October 20, 2006

CELEBRATING 120 YEARS OF KOMIKS FROM THE PHILIPPINES I: THE HISTORY OF KOMIKS
Mood:  celebratory
by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

If names like Panday, Angel Ace, Flash Bomba, Lastikman, Darna, and Captain Barbell sound unfamiliar to you, it's because they're comicbook characters from the Philippines.

In celebration of the 120th anniversary of komiks (that's the Filipino term for comics), Newsarama spoke with komikeros (i.e. cartoonists or comic artists) from the island nation in Southeast Asia.

Incidentally, October is also the Filipino-American history month, and 2006 marks the 100th year of Filipino migration to the United States.

Also, the second Philippine Komiks Convention, Komikon 2006, is scheduled for Saturday, October 21st in Quezon City.

Just how big is the komiks industry in the Philippines? According to writer/artist/inker, Gerry Alanguilan, komiks in the Philippines has had a very rich history, tracing its roots way back to the late 1800s when national hero Jose Rizal created what would be the very first Filipino-made comic strip, The Monkey and the Tortoise.

"But it wasn't until 1929 on the pages of Liwayway Magazine that the first regularly published comics character was born: Kenkoy, as created by Tony Velasquez," Alanguilan explained to Newsarama. Liwayway Magazine (which is still being published today) is pretty much where the Philippines comics industry was born when the comics section grew to accommodate more short stories and artists. Liwayway is where artists like Fred Carrillo debuted.

"1946 saw the very first regularly published "comic book" via the short-lived Halakhak, and a year or so later, in 1947, saw the birth of ACE Publications, which debuted several comic books that will see publication for many decades. It is in ACE that artists like Tony DeZuniga, Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala, Alex Ni?o, Rudy Florese, Ernie Chan, and many other Filipino artists familiar to people abroad, began to work.

"It's an astounding body of work. To see what kinds of comics those Filipinos were able to do, I've put up an online museum which you can find at Komikero Museum.

"A lot of these artists eventually found work in American comics at the very end of the 1960s, and it was since then and all throughout the 70s did America finally see a huge treasure trove of artists as yet unknown to the western world." Read more!