SPECIAL GUEST PROFILE:

Name: Joanah Tinio-Calingo
Age: 32
Course & School: Bachelor of Fine Arts Visual Communications, UP Diliman
List of Works:

• Cresci Prophecies: Book of Arcen (indie)
• D-koi Junkie (Manila times)
• Curtains for Hire (indie)
• Empress 9 (indie)
• Digmaang Salinlahi (one chapter, indie)
• Blind Beauty (film scriptwriter)

1) When did you start making comics?
I started doing comic studies (for Cresci Prophecies) way back 1996, but only got around to making a comic I can actually sell around 1999. That’s was back in my college days.

2) How did you begin making comics as a profession?
It’s still a hobby until now, but I was offered to be a contributor for Manila Times for a short period of time. I also made a comic manual about rice planting for IRRI long ago.

I’ve also been hired several times for children’s comic workshops ever since I’ve practiced doing comics.

3) If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing now?
I’d probably be helping out in my family’s guitar string business as a worker. I’ve been doing that when I was younger.

4) Is it a big deal being a female artist?
Over here, it is. Even in features, it’s always a surprise when a girl is making their mark in whatever field. I don’t know why, but it seems we always have to prove to people what women are capable of doing. And it’s no different in the art field.

I know very few professional comic artists here sa Pinas, and it’s still quite dominated by guys. Besides reading works by male artists, it’s also nice to read something written and drawn by women who cater to both male and female readers.

5) Any advice to female artists, or aspiring young artists?
Practice whenever you can, draw whenever you can, make time for your art. Draw whatever you like, and don’t let other people tell you to stop. Work around your mood swings and expose yourself to as many art forms as you can. Transfer your charm onto paper. 😉

SPECIAL GUEST PROFILE:

Name: Hazel Manzano
Age: 30
Course & School: Bachelor in Fine Arts, UP Diliman
List of Works:

• Callwork: A Call Center Life (serialized in Manila Bulletin)
• Proud Callboy (Callwork 2)
• Dra. Yap: A True story about a doctor who unknowingly joined Satanism (indie comics)
• Contributor in Komikero Anthology Komiks and Boink Comics

1) When did you start making comics?I started making comics in 2006. I have been in the call center industry and was amazed by the bloopers and all. I decided then to document all my experience and my co-workers. I thought of making it into a book since I noticed that my colleagues often read during their idle. I thought that comic strip would be the most effective media for bloopers mixed with dark reality of the corporate life.

2) How did you begin making comics as a profession?
When Manila Bulletin published Callwork in 2007. Prior to that, it was just internally through our company magazine and my blog.

3) If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing now?
Still the same…working… but probably more dedicated to my day job hehe!  Currently working as a call center workforce manager.

4) Is it a big deal being a female artist?
I guess it is  big deal if you make comics showing more of our culture and turning comics into a higher art form. I said that because a lot of ladies have this mentality that comic is “childish” and tends to draw more on childrens book (to show their maternal instinct and mentorship maybe).

5) Any advice to female artists, or aspiring young artists?
Never think of making comics just for money or fame. A lot of young people I talk to wanted to make comics for these reasons.

You are just gearing yourself up for failure. I make comics because I feel the need to tell the world about the reality of being a call center employee and hoped that this would change the way they look at us.  Back then a lot of people had these thinking that call center is for the dum dum and what have you. I hope they really changed their minds after reading Callwork.

A few years after Callwork, I started making other comics to tell stories that I think it is important for me.

SPECIAL GUEST PROFILE:

Name: Elizabeth T. Chionglo
Age: going on 60
Course & School: Fine Arts Major in Advertising, University of Santo Tomas
List of Works:

• Nini Liit, 1981, People’s Journal, Tempo
• Tres Chicks, 1983, Ptyk
• Pipo, 1985, Manila Bulletin (Sunday)
• Bobita, 1986, Manila Chronicle, Manila Standard
• Madam Bola, 1987, Bongga
• Loveknots, 1988, Phil. Daily Inquirer

1) When did you start making comics?
In 1976 for an inhouse newsletter of a government office.

2) How did you begin making comics as a profession?
After college, and after failing in all my job applications, i made some comic strips as my last resort. The newspaper editor suggested some changes and told me to come back. But i found a job and forgot all about the comics until two years later. I submitted my comics again just to find out what the editor of another publication thought of my work. After 3 weeks of follow-ups, my first comic strip nini liit appeared in people’s journal.

3) If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing now?
I’ll be a housewife.

4) Is it a big deal being a female artist?
I don’t know.

5) Any advice to female artists, or aspiring young artists?
Love and draw with passion while still young.

SPECIAL GUEST PROFILE:

Name: Aileen P. Casis
Age: 28
Course & School: AB Mass Communication / Trinity University of Asia
List of Works:

• Luvstruck; Potpourri comic strips (The Manila Bulletin comics section)
• Scenes we’d like to see… (Mwahaha! humor magazine)
• Con N’ Vic (Boink! comics)
• Cartoon illustrations (Sports Digest magazine)

1) When did you start making comics?
I have a pretty wild imagination when I was a kid and I’ve always been interested in reading books w/ lots of pictures. I never really attempted on making comics when I was young, although I remember reading stacks of comic books and drawing Garfield cartoons as early as 6 or 7.

In 2002, Manila Bulletin editorial cartoonist Norman Isaac saw my drawing skills and gave me an article to sketch. When my first cartoon came out in the front page of the lifestyle section, I was ecstatic. Since then, I started drawing cartoons/comic illustrations to supplement articles for the lifestyle section.

I work mainly as a graphic/layout artist and I consider cartooning as a hobby. My interest in reading, being highly observant, and creating funny scenarios in my head perhaps got me into the cartoon world. The ability to draw was secondary.

2) How did you begin making comics as a profession?
In 2005, Manila Bulletin added a second page to its comic section. Cartoon editor Roni Santiago offered me a slot to do spot cartoons. I thought it was ok because I will only be contributing once a week, so I gave it a shot. My first comic panel was called ‘Luvstruck,’ where animate objects would fall in love with inanimate ones. I got tired of the whole concept so I created another comic strip called ‘Potpourri.’ It’s also a one-panel cartoon, w/o dialogues and w/ no main characters.

3) If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing now?
I’d probably be a gag writer or a curator.

4) Is it a big deal being a female artist?
Women cartoonists are not different from men in terms of creativity, sense of humor. Signe Wilkinson won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, also for Lynn Johnston, who was the first woman to win the Reuben Award. Women artists may be discriminated in terms of employment, but not in producing excellent materials.

5) Any advice to female cartoonists, or aspiring young artists?
Follow your humorous bent. Read a lot. Draw inspiration from other artists. Stand on your head for ideas and don’t let your ovaries be a hindrance in making prize-winning cartoons.

Meet the following beautiful and talented Filipina ladies!

For this 3rd Summer Komikon, we are giving tribute to the women of comics and cartoons. Continue reading “Special Guests: Women Artists”