28 Responses to “Jose Castro Caluag Art Gallery”

1. Rod Samonte on February 18th, 2008 1:09 am

   Gerry,
   Thanks for including this artist. Not really one of my favorites, but he does bring back memories of the
   Golden Age of Philippine Komiks. He was a mainstay with Ace Publications, mostly if memory serves me right, he would always have a short, finished story or a funny one-pager in any one of the four Ace Komiks. And to his credit, he had his own distinctive, readable, style, easily recognizable as his. Thanks Reynaldo.
   Rod

2. pat on February 18th, 2008 8:58 am

   You could learn a lot just by looking at the way he drew that main character! Love that expression in one of the middle panels.

3. Jose Mari Lee on February 18th, 2008 9:56 am

   Later in his career, Jose Caluag drew mostly horror serials by Rico Bello Omagap for Lagim Komiks and I’d say that their team was a dream team. His work in ESCARLATA, to name one, was wonderful. That was the time when he got rid of the cross-hatchings, and it was revealed how nice the clean lines he had like the way PZ Marcelo, Tenny Henson, and even VIC R. GERONIMO in the 70s did their simple, yet powerful drawings.

   Seeing his work here just brought back memories of my childhood when I used to read komiks. Mind you, I was ostracized by my siblings for I was the only one who read komiks at home. When I wrote and drew for komiks, no one in my family cared. When I became a scriptwriter for film and TV, nobody cared to watch my TV shows, nor the film I got involved in, since again, no one watched tagalog dramas and movies in my family.

   Funny how until now, my propinquity with komiks and scriptwriting are still aflame with fervor, and seeing JC Caluag’s work rather rekindled my passion for drawing. After almost 30 years of not drawing komiks, I might just draw a page or two. Who knows, maybe the love I used to have for the medium I used to be involved with is still there, patiently and quietly aching to come out and be fulfilled once again.

4. auggie on February 18th, 2008 10:02 am

   Rod/JM,

   Not exactly my favorite artist either, but I welcome his artworks. He was more than an adequate artist. Sa LAGIM KOMIKS ng Miranda Publishing ko na lang inabot ang mga obra-maestra niya. Nagtrabaho pala siya sa USIS.

5. Rod Samonte on February 18th, 2008 12:10 pm

   Gerry,
   To digress a bit from the main subject here, I just picked up copies of Stone, The Awakening 1 & 2, Hazard with Roy Allan Martinez, and also, Wolverine #129 illustrated by Yu and Tadeo. Suwerte, as I got them for a song. We were having dinner at Fuddruckers, and I decided to go to this store across the street. They had comics lying on the floor and that’s where I found them. I see the obvious influence of Whilce Portacio on Both Leinil and Roy Allan in this, their early works. There’s also a character in Stone, the Director, who either looks like you, or is it Whilce?
   Rod

6. Gerry Alanguilan on February 18th, 2008 12:42 pm

   Rod, the director is actually Whilce. The name of the character Stone is Gerry Allan, but later it is revealed, when they kill the character off, that his name is really Gerry Alanguilan.

7. Reno on February 18th, 2008 5:39 pm

   JM, that’s the first time I saw someone use “propinquity” in a sentence. :)

   Read Gerry’s journal and expand your vocabulary! hehe.

   Heck, even the comic page above taught me a word I didn’t know… “manggagad.”

8. Jose Mari Lee on February 19th, 2008 12:55 am

   Reno:

   Propinquity? It’s a very common word that people still use all the time. I guess it’s just that younger people use slang instead of the real word. But living in this part of the world, many things have evolved in the English language.

   For example, North Americans don’t even put the distinction in the subjunctive mood of the verb anymore. You know how originally, the tense of the verb changes according to the POSSIBILITY of the situation.

   So if one says something that is not possible to happen, he has to use the PAST form, as in:

   If I WERE a king. (to be king, first, you had to be born a royalty).

   However, if the possibility is there, the present must be used.

   If I WIN the contest. (there is a possibilty)

   Unfortunately, nobody uses that distinction anymore. Everybody mangles the grammar by saying either IF I WAS or just simply IF I WON, or IF I WAS A KING.

   Another really very illogical one is the use of PLURAL after a singular noun. Nowadays nobody would say:

   Someone left HIS wallet on the train

   Now, everybody will say:

   Someone left THEIR wallet on the train.

   But what is so shocking is that this usage was condoned by Mr. LEWIS, the author of BETTER ENGLISH himself.

   He said: “People are now so worried being politically correct, that instead of specifying HIS or HER, THEIR is a much safer word to use. Therefore, yes, it’s now acceptable.”

   O, laban ka diyan?

   So all the lessons our teachers taught us are now just being flushed down the drain:)

   And what about the careless use of A and AN?

   Today, nobody cares. I hear very many people use just A for everything, like: “That’s not a easy thing to do. That would take me at least a hour.”

   O, ma-take mo iyan?

   Napakarami pang mga kabalbalbalan pero mauubos lang ang space dito ni Alanguilan kung sasabihin ko. Lalo naman ang ibang pinoys, bakit laging INFORMATIONS (with S) kung magsulat? INFORMATION is already mass plural like COMMUNICATION, bakit dadagdagan pa ng S? And what about the horrible thing Pinoys would say all the time:
   “He was FIRED OUT”, for “He was Fired.”
   “He got caught OVERSPEEDING!” But SPEEDING is SPEEDING! You can be caught SPEEDING, but what’s the use of the OVER to just make it redundunt?

   And oh, there’s one more thing before I sign off.

   MORE BETTER is just a true killer.
   Didn’t our teachers taught us in elementary school that MUCH BETTER is much better than MORE BETTER? :)

   Ikaw naman kasi Reno, eh, i-nignite mo yung aking wick.

   I am going to IKEA now to buy some pillows.. And, Mr. Samonte, NO, NO, NO. I’m not going to have their 99¢ breakfast. I checked it out the other week. Guess what they have: FRIED EGG, FRIES, CROISSANT, 2 SAUSAGES. All DEADLY stuff.
   But, I must admit that their Fruit platter is amazingly fresh and fantastic. Though I paid $2 for a bowl of Cantaloupe, honey dew, grapes, pineapple. I like the way they add some lemon on it. The tarty taste gives it a zing.

   Oh, BTW Reno: That book about the serial killer where you drew a story? That was lifted almost verbatim from the William Picton case here in the suburbs of Vancouver called PORT COQUITLAM. The RCMP have demolished that pig farm to gather evidences linking the idle millionaire to the deaths of 26 prostitutes :(

   His place was used to be known as THE PALACE, where EVERYBODY welcome to his almost nightly wild parties. A true scumbag.

9. Rod Samonte on February 19th, 2008 3:19 am

   Reno,
   Good point. I had to find my Tagalog dictionary, and the root word Gagad is indeed there, meaning to mimic. That’s the irony of it all. Literary Tagalog writers such as Huseng Batute, Lope Ka Santos, Balagtas and others where hailed as great and were required reading in school. Komiks writers such as Clod del Mundo, Pablo Gomez, Mars Ravelo, Coching, Omagap, etal, were relegated to the role of minor writers and probably even banned from schools. One could not be caught dead reading komiks in school. Yet these so-called minor writers connected with the masses, and were read by more people, young or old, than any of those literary writers. Granted I did learn from those literary writes, but I learned more Tagalog by reading komiks. In the 50′s and 60′s there was no such thing as Taglish, where if you’re at lost for a Tagalog word, just use English. Komiks writers actully wrote excellent Tagalog, and the masa, actually read and learned from them. And I learned from them. I actually wrote and illustrated a novella, using a character similar to Coching’s Pusakal or Ang Maton, when I was in High School, using bond paper, blue-ink ball pen, and copying Coching frame by frame, lettering and using my own words. Hahaha. This was before I went to art school, so I had no idea what anatomy or perspective was, and since I liked Coching so much, I simply patterned a story where I could pull out and copy frames that he illustrated, plus story telling that was similar to Coching’s. Guess what I learned how to write and draw, and that’s when I decide to go to art school for college. Unfortunately that komiks I did with ball point was also destroyed in a flood.
   JM,
   Hahahaha. So you actually tried Ikea. What do you want for 99cents? The coffee is also free up to 10am. But you’re right high cholesterol nga, so I might do it once in a while now. And the fruit plate for $1.59 (price dito) is indeed a bargain especially with the price of honeydew and watermelons sky-high in winter. BTW were you an English teacher?
   Rod

10. Robby Villabona on February 19th, 2008 9:52 am

    JM, dito nakikita ko pa rin minsan yung OFFER GOOD *UNTIL* SUPPLIES LAST. Galing ad agency iyan ha…

11. Reno on February 19th, 2008 10:02 am

    Hayan, takot na akong mag-inggles dito baka ma-suspend ako ni Prof. JM! :)

    Isa pang redundant phrase na mahilig gamitin so mga promotions ay yung “FREE GIFT!” hehe.

    Also, thanks for the info about that William Picton thing. See what i mean? You learn new things in this journal everyday! ;)

12. Jose Mari Lee on February 19th, 2008 10:16 am

    Ooops, sorry guys. My typing is less than stellar, so bear with me. When I typed COMMUNICATION to my previous post, I meant MASS COMMUNICATION. Some people have the habit of saying Mass Communications which is incorrect. That’s all folks, as Disney’s Wabbitt cartoons would say at the end of every adventure :)

13. Jose Mari Lee on February 19th, 2008 12:06 pm

    Robby V and Reno and G. Samonte:

    Advertising Agencies are the worst propagators of bad grammar. Kaya nga yung mga ESL students ay natuturete, dahil iyon ang nakikita nilang palagi sa tabi-tabi kaya mali rin ang gagayahin nila. Even novels are also guilty of this, but it can’t be helped. The writer has to write the dialogs of the characters exactly the way native English speakers do.

    “I buy them shoes from Uniwide!” is absolutely horrible, yet that’s how some goofy people in north America would speak, therefore, as a writer, you’d have to do this in your book. Then, here comes some ESL students from Korea and Japang, naturalmente, “I buy” din ang past tense nila. O, di ba?

    G. Samonte, oo nga pala, nakalimutan ko yung Ikea Coffee. He-he. Alam mo, nasarapan ako sa Swedish coffee na ito. Nalimutan ko nga palang BUMABAHA ito sa Ikea :) A friend of mine swore to high heavens that their Swedish Meat Balls are HEAVENLY. But since I don’t go for this stuff, I won’t really know :(

14. auggie on February 19th, 2008 3:08 pm

    Rod,

    Pusakal ? Ang Maton ? naaala ko pa ang mga principal characters dito. Si Waldo, Elmo, at si Kirat sa Pusakal. Si Carno, naman sa Ang Maton, at meron siyang mahabang pilat sa mukha,at crew-cut ang buhok niya. Post-War( Liberation) ang setting ng Pusakal at mga shoe shine boys yung tatlong magbarkada. Customer nila ang mga G.I.’s. Galing ng drowing ni Coching dito. Ng lumaki yung tatlo, naging pulis si Kirat, kriminal si Waldo at mabait pero deadly sa balisong si Elmo, ganoon ba ang naala mo ?

    JM,

    We buy them shoes at SMs. Parang pang -egoy ah.

    Eto :

    Krrrring:( SFX) telephone

    SECRETARY: Hello, JM Enterprises, Good Morning, may I help you Sir ?

    ROD S: Yeah, could you put JM on the line please ?

    SECRETARY: For awhile please….

    WTF ! iyan ang standard dito ngayon.
    Imbes na UN Momento senior ! o kaya just a second sir !

    Care to explain ?

15. jose mari Lee on February 19th, 2008 10:14 pm

    Auggie:

    The caller ROD S is absolutely IMPOLITE.
    This is what is lacking today: GMRC.
    During my time in Bicol, we had a subject called Good Manners and Right Conduct where you are trained how to be prim and proper.
    They taught us who should extend the hand first when introduced to another person, how to have table manners, even how to distinguish what to say when attending a wedding or whatever. You knoiw how you’re supposed to say to the groom “CONGRATULATIONS” and to the bride “BEST WISHES”. People here in north America are still somewhat refined when it comes to this area. The only thing I see that’s not really good is when people put their elbows on the table while eating. This was a no-no at home when we were children. Despite this minor thing, generally, people here eat with closed mouths and don’t put too much inside their mouths. When it comes to the telephone, people are still okay.

    But, in Canada, we are, shall I say, OVERKILL? We always say THANK YOU to everything. And this triggers Americans to spoof us in their comedy shows, and in return, Canadians spoof Americans about their arrogance and the gun-totting north American image :)

    Hindi bah, Ginoong Samonte? He-he.

16. auggie on February 20th, 2008 12:21 am

    OOOPPSS, miscommunication, sorry about that. Hindi kasama yung WTF iyan ang standard dito ngayon…comment ko na yon ! I am soliciting some response for the secretary’s FOR A WHILE SIR, mi ganyan ba diyan sa North America ?

17. Rod Samonte on February 20th, 2008 1:26 am

    Auggie,
    Si Elmo nga ang nasa titulong karakter na Pusakal. Parang Carno ang naging karakter ko dun sa ginawa kong novella. Pero, ang gumuhit ng Ang Maton ay si Javinal, hindi ko matandaan kung sino sa Pusakal, pero malamang si Javinal din dahil sa Liwayway lumabas ang dalawang ito. The Carno character was lifted straight out of an Alex Raymond illustrated Rip Kirby villain, including the scar across the face. But it’s no secret Coching was influenced by Alex Raymond.
    JM,
    Where are you in Canada? I was in Vancouver eons ago for the World Expo. If ever you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, pasyalan mo ako and I’ll treat you to Ikea. Hehehe.
    Rod

18. Robby Villabona on February 20th, 2008 1:52 am

    Auggie, that’s how most Pinoys answer the phone because some English we use is directly translated from what you’d say in Tagalog:

    1. BUKSAN ANG ILAW = “Open the light.”
    2. SANDALI LANG = “For a while.”

    Nowadays, I think the biggest influence in English usage evolution is the use of texting.

    WRU? (where are you)
    d2 na me (nandito na ako)

19. jose mari Lee on February 20th, 2008 2:59 am

    FOR A WHILE SIR

    dito, ay:

    Just a moment, please (for offices)
    or
    Just a sec, guy (for friends)

    Where is this “for a while” coming from? Maybe because the boss is always busy and he or she can only answer the phone… AFTER A WHILE. But AFTER A WHILE connotes either
    AFTER (a long) WHILE
    or
    AFTER (a short) WHILE

    Not a very good PR if we will keep the client waiting till kingdom, come isn’t it :)

20. auggie on February 20th, 2008 9:30 am

    Rod,

    Both PUSAKAL & ANG MATON, si COCHING ang naglapis, si Javinal lang ang inks. Mahahalata mo eh, very dynamic. Kung purong Javinal mi pag-ka static, But prior to both novels, talagang 101% unadulterated Coching yung DON COBARDE ,niya, at sub-consciously, yun siguro ang nag influence sa akin to take up an art course in college.

21. Rod Samonte on February 20th, 2008 1:31 pm

    Auggie,
    Thanks for the info. Pero papano mong natiyak ito? Na si Coching nga ang nag-pencil? The only way to find out for sure is to ask Javinal who’s still alive and well and I understand living in Pasig. Yung sinasabi kong kinopya sa Ang Maton kay Rip Kirby ay mayroon akong kopya ng re-print. Remember how Carno, just out of jail passes by some bums cooking something, and he pushes them out of the way, and eats their food which was scalding hot. Well, the Rip Kirby villain, with that same scar across the face, does exactly the same thing with some bums by the railroad tracks. I’ll feature this in my blog one of these days if I can find my copy of Ang Maton, which is stored somewhere in my garage.
    BTW, just doing the finishing touches on the renovation. It got slow as it’s been wet and cold here in Burbank.
    Rod

22. auggie on February 20th, 2008 6:00 pm

    Rod,

    Paano ko natiyak ? wala namang ibang collaboration kundi silang dalawa lang eh. Kaya lang halata ko pa rin kung si Coching ang gumawa o si Javinal. Malikot sa mata ang mga compositions ni Coching. Si Javinal medyo mi pagka- boring, pero kung pencils ni Coching at inks niya, mahirap para doon sa hindi pamilyar sa trabaho nila matiktiktikan.

    Ang lamig din dito ngayon, mi flu symptoms na nga ako eh. Did you contact Danny O. an daming Comics anthologies daw niyang nabili….

23. jose mari Lee on February 20th, 2008 9:28 pm

    “If ever you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, pasyalan mo ako and I’ll treat you to Ikea.”

    Naku, maraming salamat na lang sa ALA-ALA ng Ikea breakfast, ginoong Samonte (na kamag-anak ng writer na si MAURO GIA SAMONTE). He-he. Doon na lang ako magbe-breakfast sa Melrose Boulevard kapiling ng mga bums at yahoos. :)

    For breakfast, I suggest MATIZ torta de Aceite (olive oil crisp bread) from Sevilla, Spain, though originally concocted in Andalucia. I’m not surprised if SALVADOR DALI and GALA didn’t fall for this lovely bread. He-he. I’m getting addicted to this wheat crisp bread with almonds. It’s just like being a SEPARATIST BASQUE in Barcelona, Cataluña, Sevilla & Andalucia. You must really try this one. Good with tea or coffee.

24. Reno on February 22nd, 2008 9:35 am

    Rod, si Coching ay influenced nga ni Alex Raymond, pero nakakaaliw din na ang “heir” ni Raymond na si Al Williamson ay naimpluwensyahan din ni Coching. :)

25. Rod Samonte on February 23rd, 2008 12:14 am

    Reno,
    Wow, that’s interesting that Williamson was influenced naman by Coching. I wouldn’t have known that. Is this a fact or something you’re just concluding from looking at his work? I have a collection of Al Williamson’s too. Another heir to Alex Raymond was Austin Briggs, who became a famous illustrator for Post magazine.
    Rod

26. JOHNNY JOSE B. CALUAG on February 27th, 2008 9:50 pm

    Gerry,
    Can you give the detail email add of J.Caluag?Coz my family name is caluag but i’m a bacolodnod,but my father is pure tagalog.I love to draw and i’m impressed the works of Mr.J.Caluag.I’m a registered architect,maybe sometime this year i’d like to meet him in Manila(UAP CONVENTION).
    God bless & more power.
    Johnny

27. Gerry Alanguilan on February 27th, 2008 10:20 pm

    Hello Johnny! Unfortunately, Mr. Jose Castro Caluag has already passed on. If you will email me your email address at gerryalanguilan (at) yahoo (dot) com, then I’ll send you the email of his son Reynaldo.

28. Jose Enrico Lee on April 11th, 2008 10:14 pm

    Hello, pasingit lng po,
    To Jose Mari Lee. Just want to confirm if you are related to a certain ME(Jose Enrico Armengol Lee)
    You may text me @ +639287794571 or (09287794571).
    You may also email me @ JEAL@taratxt.com