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The first thing that attracted my attention to Freely Abrigo's "Kapitan Tog #1" was the cover, particularly the distinctive art style. The smoothly rendered image of the silly, muscle-bound superhero was a good representation of the komik itself: a light-hearted, slapstick comedy which not everyone might appreciate, but which had a style and polish that could not be ignored.
The polish is evident from both the packaging and the artistic style. Where many komiks are handicapped by bad production values, Kapitan Tog #1 (of 3) shines-literally, with a glossy full color cover which allows the simple cover design and streamlined art to pop out at the reader. As for the art style, Abrigo's is unique in komiks at the moment, as least insofar as I am aware.
The most common artistic styles in comics (and komiks) today are the realistic style and the manga (or manga-influenced) style. The realistic style of artwork attempts to create pictures which hew close to how things really look (or would look), photographs created by the artist's hand rather than by a camera. You can trace the current contours of this style back to at least the time of Neal Adams and--particularly in superhero comics--there is still a trend towards photorealism that is typified by artists like Steve McNiven, Alex Ross and Greg Land (at the extreme end of that spectrum). The manga style originated from Japan and owes its current state of ubiquity to the widely popular comics from Japan, many of which form the basis of anime shows that retain much of the art style of the original manga versions (in contrast, American superhero properties never retain their photorealistic comics styles when they make the leap to animation).
On the cover of Abrigo's "Kapitan Tog", however, the titular protagonist--obviously a caped superhero--was rendered in a style that fell into neither of the most common artistic categories, but immediately put me in mind of the art of Sergio Aragonés, creator of "Groo the Wanderer", and well-known artist for MAD magazine. While Aragonés' most popular series, Groo, possessed both dialogue and exposition that went hand in hand with the art, Aragonés was also a master of wordless comic humor (as can be seen through his works "Louder Than Words" and "Actions Speak") due large part to how expressive he could make his characters expressions, and how much information his art could convey in a single scene. While not--at least in this issue--a fan of populated, complicated scenes, like Aragonés', creating art that tells a story without words is an ideal which Abrigio aspires to as well. This can be seen from the "About the Artist" blurb at the back of this issue, which states that "Freely likes his comics to be tagged as 'less talk, lot of action'… In the facial expression of his character, we'll be able to know what the creator wants to share…"
Abrigio's cartoony, exaggerated artwork lends itself well to word-less humor comics. His characters move in dynamic arcs and have distorted and expressive faces which make their state of mind, if not the shape of their actual thoughts, clear without the need to resort to a single line of dialogue. It helps that, at least as of this issue, the plot is simple, light-hearted, and linear: a chase scene where Kapitan Tog--a superhero with the traditional Superman-ish power set of flight, invulnerability and strength--attempts to apprehend a pair of bank robbers making an escape, only to be foiled repeatedly by… well, the fact that Kapitan Tog is about as smart as he looks.
That the humor is slapstick should not come as a surprise given Kaptian Tog's appearance on the cover--he looks like the Tick with an ounce or two less sanity. I'm half convinced that the good Kapitan derives his name from the sound his invulnerable noggin makes as it crashes against one obstacle after another. This komik isn't Kapitan Tog's debut, as he previously appeared in the short-lived revival of Funny Komiks, and in "Ang Kahibangan ni Kapitan Tog". That the character is appealing can be gleaned not only from his multiple series, but from the numerous nominations Kapitan Tog has received--he was nominated in the Komiks Character of the Year category in the Komikon Awards of 2009, and his komik was nominated for the Grassroot Award.
While the silent slapstick humor may not appeal to everyone, few faults can be found with Abrigo's artwork and overall execution of his vision for the character. Looking at the artwork in previous incarnations of the character in Funny Komiks, and "Ang Kahibangan ni Kapitan Tog", it's clear that Abrigo's artwork has dramatically improved. Certainly there are portions of "Kapitan Tog #1" where the flow of the action is less clear than it should be (in one panel of the sixth page, it isn't clear if the Kapitan is running, jumping or flying), a problem which one can ill afford in a wordless comic, these instances are rare. Abrigo's clean and distinctive style is already at the point where I'd certainly place him at the upper echelon of distortion-heavy cartoonists in komiks today. A variety of perspectives, "camera" tricks (a panel showing the flying Kapitan Tog as framed by a sideview mirror), and little humorous details (the way one of the bank robbers grips his gun with a raised pinky, like a conservative aristocrat sipping tea) show the care Abrigo brings to every panel. It's why Abrigo is well respected in the field (see profiles here and here), and why he and his works have received critical success: in 2009 same year, Kapitan Tog received the twin Komikon nominations, Abrigo's other creation, Kulas, was also nominated for Komiks Character of the Year and Abrigo himself was nominated for Best Cartoonist of 2009.
"Kapitan Tog #1" is not groundbreaking work, nor does it possess laugh-out-loud humor. It is, however, a pleasure to the eyes, a showcase of one of our best cartoonists at the top of his game, and certainly worth the price of admission. It seems that this three-part series may be Abrigo's attempt at telling a more complex/unique story with the Kapitan (the final panel indicates something sinister may be afoot) and I'd welcome the chance to see Abrigo spread his wings wider with something more ambitious.
[Image source: Freely Abrigo's Multiply page. Copyright holder/s maintain appropriate rights.]
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