In the olden days, when the almighty Television had not yet invaded the privacy of our homes, the komiks and the radyo-nobela were the favorite pastimes of the Filipinos.

Komiks had been an influential part of my childhood. My Tatay taught me how to read through komiks, and I learned easily and excitingly because I love the drawings in them, in contrast to my elementary textbooks that are not only hard and boring to read, but its scant drawings were unattractive and amateurish.

I remember that during lazy afternoons, I would be forced to sleep by my strict Lola, but not before we tuned in to our favorite afternoon radio show, Prinsipe Zimatar, aired over DZRH. After that, I would sleep with my eyes half-open, actually pretending to sleep, since I was jealous of the other kids I hear playing outside. Oh those were the days...when my Lolo and Lola were listening to Paeng Yabut's archive of old kundiman songs...

A few months ago, a copy of Action Comics #1 had been auctioned off in eBay. Although the seller did not put a reserved price, at the end of the auction the comics reached a staggering amount of 45,000 U.S. dollars, despite the fact that the copy is not a very nice one and had been graded only 4 by CNC. The reason why this comic book is so expensive is because it is the first true Batman comic book, wherein the caped crusader first appeared.

Happy Halloween!

In Philippine lower mythology, the Kapre occupies a fascinating niche among the dark creatures of the night. The Kapre is invariably described as a gigantic man-like creature who had a passion for smoking tobacco. It is said to usually reside among tall and bushy trees just like the much dreaded Balite tree. According to old folks, the Kapre usually terrorizes bypassers at night, who happened to cross his tree while on the way to wakes, or going to haranas.

In the story below, Alex Nino illustrated his conception of how the Kapre looked like. This story was written by Carlo J. Caparas, and it was published in Pablo S. Gomez' United Komiks in late 1960s. This story is actually an episode of a very popular series in United Komiks called "Mga Kuwento ni Bruhilda"(Tales of Bruhilda Witch).

Here's another vintage Philippine komiks from the year 1950, Mabuhay Komiks, with an awesome cover art by illustrator Hugo Yonzon. Previously, in the earlier issues, it was Tony de Zuniga who illustrated the novel, with Yonzon taking over in issue number 7.