A short feature on the news telecast last night caught my 'reflective' mood and made me recall my childhood. The news features a comic book created by JB Gamboa, an artist who previously made a successful first attempt of publishing the comic book "Laban", a true love story of former Senator Ninoy and former President Cory Aquino, and now launched his latest masterpiece - a comic biography of the world renowned pound-for-pound Filipino boxing champ, Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao.
I salute Pacman for his valuable contribution to the country and I have no doubts of his boxing skill. But my 'reflections' were not directly related to him. I also don't have anything against the comic artist who made him the subject of his self-published project entitled "Pacquiao: Winning In and Out of the Ring", I think he made a good thing to feature the champ's life though his work of art. I just thought about the perspective of the craft instead. Comic books are becoming less popular in bookstores nowadays, right?
Comic books, or mostly known as "komiks" by the Filipinos, became widespread in the country as early as World War II when American GIs left behind comic strips and books which originally inspire Pinoy comic artists to run the medium in magazine series. Today, more comic artist produce Pinoy manga inspired by the Japanese anime and manga. Its popularity somewhat subsided due to competition with other forms of media particularly the telenovelas.
As I noticed, there are fewer komiks being displayed for sale in bookstores or even in newstands where they are commonly found. Bystanders and people few years back who mereley pass by the sidewalk would stop by newstands to buy from an array of komiks with various titles, series or editions. They are printed versions of short scripted stories of drama or comedy which we follow through in telenovelas and radios. They entertain people during short breaks, available in the locality, and comes in handy since they can just be folded in pockets and readers will just take it off anytime.
What JB Gamboa said about komiks left a valuable note to the viewers. He hopes to address the problem of illiteracy in the future through this craft. And I agree for that fact. Comics not only provide entertainment for readers, but they also help young children and even adults to learn how to read and improve reading. That's when I remember a moment in my childhood year that I thought I would never mind to recall. I almost forgot, I learned to read my first story from the comics.
As a child, my mother taught me the basics of A E I O U and ABAKADA, and from that I learned to utter syllables from the letters. I recalled I was never introduced how to read a whole sentence or a paragraph excerpt from a short story. And now I remember, I realized to read and understand the written conversations from the komiks that I just appreciated because of its drawings! It happened one late evening before going to sleep that I happen to pick up a comic book and slowly uttered the syllables which came from letters forming the words in the callouts of the drawings. I think I remembered myself grinning happily announcing to my mom that I (finally) was able to understand what the drawings say. Days after that I volunteered in our 'komiks for rent' outside the house just to be able to read my father's comic collections. Haha.
There were a bunch of komiks left in the house but I guess they were included when a part of our house was caught on fire. Too sad, they were the ones still left and they could be treated as old collections of craft. I could not find local komiks series being sold now, just pocketbooks which continues to be a sensation among ladies who are fond of reading tagalog romance novels.
If not because of Pacman's victorious feats that made him famous, that inspired one comic artist to draw his comic biography, that caught the attention of the national TV and feature it, I could have forgotten to realize one significant thing in my life - that I learned how to read and understand a story that is portrayed through the komiks. I credit my ability of high reading and comprehension rate in my elementary years to my interest in reading short stories and komiks experience.
I understand why the popularity of komiks is declining. As an IT student, I understand how technology changed the way life is, and even reading and habits of people has been affected. Change is inevitable, as they say. Nevertheless it would never be the reason to totally forget the significance of print articles as reading materials over portable document formats (PDFs) and digital soft copies. Komiks now comes in electronic formats. Yet the natural essence of talents in drawing and creativity of potential Filipino comic artists really shines through the paper and pencil, where it all originated. I hope we Filipinos would find a way to revive it. Or if some things are difficult to regain its originality, I just hoped this post would be an appreciation of a craft which has once been a part of our culture, and my contribution to it, a reminder of a valuable nothing, a significant something - that komiks had once played a role in my childhood years, and continues to be, as long as I live, as long as I can read. :-)
