Who is Ardian Syaf? Exploring controversies of the Indonesian comic artist

Ardian Syaf is an Indonesian comic artist who has worked for several comic book publications, including DC, Marvel, and Dynamite Entertainment. His initial projects as an artist can be seen in the 11 issues of The Dresden Files by the Dabel Brothers Publishing company.

In 2008, Syaf's work in the graphic novel Welcome To The Jungle was nominated for the Hugo Award. He has worked on numerous comic books to date.

However, the comic book artist was involved in a controversy in 2017 that unfortunately got him fired from his job at Marvel. But this is not the first time he has been involved in a controversy. So, in this post, we'll explore the controversies Syaf has been a part of, throughout his career.

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Exploring the Easter Egg references and the controversies of Ardian Syaf

Ardian Syaf often uses several Easter Eggs revolving around political parties in his artworks. For instance, his work in Batgirl Vol. 4 #9 saw the reference to Joko Widodo, Indonesia's President. However, that reference was covered with a caption, so it did not get the Indonesian comic book artist into trouble. It did get him a lot of appreciation.

Unfortunately, the references he used in the X-Men Gold #1, published on April 5, 2017, couldn't save him from losing his job as an artist in Marvel. Apart from that, he attended a Jakarta rally in 2016 against the former Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.

Syaf's artwork in the X-Men Gold #1 sees "QS 5:51" on a character's shirt and "212" on a building. These references indicate a verse in the Quran that reads, "Muslims should not appoint Jews and Christians as their leader," and 212 indicates the December 2 Jakarta rally. Back then, these controversies became a topic of discussion on social media.

Ardian Syaf revealed that he is not a racist; in fact, he just wanted to include the memories of the 212 rally in his drawings.

When Marvel terminated him, the artist received job proposals from several local and international comic book publishers. However, he didn't join any of them as he wanted to take a break before working on any comic book.

His manager also suggested him sell the Illustrations for a considerable amount, but he didn't give it a shot. Sometime in the future, we might see Illustrations by him in a comic book or graphic novel.