Our National Superhero
By Cathy N. Dellosa

“I wanted to stay true to Rizal’s character, but bring him into the world of the fantastic.”
--Gerry Alanguilan

What is a hero?
Is it superhuman clad in high-powered gadgets, colorful capes, and underwear worn on the outside?
 Comic book artist, writer and inker Gerry Alanguilan sheds this stereotype by creating one that is closer to home.
 The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Dr. Rizal is an original Philippine comics series following the life of the country’s famed national hero. With his own interpretation, Gerry, creator of ELMER, Humanis Rex! and Wasted, aims to portray Dr. Jose Rizal as both a hero and an average human being.
 “Jose Rizal, in so many different ways, was already a hero of the super degree in this country. But he was also just a man, and a flawed one at that, who had the same problem as any other Filipino of his time,” says Gerry. “It just so happens that he was far brilliant than most people, and he was ready to die for his country.”

A marvelous idea
 The comics series was six years in the making. “A friend of mine, Adam David, proposed a Jose Rizal project to the Alamat mailing list,” Gerry recalls. “He wrote a lot of other things describing his idea, and he went into really far out places which included Jesus Christ and rewriting history books. He was looking for an artist interested in drawing it.”
 It was Adam’s proposed title, The Secret Adventures of the Amazing Dr. Rizal, that inspired Gerry. “I didn’t ‘feel’ the rest of his descriptions, but the title alone was enough to launch my imagination in a thousand different places,” he shares. “I congratulated Adam on the project and I told him how great an idea it was, and that I could not wait to read it.”
 But after several years, Adam still wasn’t able to find an artist for the comic series. Towards the end of 2006, Adam decided to give the project to Gerry.

The Filipino way
“I have long waited to do a superhero comic book of my own,” says Gerry. In a country very much exposed and influenced by Weatern pop culture, it is rare to find graphic publications with plots of local origins.
“Doing heroes in multi-colored costumes became out of the question. I think people like Alan Moore and Frank Miller pretty much squeezed all there is to be squeezed and do innovative stories of that sort,” says Gerry.

Comics for all ages
Aside from wanting to stem away from American comic concepts, Gerry had also been thinking of doing an all-ages comic book for quite some time.
 “[None of my] many other works… are fit for kids to read,” he explains. “Perhaps all I really wanted to do was to explore the idea of an icon, a hero in all senses of the word that people can look up to and be inspired by. I also wanted a hero, and [a] comic book as a whole that would be very Filipino, and make people appreciate Filipino culture. So when the Rizal idea came along, I thought, “This was perfect!”
Hero in the making
 Once Gerry knew how he could do the Rizal comics series, he geared up for it right away.
 “I put together all the books on Rizal that I have, and bought several others, especially collections of correspondences that Rizal has had with friends and relatives,” he says.
 For him, reading words written by Rizal’s own hand is a way of getting into Rizal’s head for a better understanding of who he was and how he conducted himself. Gerry also visited places significant to Rizal including his home in Calamba, also to just get a feel of who Rizal was as a person.
 “I also wanted to stay essentially true to Rizal’s character, but bring him into the world of the fantastic. In many ways, it’s not our historical Rizal, but an interpretation of him,” he explains. “This will be what Rizal and the Philippines could have been if certain events flowed a different way.”
 The first installment of The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Dr. Rizal will be published in Fudge Magazine this September, with each story of the open-ended series spanning 40 pages or more.

Up, up and away!
 Even with all the anticipation for the release of his new comic, Gerry keeps his feet firmly on the ground.
 “I actually don’t create my stories with speculation on what its public perception would be. That’s a strange notion to take,” he says. “I think that any creator, if he puts all his passion into his work, [will see that] people will perceive [his work] to be an honest piece of work, and will respond to it accordingly.”
 Awaiting the release of Gerry’s comics series is Omi Castañar (IV AB DS). He believes that The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Dr. Rizal has a two-fold effect – one on Rizal’s persona, and another on a renewed interest in Philippine comic series.
 “I am very excited to read this new series by Sir Gerry. I think it may revive interest in Rizal. After all, [Rizal] is one of our famous alumni!” Omi says.
 Some find the idea of a comic series about the national hero as something too fantastic and childish. Of course, I disagree with them. I really do have high hopes for the series,” he continues. “For me, it’s something fresh, and depending on the storyline, I hope that it would also be hip. If that would be the case, I think Ateneans would make time to read it.”
 What, then, is a hero? With proudly Pinoy comic creators like Gerry Alanguilan, people won’t need to look up in the sky for superheroes – because the country’s own national superhero, Dr. Jose Rizal, is just around the corner.