Rocket Kapre – Fantastic Filipino Speculative Fiction

Christmas is over and the year is winding down, and I thought this week would be a good time to roundup all the reviews of komiks and Philippine spec fic I could find from the year that was. I decided to start with komiks because there were, or at least it seems to me, a great number of komiks reviews this year as compared to previous years. When I was handed editorial duties for Pinoy Pop, one of the first things I did was pester Gerry Alanguilan for an interview to discuss his post “The Need for Serious Criticism“.  The result was the two part “The Levels of Komiks Criticism” (Part 1) (Part 2) and while Pinoy Pop isn’t a going concern anymore, I still believe that a vibrant community of vocal and critical readers is essential to the development of good komiks. I understand that many creators do what they do out of love, and certainly there are ways to be critical without being mean-spirited, but we all need to accept the fact that if you put something out there for public consumption, you need to be able to take the good with the bad.

I’ll continue to do what I can from Rocket Kapre and in other venues, and I hope more readers decide to critique komiks in the future. For now, however, a shout out to all the reviewers who took the time to put virtual pen to virtual paper, and to all creators who never cease trying to better themselves.

Here’s my list of online komik reviews for the year 2010. As always, there’s no way for me to ensure that this is comprehensive, so please feel free to add any I’ve missed in the comments section:

• i2.0 (I know, not the full title, but I can’t find the symbol for the initial character in WordPress)
• 12
• Adoboverse Komiks #2
• Ambush: Parents Trapped
• Ang Alamat ng Panget
• Ang Astiging Boy Ipis #2
• Ang Maskot (1) (2)(3)
• Askals
• Bathala: Apokalypsis #1
• Bayan Knights #1-4
• Codename Bathala #1/2
• Con+Sequence
• Digmaang Salinlahi Book 1
• Dra. Yap (1) (2)
• Dragon Kid #1
• Elmer (1) (2 – multiple reviews)
• Estrella #1 ; #1
• Goodbye Rubbit
• Insomnoir
• Kanto Inc. #1
• Kaptian Tog #1 ; #1-#2
• Komikero Komiks Anthology
• Lipad
• Lola: A Ghost Story (1) (2) (3 – multiple)
• Love is In the Bag #1
• Magiting #1
• Marco’s Delivery Service
• My Falling Star Girlfriend #1
• Nailbiter
• No Parking
• Operasyon
• Patintero #1
• Plague
• Retreat (prototype)
• Samurai Scribe 1-3
• School Run #1
• Supervillains (1) (2)
• Taal Volcano Monster
• The Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Comics Anthology
• Trese: Mass Murders (1) (2)
• Trese: Murder on Balete Drive (1) (2)
• Triple Punch Komiks
• Underpass (1) (2) (3)
• Where Bold Stars Go to Die (1) (2)
• Zombies in Manila #1-2

Also, a host of mini-reviews from Joanah T.C. here.

And that’s it, at least from what I could find. If I missed any, please add them to the comments – it’ll be much appreciated.