Komik Strip Digital Instagram sebagai Ilustrasi Kota: Dokumentasi dan Fiksi Visual

Abstract

Digital comic strips on Instagram have emerged as a significant medium of urban expression in Indonesia. This study examines the visual aesthetics and drawing styles of three prominent Instagram digital comic strip accounts—Tahilalats, Jukihoki, and Masdimboy—as forms of urban illustration situated between documentation of urban reality and the construction of visual fiction. Employing a qualitative-comparative approach within a visual semiotics and digital comics framework, this research analyzes how these three comic artists construct representations of the city through strip panels published on the Instagram platform. Tahilalats presents urban satire through comedic distortion and documented exaggeration; Jukihoki builds emotional mapping of the city through visual metaphors and urban generational anxiety; while Masdimboy renders suburban nostalgia through an affective urbanism approach. Comparative analysis reveals that Indonesian digital comic strips do not merely document the city, but actively construct a collective imagination of urban space through distinctive visual language. This study contributes to understanding the role of digital comics in contemporary urban illustration discourse in Indonesia.