The death and resurrection of Pinoy komiks

HOLY Week is approaching and people start discussing the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. For many Filipinos, their consciousness of these events does not really come from the Bible, which was prohibited by the Spaniards to be read by the layman, but with the Pasyon (Passion) and the Senakulo (Cenacle) since we are a very visual people. The Pasyon, as sung, actually replaced the “bayani ng epiko” as the new epic of Filipinos during the time of colonialism. And, as pointed out by historian Atoy Navarro, it has the same tripartite storyline as the epics “Liwanag-Dilim-Liwanag (Light-Darkness-Light)”: The “bayani” (hero) lives and helps people; he struggles; then, he rises up again.

Aside from the Bible, people today have comic books like Hidenori Kumai’s recent Manga Messiah or David C. Cook’s classic The Picture Bible, revised as Sergio Cariello’s The Action Bible. In Filipino, we have Reynaldo Almario’s Ang Biblia: Isinalarawang Mga Kasaysayan ng Luma at Bagong Tipan still available at St. Paul’s, a Catholic bookstore.