the story of the comic. The story will take some nations such as Indonesia, English, Australia, Japan (still in consideration). Hopefully, this comic not only will give education, but also entertainment and information that commoners don’t know.