264. Childhood Reads: CLASSIC ILLUSTRATED COMICS

When I saw these Classics Illustrated comic books for sale in a Cubao thrift shop, I was transported back to my younger days when I read and collected every issue I could afford of these popular reading materials. They had no back covers but the pages were all intact; at Php100 apiece (a brand new one cost me 80 centavos in the 70s), they were pricey indeed. But nostalgia got the better of me and I ended up bringing home over 20 issues of these comics. I still have a long way to go towards re-building my collection but with all these great finds recently, I am getting there.

These comics were adaptations of literary classics such as Silas Marner, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Gilberton Company published these classics, including the Classic Illustrated Junior, a series of fairy tale comics that debuted in 1953.

222. FILIPINO COMIC CHARACTER MASKS

Recently, I got hold of a set of 8 cardboard masks given as premium items to subscribers and readers of  Filipino Komiks, a leading comics published in the mid 50s thru the 60s by Ace Publications founded in after the War. These masks depicted characters featured by the comic book in their illustrated stories. Many comic characters were inspired by specific American comics, such as Kulafu and Og (local Tarzan) and the above character--D.I. Trece was the Pinoy version of detective Dick Tracy. The masks still retain their original rubber bands that one had to sling over one's ears. The masks are superbly illustrated and in good condition--in fact, I am wearing this mask as I pound away this entry on my laptop. Today, the comic world is enriched by the drawings and creations of Pinoy 'komiks' artists like Nestor Redondo, Alex Nino, Tony de Zuniga, Francisco Coching, Mars Ravelo and Jim Fernandez. Their original artworks, previously ignored, are now worth quite a bounty based on recent sales and auctions.