Forbidden Planet (the best comic book/sci-fi blog in town - and by town I mean INTERNET) has an excellent post on Filipino cartoonist Gerry Alanguilan. Not only do they mention Alanguilan's excellent series Elmer, they give heavy props to the his work on "The Philippine Comics Art Museum" and Komikero, his excellent, excellent blog.

Gerry Alanguilan is one of those cartoonists that really knows his shit inside and out. He's flawless in his approach to craft (in terms of education and dedication of and towards the creative process), and he maintains an inspiring amount of reverence to some of the most talented, but overlooked cartooning masters to come out of his (and essentially my own) home country, the Philippines.

I've mentioned before (can't locate link...) that unlike most Filipino Americans my age, I don't speak nor can I read a lick of Tagalog. I started speaking and reading English at a fairly early age, and when it came time for me to attend pre-school, a lot of my teacher's were concerned because I kept confusing which words belonged to which language. Also, Tagalog is not my mother's native dialect, and it was easier for her (and my father who had to bear with her "mistakes") to communicate with me in pure English.

For this reason, I again petition the komikeros and the publishers to at least think about translating some of this stuff for U.S. distribution. I think both fans and publisher will be surprised by not only the quality of these works, but also the familiarity. As Alanguilan's Philippines Comics Museum is quick to point out, a lot of American comic work was being done by Filipino artists.

In the meantime, I will have to make due with re-reading my Siglo anthologies, and Alanguilan's excellent, excellent Elmer comic (currently only available here in the States through Independent Propaganda). Elmer is definitely in my top 10 favorite comics coming out right now, so do yourself a favor and check it out and check out the Komikero blog.

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