Ghosty and Me

Remember my post on the Four Notions, which I said was popular among my fellow local fans perhaps in part through a local web comic? Well, that web comic has a few Pokémon connections as well. I read it every so often for some entertainment, and I feel even more entertained when Pokémon is referred to in it, which does happen every once in a while. I'm happy to also have some personal ties to the web comic in addition to Pokémon ties.

The web comic is called GHOSTY's COMIC, and the author is Raden Fajar Hadria Putra, commonly called by others as Fajar. Its stories are primarily told in Indonesian, though Japanese and English sometimes creep in. The comic's tagline actually references one of the Four Notions, the one for "splurge"; as such, most of the stories of the comic deals with daily occurrences that happen to those who deal with the Four Notions, though occasionally the comic will also refer to sudden, viral happenings. The art style is simplistic - all the characters look like humanoid blobs - but their different personalities still give readers a sense of what's happening. Color is also a relatively new addition; in the past, the comics were purely black and white. New comics can be seen on Facebook and LINE's WebToon.

As I've mentioned, the comic has a few Pokémon connections. The games and characters are sometimes referred to in the comic, though not with the actual names. In fact, the monsters are referred to as the English names of the monster plus the suffix "-dut". So Pikachu becomes "Pikadut", Charmander becomes "Charmandut", and Zygarde becomes "Zygardut", as examples. The last one particularly sticks in my mind for its reference, being referred to as an imagined action figure for the Complete Forme. Those who are fans of the Pokémon series and read the comics often start to refer to the monsters in this way. Along with all the other references, this makes for a humorous read.

Not surprisingly, the author himself is also a major Pokémon fan. I've talked to him online, and he says he started the same way I did, from the original Game Boy games. He also knows a lot about many aspects of the franchise, evidenced by getting a high score in a trivia challenge about Pokémon. All of these I find quite respectable as a fellow major Pokémon fan. I had the opportunity to meet him last year for a particular Japanese event, and it was a special one:

Yup, I cosplayed in that event as well. We interacted at the event mostly through the Pokémon feature of the event. He's such a warm guy to meet and it's totally my pleasure to have been able to meet him as a fellow Pokémon fan.

May the bonds of Pokémon stay within our hearts and may we be able meet again at other events. Oh (and though I do not expect this to happen all the time), may we "keep splurging (erring) and eat soy sauce and rice" as written on the T-shirt above. 😀