COMIC books hold an undeniable significance in the lives of people, whether you are born during the 1820’s “Glasgow Looking Glass” or the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC.
It has become the instrument that gives life to children’s inspirations, the heroes that they can only dream of and aspire to be.
True, today’s modern technology has made such characters more in motion, livelier, however, it was the comics that first provided them the breath of life, so to speak.
Popular nowadays are the superheroes of Marvel and DC Comics. In fact, DC’s Shazam just recently started showing in cinemas while Marvel’s Avengers Endgame will be shown this April 24.
Although, there are the Japanese comics or as they called “manga,” Korean comics “manhwa,” and the Chinese comics “manhua.”
Philippines also has it fair share of Filipino Komiks like Mars Ravelo’s (who is the King of Philippine Komiks) Darna, Captain Barbell, Dyesebel, Lastikman, and others.
We also have the works of budding Filipino writers and comic artists published by Black Ink, which is among the imprints of Precious Pages Corporation.
In Cagayan de Oro City, though, they also have a local illustration firm that caters graphic novel/comic book illustration services, custom illustration services, animation, video game production, and other graphic design needs.
Scribbles Studio has published several comic books, both western and manga styles, including: Tasyong Bulag, Vreya, Strange Tales, Extinction Ascension, and The Gemini Complex.
“It started four years ago, while I was working on a freelance comic book illustration and I realize na ang akong mga clients from abroad nakadaghan,” JP de la Rama, the founder of Scribbles Studio and a comic book illustrator, said.
“I decided why not create a new studio here [in Cagayan de Oro], especially nga ang Cagayan pa gyud naay talent pero wala kay mga ingon ana nga studio,” he added.
According to De la Rama, he first introduced Scribbles Studio during an event on technological innovation in a mall. He put up a booth and it was there that he got to meet several Kagay-anon artists and comic book enthusiasts.
At first, De la Rama shared, Scribbles Studio focused on creating comic books and illustrations for their clients from outside the country, independent writers who wanted to hire artists to draw illustrations for their stories.
Later, they started making their original comic books and recently, they began doing animations.
“Kami lang sa Cagayan ang nga magkuan og hand drawn animation as some or most or usually animation studios uses 3D,” De la Rama said.
Scribbles Studio, as a venue for Kgaya-anon artists to showcase their creative talent, has been conducting several workshops for people who are interested to learn how to draw and make comic books.
The workshops, called ArtQuest, are being held monthly to train the artists of Cagayan de Oro to become future comic artists, manga artists or animators.
Last month, they began the first session of ArtQuest at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) with talks on the history of comics, the current trends and styles, basic gesture and figure drawing, and the fundamental elements of drawing.
The second session, on the other hand, which occured last April 6, was more on the gesture drawing and drawing human anatomy.
Through their workshops, De la Rama is hopeful that this can help the Kagay-anon artists improve their talent and possibly, in the future, they will create their own artworks, comic books or animations.
Scribbles Studio is on its way to fully establish an application, ScribbToons App, where comic readers can read diverse selection of comics.
Comic creators can also freely tell their stories and share it to the community through the ScribbToons App.
The artists will be the one to produce their own comics and stories to be viewed through their app either weekly or monthly released.
“Among i-integrate sa Cagayan [ang app], pero ang mga artists are from Cagayan. [The stories will be] more on Filipino culture,” De la Rama said.
“So hopefully kanang among gipang-train, mao pud sila ang maka-contribute sa among comic reader app,” he added.
At present, Scribbles Studio has around 10 artists working for comic books and animations.