Share this
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Yahoo
Googlize this
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
More than half a century after it was first serialized in Pilipino Komiks, Francisco V. Coching's masterpiece El Indio comes back to life in all its black-and-white glory.
Restored by Gerry Alanguilan and Zara Macandili from newsprint, the sequel to Francisco V. Coching's Sabas, Ang Barbaro (1952) will be launched on October 18, 2009, 2:00 p.m.at the Fifth Annual Filipino Komiks Convention (Komikon), which will, for the first time, be held outside the University of the Philippines at SM Megamall's Megatrade Hall 1.
El Indio, which originally came out as a komiks serial in 1952 and 1953, will, for the first time, be released as a full-length graphic novel. The book features new material including a foreword by the artist's widow Filomena N. Coching, never-before-reprinted silent art pages, an expanded character list, and the vivid recoloring of the original series cover art, making it the ultimate collector's item.
“The field of vision within every frame is deep, and the line is charged. The life force and confidence of form do not wane, the Tagalog is lofty, and the intricacy of cultural furniture very adept,” art critic Patrick Flores praised what has been said to be among Coching's best work.
Artist Leinil Francis Yu agrees, saying “One only needs to study Coching's work in El Indio to fully grasp realistic yet dynamic figure drawing and layout.” The novel, Yu added, is “One of komiks' best, ever.”
The graphic novel will be launched to great fanfare. The book's publisher Gaspar A. Vibal, Executive Director of the Vibal Foundation, will make an appearance at the event, as will members of the Coching family. Comics virtuoso Gerry Alanguilan will detail the painstaking process that he and Zara Macandili went through in restoring Francisco V. Coching's sinuous lines and dramatic shading from decades-old newsprint.
“This [book] is merely a glimpse of what we have had in our history,” Alanguilan wrote in the novel's introduction. “There is so much more that many of us have yet to see. I hope this is the start of our recovery of an art form that has too long been left by the wayside.”
The book was published by Vibal Foundation, Inc. (VFI) with permission from the Francisco V. Coching Foundation. For more information about the book, VFI may be reached at 712-2722 or 712-9156.
Photo: Cover image for El Indio, restored by Gerry Alanguilan and Zara Macandili.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
