Andrew, thanks a million for the links to Filipino comic history. I especially recommend erneelawagan's general historical overview. During the 90s I was honored to work alongside many Filipino artists in the TV animation industry. I became friendly with two wonderful guys. One was Fred Carrillo, one of the komiks "old guard." The other was Abel Laxamana. He was of the next generation of artists who were youths about the time Fred and his contemporaries were hitting their stride. Many were the workday hours enlivened by chatting with Abel about comics technique and 50s Filipino pop culture, and listening to Fred reminisce about the Golden Age of Komiks. Fred had a slightly different take on Imelda Marcos as First Lady of Komiks.
Newly-minted dictator Ferdinand Marcos recognized popular art could be a great help to his regime. Many artists supported him in the beginning. Fred described an elaborate dinner to which Marcos invited a bunch of artists--gallery painters, illustrators, and comics artists alike. At each table artists were seated with a member of Marcos' government according to a prearranged pecking order. The more famous the artists, the higher-ranking the politician they sat with. Fred laughed that being a comic artist he got to sit with the Minister of the Ministry of Something-or-Other. As the party progressed, it became clear that Marcos was laying out a quid pro quo: Support me through your work and I'll see you get special treatment. If not, then you're on your own. Fred, like several others, felt betrayed by Marcos' embrace of authoritarianism and declined the offer. Fred observed that while he remained much as he was before, those who went with Marcos wound up owning companies, becoming publishers, and often became very rich. It was a very Trumpian moment, long before anyone had heard of Trump.
All this time I'd kept issues of the Sunday Manila Times Magazine from the two years my family lived in the Philippines. Even at seven years old I was a comics fan. I even read the silly advertising strips featuring Nurse Cafi, spokescharacter for the pain reliever Cafiasprina (caffeine-laced aspirin). One day I showed them to Fred. His face lit up and he laughed to see the ad strips. "These were some of my first jobs!" he said. "I worked for this advertising agency." This blew me away. Here I sat in a Navy Base in Cavite reading comics, there sat Fred across the bay in Manila drawing them, and forty years later we'd meet.
Fred had always wanted to return to the Philippines and finally see his beloved wife again. Sadly, she seems to have passed away before he got the chance. I know he did finally return home, where he died a number of years ago. When I was just learning the Internet I chanced upon his family site. I was glad to be able to tell them about working with Fred and how much talking with him had enriched my days.
