FROM KOMIKON TO NATIONAL TV!!

Capt. Barangay Captain display (circa 2006)

Capt. Barangay Captain CD cover
Captain Barangay Captain started out as a joke.

During those college days, I really envied Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for making such memorable Marvel characters. They’ve spawned a dream to create some of my own.
And from this silly little joke came a series of other characters—who may not yet be as memorable as Kirby and Lee’s, but I’d like to think that they’re, well…making a mark :-)

Capt. Barangay Captain at ang mga Kagawads is a sort of spoof of the Marvel Universe (Avengers). At first, my friends and I were planning to make a 60's style comic. I’ve already made seven pages, when I checked on the feasibility of our plan. Turned out, creating an indie comic was really expensive. The cost of printing alone can eat a big chunk of my college allowance. Well, I could’ve used risograph to print the whole thing, but printing the characters in black and white won’t exactly justify the "Kirbyesque" feel that I wanted to achieve. So I dropped the comic project and thought of a more feasible plan.

Abandoning the comic plan created a bit of conflict between me and some of my friends whom I tapped for the project. They weren’t too keen on letting go of the idea of printing. Though I understood their passion for the printed indie comics, the feasibility issue was a big deal for me.

It seemed like a dead end. Still, I refused to think that bringing my characters to life was an impossibility.

And one day an idea came to me. Instead of a comic book, why not translate my idea into animation? It’s much more cheaper than comics. Burning CDs to mass produce them won’t even be a problem--I can do it "indie style" aka burn them mano-mano. Basically Capt. Barangay Captain at ang mga Kagawads is a form of animated comics; and, arrogantly speaking, it’s first of its kind.

I hired my good friend Manix Abrera to do the pencil sketches. His style might not be "Kirbyesque" but what the hell....he is Manix Abrera for crying out loud! :-)
And to retain the 60’s comic feel, I still use brush pens for my inking duties. As for the animation…it's an X-deal, with the animator—he needed a theme song for one of his animated projects at that time; so I made him a song for free, and he made the animation for free!

We started with this project in 2006, and I’m proud to say that 3 years later, this "CBC" idea has gone a long way :-) – CBC, Hogan, Bakal Boy and Mighty-T have all been part of several comic blogs. And now…drumroll please…they’re about to be shown on National TV.

Yup! Capt. Barangay Captain at ang mga Kagawads will be part of the new TV5 show "Front Act" hosted by stand-up comics, Mike and Stanley. Watch for the first episode on July 19 (Sunday), 5:30pm and see Captain Barangay Captain fly---literally and (with your help--) figuratively! :-)


Another Press release finished! :-)







"Mighty-T episode"