Malate | A Slice of Life & Relationships

Malate is a place in the City of Manila, where the stories of two people meet-up and through 54 pages of black and white images the narrative features the district part that mirrors the real world written and drawn by Andrew Villar, which was originally published in 2017. This was an original concept that put his artistry to new heights and put a spin on how “slice of Life” stories are told. Andrew was known before for being a cartoonist who created the “Ambush” series published as a comic strip on Manila Bulletin newspaper. The character named Ambush was inspired from Lara Croft of Tomb Raider and features some characters from Star Wars notably the Stormtroopers. For a while that was Andrew’s work in the local self-publishing industry in the Philippines until he put out Malate, which is entirely different from what he used to publish in the local scene.

Tid Bits | A Collection of Good Vibes

02.28.2019 – Independent self-published comicbooks fly below the radar that only few readers will come appreciate an original idea or mostly thematically a slice of life theme related to either the author or inspired from other people’s stories that they shared. Some may be thought provoking while others gravitate to how deep it is produced to capture a cult following. There are more of these interesting stories that are out there that you may not know of, but are quite fascinating to merit a feature such as George Rex’s Tid Bits. It’s originally an auto bio about the author and some loosely based from her ideas that she self-published through the help of her Patreon followers funding the product of the said book. George Rex is just a pen name for Georgina Chadderton who is an artist based in Adelaide South Australia along with her partner Owen Heitmann. Both talented artists are into comicbooks and had promote their artistry through their workshop that they organize every third Monday of the month called “Comics with Friends and Strangers” which I had the opportunity to attend these art gatherings held at the Box Factory.

P*CHA, E `Di Komiks | Pinoy Culture in a Nutshell

01.31.2019 – Filipino Komiks have so many stories to tell from Supernatural Folklore to localized inspirations from Japanese Manga to Western Comics namely the Superhero genre that has been the most interesting part of why most people connect and get into this medium. But one sign that most of these things connect to is the slice of life and what mirrors reality from everyday life. You’ve probably read more material from this because it relates to the greater populace in the Philippines how the culture from social media that satirizes that’s been happening before and now. Toto Madayag’s “P*CHA, E `Di Komiks” is more than just a graphic novel that would encompass all that’s happening in this country through social media. In general, it’s something worth noting how everything mirrors reality and most people who got to read this book won’t even realize it until it hits them. From subtle political commentaries that most people try to avoid from to simple dad jokes that are sublime, that gravitates how Madayag was ahead of the curve to think this small idea that he started posting on social media would become a word of mouth that some creators would find inspiration from.

Takeout | Harsh Death & Killings

12.13.2018 – Independent comics or ‘indie comics’ has grown to be a popular medium to express their thoughts, personal life, and, their artistic desires to share a good story. Comics, in general, is something that can’t be translated in movie or television it has restrictions and also something that can’t be made in another form although limited it has something that is unique when it's about storytelling. With “Takeout” the meaning at first glance the thoughts would be about food that you order in a restaurant to go or in British term that is ‘Take Away.’ But the cover which was designed by interior artist Borg Sinaban gives you a different kind of vibe. Indie Comics has grown to just about a simple slice of life but based on the culture that is happening in the Philippines. Some would express their thoughts that they can’t verbally say instead they show it through the comics they produce away from the mainstream populace that generally see the usual themes. But not like these types of works independently produced by the writer and artists.

Kids at Heart in Mini-Komikon!

05.31.2013 – The month of May has come to an end and I was really swamped with online work not to mention updating blogs that has started to pile up. Reality bites after coming back from a road trip seeing Playa Laiya last Saturday. Too many things to do so little time for someone who just enjoys what he does best which is enjoying the scenery and blogging not to mention an online work. I get to catch up with friends in the local comic book industry who were part of the event for Museo Pambata who held a two day Little Lit Festival.