from BusinessWorld Online:
Posted on 04:54 PM, February 16, 2010
BY SAM L. MARCELO, Reporter

Komiks relief

In the 1950s, Philippine visual culture was shaped by the twin forces of Carlos 'Botong' Francisco’s sweeping murals and the well-thumbed pages of Francisco Coching’s comic books. Although found on opposite sides of the high art-low art divide, both were modernists who imbued their work with an epic sense of history.

An exhibit at the National Museum titled Telling Modern Time maps out the intersections in the lives of the two men and fleshes out their influence on popular culture. Unlike Botong, who was posthumously named National Artist in 1973, Coching never received the award despite being nominated twice. Even more problematic is the fact that Carlo J. Caparas received the honor in 2009, partly for comic books that he wrote but did not illustrate.

'Coching was very rare,' said curator Patrick Flores, citing that the 'one-man Komiks-making machine' was a triple threat who wrote, illustrated, and �” later on �” adapted his work to film. His career, which spanned from 1934 to 1974, included 61 titles, a majority of which became star-studded box-office hits: there was Fernando Poe Sr. in Hagibis; Pancho Magalona in Barbaro; and Rita Gomez in Maldita.

Mr. Flores, who also edited The Life and Art of Francisco Coching (a book released in conjunction with the exhibit), added that the illustrator’s comic books were ideal movie templates since their panels already possessed a cinematic quality that allowed images to jump off the page.

'His perspective was dynamic and even his use chiaroscuro was very dramatic,' the curator said, citing detailed frames filled with contorted bodies. 'The heart of his work was drawing and his main element was the line, which had to express movement and sound.'

The pages of Coching’s novels are filled with mythical archetypes that captured the imagination of the common folk. 'It was like he offered an alternate universe for them to understand their condition �” an allegorical fantasy that made people fully grasp where they were.'

The exhibit includes reproductions of comic book covers and inside pages, film posters and clips, sketches, and memorabilia. Apart from popularizing heroic Filipino iconography that was characteristic of the post-war era, Coching’s stories contributed to the spread of Tagalog as a national language. His anatomically precise figures, too, provided inspiration for young artistic talents in the provinces who had no access to formal training.

The self-taught illustrator toiled endlessly and was always on a deadline to produce. 'More than genius, there was a devotion to craft,' said Mr. Flores. 'Coching set a high benchmark and he did more for his discipline than anyone else. His consistency of quality was truly remarkable.'

Despite the mass-produced excellence of Coching’s original serials, no one collected popular art in the same manner that Botong’s paintings were. However, archives do exist thanks to 'connoisseurs of comics' who possess a cult-like devotion to Coching’s work.

Recently, El Indio, the 1952 sequel to Barbaro, was reprinted as a graphic novel containing all 35 episodes that were formerly released as five-page installments every two weeks.

Placing Coching, the comic book illustrator, side-by-side with Botong, a muralist whose legacy is unquestioned, raises issues about how 'art' and 'culture' are supposed to be defined.


'It’s good to have them both here because it unsettles conventional thinking,' said Mr. Flores. 'They become equivalent expressions.'


TELLING MODERN TIME is on view until April at the National Museum, T. Valencia Circle corner Finance Rd., Manila. The Life and Art of Francisco Coching, on the other hand, is available at Vibal Publishing House Inc., National Bookstore, and
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Komiks relief