Saturday, January 19, 2013

Francisco V. Coching's EL INDIO

Written and illustrated by komiks legend Francisco V. Coching, El Indio was serialized in Pilipino Komiks (published at the time by Ace Publications, Inc.) from 1952 to 1953.  The sequel to Coching's 1951 serial Ang Barbaro (a.k.a. Sabas, Ang Barbaro ("Sabas, The Barbarian")), it centered on the previous protagonist's son, a half-Spaniard, half-Filipino mestizo, who fights against oppression in colonial-era Philippines as the masked rebel El Indio.  A film adaptation was released in 1953.


Recently, the serial had been restored by artist and komiks historian Gerry Alanguilan, and a graphic novel collection was released by Vibal Foundation's Komiks Klasiks imprint in 2009.  Here is an excerpt from the book:

3 comments:

  1. Just finished this. Quite excellent! I thought the reason I took so long reading it was the lofty Tagalog, but didn't take into account the old-school pacing of five pages per chapter. 20 chapters in, it just picked up, and I finished it the last 15 chapters in a day.

    The ending's a bit rushed, but that's a side effect of the serialized thing, I think. No one was going to pay for five pages of epilogue. Coching's Lapu-Lapu ended with the same kind of abruptness.

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    1. I think all of the serialized komiks had abrupt endings, especially during the latter part where they were cut down to four pages. I think it's because for the penultimate chapter, they had to get the reader to come back for the end, so it's usually a cliffhanger. And then in the final chapter they only had four pages to wrap things up, hence the abruptness.

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  2. He is a Filipino bandit battles Spanish
    oppressors in 19th century Philippines a hero named Sabas a masked rebel/hero inspired from 1951-53 comicbook story by Francisco V Coching creator of Pedro Penduko stories becomes a graphic novel/epic saga and a comic strip magazines and a remake is coming next year in Liwayway Magazines coming soon.Thanks for the information.From:Wayne

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