Page 99 falls at a transitional point in my dissertation. Up to this point, I focus primarily on the historical and political conditions that shaped contemporary debates about Islam, religious tolerance, and extremism in post-Suharto Indonesia. On page 99, the discussion shifts from these broader contexts toward the institutions and publishing practices involved in producing Islamic-themed comics. This page begins by situating these comics within the Indonesian publishing industry, while later sections move more directly into the artists, editors, publishers, and religious commitments that shape how Islamic values are communicated through popular media.
In this sense, page 99 captures an important aspect of the dissertation, even if it is not fully representative of the project as a whole. One of my central arguments is that Islamic-themed comics do not emerge in isolation. They are products of particular social relationships, institutional priorities, political concerns, and religious values. Understanding how these comics communicate messages about tolerance, extremism, and Muslim identity requires attention not only to what appears on the page but also to the processes through which these works are imagined, created, circulated, and consumed.
The dissertation examines how print and digital comics have become a medium through which Indonesian Muslim comic artists and their audiences engage ongoing debates about Islam, identity, tolerance, and belonging in contemporary Indonesia. While the broader landscape of Islamic-themed comics includes state-sponsored projects and mainstream Islamic publishers, my project focuses especially on independent Muslim artists working within or alongside online Islamic comic communities. These artists use comics as dakwah, or as an invitation to engage Islamic teachings and values. Their work addresses questions of piety, tolerance, religious authority, and extremism.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and visual and textual analysis, I examine how comic artists use humor, narrative, and familiar religious symbols to make complex moral and political issues accessible to young readers. If page 99 reveals something about the dissertation, it is the importance of looking beyond the finished comic. The project is ultimately concerned with the social worlds that produce these media and how popular culture becomes a site where religion, identity, and national belonging are actively negotiated in contemporary Indonesia.
