Art in All its Pages

CEBU, Philippines - Komiks has been disparaged by some who look at it only as a trivial material, mere entertainment in the same league as stories commonly seen on television. It is then less appreciated and mistakenly labeled as insignificant piece of entertainment in today’s literary scene.

However, Wasted by Gerry Alanguilan broke through the boundary, wittingly revolutionizing the mind of anyone who read such a piece of fiction. A story blended with different emotions such as love, hate, jealousy and envy will take the mind of the reader on a journey, testing one’s capability to express inner conflicts in human experience. 

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah by Carlo Vergara, in contrast is product of imaginary tale that epitomizes the fantasy-realism type of writing. It is now revived through the craze for local superhero stories that have been long laid aside; to mention a few, Darna, Captain Barbell, Ang Panday, etc. With a great sense of idiosyncratic humor as depicted by the different characters, a sort of loutish dialogue that realistically fits in the setting of the story, an experimental view of characters with the main character as homosexual, make the material fit only for grown up readers.

Even at a young age, Wasted’s writer, graphic artist Gerry Alanguilan, made drawing a hobby. He’s also an extreme fan of the popular Marvel comics X-men that inspired him so much to draw. Gifted with artistic skills and a wild imagination, he carried these to college and enrolled in architecture. He eventually became an architect. Unsatisfied with his job after working for two years, he quit and pursued writing and drawing comic characters. He is living in San Pablo, Laguna, and is currently working as comic artist for Image, Marvel and DC.

Wasted is a story about a guy named Eric who is caught up in all the perplexing and depressing events in his life; a stream of arguments and leaden rebukes from his dad and then losing his girlfriend to another guy make him lose his sanity. Broken into bits, he is engulfed by jealousy and envy to a point of wanting to destroy anyone who crosses him. He somehow hopes that Jenny, his ex-girlfriend, would love him again. His day becomes more gloomy when he learns that his father is killed by a cunning, corrupt politician—the city mayor. Eric becomes like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Unstoppable, fueled by hate and lunacy, he killed a preacher who exasperates him. He wanders around the city killing people who annoy him — the smoking passenger in the jeepney, the asinine mugger and the pervert gays. During an emotional hostage drama, the evil mayor comes to attempt to resolve the situation—perfect opportunity for Eric to avenge his father’s death. Trying to be smart, the mayor pretends to be polite and comforting to Eric, but Eric being smarter, plays along. When they are alone in one room, Eric viciously shots the mayor and throws him out the glass window. Jenny comes and beseeches Eric to free the hostages. Eric wishes for her to love him again. He surrenders in for what he really wants is to see Jenny, to talk to her and tell her how much he loves her. He walks towards the broken glass window where snipers finally shot him down. The story ends with Jenny reading all the letters of Eric telling her of his deep love. She collapses into tears on the floor remembering him when Eric is gone.

To sum up, Gerry Alanguilan’s Wasted is a story, as admitted by the writer, inspired by his very own experiences. The story in Wasted denotes objective correlativity; like the hurtful break up between Eric and Jenny—He (Alanguilan) and his ex-girlfriend, the tension Eric is experiencing in making decisions; to follow his dad and girlfriend, of becoming a lawyer or obeying his own dream to be a musician.   This is similar to Alanguilan’s conflict of interest in either becoming an architect or a writer and cartoonist.  

Carlo Vergara’s Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah is not far different from his previous work One Night in Purgatory that basically has a common theme. In his interview, he asserted “One Night In Purgatory, had the gay thing going, and Zsazsa Zaturnnah is part of that logical progression.” But he also clearly stated that his works were not purposely for gay people only. Like Alanguilan, he based his works more from experiences, not much from his emotions. He uses other people’s emotions and sentiments to formulate an idea. Vergara’s work is an illustration of the sentiments of a homosexual, emphasizing the strengths of being gay. Undeniably, a lot of gays are more proficient in some areas of work. In the story, Ada’s enemies, the “amazonistas” are women conquerors portrayed as very powerful, gorgeous and intelligent women who overwhelm men in their planet, coming to earth to also take control. Ada or Zaturnnah defends the people. In reality, we see that women in society struggle to have equality with men. The story points to the idea of war between women and gays. In the story, Vergara demonstrates and exemplifies what is real in homosexual relationships. It is in the story that he clearly portrays freedom among homosexuals.

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah is a story of a homosexual Ada who fortuitously was chosen to receive a big stone from the heavens, with supernatural powers. Like in most superhero stories, he is to use to it for good and to defend humanity from villains. A beautician by normal circumstances but a superhero during chaos and trouble, together with his assistant Didi and his dream-lover Dodong, they stand to defend their town from monsters and creepy creatures. From the far side of the galaxy come the Amazonistas, the mortal enemy of Zaturnnah—the superhero persona of Ada—whose cunning plan is to destroy men and conquer earth for their use. Zaturnnah finds the purpose of the gift he received, and fights hard against the conquerors, successfully driving them to make a retreat. The story ends with Ada leaving his town to search for greener pastures, with a clear understanding of his relationship with Dodong.

Wasted and ZsaZsa Zaturnnah are examples of innumerable stories that exhibit the flexibility of talented Filipino artists within the medium of Komiks which has gained a toehold in Philippine literature.