Nearing the turn of the 20th century, Filipinos stood at the precipice of an uncertain future. Even as the country successfully overthrew a dictator, instability persisted in society for the years that followed.
The 1990s was a turbulent decade… no wonder that the masses turned to movies and comics in search of hope.
Luckily, the venerable komik artist Mars Ravelo gave Filipinos both, and simultaneously offered a weary country a sliver of hopeful light.
STAR-MAKER
I wholeheartedly believe that whatever praise and recognition we give to “Uncle Mars” —as many have come to call him, it will always end up falling short. Many luminous careers in the Philippine entertainment scene were launched into the stratosphere because of him.
In March 1994, well-known entertainment columnist Joe Quirino wrote in his Philippine Graphic article “Mars Ravelo: Marvelous Comics Creator” listed the names of some of these actors (now regarded with great admiration): Tessie Agana, who starred in Roberta; Dolphy, who played one of the lead roles in Jack and Jill; and Susan Roces in Maruja.
“Megastar” Sharon Cuneta and “Star for all Seasons” Vilma Santos also played one of Ravelo’s most popular creations: “Darna,” while Edu Manzano portrayed another famous hero: “Captain Barbell.” Speaking to Quirino in one of his interviews with the famed “komik novelist,” Ravelo said “I don’t like to be Number 2. Even when I worked as a janitor in my salad years, I was the Number 1 janitor.”
Movie critic Mario Bautista said that Ravelo had one frustration in his many years in the industry: It’s the fact that “Uncle Mars [did not win] a single writing award.”
Quirino recalled that Ravelo considered himself fortunate. The latter said, “I was lucky that the masses liked my work. There was a time when writers in English used to look down on us.”
If so, then Ravelo might find something hopeful in the current state of comics in the country—including animation, for that matter.
STATE OF KOMIKS
Filipino komiks and their artists have generated growing attention and appreciation over the past few decades. Thousands would often flock to Komikon, an annual comic book convention in the Philippines that began way back in 2005. There, artists and independent publishers were given the platform for their work.
Comics are no longer confined to print, as many artists establish their platforms online with the rise of webcomics. A recent milestone in the field was Budjette Tan’s hit series Trese, which was adapted into an anime and released on Netflix in 2021.
It gained international popularity in the process.
Filipino storytelling had gone beyond the static dimension of the paper. Animation—the offshoot of the hand-drawn arts and the films, both of which Ravelo had a huge influence on—is also starting to gain a considerable amount of attention as of late.
Studio Heartbreak, an independent Filipino animation studio, successfully raised more than $400,000 through popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter for their short animated film THE LOVERS.
More notably, they reached that amount within only 45 days.
The studio announced that the film is due for release on YouTube in the summer of 2026.
HEROES
Ravelo passed away in September 1988 at the age of 73 from a heart attack.
Almost four decades had passed since then, yet his immense contribution to Philippine entertainment as a whole is still felt today. He is revered as a creative idol of the Philippine entertainment industry’s biggest stars, and much of their success is owed to him.
That said, we could only wonder what would have happened to our komiks and movies had Ravelo given in to doubt whether to proceed or not with his wonderful ideas.
Many turn to comics in search of hope and sense of belonging, just as the people in the second half of the 1900s did. In comics, we find not heroes who save us, but those who show us that we possess the power to save ourselves.
Beyond that, comics also spare us a moment of sanity. With the state of the world, we all might be in need of a dose of good komiks.
This article appeared in the May 2026 Special issue of the Philippines Graphic.
