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Posted October 11, 2010 by Norby Ela in Comics
 
 

KOMIKS PREVIEW: El Bimbo Adaptations


EL BIMBO ADAPTATIONS

Story & Art by
Josel Nicolas
Publisher
Josel Nicolas
Cover Price:
P50

A Hyperbollic foreword from close friend and avante garde Writer Adam David, whose Oulipian book, The El Bimbo Variations, served as the Text on which the El bimbo Adaptations are based on. This was my Undergrad thesis. “Here we are again with yet another ream of stapled paper, inked on both sides with scribbles and scrawls all in aid of furthering culture as the author perceives it, shoved in our shelves between more of the same. We can only wish that this ream of stapled inked paper is at the very least clever or witty if not wise. One wise notion I picked up from my own bookshelves is that if one sets out to play around with form, one inevitably plays with content, especially in a medium where form and content are absolutely inseparable if not a wholly compound thing, ie, Komix the Form – words and pictures read in sequence – is Komix the Content – words and pictures read in sequence. So what does it exactly mean when I say that Josel Nicolas’ THE EL BIMBO ADAPTATIONS is the most brilliantly playfully formalist – and formally playfully brilliant – komix in the medium’s history? It means that komix is more than mere panels in progress, more than mere words in balloons, more than mere speedlines and teardrops and pencils and inks, more than mere narrative, more than mere superheroes and dire straits and precision of anatomy. It means that komix is more than mere komix. It is in the negation and subsequent confirmation of these things that this zine is at its very least clever and witty and wise, and ingenious and generous and well-considered. It’s been said time and again that komix is an art with a developing idiom distinctly its own. This zine is finally the proof to that notion. Most of all, what Nicolas’ THE EL BIMBO ADAPTATIONS is is a declaration of promise and promises, both for himself and for the medium, and as such, it is already fulfilling, and as such, it is already inadequate. Therein lies its contribution. Long may it live in our libraries.” And a blurb from Angelo Suarez, poet, writer of of Dissonant Umbrellas, Else it was Purely Girls and Nymph of MTV. “Bimbong hindi maka-adapt lang sa iba’t ibang mode ng comix bilang sining ang di mapapaindak sa El Bimbo Adaptations ni Josel Nicolas.” a dirty filthy filthy variation of his blurb that I could not use in my thesis defense (the first blurb I got from him actually, salamat Gelo!). “Na-enjoy ko ang pag-eenjoy ni Josel Nicolas sa pag-eenjoy ni Adam David sa enjoyment ng Eraserheads. Ito ang comicbook equivalent ng pagjajakol habang nanonood ng taong nagjajakol na nanonood ng taong nagjajakol na nanonood ng taong nagjajakol. Minsan lang ako tigasan sa komiks sa ganitong paraan, at El Bimbo Adaptations ang may kagagawan nito. All this play with form is a generous playing with oneself. This book is so pleasurable, it’s pure smut. & I may as well be a voyeur.”

To read it online:


Norby Ela

 
Now residing in San Diego, CA, I strive to work in art and further grow FlipGeeks around the world.