Let's talk about Filipino comics
I visited the Philippine International Comics Festival + Filipino comics recommendations
Komiket invited me to the Philippine International Comics Festival, or PICOF, which was held from July 20 to 21, 2024, at Podium. The festival celebrates Filipino comics and brings them together for readers. PICOF has been around since 2020, but this is the first in-person festival since the previous runs were held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I enjoyed walking around, seeing friends, and meeting comic creators I admire. I bought three titles at PICOF: Stevie Barot’s In the Jaws of Saint Camillus, Mackie and Ardie Aquino’s School Run, and Vaughn Tan’s 11:30 to Baguio. All are different kinds of horror: In the Jaws of Saint Camillus is religious, School Run is zombie-focused, and 11:30 to Baguio is cosmic.
PICOF is organized by Komiket, a comics publisher that frequently holds similar events, also called Komiket. I’ve visited my fair share of Komiket events, so I wondered how PICOF would be different. The festival mostly sold comics, compared to Komiket, which also offers prints, stickers, and adjacent merch.
PICOF hosted over 100 comics artists and publishers from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the UK, the US, and Australia.
In addition to selling comics, PICOF held masterclasses, launches, sneak peeks of upcoming titles, a rights-selling market for international publishers, and a special exhibit paying tribute to Alamat Comics. Alamat started the independent comics scene in Manila and is behind some of the most famous local titles, like Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s Trese, Gerry Alanguilan’s Elmer, and Carlo Vergara’s Zsazsa Zaturnnah. All are good and are highly recommended.
I appreciated that Komiket taught local artists about rights selling and introduced them to international publishers. There are more important things than global validation, but I’m excited for more audiences to discover Filipino comics.
Comics fan
My love for comics began in high school with X-Men.
I honestly didn’t get into any other kind of comics. It was just X-Men. My college boyfriend said Batman would suit my personality more, but I read Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, and it wasn’t for me. I liked The Killing Joke and the movies with The Joker, so I might give Batman another shot. I have superhero fatigue after Avengers: Endgame, but Deadpool & Wolverine made me want to revisit the comics universe (even if I thought the movie was okay. My favorite scene is the one that featured Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” which is my favorite song ever).
My introduction to Filipino comics was Trese in 2011. I read a copy at Powerbooks in Alabang Town Center and was instantly hooked. The comic follows Alexandra Trese, who deals with a criminal underworld composed of malevolent supernatural beings from Philippine mythology. Aswang run the most-wanted kidnapping rings, kapre are the kingpins of crime, and engkanto slip through the cracks and steal your most precious possessions.
I read a few more Filipino comics, but I only really got into it during the pandemic.
I highly recommend them because there are so many good ones. There’s romance, horror, fantasy, humor, and even slices of life where you follow characters as they live their mundane lives.
My favorite genres in comics are, of course, queer and horror, and we have a rich collection of both.
A critical analysis called Zsazsa Zaturnnah “the first ‘gay superhero’ in the history of Philippine comics.” A gay beautician named Ada becomes the superhero when he swallows a rock from outer space. The comic is so successful that it was adapted into a musical (which I’ve seen four times) and a movie. There’s even an ongoing Kickstarter to adapt the comic into an animated film.
Today, we have so many queer comics spanning different genres. Emiliana Kampilan’s Dead Balagtas, Tomo 1: Mga Sayaw ng Dagat at Lupa is a sweeping comic about the long and colorful history of the Philippines. The stories are good, and the art is gorgeous.
My other favorites are Tsambolero’s Ang Jowa Kong Crosswise, Kar Vic’s Sari Sari Story, and Levi Sabarre’s Dante, Damian, and Pascal (DanDamPas).
Ang Jowa Kong Crosswise is a horror comic about a man in a relationship with an aswang, while the other two are slices of life. I especially like DanDamPas because it’s so domestic. It follows Dante and Damian, a security guard and a tricycle driver who live together with their cat. I like it because it departs from the popular coming-of-age theme. While I recognize the importance and appeal of this theme, I’m already 35 years old, so I’m more interested in what happens after the characters accept themselves or come out of the closet.
In terms of horror, Mervin Malonzo’s Tabi Po series is god-tier. It’s about a group of aswang terrorizing a town during the Spanish colonial era. The art is spectacular. Other god-tier comics in this genre are Doktor Karayom’s Grade 3 and Malayo Pa Ang Umaga’s Libing-isa. Both are excellent and creepy.
If you’re looking for recommendations outside of queer and horror, I love AJ Bacar’s Sskait Comics and Kevin Eric Raymundo’s Tarantadong Kalbo. My favorite Sskait comics are Man vs. Ipis and Dad, Daddy, Baby. They’re both so funny. Raymundo, meanwhile, is a fantastic political cartoonist. His comics are so smart and hard-hitting. His latest work is Baby TK, which steers away from politics and focuses on ‘90s nostalgia.
I’ll end this entry with these recommendations. There are so many that I can go on and on. Don’t worry, though. I’m such a huge fan that I’m sure I’ll mention more in future Substack posts.
Thank you for the wonderful recommendations! Read some of these and our tastes align 🥰