THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT

Is This What You Want?

Comic Book Artist Magazine, published by Top Shelf publications in the United States, is one of the premiere magazines on comic book artists from all over the world. In it's latest issue, #4 cover dated September 2004, the magazine devotes nearly the entire issue on the art of Philippine comic book art and artists.

Here are some excerpts:

"...the Philippine 'school' of artists (in the 70's), a stunningly talented group of men who made an immediate and lasting impression on the industry and among appreciative readers. Strange sounding names -- DeZuniga, Niño, Redondo, Alcala, etc.-- would quickly become familiar and quite welcome..."

"As a group, these Asian artists were astonishingly accomplished and talented almost beyond measure. Certainly the top three talents -- Redondo, Niño and Alcala -- stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any comic book artist the world over, bowing their heads to no one."

"What the Filipinos shared was a good, solid and usually (Niño excepted) conventional approach to storytelling, exceptional draftmanship, and exuberant florid brushwork which harked back to the golden years of magazine illustration in the first few decades of the 20th Century."

"...the traditional Filipino style is all but dead."

"Manga have greatly influenced the market, generating a genre called Pinoy manga (Philippine manga), new companies and titles such as Culture Crash, Questor, etc., and a batch of cartoonists following the Japanese style of drawing."

Observations from an objective third party, not mine.