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Posted April 28, 2014 by Antonio Lukban in Comics
 
 

KOMIKS REVIEW: eJuan and Tanod

Often depicted as nuisance or characters those are hardly important in a story, a deliver boy and a tanod (a barangay peace and security officer) takes center stage in eJuan and Tanod.

[Check out our preview of eJuan with a quick chat with the creators – Gabriel Chee Kee and Jomar Bulda] 

 Released in Summer Komikon 2014, eJuan and Tanod are flip-books that show no matter ordinary your life is, it is up to you to make it extraordinary.

eJuan

From the sneak peek of eJuan, we knew that it was going to be action-packed. Jomar masterfully crafted the agility of Juan jumping from one building to another. What else did we learn from reading the komik? It is common knowledge that traveling on a wheeled vehicle is much faster than using our feet. Not for Juan though. He uses his agility to weave through buildings jumping from one after another. Since he easily maneuvers through the city, he is the #1 delivery guy. Just like how Manny Pacquiao is the Philippines’ top boxer, Juan is the best at what he does. Just on one of those supposedly normal urgent deliveries Juan is requested to do; he realizes he is being followed. He doubles up to make sure that the package gets Max Domingo. When he gets to the address, he was in for a surprise.

In 11 pages we were given a treat to the talent of both Gab and Jomar. If it was not as good as promised, it was even better. Truly, there is one story to watch out for.

 

Tanod

Donato, a barangay tanod, is the story’s main protagonist who describes his job as simple: do rounds, serve the citizens, be respectful and helpful and maintain peace in every possible way. However, Donato does not do the rounds in your normal neighborhood where you just have to handle drunkards.  And nope, he does not rely on the usual arnis sticks provided to barangay tanods. In his barangay, where the peace is disturbed by something mysterious and grimly disturbing, Donato has to come up with something different too.

Just as eJuan we are left hanging since Tanod is limited to 4 pages. Yup sadly, I was left to read 4 pages of Tanod over and over again. It was also the first time I have heard of Jerico Marte (forgive my ignorance please) but this guy definitely has awesome talent in drawing comics. The pages are so dynamic I felt as if it was coming out to get me. But yet again, I wish I would’ve seen more from him aside from the 4 pages.

eJuan and Tanod maybe Gab’s first time to have his comic stories in print but it seems that he has been doing this for a long time. Both stories were able to build strong characters that you could easily grow a liking for and you would like to follow. Hopefully, Gab will not make us wait until next summer Komikon for the next issues.


Antonio Lukban