A “Komiks” Trip

Vincent Kua’s art samples above courtesy of Gerry Alanguilan’s Philippine Comic Art Museum.

I’ve always loved to draw as far back as I can remember. My mom even told me that as a toddler, I messed up most of the house walls and curtain with a big, bad, black marker. That will hardly qualify for art but I guess it was a start. However, my earliest memories of my own “respectable” attempts at art date back to maybe 24 or 25 years ago. I remembered sitting on my bed with a small blackboard on my lap drawing a chalk figure of an angel and demon in a fight to the death. I believe my inspiration came from the Komiks that my father used to bring home everyday. Komiks is the filipinized version of the word “comics” and basically presents much of the same content as its western counterparts: outlandish stories, fantastic superheroes and long, meandering storylines. The last frame of most komiks stories end with the phrase “itutuloy” or “durugtungan” which means “to be continued”. These installments can last anywhere from a few months to a few years but people really took it as a legitimate past time. Before the rise of the telenovelas and internet video gaming in the 90s, almost everyone I knew read Komiks. Suffice to say, reading Komiks is as much a part of the Filipino psyche and culture as fishball (a filipino street food) and the jeepney (the most common means of transport hereabouts).

Im not a big fan of reading back then, (Heck, I can’t even read at 4 years old) I just stared at the drawings and boy, how I loved the artworks there. My dad used to bring home a lot of Komiks. Sometimes two or three at a time. I still vividly remember most of their titles: Weekdays normally mean a mother lode of Pinoy Klasiks, Pinoy Komiks, Aliwan, Holiday ( which is a horror komiks inspite of the cheery title), Pioneer, True Ghost Stories, and of course Funny Komiks which Dad usually brings home on Saturdays. If my memory serves me right, the only Sunday Komiks back then was Hiwaga Komiks.

A lot of popular Filipino movies have their roots in Komiks whose popularity steadily grew right after the 2nd World War. Some of the classic komiks characters back then were Kenkoy, Kalabog and Bosyo, Palos and of course, the immortal Panday which catapulted the late King of Filipino Movies, Fernando Poe Jr. to meteoric heights of popularity. The success of Panday allowed the franchise to have its own cartoon version, movie series and TV series keeping the name alive over almost 30 years.

Before shifting into antiques restoration, my father dabbled briefly in Komiks illustration as well. His idol back then was Steve Gan and Francisco Coching, the dean of Philippine Comics Illustrators. Most of these names won’t ring a bell to the younger generations but these people along with other prominent illustrators like Hal Santiago, Nestor Redondo, Vincent Kua, Larry Alcala, Jim Fernandez, etc. were the finest examples of native talent in the fine art of Komiks illustration during their time. I became so enamored to their work that I can tell who’s the illustrator of a specific story merely by looking at their artistic styles.

Sadly, some good things never last.

With the rising cost of paper and ink, and the rise of other diversions, the Filipino Komiks lost its mass appeal and most artists found themselves looking for greener pastures abroad. Some became very successful in foreign soil, like Lan Medina who did some of the Aria, Fables and The Punisher: MAX comic book illustrations. Lately, other Pinoy/Fil Am artists based here and abroad have been making waves in the international comic book scene. Names like Whilce Portacio, Wilson Tortosa, Gerry Alanguilan, etc. have become bywords by virtue of their exceptional talent and world-renowned mastery of the nuances of the craft. With great advances in digital art production and software, even budding illustrators today can create great artwork with a stunning degree of detail and realism but it simply cannot be denied that we owe everything to the ones that came before and blazed the trail when the world was not looking.

As for me, I never made made any serious attempt to become a comic book artist. The closest thing to that would be the one comic event I attended in my whole life. With a couple of free tickets given by a friend, I went to Glasshouse Studio’s comic workshop in Megamall with my sister ( back in 2002 if I’m not mistaken ), my precious comic book studies safely tucked inside a clear book. After the event, I joined the beeline to Glasshouse honcho David Campiti’s makeshift office inside the Megatrade Hall where a bevy of aspiring and professional artist showed their opuses in hopes of landing a stint in the international comics scene. I gave David a glimpse of my art, which was promptly rejected on the basis of “not establishing a clear point of view on the opening frames.” Waaah!

I learned something new that day: being able to draw anatomically correct human figures does not a comic book artist make. I never lost heart though. I lied low for a while after I made a career shift from creative work (I was then working as a copywriter/graphic artist for an ad agency) to outsourcing aka “call sener” but I never lost my passion for art in all its forms and permutations. Even while employed as a call center agent, I made use of whatever resources were available in the office to sate my hunger for self expression. The result was a series of crude mouse-drawn MS Paint drawings I’ve collected over the years. Here’s some of them:

titie: Old Silver

Title: Nameless Girl

Title: Landscape

Title: Self portrait kuno

Title: Pisces

Title: Still Life in Red