Issues of the Urban Youth in Aca & Ica: Collected Stories by Ula Zuhra
The issues urban youth face amidst the hustle and bustle of city life are boldly depicted through Ula Zuhra’s illustrations in the comic book Aca & Ica: Collected Stories, published by Cahyati Press. The book follows the daily lives of Aca and Ica, who live in Jakarta. There are 20 stories that touch on various topics related to the experiences of women as well as young people in general in big cities, such as day-to-day body horror, consumerism, hedonism, social politics, classism, stereotypes, gender roles, female friendship dynamics, broader political issues, sexual violence, bodily autonomy, and sexism—all the social issues we encounter today in our daily lives. Aca & Ica: Collected Stories also carries a coming-of-age nuance filled with the winding paths of self-discovery. Ula Zuhra emphasizes that rather than stopping at the transition from childhood to adulthood, the coming-of-age story remains relevant as humans continue to grow. “I decided to write stories about two women in their late twenties. From my experience, that’s the age filled with turbulence and awareness of societal pressures to grow up and conform. On the other hand, there is also a desire to be free, hedonistic, and young forever. Moreover, these characters live in Jakarta,” Ula explained to Grafis Masa Kini.
In Ula's view, what is depicted in her book is a reflection of the reality she lives in—the trap of consumerism in which we are all entangled. In a big city like Jakarta, where success seems bleak, people look for ways to divert their attention from reality through various means: consuming culture, media, and a hedonistic lifestyle that has been glorified and normalized as a character trait—following Westernization and globalization in the internet era. Ula sees herself as a victim of this system, just like everyone else. In addition to depicting reality, the stories and illustrations that Ula Zuhra creates are also her way of poking fun at herself.
“I have to include a quote from Valerie Solanas: ‘Absorbing 'culture' is a desperate, frantic attempt to groove in an ungroovy world, to escape the horror of a sterile, mindless existence’,” Ula said, then explained the stories she created. In the book Aca & Ica: Collected Stories, as readers, we witness Aca and Ica and their friends act arrogantly and proudly with cultural consumption that most people do not know about; wearing band t-shirts, quoting films, or decorating their rooms with posters of various media that they believe reflect their identities. “This trait has become a form of currency in modern social settings; when in reality, it is just another distraction through media consumption,” Ula continued. As Solanas said, these actions are an attempt to be cool in an uncool world and will slowly crumble—a way to survive in a burning civilization.
It took Ula a year to create and bring Aca and Ica’s stories to life. Every step in the process sparked Ula's gratitude for meeting colleagues from Cahyati Press who made this book a reality. “Initially, I was fortunate to be close friends with Katy and Avi from Cahyati Press, who last year received a grant from It’s Nice That to build a community printer,” Ula recalled. Explaining the publisher's vision, Ula said that Cahyati Press aims to publish works that are rarely highlighted by other local publishers. Seeing the independent publishing team dominated by women, Ula felt it was important for female artists and creatives to collaborate. “When I proposed the idea of the Aca & Ica comic, they liked the narrative. In our first project, we released Aca & Ica: Pesta Keramat, a limited single-release comic zine launched at the Jakarta Art Book Fair 2023 as a Halloween special edition. This was the second story I wrote in the Aca & Ica universe,” Ula shared.
Aca and Ica were born from Ula's imagination when she was invited to join a comic compilation by a Yogyakarta collective, Barasub. Knowing the compilation's music theme, Ula imagined two young women in Jakarta attending an experimental music gig in a residential complex. From there, Aca and Ica became vehicles for Ula to tell stories and express opinions. Aca and Ica's presence was sparked by Ula's wild imagination and overthinking habit, which led her to pour her daily fantasies into visual narratives. Many of Aca and Ica's stories were born as Ula rode her motorcycle, enjoying Jakarta's atmosphere. These characters gradually took shape as Ula wrote their stories. “But by default, they are two modern young single women from the middle class living in Jakarta (specifically South Jakarta). I wanted to create familiarity with the stereotype of today's youth: someone knowledgeable about subculture and media, stylish, opinionated, and very online. I write bilingually because everyone around me nowadays speaks a mixed language,” Ula explained further about her characters. In the writing process, Ula gradually formed distinctive characteristics between the two, allowing for a clearer narrative. The writing process involved Ula constantly switching roles between Aca, Ica, their friends, and her imagination about their social dynamics.
Ula's creative process in visualizing this story was quite chaotic and unstructured. Comic panels were made at her whim, and the storyline and dialogue formed spontaneously. All illustrations were hand-drawn because it felt most natural to Ula. "The book is also set in a non-linear timeline, so it’s more of a collection of stories that jump from one situation to another. It becomes kind of a puzzle and it kind of reflects my work process," she explained. This approach reflects Ula's fluid and dynamic working process. According to Ula, one amusing aspect of the creative process was creating a horoscope chart. “I used to be really into astrology when I was younger, so I based some of the actions of the characters based on their imaginary chart and their background.” Visually, Ula designed different clothing styles for each character: Ica wears hair clips and has long hair usually braided, while Aca wears glasses and typically dons band t-shirts or movie merchandise. For supporting characters, it was important for Ula to give each one distinctive traits that set them apart, like her favorite character, Intan, who was designed to be mysterious or mystical.
The character design process flowed with the story's development. As the plot's conflicts rose and fell, these characters grew. This character development played a significant role in her illustrations. In creating her illustrative style, Ula learned from her favorite comic artists like Simon Hanselmann, Ebony Flowers, Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, and Aline Kominsky-Crumb. She was also heavily inspired by underground feminist comix that emerged in America from the 70s to the 90s, particularly the Wimmen’s Comix collective.
Ula Zuhra's works as an illustrator often voice resistance against the social positioning of women, including in Aca & Ica: Collected Stories, where Ula tries to place the female perspective as the highest hierarchy in the story writing and visual design. “It's important for me to discuss topics like gender roles, sexuality, sexual trauma, and bodily autonomy in this book because these topics are prominent in my daily life and my friends’,” Ula emphasized. Discussing these topics comes naturally to Ula because, for her, being a woman is the most crucial aspect of her identity. From a young age, Ula always admired subversive women who had the courage to voice their opinions. “Women often deemed ‘wild’ or ‘eccentric’ by society. Women who, in the Victorian era, might be considered hysterical and then lobotomized, when in reality, they were just doing what any man would do; their only ‘crime’ was being born female. Therefore, it was inevitable that I would create stories with such characters—women who are unapologetic because there’s nothing to apologize for,” Ula elaborated.
Besides the positioning of women, sexuality is also a significant theme Ula emphasizes in this comic book. Hence, the most important aspect of Ula Zuhra’s storytelling is making it far from a male gaze. “My biggest pet peeve is when a woman creates work about sexuality and it is viewed through the lens of objectification.” In Aca & Ica: Collected Stories, Ula Zuhra openly and loudly celebrates female sexuality and its taboos: vaginal discharge and its smell, free bleeding, abortion, trauma from sexual violence, and the existentialism related to womanhood in this capitalist era. “I felt the need to emphasize and vocalize that no one should find any aspect of the female experience embarrassing or shameful. Having rage and disappointment as a woman towards the society around you is a natural and entirely warranted experience,” Ula explained.
The creation process of the comic book Aca & Ica: Collected Stories also taught Ula Zuhra many lessons about self-awareness and priorities. “It could be said that Aca and Ica have been my teachers over the past year, and there have been many discussions between the three of us in my head about how each character, including me as the writer, would handle the various situations in this book,” Ula revealed. Throughout the comic book's journey, Ula became increasingly aware of the toxic, sexist, and patriarchal dynamics around her. By writing about these issues and pouring them into comic form, Ula conveys criticism with a reflection of reality—fulfilling the role of critique through visual art in social and cultural life.
