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[av_heading heading=’Filipino ‘komiks’ began with Rizal’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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Sunday, March 4, 2018
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IF TODAY’S Filipino teenagers do not miss komiks – Tagalog for illustrated comic magazines – it’s because they have never known what it is. But how could we “young once” not miss it when it used to be the stuff that filled our leisure time?
A typical komiks in bygone times contained short stories, serialized novels, entertainment columns and comedy strips that showcased the collaborative talents of writers and illustrators. Each frame had caption, illustration and words or thoughts of characters.
The gradual loss of readership – no thanks to the accessibility of audio-visual entertainment on TV and the Internet – has caused the demise of the komiks industry.
I was one of those “losers” – what with my entertainment columns finding no more venues. But since hope springs eternal, who knows? Komiks could spring a comeback, as in Japan where each complete illustrated story called “manga” sells like hotcakes.
Little do we know that it was our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, who wrote and drew in 1885 the first illustrated Filipino fable, The Monkey ang the Turtle, where the weak and slow turtle outwitted the stronger monkey over possession of a banana tree.
As a money-making industry, the mainstream komiks kicked off much later, in the 1920s, when Liwayway magazine began publishing the satirical comic strips of Tony Velasquez, Mga Kabalbalan ni Kenkoy.
Kenkoy was a very popular komiks character during my childhood years in the 1950s. So was Mars Ravelo’s Bondying, a grown-up who behaved and dressed like a baby.
The 1960s saw the emergence of other prolific komiks novelists like Nestor Redondo and Francisco V. Coching. While Redondo and Coching both wrote and illustrated their masterpieces, Mars Ravelo had to assign the illustrations to Redondo or someone else. But this handicap was a blessing in disguise that gave him time to maximize output of serialized novels for the weekly comic magazines. Moreover, his komiks characters like Darna, Dyesebel. Bondying, Captain Barbell and Lastikman leaped to life in the movies, too.
While in high school, I would spare thirty centavos a week for a copy of my favorite Espesyal Komiks. I cried when, for unannounced reason, Espesyal stopped publishing.
There were also Pinoy illustrators who broke into the American comics industry in the 1970s. I can still recall some of them: Tony DeZuniga, Alfredo Alcala, Mar Amongo, Ernie Chan, Alex Niño, Nestor Redondo, and Gerry Talaoc.
I had the good fortune of winning the friendship of the late Rico Bello Omagap, komiks editor and novelist who, like Ravelo, also sold novels to movie companies. He assigned me to write sequence treatments for his movie scripts.
Knowing that I was an entertainment reporter and ghost writer of a gossip columnist, Omagap also assigned me a weekly entertainment column for two komiks of El Dorado Publications.
The 1970s also saw the phenomenal rise of novelist-Illustrator Jim Fernandez, creator of the comic/movie character Zuma. He mixed business with pleasure by drawing komiks frames between pin throws in a bowling drome.
Filipino newspapers and magazines in English rode on the bandwagon, with at least a page of cartoon strips per issue. The late illustrator Larry Alcala excelled in that medium.
By the turn of the century, unfortunately, circulation of komiks magazines had diminished. One by one they gave up.
Today, komiks magazines no longer show up in the newsstands. What has become of the komiks-dependent writers and ilustrators?
In a recent coffee break with Ilonggo novelist-illustrator Art Gerochi, now a septuagenarian, he affirmed: “I still earn a living painting people, places and events on canvas and on murals.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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