Our interview with Lyndon Gregorio, the artist of the Beerkada comics. It was held in the As walk in UP. Bad sounds because of the college folks talking in the backround.
-Note: his first few statements are his opinions about the movie Cloverfield
Transcript:
Q1: We have noticed that you put typical Filipino teenagers into hilarious situations, so you are sort of adding other factors in their real life. Is beerkada a deep social commentary?
A: It's a social commentary; it's a pop social commentary. It's going to world news, world events, and world cultures especially with the advent of today's internet, a lot are occurring in a global pace. Beerkada's original input is to interpret these global phenomenons into the local context. Examples are our reactions to Ultimate Fighting and the series Heroes. I'm even coming up with the latest skit of Cloverfield. Basically that's what it is. It's a social commentary of what's happening in Manila today.
Q2: Is it (Beerkada) mostly your opinions or the pop cultures opinions on one topic?
A: Sometimes I get the ideas from friends and their reactions to the trends that are happening and it's my take on their reactions and I select which character best represents that particular point of view with regards to their reactions.
Q3: Do your characters mostly reflect yourself or the Filipino culture?
A: As far as I'm concerned it's my synthesis.
Q4: In your works, what qualities of yourself or of Filipinos do you want to show, especially to the foreigners?
A: I want to show our local quirks that you can't get anywhere except in the Philippines. For instance, foreigners have this idea that balut is the no.1 most disgusting food, but to us, is a regular delicacy.
Q5: If you were to present one work of yours that you would be proud to show to foreigners, what would it be?
A: It's my take on ultimate fighting and that it's a form of yaoi(?). I've gotten a lot of interesting reactions from the yaoi community.
Q6: Where do you get support from, especially from the start?
A: I got the support from the Philippine Star Newspaper and I'm very grateful. That alone, that break I got from them has made the most impact.
Q7: Where do you usually work?
A: Right now it's at home. The internet access provides me all the references I'd ever need in regards to works, text, audio visual and lots more. (opinions of other people)
Q8: Do you have any good friends (authors) that help you in the business?
A: There is a group called Artist's Den who are lovers of comics and are passionate about it. They supported me and helped me during my book launch .
Q9: What certain topics or works that you want to show in the future aside from what you mentioned before?
A: I want to tap in to those obscure fan groups. They are much more appreciative when I give a shout out to their community aside from the other mainstream communities. For example when I did a Japanese pop star, a lot of people were surprised when I tackled J-pop.
Q10: How do you feel about people when they criticize your work? / Are there any people who criticize your work?
A: They are people who criticize my work and they are absolutely right.
Q11: In college, where did you mostly start off with?
A: Mostly in my college dorms. I do my art mates and they are such a picturesque characters that I still continue drawing about them in dev art.
Q12: What do you consider as recreation?
A: Well, for me I'd rather draw than anything else. I've always compared the rest of my life to whether I'm better off drawing, that's why I avoid parties 'cause I'd rather draw that attend parties.
Q13: What is the main message that you want to say to your readers and target audiences?
A: Before it was, "college is fun", but right now it is "the world is much more interesting than then".
Q14: How do you compare yourself with other genre of writing?
A: I'm a par with horror in terms of getting emotional response and I'm below sexual content in terms of health response. After that, its comedy horror then romance.
Q15: How does your family support you?
A: Right now they are asking me, wondering why I didn't use my real name, instead of just using my pen name but I always felt that I'm protecting their reputat
Author: omikronus
Keywords: interview with Lyndon Gregorio 4B SOFA beerkada comics artist
Added: February 11, 2008
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