LET’S TALK KOMIKS: Chloe Havengaarde, from Iloilo to Komikon (PART 1 OF 2)
“Chloe Havengaarde” : Multitasker Professionale
Iloilo City is known for many things: the food, the malambing (affectionate) people, and the laid-back “provincial” vibe, among many things. As a longtime son of the city, I can personally attest to those “stereotypes” as having some truth into them.
However, what is not known to many outsiders of the city is that Iloilo itself is becoming a cultural hub for things that have less to do with its impressive historical heritage than it is about having… well, for lack of a more appropriate word, “fun”. Indeed, as our coverage of this year’s Iloilo Comic Con can attest to, the city’s progress is also tantamount to the rise and proliferation of certain “niche-y” communities in Iloilo like, well, the same ones who are reading this post right now. (Yeah, we know our core audience very well, thank you very much.)
Of course, that’s not to say that the existing geek/otaku communities in Iloilo are enough to sustain the creative scenes that have sprouted up here since. Just like with all things, if you really want to “make it”, then you simply have to go to the one place where everything is happening on a weekly basis: our dear old NCR. Specifically, we’re referring to the just-concluded Komikon X weekend last November 15th and 16th of this year.
Komikon has become so many things to so many people since; however, what is equally important is that it has also become one of those select events in the country where young and hungry artists from all over the country see it as their chance to make inroads within the local comicbook industry either by selling their works to a larger audience or by making the necessary “connections” which will help them gain said audience in the first place.
I personally haven’t been to these kinds of large-scale specialty events before when I was staying in Manila. Thankfully, a friend of mine has, and she also happens to be an independent comicbook creator going by the Teutonically-inspired alias of “Chloe Havengaarde”. Call it “living vicariously”, but I’m glad she’s willing to share her experiences about what it’s like to navigate the regional divide prevalent in “national” events like Komikon. Specifically, what does it feel like to be a promdi comicbook artist travelling the metropolis for greater fame and (not much) fortune? This is her experiences below, as narrated to the one person with enough time in the world to write her story…
Eve from “Cup of Ire”, Chloe’s first stab at a proper comic series
Pavia is a northern town six miles away from Iloilo City. Just like any sleepy municipality, it fits the typical “image” of the relaxed provincial lifestyle: every resident knows every family living in the community for decades, wide plots of land still aren’t converted into gated subdivisions, while uncles drunk with cheap, intestine-churning rum are still blasting Scorpion’s “I’m Still Loving You” at 4 in the afternoon. This is the image of my early childhood in a nutshell, and this is the place where Chloe (whom, I must reiterate this again, I’ll be specifically referring to using her “pseudonym” throughout the rest of this post) grew up and learned to create her brand of art.
Chloe started out doing manga by, typically, discovering the joys of drawing at a very early age. “I think it was when I was 5 (or) 6. I couldn’t remember back then, but I had declared I wanted to become a painter. But my (older) sister said I’ll become poor, so I didn’t pursued (sic) fine arts. But I continued drawing,” she told me through a Facebook interview I conducted with her days before she was bound to leave for Komikon X. However, she was later bolstered by that same sister of hers—ironically, the one who became the artistic “mentor” figure to her, even to this day—to chase her dream of becoming an artist. “(During the time) my sister’s in college, she decided she wants my works published, (and I was) at the age of 15-17 (during that time),” she says.
If you were wondering how she came up with the “Chloe Havengaarde” moniker, she attributed it all to those carefree years of burning the hours playing Ragnarok Online back then. “That was from my in-game name from (the Philippine version of) Ragnarok Online when I (made the) character. I do (sic) research for days, for the naming and stats and stuff”, she explained. As it later turned out, one of her “guildmates” in RO was also an artist trying to establish a name for herself. With her friend’s encouragement, she began making an online portfolio for her works. “She had encouraged me to use deviantART and post my stuff online. Normally, I wouldn’t; I (prefer to) hide all my drawings back then hahaha!” It is through those years of “paying dues” that she was able to work her way up to gaining acceptance to several local artists’ communes based in Manila; namely, Circle Phoenix Feather and AniDoujin. It was through the start of her tenures in those groups that she began creating a series that she would eventually christen with the title Cup of Ire.
However, artist work being the perceived “dead end” job that it supposedly is here, Chloe began applying her creative energies to studying—and eventually graduating with—a degree in Civil Engineering. As expected, she now finds herself in the same situation similar to what many of my “creatively-minded” friends—and yes, including me—are experiencing: she’s working for people who pay her during the weekdays, while working on “her” projects during the weekends.
“Once a project comes in, I’d hardly have time to draw. Civil engineering is very, very time-consuming,” she says. Grudgingly, she then addded, “but it helps to get my works funded.” However, she credits her time working directly on the construction site as formative in terms of how she was able to use it for crafting her stories. “I have experienced seeing what force it should take to break a concrete wall, and doing something like punching a wall and it’s the wall that crumbles, it’s IMPOSSIBLE!,” she exclaimed.
On the other hand, she also developed this particular habit that, speaking strictly from my point-of-view as a non-artist, may not seem weird at all for anyone who has ever tried capturing the act of motion in one stroke: “I observe bulky men all day *haha* (sic), and I admire all their hard work. Most of them are fathers providing for their family, and I often thought that their outfits are cool. I’d take a lot of photos (of them) on-site and use them as reference for cloth folds, human anatomy, lighting, and pose reference.”
One of Chloe’s most prized collections: a Manix Abrera sketch
Since I was interviewing her a few days before she’ll be heading out to Komikon X, I then went directly to the matter about her “need” to go to this year’s Con. “I had been planning to go to the Kon myself ‘cause I’ve wanted to see what it looks like. And I wanted to meet my artist friends and get their autograph and do art trade, and buy their works, too…. Give them a big hug, shake their hands, and bring them home. Kiddin’!”
I then tried to get her thoughts on the importance of someone “discovering” her works directly on the Con. Chloe, not surprisingly, assented to that all-too common notion. “I think so. Sometimes I ask myself why I am stuck in the province. My only problem is that I go to events waayyyy too early and then want to go home early. I’m afraid the moment I’d step on the venue, I’d have that urge to go home, but I’ll try to make the most of it, ‘cause I don’t want to go and come back empty-handed haha!”
And that was it. She already addressed the question that I was burning to ask her ever since we started the interview.“Why not make the jump to (Manila), then?”, I asked. She answered, “I don’t want to. I’m scared hahahaha! And to be honest, even my family doesn’t agree with it… I can’t live there alone. I can’t.”
Having known how hard it was to live far away from family and friends—yes, even if it was only in a place here in the Philippines—I did understand where she was coming from. Considering the fact that the comics scene in Iloilo is still in its infancy—though, to be fair, select events like Iloilo Comic Con and the monthly cosplay gatherings have been proving otherwise that there is a hungry market of creators and consumers here with “geekier” tastes that need to be catered to—then anyone can see why going to the “Comic Capital of the Philippines” (which is the term I actually used to Chloe once during the course of this initial interview) is essential if one is to grow as a “creative” artist. That has always been the rule in any market, and it’s no less true here than it is anywhere.
I ended our conversation at that point then, with her still sitting on her desk at home, still rushing to finish the first issue of Cup of Ire and eventually have copies of it printed out of her meager salary from her day job. I only saw the first two pages of her print, so I can only say with surety that it’s a tale about clones and which, I guess, will certainly contain philosophical issues about free will and ownership. I think.
Regardless, I wished her luck, and I simply kept tabs with the progress of her work right up on the eve of her trip to Manila.
Felt “bitin” (hanging)? ‘Part two’ of this story is coming up a week after this, so watch out!
Joseph Batcagan
