Raden Ahmad Kosasih, 1919-2012

The Indonesian comics writer Raden Ahmad Kosasih, who worked as R.A. Kosasih during a long career that saw him take an honored place as the perceived father of that region's comics culture, died on July 24. He was 93 years old. The cause of death was a sudden heart attack. The creator died at home.

The writer was born in the city of Bogor, West Java, in 1919.

Kosasih worked in several genres over the long span of his career. This included kids books, romances, books featuring stories made popular by Indonesian wooden puppets called wayang golek and comics whose stories were derived from the Mahabharata and Ramayana sanskrit epics. He was a fan of English-language comic books, and transfered much of what he saw there into his work for Indonesian audiences. This included the creation of Sri Asih and Siti Gahara, foundational Indonesian superheroes. His first work with those characters was published in 1953. Sri Asih, the better-known of the pair, was based in part on Wonder Woman and in part on Superman, following a trend of capitalizing on the popularity of American comics in newspapers and what few comic books might make it to that part of the word. Along with the comics of John Lo also published by Melodie, Kosasih's superheroes were among the first Indonesia comics in comic book form. That Sri Asih was Indonesian made her a focal point for growing regional pride.

Although the respect Kosasih was afforded was in large part due to his creations at a key point in the development of that region's comics, as a working creator he was arguably better regarded for his black and white work than for the color comics to which he contributed. Those comics explored local and regional writing in a way that put aspects of Indonesian culture first, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, a path blazed first by the wayang golek practitioners.

Kosasih retired in 1993 with at least enough money earned to have purchased a home. That same decade saw a revival of interest in his early works, with two publishers coming out with new volumes.

Kosasih is survived by a daughter, a son-in-law and one grandchild. He was buried on July 25 in South Jakarta.
 
posted 5:05 am PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives