COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Killer Kamote Komiks #1 – Pinoy Humor, Warts and All

Arvin Valenzuela attempts to find out what constitutes Philippine or Pinoy humor in his first ever compilation Killer Kamote Komiks #1. This compilation can be served as the artist’s semi-autobiography of sorts since some of the situations present here can be glimpsed as products from his experiences and translated to humor. Obviously searching his aesthetical footing and mark as one of the growing members of the comic community, his selected skits show the kind of humor we Filipinos/as really possess. Inspired in the likes of the predecessors and masters of the craft like Pol Medina, and Jess Abrera and Manix Abrera, each skit is a presentation how we really excel or force our way to create the humor we are marked with. We are exposed to toilet humor; the jokes deliver by the masters themselves—Tito, Vic and Joey; and Dolphy; the perennial corny and dry humors, and the one that truly stretches the borders of comedic nonsense to inexplicable chuckles or smiles. Even so, we are trying our mark in cracking jokes by doing the epistemological rationale (read: explaining why it’s funny/a joke in the first place, killing the essence of comedic delivery).

[CHECK OUT… LET’S TALK KOMIKS: Arvin Vanenzuela Invades the Interwebs with his Killer Kamote Komiks]

Furthermore, some “serious” topics or questions are not spared in the artist’s exploration of deconstructing the Philippine humor that can be sacrilegious (but funny) or ending up being serious after all. For examples, in TSUNAMI, why there is such disaster? The answer is this, God’s punishment for not bathing (!). In JANITOR FISH, he asks what if this alien looking life form is placed in toilet bowls to feed on our wastes since it eats the waste of other fishes. And in BIG BANG THEORY, if there is a beginning of the universe, then someone started it, right? But in MUSIC, he made me smile a bit for continuing embracing (and listening) his childhood collections of cassettes and other old school stuffs that are just making a sort of comeback due to the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. In X-MEN, he simply goes further of both infuriating and cringing on the influential superhero team by nailing the X stuff (just see for yourselves here, if you want to see what I mean here). Hence, from the truly funny to downright unfunny ones (and the meta-narrative nonsensical discourses he wants to engage), the artist showcases how we Filipinos/as really kidding around.

We witness Valenzuela’s potentiality here in his first foray in the printed medium. This again reminds me the early years of some of the greatest masters in Philippine comic strips genre like Manix Abrera and Pol Medina —rugged, raw, but reinvigorating and unapologetically fun. He can improve the angular perspectives and his style of drawing. There are rooms of improvement for this upcoming talented artist. If he maintains his PILOSOPO TASYO wit, he can join the ranks of the above mentioned specialists sooner or later.