Comics: Bravos ~ Cebu: Recruitment

Story by: Elbert Or

Illustrated by: Cy Vendivil and Jem Bernaldez

Studio Salimbal

(3/5 ★★★☆☆)

"Everyone wants to be a Bravo... except for Lea. She just wants to live a normal life, or rather, help her family get back to living a normal life after a devastating typhoon. But is refusing really an option, especially when the famous hero Pedro Pilandok comes to recruit her personally?"

The Good:

The story focuses on how the Bravos are helpful in our society whenever a natural calamity arises.

In Cebu, we were introduced to Pedro Pilandok and Lea Perrin, whose powers were super speed and the power to project oneself into animals respectively. Lea's power can be compared to Marvel's Professor X due to his ability to control people by entering the mind except that its the birds' mind whom she enters.

The villain, Bigatin, was a bit interesting but seems to have a lower power ranking in comparison to the villain in the Bravos ~ Manila story.

One remarkable idea that was made in this issue was regarding Maharlika High. It's being molded to be like the Philippine Military Academy version for training superheroes. The story ends with the mention of the continuation of the story in a Maharlika High comic.

The Bad:

The most troubling thing with the things introduced to us is mostly Maharlika High. It appears to be another school that aims to train gifted super powered individuals. The same plot of training them in order to fully develop their capabilities and be of use to the society in the future is hinted. The challenge will be on how to make Maharlika High's story be unique to schools such as Hogwarts and Xavier's School to name a few.

The Verdict:

As the Bravos universe expand, this one-shot story which presents how each bravos came to be picked was great. The cliff hanger of having a Maharlika High story looks a bit of a gamble. Depending on how that story would be told could determine the future interest of readers to that story arc.

Overall, the Bravos is still an interesting world created by Studio Salimbal. Elevating the police force of the country to be in the hands of the supers sure does change the landscape for different possibilities with regards to the security and safety in our country.

The preview could be seen at:

Studio Salimbal Comics: Bravos: Cebu

More of Studio Salimbal can be seen at:

http://www.salimbalcomics.com

Anthology: Buhay Ang Baston! ~ The 1st Philippine 24-Hour Comic Book Challenge

Created by: Jamie Bautista, Jonas Diego, Rex Espino, Jac Ting Lim and Elbert Or

Edited by: Jean Paul C. Zialcita and Niña Rica Marie L. Terol

Nautilus Comics

(4.4/5 ★★★★☆)

"Five Creators.

Twenty-Four Pages.

One Day.

"The creators whose work you see here should be applauded, not just for the stories they created but for their dedication. They chose not just to participate in culture by creating the comics but also to honor their culture and traditions with their topics. On top of all that, they chose to work against a clock, to create the risk of not just artistic failure but of failing to meet the 24 hour challenge. Even an artist who fails the challenge should be applauded for taking the risk, because it's only through taking risks that success can be found." - Nat Gertler, from the Foreword"

The Good:

The five stories did a great job of incorporating the Kali and/or Arnis in every story. We were given some good action sequences, a nearly silent comic, a love story, a revenge story and a cultural awareness themed story.

The best among the five would be Tiwalag by Elbert Or. Given the circumstance wherein this comic was made, under the pressure of 24 hours, it was really well executed. A very short insight of our history, a legend regarding a dragon and the bakunawa, and a critical view of the cultural identity of Filipinos was told very easily in 4 parts before weaving it all together to present to us a great story.

The Bad:

The story that didn't do well was the 1st story, Galera. The fight scenes of this story were great and very detailed compared to the action scenes of the other stories. However, the story might not get the interest much of the reader for reasons such as; what was the purpose of the octopus? Is it often sent by the sea princess or queen to attack people on land?

The Arnisadora story, whose dialogues were no longer finished being written due to time constraints, might have worked better if it was presented completely as a wordless comic book. The story would probably do better without the initial dialogues that had been written. A detailed illustration of the expressions of the characters might have been a better way of telling the story.

There was some bad editing regarding the placement of the 1st Snapshot segment in this anthology. Its placement destroys the climactic fight scenes of the Galera story.

A typo was also left uncorrected on the foreword of this anthology.

The Verdict:

Buhay Ang Baston proudly shows the results of the 1st Philippine 24-hour comic book challenge. It gives recognition to the artistic competency of the five challengers who emulated the Filipino martial arts of Kali and Arnis into their stories.

They further proved that fighting with sticks will always be an interesting story to tell.

"What we do is bring out things that have been waylaid over time. Stories that have been forgotten.

What we do is bring them out in the open, show people what we once were, what we still can be."

* Breakdown of Rating:

★☆☆☆☆ -

★★☆☆☆ - 

★★★☆☆ - Galera

★★★★☆ - Arnisadora

★★★★★ - Kali Island, Ang Huling Laban, Tiwalag

Comics: The Life and Death of Amorsolo Esperanza, Faith Healer of Talinhaga

Illustration and Story by: Elbert Or

(5/5 ★★★★★)

"A sprawling narrative about history and remembrance, faith and destiny, love and death."

The Good:

The story was amazing. It was really well written. Partnered with clean, simple and smooth illustrations, this comic book was worth it to be picked up, bought and read.

The Bad:

None that I could think of so far, given the circumstances of how this comic book was made.

The Verdict:

This has been a very entertaining comic book created in less than 24 hours. Given its autobiographical type of storytelling, the creator has managed to make Amorsolo Esperanza as realistic as possible through the inclusion of some bits of our Philippine history in the story, such as World War II, Martial Law, and EDSA People Power Revolution.

Ultimately, it manages to convey its story of faith and love through the eyes of the faith healer of Talinhaga.

The preview could be seen at:
Studio Salimbal Comics: The Life and Death of Amorsolo Esperanza