The Philippine Online Chronicles

Some analyses on the mastery of form of Francisco V. Coching’s El Indio

I always find it strange to be constantly and continuously reminding people that komix is art, that komix is lit, as, being from a generation and lineage that grew up around komix, it being art and lit was already a done deal – moot and academic – even before I was born. Perhaps, however, people always need reminding lest we forget. So we get books like Francisco V. Coching's El Indio (Vibal Publishing, 2009), which is quite possibly the one book of this millennium's first decade that will be universally loved and praised by komikeros and critics alike, although for what reasons, exactly? Is it one of those books that we automatically love and praise because it's a classic, an artifact from what is generally considered by most fans and practitioners as the Golden Age of Pinoy Komix, drawn in that distinctly classic/al "Pinoy" way? Do we love it and praise it because it's komix that is quite obviously unabashedly art and lit? Do we love it and praise it because of its inherent historical value? And it definitely has historical value, as most komikeros will see this book once again as impetus for a sermon on how much contemporary komix are without a relevant sense of artistic history. Unfortunately for most contemporary komix, the sermons will be right, and right on the money.

Most contemporary komix are being produced under a mindset teetering between historical vacuum and polybagged nostalgia: some will champion Tony De Zuñiga for co-creating Black Orchid and Jonah Hex, but will not have read or cared for any of those titles prior to the assertion of said trivia, or will at least maybe know of Orchid and Hex for their revisionist GenX/Y periods, I.e., not the De Zuñiga era, which ought to be the relevant area of discussion; most will readily speak their opinion of Alex Niño and Nestor Redondo – that eternal push-me-pull-you struggle between fantastic/impressionist and realist/representational – but none will have seen or read any relevant Niño or Redondo piece, and will in fact be actually more informed about the Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko comparative analysis of bombastic and paranoiac art.

How many people today have actually read a Mars Ravelo – Nestor Redondo Darna komix? Much acclaim has been given to the fact that it was a komix first before everything else, and yet most of what we know of Darna today is based on the various movies and TV shows and not on the actual komix themselves, a fact that is continued to be downplayed by what passes for komix criticism here. How different would our opinions be of Carlo Caparas if what we know of his art is based on his komix work – the true area of contention – and not on his movies? How much of the actual Caparas Hate was actually informed and researched opinion of his art and not just, although arguably well-deserved, ad hominem bandwagoning?

The situation is thus because the relevant texts have never been made accessible, either for entertainment or scholarly perusal. Our opinions and knowledge of these texts are actually founded on prefabricated hand-me-downs from self-appointed vanguards of the industry (“industry” = “not the art form”) rather than actual informed ideas based off of actual art appreciation. We have faith in the self-appointed vanguards being more intellectually and morally knowledgeable about art than we are, but once we actually read what they say about art, we are crestfallen to find that the self-appointed vanguards are far more clueless about it than we are, their various rationales more self-aggrandizement than art analyses.

One of the more resounding names suggested as far more deserving of a National Artist Award during the Caparas Fiasco was Coching’s, and with the release of the El Indio album – and a forthcoming hardcover retrospective of his artworks both sequential and “fine” – we now get to see first-hand exactly why Coching ought to deserve such a place in the history of art.

Next: The "slippery" discussion of komix as art and lit. and The "curious" development of a mature idiom at an early stage in the development of the art of komix.

Cover image of El Indio from VFI archives. Some rights reserved.

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