Thursday, October 27, 2005

Pokwang, Ang Maarteng Anak ni Aling Kikay


Vincent Kua's most famous komiks strip was Pokwang: Ang Maarteng Anak ni Aling Kikay. The author's hilarious byline was "Nagkakamot ng bukong-bukong na magdamag na binurire ni Vincent Kua, Jr."
In the 1980s and well into the 90s, Vincent proved to be one of the Philippines most popular writer/illustrator. He was a master of genres, particularly, period horror and historical romance. His drawing style was best loved by komiks readers because the characters he created were Venuses and Adonises: beautiful, handsome, cute, but not stone figures. They seemed to become movie stars in komiks, and people loved to see them grace the pages of their beloved komiks.
Yet people will always remember Vincent for his Pokwang strip, arguably the most popular cartoon strip of the 1980s. Its star, of course, is Pokwang, the diminutive smart-aleck girl whose wit and humor endeared her to komiks fans. Vincent admitted to me that one of his influences in the Pokwang strip was Tony Velasquez' Kenkoy, and indeed, Vincent took the four-mirrored windows on Pokwang's hair from that of Kenkoy.
The original art above was drawn for a Christmas 1983 issue of Pokwang. You could see a picture of Vincent there on the extreme right (with eyeglasses), together with his friend and frequent collaborator, writer Ollie Samaniego, giving their Christmas presents to Pokwang and Aling Kikay.
This is one of Vincent's souvenirs for me, which I will treasure for as long as I live.

4 comments:

Gerry Alanguilan said...

Hello Dennis!

Ask sana ako ng permission to use bits of your description of Vincent's work for his profile in the online musuem. Oks lang? Salamat!

Dennis Villegas said...

ok lang gerry, whatever na pwede mong pangdagdag sa museum mo :)

Ka Pete said...

Saang komiks lumabas ang Pokwang? I just edited a piece on Pokwang the comedian for YES Magazine, and she said it was Universal Komiks. Tama ba?

Pete Lacaba

Unknown said...

ngayon ko lang nakita ito. di ako makapaniwala na naitabi pa ito. well-done! awesome!