Manix Abrera, Carlo Vergara and Carljoe Javier will be speakers at the Roundtable Discussion on Graphic Fiction and the Comics on Aug. 20, 2 p.m., in the Tanghalang Teresita Quirino, G/F, Benavides Bldg., University of Santo Tomas, Manila.
The discussion is part of the USTingan Program of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
Abrera is one of the icons of contemporary graphic fiction, having published numerous best-selling books, created “Kiko Machine Komiks,” which comes out daily in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and contributing regularly to GMA News Online.
Javier writes fiction, nonfiction and graphic fiction, and teaches at the UP. He has published a scholarly work on graphic fiction titled “Filipino Humor and the Filipinization of Foreign Tropes in Macoy’s ‘Taal Volcano Monster vs. Evil Space Paru-paro’”
And Vergara is the creator of the queer cult classics “Ang Pakikipagsapalaran ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah” and “Zsazsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila”
This is the third of Ustingan forum since the series was revived by the UST CCWLS. The seres designed to address topics and issues of interest to modern readers and of relevance to contemporary Philippine literature.
The first one, held in the first semester of 2012-2013, was on “What Is Popular Literature?” featuring Lourd de Veyra, poet, novelist, rock star and media celebrity; Nida Ramirez, head of the publishing house Visprint, which publishes the mysterious best-selling author Bob Ong, and the popular Eros Atalia, a UST CCWLS resident fellow and this year’s winner of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Grand Prize for the Novel in Filipino; and Paolo Manalo, poet and coordinator of UP’s Creative Writing Program.
The second USTingan was a lecture on literary translation by Isagani Cruz, president of the Manila Times College and professor emeritus of De la Salle University.
The Aug. 20 forum is open to the public.
Call Anna Nicolas at 406-1611 or 7861611 local 8281, or at 0927-9090832.