Francisco V. Coching, acknowledged as the "Dean of Filipino Illustrators," and son of noted Tagalog novelist and comics illustrator Gregorio Coching, was a master storyteller—in images and in print. His illustrations and novels were products of that happy combination of fertile imagination, a love of storytelling, and tine draftsmanship. He synthesized images and stories informing Philippine folk and popular imagination of culture. His career spanned four decades.
Starting his career in 1934, he was a central force in the formation of the popular art form of comics. He was a part of the golden age of the Filipino comics in the 1950s and `60s. Until his early retirement in 1973, Coching mesmerized the comics-reading public as well as his fellow artists, cartoonists and writers. Filmmakers like National Artists Lamber-to Javellana and Gerardo de Leon translated his novels into films.
He created a pantheon of memorable characters that from the 1950s onwards were fleshed out by the men and women of Philippine cinema who are now also icons in their own right: Gloria Romero, Fernando Poe Jr., Tita Duran, Pancho Magalona and Rita Gomez.
Writing about Coching, Alice Guillermo zeroes in on the specificities of comics as an art form, as premised on supple and fluid line, drawing, and on the narrative unfolded in sequences of framed images and accompanying balloon texts that do not interfere with the images.
What Coching brought to comics as a specific art form was his consummate draftsmanship and his strong yet elegant lines. Artists have noted his expertise in anatomy, perspective and dynamic compositions, coupled with unerring sense of the perfect angle, which lent drama that revealed character.
The impact of his art had not lessened with the mediation of the printing press of the comics medium, nor in the wake of other comics artists of more recent times. His comics arts also provided material for cinematic art. Such was his unerring feel for drama, the correct angle and the telling detail. It is believed that directors who translated his works into films shot their pictures with the comic book in hand, guided frame by frame by his actual work.
The stories he created are a universe that tapped into the well springs of Filipino imagination and emotion. It is, according to Guillermo, a universe that lends itself well to the portrayal of metrical romance, heroic exploits and other interesting enchantments.
The source of his imagery can be traced to the Philippine culture from the 19th century to the 1960s. His works reflected the dynamics brought about by the racial and class conflict in Philippine colonial society in the 19th century, a theme that continued to be dealt with for a long time in Philippine cinema.
He valorized die indigenous, untrammeled Filipino in Lapu-Lapu and Sagisag ng Lahing Filipino, and created the types that affirm the native sense of self in his Malay heroes of stunning physique. His women are beautiful and gentle, but at the same time can be warrior-like, as in Marabini (Marahas na Binibini) or the strong seductive, modern women of his comics in the 1950s and 1960s.
There are also myths and fantasy, featuring the grotesque characters, vampire bats, shriveled witches as in Haring Ulupong. Yet, Coching grounded his works in the experience of war during the Japanese occupation. He was a guerilla of the Kamagong Unit, Las Pinas branch of the ROTC hunters in the Philippines.
He also drew from the popular post-war culture of the 1950s, as seen in Movie Fan. At this point, his settings and characters became more urbane, and the narratives he weaved scanned the changing times and mores, as in Pusakal Talipandas, Gigolo and Maldita.
In his characters and storylines, Coching brought to popular consciousness the issues concerning race and identity. He also discussed in his works the concept of hero, which resonate through the characters on his comics like Dimasalang and El Vibora.
Coching's works were anthologized in the Hannes Bok Showcase of Fantasy Art in 1974. Though offered a chance to practice his art in the United States, he preferred honing his talent in his native land. How works were the delight and inspirations of peers and mentors alike.
Cocking, who died on September 1, 1998 at the age of 79, also left a lasting influence on the succeeding generations of younger cartoonist such as Larry Alcala, Ben Infante and Nestor Redondo. The comics as popular art also helped forge the practice and consciousness as a national language. (From the Order of National Artists Secretariat.)
SM Aura Premier, with the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, presents National Artist for Visual Arts and King of Comics: Francisco V. Coching's Centennial Exhibit.
The exhibit features original artworks, Unang Labas komiks spreads, and life-size reproductions of his most popular characters and works last February 18-24, 2019 at the Upper Ground Floor Atrium, SM Aura Premier.
