Trio Hantu Cs: A Comic and Animation Series Adaptations of Indonesian Ghost Stories Upik Sarjiati *1 , Ayu Nova Lissandhi 2 1 Research Center for Area Studies, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (P2W-LIPI), Jakarta, Indonesia 2 Research Center for Area Studies, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (P2W-LIPI), Jakarta, Indonesia * Corresponding author. Email: upik.sarjiati@gmail.com ABSTRACT Since 2015, the Government of Indonesia through Badan Ekonomi Kreatif (Bekraf) has developed creative economy seriously. Animation is one of the sectors of the creative industries which have developed significantly in Indonesia. Unique characters and interesting narrative are essential element which made animation succeed. Legends, myths, and folklore existed in various ethnic groups in many regions are inspiring creators to produce comics and animation movies. This article aims to analyze how the ghost stories as urban legends are adapted into the comics and animation series “Trio Hantu Cs”, and how the creator reinterpreted the stories. The method used in this research is qualitative research approach. data were collected by interviewing the creator of “Trio Hantu Cs” and, observing the animation series and also the comics. The ghosts are described as the creature who living in the different world to the human world, but they do not interrupt the human life. The animation series which are distributed through YouTube channel and social media successfully attracted many viewers as well as its comics. The research result indicates that the scary ghost stories are adapted into comic and animation movie by reinterpreting the story and the characters and to suit the current modern society. This case indicates how the Indonesian folklore and urban legends has successfully adapted into comic and animation movie in the digital age. Keywords: Ghost story, Urban legend, Adaptation, Comic, Animation, Creative economy 1. INTRODUCTION Creative economy is the one of the priorities programs of the Indonesia economy development. Indonesian animation industry started in the 1950s when President Soekarno through PPFN assigned Dukut Hendronoto alias Pak Ook to Walt Disney office to learn how to make animation film. With simple tool, Pak Ook made the first Indonesian 2D animated film Si Doel Memilih (Si Doel Vote) aimed to election education. In the 1970s Pak Ook created five minutes length-animated film Kayak Beruang (Like Bear). In addition, Drs Suryadi who is also known as Pak Raden produced animated film Batu Setahun, Trondolo, and Timun Mas (The Gold Cucumber). The national state broadcasting station, TVRI (Television of Republic of Indonesia), aired the first Indonesian commercial animation video in 1974. The 2D animation was produced by GM. Shidharta and Faiz Sunyoto under Studio Anima Indah, Jakarta Pusat by using BIC pencil [1]. Numerous Indonesian animation movies have been produced in different form such as short movie, animation television series, cinema, and YouTube series. The animations illustrate the everyday life children and their family such as Nusa Rara, Diva the Series, Adit Sopo Jarwo and Petualangan Si Unyil. Animation movie Battle of Surabaya produced by MSV Pictures in 2005 inspired the war between Indonesian and British forces after Indonesian declared independence in 1945. Another Indonesian animated film Knight Kris (2017) brings a kid adventure story and some of the characters are adapted from wayang figures. Indonesian comic industry is older than animation. In 1931 comic strip Put On created by Kho Wan Gie published in Sin Po newspaper and it is known as the first Indonesian comic. Character Put On was popular because wittily and clumsy. In 1950s comic book released by Melodi Publisher in Bandung which also published Sri Asih Comic created by comic legend RA Kosasih. Indonesian comic was booming in 1970s-1980s when many local superhero characters sprung up as main theme such as Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala the Thunderman). However, in 1990s-2000s Indonesian comic industry was declining since Japanese comic or manga widely circulated in Indonesia. Manga that bring various themes was more attracted many comic readers rather than Indonesian comic that mostly adopted local hero and Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 512 Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Folklore, Language, Education and Exhibition (ICOFLEX 2019) Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 128