Pada hari hari Minggu, 8 Maret 2009, Pak Rombeng menemukan segebok dokumen tua yang ternyata isinya adalah kliping Komik yang merupakan harta karun tak ternilai bagi dunia grafis dan sejarah komik.
Beberapa judul komik yang termaktub dalam kliping Majalah Starweekly 1948-1955 tersebut antara lain : Tarzan (ComicStrips)created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, dan Burne Hogarth. Sie Djin Koei (Tjersil) karya Tjeng Tang dan Tjeng See, Tjerita Rama dan Kertanegara karya Soedjiono, Jungle Jim karya Alex Raymond dll. Kondisi kliping tersebut cukup komplit dan kualitas kertas, dan cetakan gambarnya masih terawat dengan baik. Yang menarik dari klipping ini, semua komik menggunakan bahasa Indonesia Ejaan lama.
European Comics
European comics is a generalized terms for comics produced in Continental Europe. Though technically European, British Comics are for historical and cultural reasons considered separate from European comics due to the existence of a well-established domestic market and traditions which more closely resemble the development of American Comics.
Though many purely European comic books exist, the comic album is a very common printed medium. The typical album is printed in large format, generally with high quality paper and colouring, roughly A4-sized, approx. 22x29 cm (8.4x11.6 in), has around 40-60 pages, but examples with more than 100 pages are common. In Anglo-Saxon terminology these would be called graphic novels, but this term is rarely used in Europe, and is not always applicable as albums often consist of separate short stories, placing them somewhere halfway between a comic book and a graphic novel. The European comic genres vary from the humorous adventure vein (such as Tintin and Asterix), especially in its earliest forms, to more adult subjects.
The roots of European comics can be found as early as 18th century caricatures and later with precursors in the form of illustrated picture books like Wilhelm Busch' Max and Moritz. The early 19th century Swiss artist Rodolphe Töpffer is regarded by many as the "father of the modern comic" and his publication Histoire de M. Vieux Bois is sometimes called the first "comic book". Franco-Belgian comics are historically among the dominant scenes of European comics. It started in Belgium in the 1920s, followed quickly by France. In later years, manga has become successful, and as a consequence many French and German artists are now drawing comics in manga style.
Manga
Manga, literally translated, means "whimsical pictures". The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century with the publication of such works as Santō Kyōden's picturebook "Shiji no yukikai" (1798), and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's "Manga hyakujo" (1814) and the celebrated Hokusai manga containing assorted drawings from the sketchbook of the famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. The first user of the word "manga" as its modern usage is Rakuten Kitazawa.
Historians and writers on manga history have described two broad and complementary processes shaping modern manga. Their views differ in the relative importance they attribute to the role of cultural and historical events following World War II versus the role of pre-War, Meiji, and pre-Meiji Japanese culture and art.
The first view emphasizes events occurring during and after the U.S occupation of Japan (1945–1952), and stresses that manga was strongly shaped by U.S. cultural influences, including U.S. comics brought to Japan by the GIs and by images and themes from U.S. television, film, and cartoons (especially Disney). Alternately, other writers such as Frederik L. Schodt, Kinko Ito, and Adam L. Kern stress continuity of Japanese cultural and aesthetic traditions as central to the history of manga.
"I FELL ON MY KNEES AND THANKED GOD"
When the 1914 -1918 war broke out, a war described by Field-Marshall Lord Allenby as 'a lengthy period of general insanity', Hitler, believing the war would set everything to right expressed himself thus:
For me it was a deliverance. I am not ashamed to say it today: I fell on my knees and thanked God.
Ordinarily Hitler need not have been destined for the armed forces as for many years he had been afflicted with tuberculosis. However on 5 February 1914, months before war broke out and there being any necessity for him to take up arms in defence of his country the twenty-five year old Adolf Hitler applied for military service and was turned away as 'Unfit for the army or auxiliary corps. Too weak. Rejected.'
Passionate as always about the unification of German blood spanning the artificial state of Austria, the landlord of his Munich lodgings, Herr Popp, recalled the small plaque posted over his young lodger's bed. It read 'Freely with open heart we are waiting for you/Full of hope and ready for action/We are expecting you with joy/Great German Fatherland, we salute you'.
THE UNKNOWN STUDENT
Here he lived in perfect obscurity, happy to spend his none labouring hours absorbed in studying, reading, composing poetry, and of course sketching, drawing and painting. The address was 34 Schleissheimerstrasse and one of the interesting quirks of history is that at number 106 lived the equally unknown (and unknown to each other) Ilyitch Ulyanov (Lenin).
Doing everything in his power to overturn this rejection, on 3 August 1914 Adolf Hitler sent a personal letter to the King of Bavaria begging him to be allowed to enlist as a volunteer. His plea was accepted and he joined the 6th battalion of the 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment.
On 20 October 1914, during the German advance on France and confrontation with the equally belligerent 2,000,000 strong British army of the empire, Hitler in a letter to Frau Popp his landlady confessed:
I find it hard to contain my enthusiasm. How many times have I wished to test my strength and prove my national faith!
FOUR YEARS ON FRONTLINE STRUGGLE
For four long years Hitler fought along the frontline trenches of the Western Front's most furiously contested battlefronts. These apocalyptic conflicts included the names of places still renowned for their valour and sheer scale of lives lost. All grace the colours of many a regiment. Yser, Ypres, Flanders, Neuve Chapelle, La Bassee, Arras, Artuis, Somme, Fromelles, Alsace Lorraine, Aillette, Montdidier, Soissons, Rheims, Oise, Marne, Champagne, Vosle, Monchy, Bapaume.
During those terrible years the future leader of the German people displayed exemplary courage in a conflict that involved more than forty battles. He was wounded on 5 October 1916 and hospitalised for two months. Then he was back at the front until 15 October 1918 when he was hospitalised again, this time for gas poisoning.
Throughout the course of the war he was cited for valour and distinguished conduct in the field. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class on 2 December 1914. He was also awarded the Bavarian Military Medal 3rd class with bar, and later the Iron Cross 1st class. He received, as did all wounded soldiers, the Cross of Military Merit.
"A MODEL OF COOLNESS AND COURAGE"
Lieutenant Colonel Godin, in his official request that Hitler be awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class, stated:
He was a model of coolness and courage in both trench warfare and assault combat. He was always ready to volunteer for carrying messages in the most difficult and dangerous situations.
On awarding this recognition Colonel Anton Tubeuf further stated:
He was always ready to help out in any situation, always volunteered for the most difficult and most arduous, and the most dangerous missions, and to risk his life and well-being for the Fatherland. On a human level, I felt closer to him than to any of the other men.
Of him World War One veteran Colonel Spatny, then in command of the 16th Regiment, was equally affirmative:
Hitler inspired all his comrades. His fearless courage and devotion to duty, particularly in combat impressed them. His qualifications, modesty, and his admirable sobriety earned him the greatest respect of his comrades and superiors alike.
Werner Maser, former head of the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Munich, has written a large neutral biography called Hitler, Legend, Myth and Reality (Harper and Row, 1971). The objective record is clear:
Hitler's wartime record - campaigns, decorations, wounds, periods in hospital and on leave, is fully documented. In addition there is evidence to show that he was comradely, level headed and an unusually brave soldier, and that a number of his commanding officers singled him out for special mention.
And in 1922, at a time when Hitler was still unknown, General Friedrich Petz summarised the High Command's appreciation of the gallant and self-effacing corporal as follows:
Hitler was quick in mind and body and had great powers of endurance. His most remarkable qualities were his personal courage and daring which enabled him to face any combat or perilous situation whatsoever.
Even those historians least favourably disposed towards Adolf Hitler, such as Joachim Fest, conceded that
Hitler was a courageous and efficient soldier and was always a good comrade.
The same historian noted:
The courage and the composure with which he faced the most deadly fire made him seem invulnerable to his comrades. As long as Hitler is near us, nothing will happen to us, they kept repeating. It appears that made a deep impression on Hitler and reinforced his belief that he had been charged with a special mission.
John Toland, another respected but hardly revisionist historian wrote:
In the course of the preceding months he had escaped death on innumerable occasions. It was as though he had been wearing a good luck charm.
THE NEAR CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH PREMIER
The noted French historian, Raymond Cartier ruefully mused that
Corporal Hitler was in all probability one of the German soldiers who got closest to Paris in 1918.
In another of history's ironies Adolf Hitler was one of a patrol that nearly captured the French Premier Clemenceau, but that is another story.
The times that Hitler cheated death became a legend that has baffled historians ever since. Typically in one corner of conflict the troops of List Regiment were held down in shell craters, the trenches having already been destroyed, among the ruins of a village called Le Barque. Of the nine regimental couriers seven had just been killed. In the command post, such as it was, there were ten officers and two couriers. Suddenly a British bomb exploded at the entrance to the refuge. There was just one survivor, Adolf Hitler.
During his years at the front, as many pictures testify, Adolf Hitler far from being a loner was very comradely. Ever his own man his daily routines were characterized by civility. He never was known for embracing trench crudities or brothel humour, and was generous to a fault. Yet despite having a personality that usually draws disdain the soldier Adolf Hitler was highly respected by his comrades.
THE TIRELESS SOCIALIST
Even Sebastian Haffner, a Jewish writer and fanatical Hitler hater, was forced to admit Hitler had a fierce courage unmatched by anyone at the time or since. Another Jew by the name of Karl Hanisch, who shared lodgings with Hitler, recalled him as a pleasant and likeable man who took an interest in the welfare of all his companions. He later recalled that his fellow lodger
was neither proud nor arrogant, and he was always available and willing to help. If someone needed fifty Hellers to pay for another night's lodging, Hitler would always give whatever he had in his pocket without another thought. On several occasions I personally saw him take the initiative and pass the hat for such a collection.
Hitler's war heroism is a matter of record and it was only when he entered politics, in a bid to stem his rising popularity, that is was ever questioned. Typically however detractors were forced to recant and pay damages. Historians have noted that Adolf Hitler was born poor and died poor. In fact he was the only statesman who never had a bank account.
Master Serapis wrote to Henry S. Olcott about The Theosophist:
"Assert your rights to the paper - it was established for you, none but you two have a right over it.....Whenever convenient explain that the paper is neither yours nor H.P.B.'s but belongs to and is under the control of certain persons no one knows anything about except your two selves...."
Master Koot Hoomi on The Theosophist:
"...Whatever the personal views of the two Founders, the journal of the Society has nothing to do with them, and will publish as willingly criticism directed against Lamaism as against Christianism....The Theosophist making room as willingly for hymns on the Lamb as for slokas on the sacredness of the cow....M[orya] thinks that the Supplement ought to be enlarged if necessary, and made to furnish room for the expression of thought of every Branch, however diametrically opposed these may be. The Theosophist ought to be made to assume a distinct colour and become a unique specimen of its own. We are ready to furnish the necessary extra sums for it."
Master K.H. on The Theosophist:
"And who knows, how many of those, who, undismayed by its unprepossessing appearance, the hideous intricacies of its style, and the other many failures of the unpopular magazine will keep on tearing its pages, who may find themselves rewarded some day for their perseverance! Illuminated sentences may gleam out upon them at some time or other, shedding a bright light upon some old puzzling problems."
