It is said that the first comics was written by the Philippines' national hero Jose Rizal when he illustrated the tale of "The Monkey and the Tortoise" on the back of painter Juan Luna's sketchbook. However the concept of comic strips as a serial published in mass media only appeared in the early 1920s as page fillers in Tagalog magazines.
In 1922 two of these news and variety magazines, Telembang and Bagong Lipang Kalabaw, carried satirical cartoons. These could be considered as the precursors of today's komiks.
These magazines featured two prominent comic strips that became very popular: Telembang had "Si Kiko at Angge", and Lipang Kalabaw had "Ganito Pala sa Maynila."
Art historians Alfredo Roces and Alfred McCoy attribute the illustrations of both these comic strips to National Artist Fernando Amorsolo. Indeed, Roces featured one of the issues of "Ganito Pala sa Maynila" in his seminal study on Amorsolo.
In 1923, the Tagalog magazine Liwayway was born. Although the magazine did not contain any comic serials in its early years, this was about to change in 1929, with the publication of Tony Velasquez' "Album ng Kabalbalan ni Kenkoy" as a filler in the magazine's entertainment section. Kenkoy became the star of the magazine, a funny everyday Filipino teenager who became representative of the colonial-minded youth of the 30s.
The character became so popular that his image was more recognizable than any of the leading political or social personages during that era, a similar status to that of Charlie Chaplin, when the Little Tramp became the world's most famous icon.
"Album ng Kabalbalan ni Kenkoy" developed the komiks serial form. From half a page it developed into a single page and with bright colors to boot. Eventually Velasquez created more comic strips like "Ponyang Halobaybay," "Talakitok," and "Nanong Pandak."
Other cartoonists soon followed the path of the komiks serial. Velasquez' contemporary, J.M. Perez created "Pamboy at Osang," "Pakitong Babuy," and "Huwapelo," all for the Liwayway magazine. In 1932, Pedrito Reyes and Francisco Reyes jointly created "Kulafu," also for Liwayway. "Kulafu" soon became Liwayway's second most popular series.
Komiks Serials During the Japanese Occupation
During the Japanese occupation, all publishing houses were either confiscated or severely censored by the Japanese military administration. Liwayway, the leading Tagalog weekly, was confiscated. Japanese officials forced Tony Velasquez to continue "Kenkoy," and he acquiesced on the condition that the komiks serial would be apolitical and that the strip would just voice out the health programs of the Japanese administration.
Another Velasquez cartoon during the Japanese occupation was "KALIBAPI Family," a comic strip about a typical Filipino family living under Japanese rule. It was not pro-Japanese however, as the cartoons only featured day-to-day activities of simple family life.
The Golden Age of the Komiks Serials (1946-71)
After liberation, the first all-komiks magazine in the Philippines was born in 1946: Halakhak Komiks. Halakhak (an onomatopeic Tagalog word for "guffaw") carried mostly cartoon strips although it also had two adventure and fantasy serials: Francisco Reyes' "Talahib," and Francisco V. Coching's "Bulalakaw."
Halakhak was short-lived. It only lasted for a year with ten printed issues. It had to close down due to lack of publishing capital. The failure to gather enough readership may have been due to the fact that Filipinos were not ready to laugh yet after the disastrous war years.
In 1947, publisher Ramon Roces and cartoonist Tony Velasquez founded Ace Publications which first published Pilipino Komiks. This komiks magazine became the vehicle for memorable serials as "Darna," "Bondying," "Dyesebel," "El Indio," among others. Due to the commercial succes of Pilipino Komiks, Roces and Velasquez published more komiks-magazines such as Tagalog Klasiks (1949), Hiwaga Komiks (1950), Espesyal Komiks (1952), and Kenkoy Komiks (1959).
Other publishers soon followed, publishing komiks magazines of their own. The most prominent publishers were Bulaklak Publications, Marte Publications, and GMS Publishing.
This then was the beginnings of the rich komiks industry in the Philippines, which, by the 1950s probably became one of the world's top producers of komiks magazines.
In the 50s decade, most komiks materials were cartoons in the gag style of Kenkoy. However, some materials were also drawn from local folklore, legends, and mythology, such that many of these early serials contain characters like Aswang, Tiyanak, Kapre, Tikbalang, mermaids, winged horses, caped superheroes and so on.
These fantastic stories captured readers' imagination which led to the proliferation of more serials. However repetition of themes led to boredom and fearing becoming stale, some komiks writers began weaving tales based on other themes.
In the mid-1950s, more and more talented writers delved into genres other than comedy and fantasy. Writers who excelled in different genres included Pablo S. Gomez, Clodualdo del Mundo, Rico Bello Omagap, and perhaps the most famous of all, Mars Ravelo. An effective fantasy and comedy writer, Ravelo also delved into more realist themes, which would become best loved by komiks readers. Serials like "Roberta" and "Maruja", developed into huge successes, so that when their stories were turned into movies, they became blockbuster hits too.
Social realism proved to one of the most succesful of all the genres of komiks, because it effectively captured the Filipino psyche. These serials usually had the theme of the virtuous poor versus the evil rich, or man against society, or man against himself. In either way the end was always clear: good would always triumph over evil. With this kind of serials, Filipinos saw themselves in the microcosm of the komiks pages. The komiks were something they could relate to, and they had more dramatic effect, because they were written in the local language.
Historical serials also proved to be succesful, particularly to male readers. Francisco V. Coching created some of the memorable serials in this genre like "El Indio," "Lapu-Lapu," and "Barbaro."
With the firm foundation of these komiks themes, the second and third generation of komiks writers in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, developed them even further. In the fantasy world, more incredulous komiks characters were born. Hal Santiago introduced "The Hands", which featured two cutoff hands with eyes. Rodie Marte Metin's "Phantomanok" featured a duck-like superhero and a talkative gay horse in "Pomposa, Ang Kabayong Tsismosa". Jim Fernandez created man-eating monsters in "Anak ni Zuma."
The mid 1970s up to the 1980s also saw the birth and development of the "supernovels", so called because of their extreme length. One of the outstanding examples was Nerissa Cabral's "Bituing Walang Ningning". While a komiks serial before had an average of 20 to 30 installments, the supernovel contained more than 50 issues, some of them even reached more than 100 issues which extended into several years. Some of the popular writers of these supernovels were Carlo J. Caparas, Jim Fernandez, Pablo S. Gomez, Hal Santiago, Elena Patron, Nerissa G. Cabral, and Gilda Olvidado.
This last batch of writers and writer/illustrators contributed to the dominance of the drama genre in komiks in the 1980s. The romance genre in Tagalog komiks literature was spearheaded by Patron, Cabral, Olvidado, and Gomez, all of whom touched on modern social issues, such as twisted family relationships, outrŽ sexuality, and the clash of liberal versus conservative Filipino mores.
The fantasy and adventure genres were not left behind though as Fernandez, Santiago, Caparas and others continued to nurture and develop it. The monsters, weird creatures, and superheroes, still had a healthy space in komiks pages. The cartoon serials, however, once the dominant theme in the komiks, was more and more relegated as page fillers.
Decline of Komiks in the 1990S
The 1990s saw the decline and collapse of the komiks industry. There were several factors that led to this sad state. Among them were the economic and power crises of the early 1990s, the Filipinos' diversion into telenovelas, the arrival of text messaging and the internet.
The decline of readership forced many publishers to cancel their komiks titles, until in the end, only the big publishers remained in the market. But then, these big publishers greatly reduced their budget for komiks magazines so that the remaining title in the market had been greatly compromised by using cheap labor and material, and mostly rehashed stories.
A Revival of a Beloved Artform
In 2007 Carlo J. Caparas took the headlines by spearheading the revival of the komiks industry in the Philippines, together with the support of Cecile Guidote Alvarez, the powerful executive director of National Commission for Culture and Arts. New and promising komiks titles are to be issued by September 2007, proving that komiks is still a popular art form that is loved and cherished by the Filipino people.