mababang langit

RIP sir jim fernandez, creator of zuma , for my money the most badass dude (and most original creation) in our komiks pantheon. watching zuma get run over by a road roller and getting back up like nothing happened was a seminal moment of my childhood.      

while reading through the first few issues of the original 1950's serial on video48, i learned some stuff that today's typical darna fan, having grown up on the TV series and/or mango comics revamp, may be surprised to find out: 1.) narda and ding were beggars.  i wonder if narda knew "sa may bahay..." narda would sing for pocket change while ding played the harmonica. they supported themselves as well as their grandmother this way. 2.) darna's magic stone was hallucinogenic. the stone was actually three feet away; narda picked up a mushroom by mistake. upon first finding the stone, which fell to earth from outer space, narda is approached by a gang of kids also looking for the meteor. not wanting to share, narda hides the stone in her mouth and proceeds to trip the f out (also, the stone stays in her system permanently. apparently darna's alien gut makes her constipation-proof). 3.) seeing narda transform for the first time, her grandmoth...

the pinoy superheroes universe blog marked FPJ's sixth death anniversary by featuring the character many of us associate with him the most: ang panday. among the tidbits and video clips presented by aris panganiban is a link to the first two chapters of the 70's komiks series. here's page one: in these first two chapters, flavio is really just a small-town do-gooder rather than a fantasy world messiah. all he does is beat up a trio of local thugs and tie them to a tree for the constabulary to find. no magic swords, no manananggal nor sand ninjas, no max alvarado. his weapon or choice is a sledgehammer and his catchphrase is "tinutuwid ang matitigas na bakal!" fourteen chapters later , he's recovering from some mishap at some mansion. still no sword n' sorcery to be seen, but he does engage in some alarmingly freudian tag-team tree-chopping with a man who knows his "secret".