Komikero Comics Journal

Museum Update

Just uploaded is the "About" section of the online museum, explaining the rationale behind the existence of the site, and what you can expect to see in it in the coming year. I'm reposting it here:

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ABOUT THE PHILIPPINE COMICS ART MUSEUM ONLINE

Ever since I came online in 1997, I have come to realize that a lot of Filipinos, specially the young artists reading comics and trying to enter comics as a career, are not familiar with the great Filipino Komiks Masters of yesteryear. I myself have since learned about many artists I never knew before who were all quite talented and had impressive bodies of work. As I rediscovered page after page of these artworks, I became much more in awe of the talent of these Filipinos, and I felt stricken that such artworks are virtually unknown today.

It thus became more imperative to find ways to share this with the current generation of Filipinos and with the rest of world. Several plans have been put in motion to fulfill this objective. The San Pablo City Comics Art Festival in December
2003 done by the Komikero Artists Group is just the start. The next is the publication of a book about the "Masters of Philippine Komiks Art", a tentative schedule of release is 2006. Another plan set in motion is this online museum, a forerunner of what will hopefully be a true museum to be located here in San Pablo City.

Since early this year, I have spent a small fortune acquiring old komiks and original artwork from the 1940's up the present. Lack of finances put a pause on my acquisitions, but I will still continue with it when I have the means. I presently have a small collection of some 100 original artworks and 300+old komiks, mostly from the
50's and the 60's. I will gradually put up this material online with a substantial update to this online museum once a week.

Many of these artworks have not seen the light of day for decades, and in most cases have never been reprinted since they were first published.

I am glad that other groups have put into motion similar projects, specially the release of a Kenkoy graphic album by Tony Velasquez, published by Dennis Villegas.
Dennis is also in the process of putting up a Kenkoy Museum/store in Cubao, and is planning more reprints of more great masters.

Aside from these, I am also in talks with the Francisco V. Coching Foundation to reprint in complete volumes, the komiks novels that Coching is probably most famous for, Barbaro(1952) and El Indio(1953).

Because of the work I've put into these projects, I've had to shelve or postpone a lot of the personal projects I have planned for myself like the Komikero Portfolio book (I think our old masters deserve a publication like that more than me.), The Ultimate Chicken Story, and adaptions of Noli and the Legends of the Seven Lakes of San Pablo. As for the other projects, like Siglo Passion, Alamat Anthology, and various work for abroad for Graphic Classics, DC and Cliffhanger of course, are still all on track.

As mentioned, this online museum will be updated once a week, but the news/journal page will be updated several times a week. In a year, hopefully the collection uploaded herein will be as comprehensive as I can make it.