IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM (How Don Ramon fought the Pinoy bomba sex komiks)

As mentioned previously in this blog’s “Reflections” entries, the coming of the Pinoy “bomba” sex komiks in 1968, seriously challenged the sedate, wholesome and antiseptically self-censored mainstream comics of the era led by Don Ramon Roces’ comics line. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Pinoy “bomba” sex komiks ruled the newsstands.

The first of these bomba komiks: POGI, was a shot in the arm for Filipino komiks readers who, since 1947, were used to the self-censored, family-friendly and conservative comics of the era.

Other bomba komiks immediately followed suit in 1968: DYAGAN, TORO, BARAKO, PIL-YEAH! and many others. Mainstream Filipino comics was seriously losing its audience to this new brand of alternative reading fare operating beyond the ambit of the industry’s self-censor regulating body: the APEPCOM (Association of Publishers, Editors of Philippine Comics Magazines).

To recall, APEPCOM’s members adopted word for word, the editorial guidelines known as the “Golden Code” of Don Ramon’s Ace Publications. In short, the editorial policy of one comics company was adopted by (or imposed on) ALL other competing comics companies. The editorial viewpoint of one comics company became the standard of an entire mainstream comics industry.

APEPCOM was conveniently headed by Don Ramon’s right hand man, the so-called “Father of Filipino Komiks”: TONY VELASQUEZ. Any competitor publisher who is a member of the APEPCOM who did not follow its self-censorship code was severely sanctioned. That all changed however, with the coming of the outlaw bomba sex komiks

How did Don Ramon confront this new competition? By making a bomba sex comic of his own, albeit allegedly cleaner and with more intelligence. The name of Ace Publication’s first “clean” bomba sex comic shamelessly appropriated the name of the first Pinoy bomba komik, lamely calling itself: POGI MAGAZINE FOR MEN (PILYO NGUNIT CLEAN FUN!).

Ace’s POGI had R.R. Marcelino as Editor-in-Chief. Contrary however to what was claimed, Ace’s POGI also followed the same format of having sexy pictures of semi-nude women, articles on sex, the bizarre, crime, the supernatural, and comics features on sex. To separate this new “wholesome” innovation from its raunchy competitors, Ace’s POGI was dubbed a MEN’S MAGAZINE and not a bomba komik.

Ace’s POGI was 68 pages, in comics newsprint format, colored photo covers complemented by interior black and white comics pages, short crime stories, articles and photos, and also priced as their competitors at 40 centavos.

But having a similar and competing publication wasn’t enough. Whenever it got the chance, Ace’s POGI lambasted the competition. It had a field day when on one occasion, a huge female student led, anti-smut rally was staged by APEPCOM member Fr. Rizalino Veneracion aided by future “We Forum” editor-in-chief, Jose Burgos. Personalities from the rally then visited the Manila Mayor’s office reporting to then Mayor Antonio Villegas that “pornography” was being sold in the newsstands. Manila Police then began raiding the nearby stalls and kiosks and confiscated many Pinoy bomba komiks titles.

Ace’s POGI lost no time in vilifying the Pinoy bomba komiks publishers within its pages. In one such article written by their “editorial consultant”, the rally and subsequent raid of the smut komiks was celebrated. The consultant further denied the charge that Don Ramon’s POGI staff had something to do with the raid. The same consultant continued to claim that some of POGI’s staff were forced to go to City Hall because its Men’s Magazine was also confiscated by the police. But, he further claimed that since the police found Ace’s POGI to be clean and wholesome, they returned back the confiscated copies. The pertinent portion of that POGI article written in Tagalog by the editorial consultant is herein reproduced in full:

“Bale ba, Pare ko, ikinakalat ng mga dirty publishers and dirty editors na iyan na kami raw na mga taga-POGI magazine ang nagsumbong sa City Hall at nagpasamsam. My God! Pare ko, talaga nga palang pinanlalabo na ng kasakiman sa salapi ang isipan ng mga taong iyan. Pagkat, kailangan pa ba naming magsumbong sa City Hall, e, gayong usap-usapan na sa lahat ng dako ang kababuyan ng kanilang mga magasin…hanggang sa pati ang mga kabataan ay nag-demonstrate laban sa kanila?

Tutoong nagpunta kami sa City Hall, ngunit, ito’y nang mabalitaan naming ang pananamsam ng pulisya sa mga magazine stands, pati itong ating POGI, at pati ang iba pa naming magasing tulad ng SIXTEEN at PILIPINO KOMIKS ay sinamsam na rin. Lahatan na ang ginawang pananamsam ng pulisya. Wala nang pili. At ito’y masama, pagkat ito’y laban sa freedom of the press.

Kaya’t humango kami sa City Hall, at ipinagtanggol naming ang aming mga magasin, na sa mula’t mula pa ay batid ng lahat na responsible at may malasakit sa bayang mambabasa. Bunga nito, binuklat ng mga ospisyales sa City Hall ang aming mga magasin, lalo na ang POGI, at inihambing sa mga dirty komiks at dirty magazines: malinis ang mga ito, on the level, may misyon…at sa POGI ay makasining ang mga pin-up girls at scientific ang pagkakasulat ng mga artikulo tungkol sa sex.

At sa opisyales ng City Hall ay mayroon kaming natuklasan: hindi sila prudish. Mga tunay na lalaki sila. May healthy outlook sila sa sex, at alam nila where art ends and where pornography begins. Kinikilala rin nila na kailangan sa ating kalalakihan ang magkaroon ng MAGAZINE FOR MEN, ngunit sa isang paraang makasining, pilyo nga, ngunit pino, at may maturity ang pagkakasulat ng mga artikulo tungkol sa sex…bagay na siya mismong patakaran ng ating POGI simula pa sa unang labas nito.

Iyan ang tunay na nangyari, at hindi tulad ng ibinibintang sa amin ng mga nasamsaman, na kung sinu-sino ang sinisisi, gayong ang kanilang mga kabulukan ang dapat nilang sisihin.

So, with the blessing of the authorities, na kumikilala sa kagandahan ng misyon ng POGI, magpapatuloy ang magasing ito sa kanyang plataporma na imulat sa kalalakihang Pilipino na ang sex ay malinis, maganda…na ang paksang ito’y hindi na taboo…na maraming problema na may kaugnayan sa kalungkutan o kaligayahan ng isang nilalang, at ang mga ito ay siya naming laging papaksain sa bawat labas ng POGI sa scientific na paraan, tungo sa lalong ikatatatag ng Pamilyang Pilipino na ang pinakahaligi ay ang lalaki.

Sa hanggang dito, Pare Ko. At huwag mo sanang kalilimutan: malapit nang lumabas ang brother na magasin nitong POGI…ang PILIPINO ADONIS. Magazine for men din ito, at tinitiyak ko sa iyong hindi ito iinsulto sa intelligence mo bilang isang binata, o esposo, o ama.

Ang iyong ‘Adre,
MARS RAVELO. “

(Source: from the article: ”Sinamsam ng Pulisya ang malalaswang Komiks at Magazines for Men!” appearing in POGI MAGAZINE FOR MEN (PILYO NGUNIT CLEAN FUN!), Ace Publications, Inc., September 18, 1969, Issue No. 13, p. 15)

Yet, as we fast forward 15 years later to 1984, a very different story emerges totally belying, negating and disproving the above cover-up by Mars Ravelo. In the 1984 edition of “History of Komiks of the Philippines and other countries” published by Don Ramon’s Islas Filipinas Publishing, it disclosed that it was actually APEPCOM who reported the incident to City Hall and moved for the confiscation or raid on the Pinoy bomba sex komiks:

“In the late 1960s, smut komiks appeared—no doubt influenced by the wave of permissiveness then pervading the West and emboldened by the near anarchic-conditions obtaining in the country. Called “bomba” komiks—the “bomba” was euphemistically used for explicit sex graphics --- the publications aroused the ire of concerned citizens and spurred the APEPCOM to move against them. The Association tried to make Manila City Hall to clamp down on the “bomba” komiks. It was a move doomed to fail from the very start; it was to be found out later that certain men close to the authorities were protecting, if not actually financing, the smut publications. The APEPCOM was still battling the “bomba” komiks when martial law was proclaimed in 1972. The smut publishers were immediately arrested by the military, thus ending an ugly chapter in the history of Philippine komiks.” (Emphasis Ours) (From the article: “Pornography in Print” appearing in Cynthia Roxas, et. al., “History of Komiks of the Philippines and other countries”, Islas Filipinas Publishing, 1984 ed., p. 58)

Ace and APEPCOM have one thing in common: Don Ramon Roces.

Though the publishers of the Pinoy bomba sex komiks were arrested, they would resume once more in the early 1980s and well into the 1990s with some of Don Ramon’s other comics companies like INFINITY for example, repeating history anew by putting out “INIT” tauted as a “clean” bomba komik or Men’s Magazine.

With the Roces monopoly now long gone and along with it the mainstream Filipino comics industry, we still see the Pinoy bomba sex komik still alive and kicking in various incarnations as crass, undeveloped, inferior trashy fare in some tabloids, or in the form of a comic surreptitiously passed along beyond the authorities’ sight, and as comics supplements in some Pinoy “Men’s Magazines” today like “Red”, “10” and “18”. Just goes to show you, if you can’t beat ‘em, FORGET IT.

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Carlo J. Caparas and his Komiks Distribution Problem

Carlo J. Caparas’ Pilipino Komiks, Carlo J. Caparas’ Tagalog Klasiks, OFW Super Stories, Gwapo and Super Funny Komiks. 5 weekly, 32 page Filipino comics titles with interior colored pages of serialized and short stories featuring the art of known comics veterans such as Hal Santiago, Steve Gan, and Louie Celerio and the writing of known comics luminaries of the past: Carlo J. Caparas (obviously), Elena Patron, and Gilda Olvidado, all with a print run in the hundreds of thousands and selling at an affordable, price-busting Php 10.00. All were announced to come out simultaneously on September 4, 2007. What could possibly go wrong?

Those who weren’t part of the humongous collective komiks reading experience of the 1970s and 1980s usually put off airs with raised eyebrows saying that the stories and art of these “traditional” mainstream komiks of yesteryear are “old style”, formulaic, dumbed-down, “wholesome”, predictable and done to death. That is their opinion.

With a nationwide population of approximately 84 million and a potential untapped 70 million (largely lower income) 16-64 year old reading populace, there is most certainly a diversity of taste and preference in reading matter and its a sure bet that there is a segment in this vast cosmos of public preference that go for this kind of komiks. Whether it is the biggest segment however, remains to be seen.

Traditional mainstream komiks is a mere specie of the uncatalogued komiks genus that is not only seeking to tap the now acknowledged NOSTALGIA MARKET, one of several new and rising market segments in the Philippines today, but also non-komiks casual readers as well, from all age groups and income classes of society who don’t read or regularly purchase foreign or local comics. And at only Php 10.00, it’s a no-brainer to try and sample one.

Taste and preference in “art” or comics styles are subjective, ever-changing and recurring. The reality is that at any given period of time, what is lousy and trite to one is not so to the other. In the business of comics publishing, it’s the numbers that count. Are the numbers out there to support the business venture to keep it going? Are there more readers who support this allegedly lousy and trite kind of product at any given point in time?

On the assumption that we have a potential market of 70 million CASUAL and functionally literate readers who can read or understand basic Tagalog, a print run of say, 100,000 copies a comics title PER WEK, selling at only Php 10.00, the publisher’s risk is most certainly and safely spread out and apparently minimized.

If you want to sell a few expensive copies of high art or foreign inspired local comics to a discriminating and elite few, the lower income mass market is not for you. But if you’re out to convert more than a million readers who are not comics collectors or connoisseurs into regular readers, then the lower income mass market is the way to go. If you want printed komiks to regain its dislodged number spot in today’s media landscape, then the lower income mass market is for you.

This is what Abante Komiks did a few years back in late 2002. They were gone by 2004. What happened?

Abante, published by Anerto Publishing Corporation, is one of the top three TAGALOG tabloid newspapers circulated nationwide, the other two being Bulgar and Pilipino Star Ngayon. Both are in mixed Tagalog and English, distributed nationally and have a combined circulation of approximately (and conservatively) 1.5 million A DAY.

Abante had more than five genre’ themed comics with titles such as: Abante Thriller, Abante Drama, Abante Horror, Abante presents Xerex Xaviera, Abante Action, Abante Komedi, and Abante Romance.

Like Caparas’ comics, Abante’s comics appeared weekly, were allegedly circulated in the hundreds of thousands all over the country, each title were in 32 pages, neatly and crisply printed in decent newsprint, in color (computerized), and whose creative stable were also sourced from the traditional mainstream comics of Atlas Comics (now owned by the Ramos family of National Bookstore) with artists such as: Louie and Joey Celerio, Rod Manuel, Danny Ocampo, Vic R. Geronimo, Al Abet Chuela, Jess P. Olivares, Baggie Florencio, Elle Ortizluis, Rod Empania Manuel, Manny Pantaleon, Rol Enriquez, and Alfred Pacolor. Their main writers were Ofelia Concepcion, Tristan Lee, Danny Ocampo, Joanne R. Villamar, Geraldine Cornista, Almira Danganan, and Issa Uyco. All were shepherded under the editorial direction of Willie Fatal.

Abante’s Komiks were widely advertised through the Abante news tabloid, in radio, and in Manila, had stickers on newsstands, transport terminals, taxicabs, buses, cars, and jeepneys, announcing their comics line.

Unlike Caparas’ comics however, Abante’s comics contained one finite 32 paged finished story per issue with a price tag of P15.00 (higher by P5.00) and did not benefit from the former’s more intense pre-publicity fueled by Caparas’ being bestowed a National Artist award by President Macapagal in Malacañang for his more than 800 prolific Tagalog comics writing, got support from Joe Lad Santos’ chairing the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, the events leading up to the komiks caravan featured in the more than 5 Tagalog tabloid and magazine publications of Philippine Journalists, Inc. (publishers of People’s Tonite, People’s Journal, Taliba, Insider, etc.), and added exposure on television, radio, and the roving komiks caravan during the 2007 national elections from February to May, 2007.

With such minimal difference between the two enterprises, we now come to the question of WHY Abante’s entire comics line ceased circulation in only about two years of operation?

As previously mentioned, the content, the production side of the operation, is an entirely subjective issue. One man’s junk is another idiot’s “art”. Though some may think otherwise and raise some points to the contrary, the incontrovertible fact is that the production side of comics publishing is not the end all and be all of the whole operation.

Other than production there are other, equally important components to consider: marketing, distribution and collection. So far, Caparas and Co. have now seemed to have hurdled the production and marketing side having partnered with the media and owners of Sterling Paper Corporation. All that remains is distribution and collection. It is here where the present difficulty lies.

Let us begin with the obvious: Carlo Caparas and Co., Anerto Publishing Corp., and National Bookstore do NOT, repeat: do NOT, have their own respective NEWSSTAND/banketa distribution systems. By this we mean that each do not have their own distribution company or corporate division with paid employees handling the matter.

Unlike their 20th century predecessor, the Roceses who monopolized the komiks industry for about 50 years, they started their operations by taking care of independent magazine, newspaper and comics dealers who became loyal to them come hell or high water.

In 1964, after establishing Pilipino Komiks Inc. (PKI), and its office transferred to the garage of Liwayway Publications at Commandante Street in Sta. Cruz, Manila, Don Ramon Roces and co. made this garage area or sector the “traditional drop-off place and pick-up area for Manila agents of practically any publication particularly ALL komiks-magazines (Source: Cynthia Roxas, et. al., “A History of Komiks of the Philippines and other countries”, Islas Filipinas Publishing Co., Inc., 1984 ed., p.29)

In short, that garage area at the Liwayway Magazine Manila office was the spot where Don Ramon’s comics were given preference by his loyal distributors in circulation as against his other competitors who were also dropping off their comics for distribution at the same place. Later, Don Ramon put up his own distribution company: Circulation Service Inc. (CSI) to handle the marketing and distribution of PKI’s revived comics titles at the time: Pilipino Komiks, Tagalog Klasiks, Espesyal Komiks and Hiwaga Komiks. He maintained his hold on the entire industry’s comics distribution system after that.

In the United States during the early years of its mainstream comics industry up to the 1970s, Walt Disney, Dell, Archie, Charlton, Fawcett, EC, Warren, Atlas/Marvel, and National/DC (among others) had their own distribution divisions sometimes even partnering with existing magazine distribution companies specializing in the exclusive distribution of that company’s comics titles nationwide.

Whether it be a formal or informal arrangement, if the comics publisher has a sympathetic, fair and loyal distribution network, he likewise resolves the collection problem. A satisfied distributor is more than willing to turn-over the share of the sales proceeds back to the accommodating publisher.

More than anything else, accommodation by the publisher is crucial. As opposed to the distribution of any print publication, the electronic content of television, radio, and the multi-task celfones of today, rely on airwaves and cable networks to simultaneously transmit in split-seconds, without large-scale human intervention, their electronic content to millions of tv sets, radios and celfone units nationwide.

Distribution of a print publication like comics rely heavily on human intervention: labor. The printed comic book is physically transferred from publisher to distributor to reader which take time and costs money. In transporting the tangible comic book from publisher to reader, one has to pay for (among others) transportation costs, freight, and distributor’s percentage. The party who makes that transfer happen is the distributor, or the newsstand/banketa dealer.

Getting other people to distribute your comics nationwide is no walk in the park. Distributors do not grow on trees. Their service does not happen automatically, especially if they are not even your employees.

To stress: Carlo J. Caparas and Co., Anerto Publishing Corp., and National Bookstore, do NOT have their own respective newsstand/banketa distribution system. How then do they make other people—the various individual dealers and dealers’ associations---to distribute their comics in the ubiquitous newsstands? Answer: by paying them MONEY to do it.

How is money paid? Answer: Usually by the common arrangement of CONSIGNMENT. The publisher physically delivers copies of his comics titles to several distributors who promise the publisher that as soon as an issue is sold, they will—after x period—turn over back to the publisher, in addition to the unsold copies, a percentage of the purchased comics’ cover price.

If the distributor’s percentage share is low and is not even sufficient to cover the expenses for transportation and display of the comics for sale, then there is obviously no deal. There will be little or no distribution that will result. The whole publishing enterprise will fail. This was foreshadowed somewhat during a rainy July 26, 2007 press conference at the NCCA Building in Intramuros, Manila by Carlo J. Caparas who publicly declared that he was entering the komiks publishing field with partner, Sterling Paper Corporation.

The vision and promise were grandiose. His voice near stentorian and passionate with conviction. But as the discussion continued to the NCCA auditorium and the newsstand dealer groups and distributors, mostly from NMACDAP (Newspapers, Magazines, and Comics Deales Association of the Philippines) present allowed to raise questions particularly on how Caparas’ comics were going to be distributed nationwide, a cloud of doubt seemed to have formed even when it was drizzling outside.

Caparas’ mass market and mainstream comics are priced at Php 10.00. When the Caparas panel was asked how much was the percentage share of the distributor from the cover price, the answer given was 20% or Php 2.00 per Php 10.00 copy sold. Php 8.00 went back to the publisher.

The distributors fell silent for awhile until one by one, each began to explain why a 20% percentage share was not enough to even pay for the cost of transportation especially from Manila to the provinces. It was claimed that carrying bales of unsold newspapers should not be overburdened by unsold komiks. Some asked whether Caparas and Sterling were willing to foot the transportation and freightage cost but the latter likewise fell silent and weakly answered that they are still studying the matter. Or so it was claimed.

The Caparas panel soon turned to its Sterling accounting people to help answer the questions while Caparas fell silent on the side; listening. There will be transparency, it was promised. There will be no hoodwinking. Payments will be made through the Philippine National Bank, some sacrifices will have to be made in the first couple of months, and so on.

At that point, some of the distributors got up from their seats and went out of the auditorium one by one, murmuring that they won’t get anything out of this deal.

If it happens that only a relative few distributors decide to carry Caparas’ comics, then it is possible that not many copies will be sold. If Caparas and Co. or the NCCA decide to subsidize the dealers’ transport and other costs, their income earnings will be affected. If Caparas and Co. decide to lower the pay to the creatives or the printing people, they may lose the latter’s services eventually or the quality of the work will suffer. But if Caparas and Co. decide to raise the cover price so the percentage share of the distributors would increase, there may be no buyers.

Your comics may have good story and art but if its not even properly or regularly displayed on the magazine rack, or the buyer can ‘t find it, you lose a sale all because of a distribution problem.

To my mind, Caparas and Co. need not deal with ALL of the distributors and print so many copies in the hundreds of thousands. If they can only afford a Php 2.00 percentage share for distributors then they have every right to maintain that stand. All they have to do is cut down on the initial print run to say, 30,000 to 50,000 copies, and choose only those dealers who are truly committed to helping them achieve national circulation. Let it grow by starting small.

He may not know it, but many people are hoping that Caparas and other mass market based local comics succeed. We don't want another Abante comics snafu. But to do this, one has to meet the distributors' need which is a fair percentage share of the cover price. It may vary from one distributor to the other and entail a lot of work, but that is how it is done.

Of possible help is the experience of the Philippine Daily Inquirer with its nationwide distribution problem. To lessen its distribution costs, it put up printing presses in key cites in the Visayas and Mindanao. As soon as the day's issue is approved on final lay-out, it is simultaneously e-mailed through the internet to its Visayas and Mindanao printing presses thus saving on freight and transport costs by distributor middlemen. Once the day's e-mailed issue is printed in the Visayas and Mindanao printing presses, its distribution people commence the circulation going directly to the point of sale newsstand dealer. Or, nearby dealers go to these presses and pick up the copies for further distribution.

The drawback here however, is that if the comics pages are e-mailed, there is a possible risk of its being infringed or copied by unscrupulous employees or outside third parties. To lessen the risk, perhaps one should consider getting Fidelity Insurance to protect against dishonest and erring employees and also Business Interruption Insurance.

Be that as it may, the distribution aspect of the enterprise should not be belittled or ignored. Distributors are the publisher's broadcast transmitters in human form. If this breaks down, so does the comics publishing enterprise.

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And now for the real thing...

Why wait for the "Buhayin ang Komiks Business Seminar"? Here's an ad in today's Philippine Daily Inquirer about the INSOL Development Foundation, Inc.'s one day seminar series. It starts on August 1, 2007 and if you intend to know the basics of how to start a small business---perhaps a small comics publishing business, not just a "hobby"---, this seminar might help:

DREAMING OF YOUR OWN ENTERPRISE? WE HELP MAKE IT REAL:

INSOL (an advocate of Micro-enterprise) presents the INSOL ENTERPRISE STARTER COURSE

ENROLL NOW!!

Starting August 1, 2007. Call Nalin or Jojo at INSOL Development Foundation, Inc. on: (02) 9112067, 36a Main Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City.

Email: insoladvantage@pldtdsl.net

And for those interested in amplifying whatever is left of their "creativity", especially the traditional oldtimers and the young wannabes at the Komiks Congress, here's another newspaper ad on the subject:

WHAT IF YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO THINK AND GENERATE IDEAS FOUR TIMES FASTER THAN BEFORE? Imagine the transformation it could do your career, business and life! Harness the power of creativity and the ability of conceptualizing innovative ideas for your organization.

MIND-MAPPING: CREATIVE THINKING FOR LEADERS Designed by Tony Buzan

August 9 to 10, 2007 at 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Intercontinental Manila

Tap into your brain's potential and learn now to: Brainstorm better using the Bloom technique and generate 10x more creative ideas! Plan and set goals 4x faster! Multi-task and set priorities with ease! Prepare for presentations and meetings with confidence!

Tony Buzan, holder of the World's Highest Creativity IQ, is the creator of the Mind Mapping thinking technique. To date, Tony Buzan has written over 90 books.

Sign up now and unleash the genius within! Call us at 8302191, 8132732, 09228396807 and ask for Nicole or Juliet. Or email us at nicole@saltandlight.ph. Visit our website at www.saltandlight.ph.

BUHAYIN ANG KOMIKS BUSINESS SEMINAR

In cooperation with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council (BSMED), the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Intellectual Property Office, the KOMIKS CONGRESS OF THE PHILIPPINES present in partnership with the "Ang Galing Mo, Pinoy! Go NEGOSYO" program…

BUHAYIN ANG KOMIKS BUSINESS SEMINAR!

Schedule of Publishing Entrepreneurship Briefing Sessions

PRELIMINARIES
The Comics Medium as an untapped Creative Industry (DTI and NCCA)
Overview of the History of Filipino Komiks as an Industry (NCCA)
Overview of the comics publishing industries of other countries (NCCA)
Present state of the Filipino Komiks publishing business (NCCA)
Why everybody wins through mutual Intellectual Property protection (IPO)
Beginning a free, diverse, and competitive local comics industry (NCCA)

FINANCING
How to secure Loans from Banks (BAP)
--Drafting the Business Plan
Managing your Finances (UP-ISSI)
No-nonsense Credit and Collection for SMEs (PCCI)
Cash Management for Small Business (SB Corp.)
Loans available to SMEs:
--SB Corporation
--Asiatrust Bank
--People’s Credit and Finance Corp. (PCFC)

Grants and Creative Cooperatives

MARKETING
Product Costing and Pricing (PTTC)
Introduction to affordable printing technologies for SMEs (PAP)
Briefing on the state of the Philippine Paper Industry (DTI, PICOP)
Terms of dealers and distributors of print publications (NAMACDAP)
Basic orientation on advertisers’ needs (Adboard)
Introduction to Basic Negotiation skills (RVNarvaez and Associates)

REGULATIONS/INCENTIVES
Terms of a Licensing Contract (LES)
Salient features of the Philippine copyright law (NL)
Trademark E-filing Demo (IPO)
Business Advisory Program (PBSP)
Briefing on Business Support Organization Programs and Services
How to Register a Trade Name and Trademark (IPO)
DTI Business Name Registration (DTI-NCR)
Dealing with BIR (E.G. Registration, Audit, etc.)
(Auditor ng Bayan accredited with DTI)

OTHERS
The Idiot’s Guide to Writing in TAGALOG for a Filipino mass audience
Globalized Filipino comics for DUMMIES
(Briefing Sessions are FREE)

x------------------------------------------------------------------x

Now THAT’S how many people would like to start the ball rolling after all this komiks caravan, art exhibit, roving creativity seminar, message board "What I think of the Komiks Congress", brouhaha is over. It’s a draft seminar program prepared by yours truly on spec. In short, it isn’t real. Not yet, anyway.

The reason why no new innovative and prospective publishers are entering the business is because they don’t know how and where to start. The kind of information they need ISN’T THERE. All they’re getting are useless information from creative, bohemian-minded, "artists" and former komiks employees turned political wannabes, who don’t really know anything about the publishing business and the real world outside of their four paneled "creative" universe. All energies in this great enterprise that was started by Joe Lad Santos are now under threat of being expelled in the rear like some great, big awesome fart.

There is no honest and PROPER information campaign for investors that’s going on. If knowledge is power, then there is a terrible lack of it right now with a lot of potential publisher players left powerless; hands STILL groping in the dark. Its all tilted unfairly towards the production side: creative people concerned about how much their page rates are going to be, creative metaphysical airheads with time to spare engaged in empty, directionless, boneheaded discussions on the internet about how comics "as an artform" can be elevated to a business enterprise (wha?!), uninformed talks centered on the bare conjecture that ONLY one or two "rich" publishers will jumpstart the revival of the industry (sound of toilet flushing), how a moribund and lifeless comics industry can get a TAX EXEMPTION (?!), how the so-called globalized "indies" are trying to promote themselves as saviors of local comics by re-writing Filipino comics history in their favor (sound of TWO toilets flushing), and a bunch of other useless (sometimes COMICAL) parochial verbiage that exasperate you no end. Its like watching the needle on top of the elevator, forever stuck on the 2nd floor while you’re on the ground floor developing a stiff neck. Utang na loob. Please naman.

The awareness and opportunity are still limited to the same tired old faces. After all that great media hype last February down to the May elections, all you have to show for it is MANGO COMICS in cooperation with STERLING PAPER (of all people) doing thousands upon thousands of "Joe D’ Mango’s LOVE NOTES comics"? What’s next? "Mango HOROSCOPE"? More re-hashes of the antiseptically wholesome, dumbed-down, self-censored and safe komiks of the Roces Monopoly that had gone before? Carlo "The Massacre King" Caparas re-doing the monster croc of ‘Talim’? Say it isn’t so.

Where are the other publishers out there who are open-minded, innovative, not into this kind of fluff, and willing to sell their newsprint comics also at Php 10? Why isn’t something being done to empower these faceless potentials with the kind of business knowledge to enter the field? Afraid of the competition?

Love notes, indeed.

Looking for LONG LOST 1950s Filipino Crime Comics

CONTEST TIME!

These days, I've been asked more often about the 1950s Filipino crime comics that served as a catalyst for the self-censorship of local comics. To recall, I wrote in one of my "Reflections" articles about Don Ramon imposing his company, ACE Publications', editorial standards on other comics publishers at the time. The cause was the rise in popularity somewhere between 1950 to 1954, of the Filipino crime comics genre. Manila city councilors of the era were fearful that the violence and suggestive sex in this particualr comics genre were "excessive" and tended to "corrupt" young minds. The solution by these politicians was a proposed ban on ALL Filipino comics in the newsstands. To stave off the possible extinction of the comics medium, Don Ramon Roces together with the Catholic Church's Knights of Columbus, "invited" all comics publishers in 1954 to form a self-censorship group using ACE's editorial guidelines, as their association's very code of self-censorship.Thus was born the APEPCOM Code.

From thereon, people have been asking me through e-mail, and personally, about this little known but PIVOTAL fact of Filipino comics history. And you know what? It's exasperating as hell.

People I know from the antique collection business scratch their heads whenever I ask about the 1950s Filipino crime comics. They don't know what I'm talking about. Its as if a piece of history was totally lost; forgotten and tossed back in the dustbin of local comics history. At least I got me some rare and hard-to-find Pinoy bomba comics (from 1968 and 1981 no less!) for future reference in an article I'm preparing on the subject. And no, I don't make these notes inside a locked bathroom either you inquisitive, smart-assed, cross-examiner you. :)

But seriously, its the Pinoy crime comics that's really been bugging me lately. I've searched high and low for this elusive yellow bastard but so far, no such luck. So...

If there's anyone out there who could volunteer to go on a perilous and ofttimes frustrating archeological expedition to locate a Filipino crime comic published somewhere between 1950 to 1955, then hop on board and read the following...

TERMS:

A. E-mail and respond by clicking the comments button on this blog article.

B. Tell me the name of the 1950s Filipino crime comic you got, the name of the publisher, specific year of publication, and condition of the comic. If you can scan an image of the cover and some interior pages, THE BETTER. If you can get me more than 3 of these crime comics titles and any additional information on the subject (i.e., writers and artists involved and synopsis of the stories), you've really got me.

C. Leave your name and contact nos. or email address if you can help me here.

D. THE REWARD: A COMMENDATION AND SPECIAL CITATION OF MERIT IN THIS BLOG FOR ONE YEAR. AS SOLE JUDGE, I HAVE DISCRETION OF CHOOSING THE LONE WINNER and the HONORABLE MENTIONS. COSTUME DESIGN, SEASONING, FLAVOR, AND AUDIENCE IMPACT DON'T COUNT. :)

Got that? Fine. Now get moving or I'll be forced to give you a ticket!