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Posted July 13, 2016 by Luigi Cabrera in Comics
 
 

Peejay Catacutan breaks out BUSTER!

BusterFour extraordinary people from different countries team-up to win a war  in a land that is not their own. With them, is their improbable secret weapon that is just as extraordinary as they are. Intrigued? Then you’re in for a treat.

FlipGeeks got the chance to interview Peejay Catacutan on his latest work, Buster. We wasted no time as we asked what it is about. Peejay got into the full detail of what story Buster tells.

The 12th hour has passed in the war against an enemy the world cannot fight and four soldiers are trapped within the enemy stronghold: the Philippines. Captain Gan, an aging Japanese warrior must lead a team consisting of a Russian speedster, a Canadian girl capable of doing herculean feats, and an American engineering genius in their first counter-offensive. Their secret weapon? A legendary blast from the Philippine past. What stands between them and victory is a ruthless army led by a dangerous man who sees the world as his prey.The world was lost in the third world war. The fight to win it back starts now. “ What we heard just got us more excited. Foreign heroes trying to save the world on our sovereign land? Color us curious. We just had to ask where his idea for such a story came from. “It’s an idea that’s been swirling in my head for the past few years. I wanted a story written for the Filipino and that’s why there are certain elements of the story that can make any pinoy go, “Yep, I get that.”  I wanted to create a world containing a Filipino story that has global implications and likewise, I was interested in trying to write a patriotic story without it sounding forced. The challenge of doing all this for the first time hooked me in.”

[CHECK OUT… Back to Back Komiks Book Launch this July At Comic Odyssey]

We now know the story but there were still questions that need to be asked. We wanted to know more about these heroes. Peejay gladly introduced them to us.

Gan-K

“There’s Captain Gan from Japan (it rhymed, not my intention), Tatyana from Russia (did it again), Cupcake from Canada, and Bull from the US. With them is a character all Filipinos know but will wonder what the hell he’s doing there. He was shown in the preview pages but I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t checked it out.” Surely this story wasn’t made overnight. Each comic book takes its own time before it’s ready to be read. This goes the same for Buster. “Well I tried to iron out the story for a few months. It’s set in the future and a large portion of the series has to explain what tool place between now and their present. Also, that had to be mixed with what is taking place in the story. So it had to be written as clearly as possible without sentencing people to death by exposition. After I’m satisfied with the story for the entire volume, the art came in. The whole process took about 5-6 months including the writing.” he said.

Tatyana-VodyNow most comic books have a writer and an artist but Buster was created only by only one man. We asked him the question that is asked to those who  draw and write, which was more difficult, creating the illustrations or writing the story. What we got was a detailed answer. “ They were both difficult and challenging for different reasons.  With regards to the art, I changed my art style quite a bit. I wanted the lines to be dynamic and I studied a few styles before deciding to use the one I did for Buster. It’s not as clean as my usual lines but I think it matches the story. As for writing, this is the first published comic story written by me so I took a few baby steps and I did some hit and misses in developing my own method of writing. It was also a bit weird art directing myself based on scripts I wrote–I would get angry at the writer for making a bunch of scenes really hard to draw haha! But it was really fun, I have to admit. “

We’re excited with what we have learned so we just had to know when the next issues will come out. “We plan to release the next issue at Komikon and the next one a few months after that and so on. We’re still world-building so we’re a ways off from creating monthly issues.”

We gave him one last chance to convince readers on why they should get Buster.

“The story gives us a glimpse of a future timeline where Filipinos are pretty much all gone. It shows how people of the future might see our generation and the one that comes after us. And in a future world at war, the story explores where THE hero of our nation’s past fits in.”

Buster is 28 pages of fully colored adventures and is a currently ongoing series. Buster was released last July 9, 2016 and available to purchase at your nearest Comic Odyssey branch.

 


Luigi Cabrera

 
Enthusiast of things geeky, weird, and random. He finds peace in writing.