di bawah ini adalah foto2 contoh halaman komik Wiro (fotokopian) yg saya dapat dari Toko Buku Anjaya beberapa waktu yang lalu.

ini artikel dari sitenya Edwin Hendra Kusuma :

My new friend Erwin Prima’s works made quite an impression to me that I decided to make another review of another Indonesian comic book artist. Have you ever heard the name Kwik Ing Hoo? Many of you might not remember the name, and I wouldn’t blame you; even many of my own generation might not remember him. I did remember him for one sole reason: the comic he created, Wiro, Anak Rimba Indonesia.

I was only 3 years old when I had a copy of this comic, couldn’t read anything yet, but I enjoyed the comic just the same. A friend of mine once argued that this is not a real comic, merely a novel with too many pictures (no dialog balloon). See the sample page and you’ll know why. I disagree, though. It is a comic, and it is a great old one.

Starting with a brief preface, followed by a depiction of world’ major news paper headlines about Wiro, and also lines of people going to watch the Wiro movie (presumably a documentary made by Dr. Watson; you’d know about him if you read the whole story), this comic gives the impression that it was based on true story. I found it neat. I found it brilliant. Simple and direct, but brilliant just the same.

Wiro was just an average boy, with great love of animals and comic books. His favorite comic is, of course, Tarzan. These, and other events, led him to run away from home and live his life in the jungle, accompanied by his pet monkey, Kala. He later moved to the jungle of Sumatra where he met and befriended a tiger, an orangutan and an elephant. It is also here in this jungle he met Dr. Watson and his niece (I forgot her name). Wiro saved them from a tribe of (presumably) cannibals. This led to various adventures all across the Indonesian archipelago, with a final adventure in Papua. Here Wiro lost all of his animal friends one by one, including Kala, in a fight against a force of Japanese troops (left behind after the war) who terrorized the local tribes.

Quite a story, I should say, considering that the comic was created in the 1960s. Some may argue that it’s a Tarzan rip-off, and though I think Wiro is a good story in its own right, there is some truth in this argument.

Despite Kwik’s excellent drawing, I found some disturbing pictures. First, it’s too Holywood. See the Tarzan movies in the era of Johnny Weissmuller and Lex Barker, you’ll understand why. The Indonesian jungle folks were mostly pictured as hostile people (a trait common in most Tarzan movies). The orangutans looked more like an over-sized chimpanzees. The Papuan looked African, and so did their clothing. One of the most disturbing things is: there were pictures of a rhino in the Papua adventure!! In later edition the rhino was replaced by a wild bull. In a hope to make more sense, I suspect, but it remained as wrong as the first version. Both are not Papuan native animals, as most of us are already aware of.

These flaws aside, it was a great comic, and it still is. When I heard that Kwik was a painter, I came to understand why the pictures were above average. Maybe some of the old Tarzan movies influenced his drawing of the people and animal (and even landscape), but the great drawings more than made up for this. About the rhino and wild bull, well, maybe he only drew what Liem Djoen Lin (the writer) wrote. No-no-no, I'm not blaming Liem either. I simply think that they should do some research first. They made a great comic, but it could’ve been better.

A piece of childhood memory, now. Back in those days of the early 1970s, having a Wiro comic book is a quite a status symbol among the kids on street where I lived. When I finally had the whole series before the other kids did, I became a local celebrity. But that’s not the top reason for me to like Wiro. I love the comic because it was my first introduction to this great country’s natural potentials. Reading the book, my greatest dream is to explore the country; a dream that began to come true only after I was in my late twenties.

For this dream I thank you, Kwik Ing Hoo and Liem Djoen Lin!!

(artikel asli bisa dilihat di : http://edwinlives4ever.multiply.com/journal/item/12/Wiro_yet_another_old_comic )