Posted
11/04/2004 07:44:00 PM
by Gerry Alanguilan
ALAMAT: 10 Years of Comics
It's Alamat Comics' 10-year Anniversary today. Wow, TEN YEARS! I still remember December 1992 when I first got in touch with a growing community of comics fans and would be creators. Comics were suddenly HUGE, and everyone wanted to read and make their own comics. I fell in with a talented group of writers and artists who were creating a comic book which will eventually become
Lakan, the finished but as yet unreleased title.
Through the course of two years, comics made by these young creators started to come out like
Exodus, Flashpoint, P-Noize, Comics 101, Memento Mori, etc. The earliest mini comic I became aware of was Dino Ignacio's Sigaw Saklolo, a format I would later use for my own mini comic Wasted.
Whilce Portacio became the catalyst through which these varied group of creators be united under one banner: ALAMAT COMICS, officially formed in 1994.
10 years later, we are still here and we are STILL creating and publishing comics, even though most of these comics were never done to make money, but for the sheer love of comics and sharing stories and art with other people. Alamat isn't a typical comics publishing company in that we have to release titles on a regular basis and we have an office where we have salaried employees. Alamat is simply an anchor through which individual creators publish their own comics out of their own pocket.
Alamat is a support group composed of creators who help each other out in their respective projects. To this day, all my mini comics carry the Alamat logo, and all my self published stuff in the future will carry it.
We may not have been successful in coming out with a comic to commemorate our anniversary as we have planned, but I'm confident that everyone will see comics created by this group of people who love the medium and has a sheer passion for creating them.
Here's some pictures from the early days of Alamat:
Circa 1994. Wow, how thin we all were back then! Jeez! From left: Mark Gatela, Budjette Tan, ?, Arnold Arre, Brandie Tan, Gerry Alanguilan, Whilce Portacio, Ian Orendain, Chris Bernardo, John Toledo, Oliver Pulumbarit and Alex Manabat.
Alamat Comics 4-day Exhibit at Robinson's Galleria, circa 1995
The Lakan Booth, I'm the one next to the guy in stripes.
Mark Gatela and Arnold Arre at the Comics 101 booth.
David Hontiveros (in black) and the Flashpoint gang at the Flashpoint booth.
The LAKAN Booth with a bunch of still unreleased artwork. I still feel bad about Lakan not being released inspite of the fact that the artwork have all been finished. Even from this picture you can see how AWESOME some of this art is. I'm confident that it will be released somehow in the future. I'll make sure it does and it doesn't matter how many bones I break!
Happy Anniversay guys! Here's to 10 and MORE years! :)
Monday, November 01, 2004
Posted
11/01/2004 01:20:00 PM
by Gerry Alanguilan
More Oktoberfest Pics!
Click
here for larger image of above.
Johnny wants to be eaten as newest Komikera Therese gets her face painted courtesy of Jac.
Jac gives Carla, Ilyn's cousin a face painting.
Mylene and Johnny
Gerry's Angels
The last day of Komikero's public display of the Philippine Comics Art Museum was yesterday and it proved to be quite surprising and fun day all around. Early in the day tricycle drivers looking for passengers were stopping in front of the booth, getting down and checking out the exhibit. All of them were pleasantly surprised at seeing bits and pieces of their childhood on display and they animatedly talked about how they used to read them when they were kids. One particular driver happily pointed out dates of the issues of the comics, saying things like "I was grade 3 when this came out! I was kinder on this one!"
Another particular driver stopped in front of the booth and started looking for issues of THOR. We had a bunch of old (and newish) Marvel, DC, and Image, as well as some Alamat Comic, my comics and indies form the Komikeros. The guy happily looked through most of them. He ended up buying a couple of comics before he got back on his tricylce and drove off.
Younger kids find themselves very impressed with the works of Alfredo Alcala, Nestor Redondo, Alex Niņo and are surprised to realize Filipino artists are really *really* good. People pass by all day reminiscing of the days when the read comics and they just hung out to talk comics, and check out the exhibits.
Late komiks writer L.P. Calixto's wife and children, as well as L.P.'s frequent collaborator, komiks artist Rudy Florese's entire family visited the booth and it was one of the highlights of the exhibit.
It's this kind of response that convince me that a museum on comics here in San Pablo is truly worth having, and something that could be much appreciated by people from all walks of life.