| Comic Book signings have been the norm when a local comic shop organizes a signing event it promotes the artist, the book he/she is currently working on at the same time promoting the comic shop that hosted it. But back in the day, there was no such thing as a comic book signing until the original Filbar’s had one and brought in an artist who did a book for Marvel.
That guy was Whilce Portacio, and it was sometime between December 1991 that he came to visit the country for the first time to spend and reconnect with relatives in Manila. The rising career of Whilce Portacio at that time he was doing work for Uncanny X-Men starting with issue 281 as part of the X-Genesis launch of X-Titles. |
It was the peak of the 1990s for Marvel with X-Men since the same year they launched a new series simply titled “X-Men” with a brand new issue no. 1 with Chris Claremont with some guy named Jim Lee. But Uncanny-X-Men was a gold standard because it was the original title that also introduced the Gold Team.
In that particular run that featured Whilce Portacio’s art, he also introduced a character he co-created and made a full appearance in the following issue with Bishop’s first appearance before joining the team. This was a great time to be a fan of the X-Men, and Whilce brought him back home to Manila in the 1990s, which was one of the first signing events Filbar’s organized in January 1992. I met him at the former Filbar’s branch located just at the back of the National Bookstore in the former Harrison Plaza with a friend.
I saw him again at the newly opened brand in the old Glorietta One when he judged the winning “Make Your Superhero” contest that discovered the late Nick Manabat who would create Cybernary for Image Comics.
The next signing he did was for the series “Stone” that he and Brian Haberlin co-created in 1997 for Avalon Studios while he opened a school in Quezon City that produced talents like Gerry Alanguilan, Ed Tadeo, Leinil Yu, Jay Anacleto, and Gilbert Monsanto that became 55 Balette Studio, which also had their reunion during Supermanila before Gerry’s passing two months later in December 2019.
The first signing event for Comic Odyssey at the old Robinsons' Manila branch that launched “Stone” to local mainstream. It would take a long time before Whilce returned to the country in January 2014 where he also did a limited one-day art class. This was the time I just come back from a Holiday trip in Adelaide and the signing was held at the former Comic Odyssey brand inside Fullbooked in Promenade Mall.
Long story short, the fourth of January of this year is a full-circle moment that Whilce is back in Manila. On the same date, he did have a signing event a decade ago since he spent the holidays in December in Manila. This time, the signing event was held across the store at the Robinsons Co-Event Space. I wasn’t as early as I thought I’d be but I had the chance to have copies of his recent work signed. It was far more organized as Comic Odyssey staff assigned a ticket number and how many issues were allowed to be signed by Whilce.
It was good to see him and get to chat a bit about his recent works and what he can share about his next projects. I was hoping that a Stone compilation would be available as the original books were out of print and the compiled graphic novel was released through crowdfunding during the height of the pandemic and there’s no way I would have access to that. It was sort of nostalgia personally for me since I’ve seen Whilce during his visits, but never got to chat with him since his last one in 2014.
After the signing event, those who were issued with tickets got the chance to win something for the raffle. It was a smooth signing event compared to the last one a decade ago, which was crowded. This one was laid back because they issued numbers you get to be called and how many items you are allowed to have signed by the artist.
Hopefully, this will not take Whice another decade to have a signing event with Comic Odyssey. Many thanks to Sandy, Rowena, and the staff some of them I’ve known from the early days. After all the fanfare Whilce leaves a sketch at the store’s Plexiglas at the checkout counter and that was about it.
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