| This year’s Philippine Book Festival has made changes, and not only the venue, but the way the floor plan is getting used to. The last day was bustling with last-minute activities, book sales, and something you’d expect in a book expo or anything that a large event would do during its last few minutes before everyone had packed their stuff and dismantled their booth.
Heading to the venue, my initial thoughts were just to pick up the preview comic book of Tablay and just go as planned. I didn’t expect that the author and artist would still be there. I’ve been supportive of Komiket from afar and have been to their last event in February. But this was just too good to see both Kat Olan and Paul Medalla. |
It’s been a month since having picked the Tablay novel at Komiket, and I haven’t read the book with so much stuff piled up to catch up on everything.
But I did get to browse the pages and was optimistic about diving into the world of Tablay when I found the time to catch fire as I looked at the browse pages of the preview comic book there’s a potential as I’ve spoken to Paolo Herras last month that he did tease it’s going to be a six-part series that will be compiled in an omnibus as echoed by the author herself, Kat Olan.
It was a wild last-minute moment getting to know the creators while the speakers blasted loudly from the main activities happening on stage. I can’t barely hear Kat Olan as I asked some questions about her influences in putting the novel together.
But I get to hear that she researched more about the atrocities of World War II, and she ran with that as part of the concept of what the future would be if the Philippines had the technology to even have robots in their arsenal.
For Paul Medalla, the short conversation on his designs and where he gets his inspiration from was pretty much I’d say as a fan of robots. He knew about the 8th MS Team and it was one of my favourite Gundam series.
It was a casual chat with the up-and-coming creators and it was just great meeting them in person finally, especially Kat who wrote the novel that most people slept on it. But the preview coming titled “Phase 00” is getting some word of mouth, which hopefully would have its fans.
There’s a bright future with this book, and Kat Olan is beaming with pride while she cradles the mech that the main character is piloting in this book. I get to check the pages and they are well-drawn by Paul, he is certainly the right guy to compliment Kat’s writing in translating the characters into comic book form.
In case you haven’t heard of Tablay, check out the novel and pick up the preview comic book “Phase 00” which is now available at Secret HQ. For more of Tablay, you can follow through social media via Facebook and Instagram!
The Philippine Book Festival happened from 13 to 16 March 2025 at the Megatrade Hall 2 & 3 in 3SM Megamall and entrance is free. All you need is to register online to secure a QR code to gain entrance to this event. You may follow the National Book Development Board (NBDB) on their social media via Facebook and Instagram!
