‘Piko’ comics anthology for kids lets you choose your own adventure

"Piko: Pambatang Komiks", an anthology of children's comics edited by Josel Nicolas, was formally launched last week during Free Comic Book Day at Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street, Taguig.

The interactive komiks anthology, aimed at children 6 and up, is this year’s second release of Anino Comics, an imprint of Adarna House.

"Piko" gathers visual stories from 22 creators:

• Awit ng Paggala (Laraine Gazmen and Adam David),
• Captain Old vs Pambatang Komiks (Josel Nicolas),
• Dressing Up with Dolly (Trizha Ko),
• The Sculptor (Rommel Estanislao),
• Limang Kuwentong _ _ _ _ _ (Marlon Hacla and Apol Sta. Maria),
• Ang Panaginip ni Benjo Bato (Josel Nicolas),
• Lucky (Julius Villanueva),
• Iñigo’s Day Out (Adam David and Mervin Malonzo),
• Salamin (Josel Nicolas),
• Kukote Ko (Rob Cham and Karize Uy),
• The Magic Brush (Daniela Go),
• Treat (Joanne Cesario & Michelle Bacabac),
• Imposible (JP Palabon),
• Hotcakes X Jimbob at ang Ulan (Josel Nicolas),
• Si Ella at ang Sigwa (Manix Abrera, Kyth Pallogan, and Karize Uy),
• Ang Kahon (Bong Redila),
• Salamin Part 2 (Josel Nicolas), and
• Awit ng Pagbalik (Adam David and Laraine Gazmen).

Nicolas related how David stopped him from naming the anthology "Hiraya" and suggested "Piko" instead to define the politics and aesthetic of the whole book. “Adam came up with the name and I came up with the idea of it being interactive after pitching to have a Mad Libs-styled comic written by Marlon Hacla and drawn by Apol Sta. Maria,” he said.

Mad Libs, invented by Leonard Stern and Roger Price in 1953, is a game book where some words in each short story are replaced with blank lines. The readers, as players, will supply the missing word under the blank lines which sometimes mention a category such as “noun,” “verb,” “place,” or “part of the body.”

Readers of "Piko" will be asked to fill in the blanks, draw a character's face, choose their own path in the adventure, and read reversed text using an actual mirror. Through play, the book empowers imagination through active participation. Kids become co-creator and contributor.

Nicolas was inspired in part by Dark Chapel’s SSM! JET, a kids' comic book series of Silent Sanctum Manga.

“I would want kids to feel like they could make their own comics, and understand that the stuff they watch, isn’t made by companies, but made by people like them. 'Piko' acts as a cohesive book that might not be connected plot wise but is connected thematically and as a whole makes one complete statement,” he said.

Nicolas recounted that he made sure that there were no overlapping genres. “There is also a lot of stories about girls. I’m really happy to have that, because that’s one of the things we never notice but should—that females are underrepresented in a lot of komiks even though there are like a lot of female creators out there doing extremely great work,” he said.

Gazmen made the title page of the book, and provided the intro and outro comics with poems written by David. Another special aspect of the book is the contributors' page which is laid out as a comic.

“At the end of the day I’d love for kids to go outside and act out the stories they’ve got in their own heads,” Nicolas said. — BM, GMA News