Cracking the Filipino sequence: two factors that shaped contemporary Philippine komiks

ABSTRACT

Graphic narratives are a flexible medium of storytelling that come in numerous forms. Creators continue to innovate various ways to process text and images. In order to understand the current state of Philippine comics, or komiks, this article begins with a discussion of the origins of the craft in the Philippines. While there are a great number of tools comic artists deploy in their narratives, there are two characteristics that are most pertinent to defining the state of Philippine komiks today. This article explores two factors that shaped contemporary Philippine komiks, namely, colour and publishing methods. In analysing colour in comics, this article examines how both Rob Cham’s Colours and Gerry Alanguilan’s Wasted turn to polychromatic and monochromatic graphic storytelling, respectively, to influence the readers’ comprehension of the story’s meaning. In analysing publishing methods, this article investigates how Rob Cham’s Lost, and Gaby Taylo and Richard Mercado’s Uy Si Crush experiment with the conventions of their chosen publishing method, traditional print medium for Cham’s work and the web for Taylo and Mercado’s work.

KEYWORDS:

• Philippine komiks
• komiks
• graphic narratives
• comics
• graphic storytelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.