celebrating the media

Thanks to Pauline for pointing out the online link and to everyone who called and said "Hey Dean! Nasa Inquirer ka, with a picture on a couch!".

The reporter tried to distill everyone's talks and presentations (which took the entire day, by the way) into pithy paragraphs that did not exactly get things right. For example:

In "Out From Under: Voices of Independent Media," Dean Francis Alfar of Kestrel Studios talked about his passion for comic books. The man behind the comic book hits --"Darna" and "Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah" said the youth is starting to again appreciate Grafiction (graphic fiction).

I am not responsible for the success of Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah (that's my buddy Carlo Vergara, of course) nor Mango Comic's Darna (that's Zach Yonzon and YES - by the way, we'll see you at the National Book Awards next week, Zach, with fingers crossed for both Siglo: Freedom and Darna!). And El should be happy because his term "grafiction" may have entered the critical (if not popular) language.

But my stand on the proliferation of manga-style comics was made quite clear:

"Manga is very popular among the young," he said. But Filipinos don't love their own, he complained, as they have neglected their own "komiks," whose illustrators have become the toast abroad. We shouldn't let this happen, he said.

Of course, I said a lot more (including a softer anti-manga stand in the context of artistic cycles and popular influences) but again, any opportunity to talk about grafiction is a chance to expose more people to the thing we love.

Give me a podium and I'll speak forever.