Support Filipino comics at PH Int’l Comics Festival
Komiks fans and aspiring creators, mark next weekend on your calendars.
The Philippine International Comics Festival (Picof) is happening at The Podium Hall on July 20 and July 21. After four online festivals since 2020, you can finally attend the event in person and support over 200 Filipino komiks creators, publishers plus international guests in one weekend.
“Picof is the culmination of all of the good work we’ve been doing over the past 10 years,” said Komiket president Paolo Herras. Picof 2024 is organized by Komiket and supported by the Office of Sen. Loren Legarda, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the National Book Development Board (NBDB).
Since 2015, Komiket has been organizing komiks art markets, giving creators a venue to showcase and sell their work. “We expanded to nine cities nationwide to find new creators and readers,” Herras said.
Komiket, a nonprofit organization, also holds annual Comic Book Creator’s Workshops and created the Secret HQ bookstore where people can buy komiks all year long.
Komiket has also been publishing comics and comics anthologies, another way of giving creators a voice and a platform, and the public the chance to discover and love them.
The pandemic did not derail their mission of empowering Filipino comic book creators and lovers either—they just moved their events and operations online when the lockdown made it impossible to do things face to face.
“We put up the Picof to grow readership and to show the maximum potential of Filipino komiks,” said Herras.
Their efforts have been fruitful—the komiks community has been growing and growing and Komiket’s books have won local and international awards and have been/and are being translated in English, Dutch, German, Russian and Burmese.
Picof is the perfect chance to meet your favorite komiks creators from all over the country. Pol Medina Jr., Tarantadong Kalbo, Libreng Komiks, and Sskait will be there, as well as National Book Award winners RH Quilantang from Leyte (“Ang Mga Alitaptap Ng Pulang Buhangin”), and Mike Alcazaren, Noel Pascual and AJ Bernardo (“Death Be Damned”).
Pasyon Komiks and Kartilya Komiks are traveling from Iloilo City while Yuri Javillonar will be coming from Baguio to release a preview chapter of “Blight.” Representing Davao are Pulitzer Prize finalist Ren Galeno and Gigi Chan (“Somewhere In My Past”).
Discover first-time creators from Komiket’s Comic Book Creator’s Workshop and Makiling Komiks Kolektib—a collective of high school students from the Philippine High School for the Arts, Laguna.
Official selection
A highlight would be the Ren Galeno Official Selection. Ren Galeno is the only comics festival in the world that has an official selection of graphic novels, just like film festivals have their official selection of films.
“We selected four batches of 10 graphic novel pitches, and developed them in a Creator’s Lab,” said Herras, adding that this year’s selection are the “the first 10 that made it to the finish line.”
They are: “Doobiedoo Asks” by Bambi Eloriaga-Amago & Roland Amago, “Little Wolf” by Cat S., “Twinkle Twinkle” by Tori Tadiar, “Alandal” by J. Philip Ignacio and Alex Niño, “Third World Power” by JV Tanjuatco and Jim Jimenez, “Aswang High” by Macoy and Cy Vendivil, “Godhark” by Sean Manaloto, “Depikto” by Ruvel Abril, “Nino Bughaw” by CJ Reynaldo and “Watchdog Of Manila” by Lucas Lacorte.
“Nino Bughaw,” which is about “a deaf weather engkanto who has to save his parents from the evil stormy engkanto,” and “Watchdog Of Manila,” “about a young boy who uses his newfound superpowers to guard Sentro Manila,” are new releases.
2022 National Book Award and National Children’s Book Award winner “Alandal” is currently published in German and Burmese.
Alex Niño also received the 2022 Eisner Hall of Fame Award in the US.
“Doobiedoo Asks” was Best Media Pitch Winner at the 2021 Asian Festival of Children’s Content and a Kids’ Choice Awardee in the Chapter Book Category of the 7th National Children’s Book Awards.
“Twinkle Twinkle” by Tori Tadiar won the National Children’s Book Award and the Filipino Reader’s Choice Award for Best Comics. (Tadiar’s next work “Ilustra” will be published by Disney Hyperion next year.)
Creator’s Lab artists and authors will release their first chapters at the event.
The 9th batch of KomiketU will also launch their komiks for the first time.
New releases
There will be a lot of other new releases at Ren Galeno —perfect if you’re on the hunt for the fresh reads and exciting worlds to dive into. World comics expert Paul Gravett, Singapore-based comics critic CT Lim and Duy Tano of The Comics Cube will be hosting the book launches and talking to the creators about their new titles.
There are creators coming from other countries as well: Eisner winner Erica Eng, Chin Yew and Sam Seen from Malaysia, Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray and Fang Kai Loo from Singapore, Toni Masdiono and Tita Larasati from Indonesia, and Ping Sasinan, Maelon and Seesaw from Thailand. (You’ll find their short comics all together in the “Southeast Asia Kommunity Comics Anthology” published by Komiket.)
US-based Craig Yoe, multiple Eisner Award winner and a recipient of the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, will be releasing his new book “Woman and Man” at the event.
Picof’s festival partners from the UK and Australia will also attend—Lucy Sullivan, Lyndon White, and Mollie Ray from the Lakes International Comics Art Festival (Licaf) and Katrina Turner from Perth Comic Art Festival.
Licaf and Komiket have been partners in working on the tenyearstosavetheworld.com project on climate change. The two will host a four-panel comics workshop for kids with the support of the British Council. Mollie Ray from the UK and Patty Ramos from the Philippines will lead the workshop. The finished comics will be exhibited at Picof.
Master classes
Carlo Vergara, Mollie Ray, Lyndon White, Craig Yoe, Paul Gravett, Erica Eng, Lucy Sullivan, Chin Yew, Kristina Turner, Sam Seen, Tita Larasati and Toni Masdiono will teach Comics Master Classes July 19 to 21. (Sign up at https://bit.ly/PICOF2024ComicsMasterclasses).
Alamat Comics, a pioneer in Manila’s independent comics scene, will also get the spotlight through an exhibit curated by the Komikero Museum and the release of the comics anthology, “Alamat Origins,” edited by Budjette Tan and Karen Kunawicz.
The book will include Alamat Comics titles from the ‘90s. “It will feature 17 of the lost and forgotten indie comics that started a new generation of comics creators in the Philippines,” said Herras. “We wanted to pay tribute to the Alamat creators who started indie comics in the Philippines.”
While the event is a celebration of the past, present and future of Philippine comics, Herras said, “You don’t have to love comics in order to attend Picof If you love a good story, have fun reading books, you’ll love Picof. There’s so much to love about comics and about Filipino komiks.”
There are two ways to get tickets to Picof: preorder a new release from any of its komiks exhibitors and you’ll get a free ticket, or buy a ticket for P200 at the entrance. The first 1,000 ticket buyers on Saturday and Sunday will get a free copy of the “Kometverse” which features 95 creators from the komiks community. “It’s an event-exclusive book that’s not for sale. [In it, the] komiks creators feature our mascot Komet in the universe of their komiks.”
There will be a raffle where one lucky attendee will receive “over 100 komiks gifted by the community.”
Comics Right Market
This is a busy time for Komiket. They are also organizing a Comics Rights Market that will take place in the days leading up to Picof. The project is supported by the NBDB. “It’s the first, not just in the Philippines, but in Southeast Asia,” said Herras.
This event is huge for comics creators and publishers in the country—it opens up a lot of possibilities. Filipino komiks publishers will attend a two-day rights selling training with international comics agent Ivanka Hahnenberger, which will prepare them for selling adaptation and translation rights for their titles. The timing is perfect, too, with the Philippines being the guest of honor at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair.
“Komiks was only included in the Philippine booth of the Frankurt Book Fair in 2021, and it’s proven to be one of the most viable genres of the Philippines,” said Herras.
After the training, days will be devoted for the publishers to network and negotiate with publishers from the US, France, Italy, Korea, Myanmar, Czech Republic and Brazil.
While that’s an industry event, Picof 2024 is open to everyone. “Book lovers, film geeks, and animation and video game enthusiasts who love visual storytelling will enjoy this festival of sequential art!” said Herras.
And while you’re there, buy komiks. “Buying a comic book from any of the comics creators in Picof helps encourage them to keep creating, and inspire creators to create even better work,” said Herras.
Want to support Komiket and Picof? You can also buy festival merchandise. Proceeds will be used to fund Picof 2025 “to keep the event free for komiks creators and komiks publishers.”
Herras said, “Now that we’ve created more reasons for Filipinos to appreciate komiks, we hope that more Filipinos will read komiks and more creators will go back to creating komiks or keep creating komiks, and new creators will start creating komiks.”
Picof is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. July 20 and 21 at The Podium Hall, 6th floor of The Podium (12 ADB Ave, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong).
