The DNA of Pinoy komiks
JOSE Rizal was fixated with the Asian story “The Monkey and the Turtle,” which is about how a small turtle outsmarted a big monkey. In fact, he wrote an academic paper in English titled “Two Eastern Fables” on the Japanese and Filipino versions of the story that was published in July 1889 in Truebner’s Record in London. He previously drew 35 sketches of it with Spanish text in the scrapbook of Juan Luna’s wife in 1885. With other illustrated stories such as “The Baptism of R. Pfeiffer at Holy Cross Steinach” and “The Cure of the Bewitched,” Rizal is now widely recognized as the Father of Filipino komiks.
I gave an interview last Thursday night to Jerald Dorado during his Facebook live in the The Powerful Komiksman Podcast page. I said Rizal’s komiks were not published until years after he died; so, the seeds of Philippine comics were planted in the consciousness of the Filipinos much later during the American occupation. Given a certain level of freedom of speech, Filipinos then were inspired by American satirical political cartoons, which criticized the powerful and created them in the pages of Lipang Kalabaw. (Although it has to be noted that there were already satirical magazines in Spanish such as Thé Kon Leche, inspired by té con leche [tea and milk], but it did not spread widely among Filipinos.)
Essays by komiks collector and history writer Dennis Villegas in the book Komiks sa Paninigin ng mga Tagakomiks, edited and compiled by Randy Valiente and Fermin Salvador, roots the beginning of the komiks industry as it turned out to be, to when “Kenkoy” appeared in 1929 as a comic strip in the pages of Liwayway (formerly Photo News), about the everyday life of Filipinos, a lot of it political in content. Its creator Tony Velasquez is hailed as the Father of the Tagalog komiks. He also lays claim to be the first Filipino comic book creator when he compiled the Album ng Kabalbalan ni Kenkoy in 1934. The greatest tribute to or recognition perhaps of Velasquez was that his creation became part of the everyday language of Filipino. For the longest time, we referred to a funny person as “kengkoy,” “nagpapakakengkoy.”
But, saccording to Villegas, if Tony Velasquez is the father of the komiks industry, Liwayway publisher Don Ramon Roces should be “the godfather.” Not only did he assist in the birthing of the industry, he took a risk when he asked Velasquez after the war to start a company with him, Ace Publications, to publish regular komiks magazine such as Pilipino Komiks. For half a century, Roces became the largest comic book publisher in the Philippines. Pinoy Komiks published Mars Ravelo’s classic creations: “Darna,” “Bondying ” and “Dyesebel .” They would soon publish Tagalog Klasiks and Hiwaga Komiks.
In those pages, artists like Francisco Coching (would-be National Artist) captured everyday life and the Filipino identity in stories like “El Indio.” Coching’s depiction of Philippine historical characters, such as “Lapu-lapu,” defined our image and stereotypes of these heroes and events even if they are more for “cinematic effect” such as our macho image of Lapulapu and the one-on-one battle between him and Magellan. True enough, “Lapu-lapu,” “Kenkoy” and a great other number of stories subsequently had film versions.
Eventually, Filipino comic artists became so good that people like Nestor Redondo and Alfredo Alcala made waves in the United States and established the style known internationally as the “Filipino School.”
Ace closed down in 1962 and was renamed Graphic Arts and Services. Inc., which published Kislap Komiks, Pioneer Komiks, Aliwan Komiks, Pinoy Classics and Holiday Komiks, among others. Its competitors were eventually sold to them that they became a monopoly.
Repressive regimes like the Japanese period and Martial Law used komiks as propaganda. Kenkoy was appropriated by the Japanese. Komiks like “The Green Thing” was proliferated by the Marcos regime to promote Green Revolution. Yet, also, komiks people were able to find ways to depict real stories of poverty and difficulties as a form of resistance.
Because resistance, the battle of the weak against the powerful, is in the DNA of Pinoy komiks. Zeus Salazar, Prospero Covar and Agustin Soto, writing about Filipino action films, said the difference between American superheroes and our superheroes is that theirs tend to be cosmopolitan (Batman, Spiderman, Ironman), while ours tend to be poor underdogs (look at Darna, Captain Barbell, Ang Panday), which fulfil our archetype of the ancient “bayani” (hero) as coming from the people and with the people. Our colonial history makes us feel like the underdog, because the battle of the weak and the powerful was also the theme of José Rizal’s “The Monkey and the Turtle,” anyway. It was his favorite story because it can be an allusion to Filipinos battling powerful and cruel colonialists.