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Feb

14

Autobiographical Comics in the Philippines

Filed Under Comics Artists, Filipino Artists, My Art, My Comics, Philippine Comics | 8 Comments

Autobiographical comics, or diary comics, is probably the one remaining genre of comics that have yet to be explored fully in Philippine comics. It is a genre virtually unheard of in the old industry, and it is a genre that very few modern day creators have tried.

Is it because Filipinos don’t really want to talk about themselves but rather create fictional stories to share? One critique I heard about my “Crest Hut Butt Shop” was that “Who would want to buy comics about YOU?” Who indeed? And yet Crest Hut has sold, and it’s a title that people often ask I return back to. The popularity of blogs and more recently Twitter and Facebook in the Philippines pretty much blows apart the notion that Filipinos don’t want to talk about themselves. They do! And more often than not, they do so with impunity.


From Crest Hut Butt Shop, 1997

I honestly think that it’s something I would like to see more in Philippine comics. In the US, they’re probably sick of comics like that as every indie artist and his uncle do nothing but autobiographical comics. More popular examples of it there are “Pedro and Me” by Judd Winick, “American Splendour” by Harvey Pekar, “Schizo” by Ivan Brunetti, “Peepshow” by Joe Matt, “I Saw It!” by Keiji Nakazawa, “Yummy Fur” by Chester Brown, “American Elf” by James Kochalka, “Alec” by Eddie Campbell, and even the famous “Maus” by Art Spiegelman. One of my personal favorites are the comics of Carrie McNinch, who created “Assassin and The Whiner” as well as her current one diary strip a day mini comic “You Can’t Get There From Here”. Carrie’s work is what inspired me to start up my own Crest Hut Butt Shop in 1997.


From “Eugene“, Crest Hut Butt Shop Online, 2007

Jonas Diego released “A Girl’s Story” in 2005, in response to the plight of his ex-girlfriend, a story that’s was published both as a mini comic and online. It eventually became one of Jonas’ most popular comics stories, putting him on the radar for the first time.

Hazel Manzano released a 5 page story called “First Love” in Komikero Komiks Anthology #5 just the past week, and immediately upon reading it, I was impressed by the unflinching and unapologetic honesty of it, hallmarks of what I think are good autobiographical comics. My own Crest Hut Butt Shop suffers in that I was not completely honest in my earliest strips. I tended to exaggerate the humor in an effort to make the story funnier, but in the process I lost a little bit of credibility in my telling. I tried to rectify it with a more honest retelling of my everyday life in the 2007 online version of the title.


From “First Love”, Komikero Komiks Anthology #5, 2010 by Hazel Manzano.

Hopefully, Hazel’s “First Love”, a story in which she tells of her first sexual experience, would be the start of more autobiographical comics.

Curiously enough, the three of us tackled the subject of sex in our first forays into the genre. Even more curious, the subject of sex is something I could never readily talk about in person. If you come up to me at a con to talk about my Crest Hut sex stories, I probably couldn’t say anything. I’d be too embarrassed to.

But I can easily write about it without batting an eyelash in a comic book.

If you are Filipino comic book creator here in the Philippines, and you have created autobiographical comics, please let me know and I will buy a copy from you. If you plan to release a title in this genre at an upcoming comics convention, perhaps Renaissance this Sunday or Komikon in April and October, please let me know and I’ll visit your booth. If you have an online strip in this genre, give me a link and I’ll check it out.

I truly am interested in reading it if you create comics of this type. I find that the honesty of such things very appealing and interesting.

Comments

8 Responses to “Autobiographical Comics in the Philippines”

  1. Teddy on February 14th, 2010 11:00 pm

    I think one thing that hinders younger comic creators from making autobiographical pieces is that they might lack actual life experience to put down on their comic.
    12 year olds might have a harder time to make autobios, but it gets easier as we grow older. Problem is, by the time they are older, there are a lot more excuses to not do comics anymore, much less autobio ones.

    My friend and I are somewhat trying that genre out a bit, although for our first project,”Work in Progress” we’ve decided to keep it semi-autobiographical -basing our characters from a mixture of personal experiences and stories of our friends.
    If we can keep our momentum going, and once we get our comics legs, we hope to move on to more personal stories in the future.

  2. Ed on February 15th, 2010 9:32 am

    Hmmm. Tanong ko lang, yung online komiks ko na “Sa Pagitan ng Dalawang Kulay” considered ba yun na AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL na komiks kahit iniba-iba ko mga pangalan pero sakto sa aking talambuhay? :D

  3. Gerry Alanguilan on February 15th, 2010 9:35 am

    Sa tingin ko autobiographical parin yun Ed!

  4. Josel on February 15th, 2010 5:19 pm

    Yung bagong Windmills po,kinokontinue yung full on autobigraphical slant ng Windmills Bear Bong, ilalabas ko na sa Summer Komikon. :D

  5. AJ Bernardo on February 16th, 2010 11:27 am

    Honestly, I consider Crest Hut as the best of all your works. Sure Wasted was KINDA autobiographical, but where else can you see “JACK OFF!” used [or at least lettered] as a sound effect?

  6. Gerry Alanguilan on February 16th, 2010 9:54 pm

    Ha! ha! Kinda proud of Crest Hut, AJ. It will make a huge comeback sometime in the future!

  7. Lito Atienza on March 1st, 2010 2:56 pm

    Comics before is one of the filipino favorite to read. Thanks also to Carlo J. because of his creation, some comic stories are now brought to television.

  8. Gerry Alanguilan on March 1st, 2010 3:10 pm

    The truth is Mr. Atienza, decades before Carlo Caparas, comics stories were already being translated to TV and motion pictures. As early as the late 40′s, the comics stories of Clodualdo Del Mundo and Francisco V. Coching were already being shown on the big screen. They were followed by Pablo Gomez and Mars Ravelo in the 50′s, whose numerous comics stories are still being made into TV today (Darna, Flash Bomba, Dyesebel, Tiny Ton,y Dragonna, Varga, Lastikman, Captain Barbell, Magdusa Ka, Pasan Ko ang Daigdig etc.)

    Carlo Caparas definitely has a place in the history of comics and television, but he is only one among many, not even the first one, and not even the most prominent one.