Alanguilan's Elmer reaps awards

What if chickens demand equality?

Actually, comic book writer and creator Gerry Alanguilan just got curious of the language of chickens which then led him to create “Elmer.”

“Elmer” won the Prix Asie-ACBD (Best Asian Comic Book Award) and recently, the Quai des Bulles-Ouest France. The Prix Asie-ACBD is given by the Association des Critiques et des journalists de Bande Dessinee, a group of French comic critics and journalists, to outstanding comic creations.

The comic book is about a family of chickens and their struggle for acceptance and equality in the human world.

“I’ve always been fascinated with chickens,” Gerry said. “When I was a kid, I even had a pet chicken named Solano. Every time I passed by a group of chickens, they look paranoid, indignant and I always have this curiosity of what could they be saying?”

It inspired Gerry to create a series of comic strip titled “Stupid Chicken Stories” which was based on his own experience with chickens. That one idea sparked many questions. “What would they say? What if they know their history in the world that they are bred for food? What would they say?”

Gerry lives in San Pablo City, Laguna, a fairly rural area where chickens mingle with humans within a farmyard. That one day when Gerry’s rich imagination played more tricks on him was the birth of “Elmer.”

“That process of analyzing myself sparked the process of writing the book,” Gerry said.

But “Elmer” is not about preaching animal rights or animal welfare or even compassion for animals. It is about family, acceptance, wit, reality, world domination, issues, and simply about a son named Jake.

Jake is Elmer’s son, a nearly prodigal or rebellious son who is full of angst and is having a hard time accepting chickens’ co-existence with humans. Many teenagers can probably relate to Jake which Gerry said has a teeny-weeny semblance of him. Jake’s parents narrowly escaped human fury. A human who eventually becomes Elmer’s best-friend saved them.

When Gerry started writing “Elmer,” he initially wanted to deviate from drawing inspiration from his life. “Most of my works are (already) based on my personal experience,” he explained. “So, I really wanted to create something completely from my imagination, purely fictional but I realized that I won’t be able to help it.”

The characters are all interesting enough for readers to want to know more about, say Francis or May, Jake’s siblings. “I assigned different personalities to each of them without revealing so much,” he said. That will help make people to turn the pages faster than they wanted.

Francis is good-looking, perhaps the most open-minded, a celebrity in his own right, but is he gay? That, Gerry left unanswered.

Gerry is known to be a very detailed artist. “Elmer’s” drawings are too meticulous and elaborate not to notice. “I’ve always drawn that way maybe because of my influences including Alfredo Alcala, and Bernie Wrightson,” he said.

Gerry always go for the best, not for good or better outcome, always the best. “When I’m doing my own comic books I always think how am I able to improve it more based on my own personal standards. I’m really pushing it and work harder than I could.”

Gerry published “Elmer’s” first edition though his Komikero Publishing. This second edition is published by National Bookstore which will help distribute it mainstream.

“Elmer” is available at all National Bookstore branches.

(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 2011)