“Babies” Boom: Arnold Arre showcases his best work yet

got it from : http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=44126743108&ref=nf

Arnold Arre showcases his best work yet in the powerfully personal graphic novel "Martial Law Babies"
By Ruel S. De Vera (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Saturday Nov. 15 2008 – Super, page E3)

Martial Law Babies / 286 pages / black & white

Sometimes, approached like a lost tribe, a “martial law baby” is more a state of mind than a general distinction.

These are people, once young, now not so, who were disenfranchised by the abrupt disappearance of the Japanese robot anime shows “Voltes V” most notoriously, among other artifacts.

Having grown up under the Marcos regime’s gloved gauntlet, these babies carried it’s shadow with them long after the Marcoses were out of power. Having once lost their heroes, the ystruggle to save others and themselves.

This is literary territory mined magnificently by Katrina Tuvera (in fiction) and Jessica Zafra (in essays) among others. Now, award-winning comic book creator Arnold Arre (“The Mythology Class”) explores this precious space in his new, substantial graphic novel “Martial Law babies” (Nautilus Comics, Mandaluyong City, 2008, 286 pages).

LOVE LETTER
“We’re hopeless romantics,” Arre’s characters state. “We’re expert daydreamers.”
In a love letter to his generation, Arre distills that treacherous journey through the eyes of narrator Allan, poetic and put-upon, and his barkada – acerbic Rebecca, fun-loving Francis and privileged Carol – from their short pants days in the 70s to the interminable future.

A seemingly innocuous appearance on the “Uncle Bobby Lucky Club” TV show leads to divergent paths for the friends, all the way to college in the University of the Philippines, where their circle grows and their worlds grow complicated.

Arnold Arre's new comics project "Martial Law Babies"

a sample panel from Martial Law Babies

I just saw his comic proofs last sunday at the Neil Gaiman event, and Arnold showed the proof samples to Leinil Yu, when I was about to approached them, Leinil told me, "Hey Az, this is confidential, Arnold's new comic project", I was surprised to know about that from him, and I looked at Arnold and I was laughing and told them, "its okay! I wont blog it". Then Cynthia Arre told me and Mark Cerbo about the story and the title - Martial Law Babies!. and i just found out that I belong to that era - Martial law years and 30 yr old kids!.

Now that the news came out already frm Luis Katigbak's blog, I guess its already okay to post and publish it here.
and thanks to Mr. Babbling Point  aka Budjette Tan for posting it in Alamat ML :)

but the  greatness of this project ( no longer a secret hehehee ) - yes I'm going crazy and already forgotten the news about Andong Agimat the movie.

“I'm in the process of developing two stories,” Arnold tells us. The first is Martial Law Babies, “a coming-of-age story about a group of 30-somethings. We follow the lives of the characters, from their childhood memories to a present-day setting. It's a very personal story, and it came to me during one of those conversations with college friends over coffee. I also wanted to tackle some issues like where have our peers gone, what did they become? Why are we losing more and more talented people to first world countries? What role do we play in society? And aren't the younger generations getting better breaks in terms of work since they're adept in technology and from our perspective, more pampered? So I guess in a way another take on the title is that of us being trapped, we're under Martial Law so to speak. It's nearing completion, so hopefully we’ll get to see it in printed form sometime soon.”   - Arnold Arre

 Read more about Martial Law Babies here