October is Filipino American History Month...

... but to me, Fil-Am History Month is every month.

However way you observe FAHM, it's the perfect time for me to put the spotlight on comics that were drawn by Filipino talents, whether they're American or non-American. Several Pinoy illustrators have lent their pencils to Marvel and DC titles, such as former Flash artist and Secret Identities contributor Greg LaRocque (who, like many Filipino artists this month, did a wonderful gesture by auctioning off comic art to raise money for typhoon relief) and Secret Invasion artist Leinil Francis Yu.

I don't have any of Yu's Marvel work in my collection, but I dug up from my shelves the 2005 Batman/Danger Girl crossover special he collaborated on with inker (and komiks art historian) Gerry Alanguilan:

The superhero artwork by these Filipino artists frequently looks spectacular, but as Budjette Tan noted in a 2003 Comic Book Resources column about the abundance of Filipinos in the American comics industry since the days of Alfredo Alcala and Whilce Portacio, "so few are writing and drawing about who they are and where they are from." The autobiographical comic strips by Bay Area cartoonist Rina Ayuyang are an example of a Filipino creator writing and drawing about the Fil-Am experience for a change.

I first caught some of Rina's underground comics at a Cartoon Art Museum exhibit earlier this year and liked what I saw. Her Whirlwind Wonderland compilation, which she debuted at APE last week, is one of several books I grabbed at the expo.

Good thing I brought my copy of Whirlwind Wonderland with me while I was at my parents' house. I had my mom translate for me the Ilocano-speaking auntie's dialogue that went untranslated during a strip in which Rina can't understand what her relatives are saying. For instance, "Pagtartarabahuam? Taga ditoy ka kadi? Ilugan nak to man nga agawid no malpas ti pangaldaw?!" means "Where do you work? Are you from here? Can I get a ride so I can go home after we eat?!"

I'm bored with the superhero genre these days (my current favorite superhero comic is an anti-superhero title, Dynamite's The Boys, in which Garth Ennis takes the piss out of supers), but if I ever feel like creating a Fil-Am superhero, instead of an inability to see through lead, I'd make his weakness be an inability to understand his Ilocano-speaking aunties.

APE city

Indie cartoonist Javier Hernandez is a fan of the Fistful of Soundtracks channel (I'm glad to have introduced him to the comedy of Paul Mooney) and is always great to chat with about 007 music, so I dropped by the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco on Sunday to say hello to Jav, as well as grab some comics by Rafael Navarro, Debbie Huey and Rina Ayuyang, whose new Whirlwind Wonderland collection I've been looking forward to picking up. I also introduced myself to Hellen Jo and Martin Hsu, two Secret Identities contributors whose work was brought to my attention by the project while I wrote my Secret Identities story.

Also at APE 2009, I had Brandon Bird sign a copy of his brilliant Law & Order coloring book that I bought from him at APE two years ago (he ought to be a script doctor after explaining to me why he thought Harvey Dent was unconvincingly written as a "white knight" in The Dark Knight), and I chatted about '70s movies with Michael Aushenker (I was surprised he hasn't seen The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which Criterion finally released on DVD this summer, so I recommended it to him).

Because of the lack of booth babes and cosplayers, APE isn't as photogenic to me as its sister cons WonderCon and San Diego Comic-Con. (The even smaller Asian American ComiCon, where I was given my very first con table, was a lot like APE, in terms of low-keyness. Speaking of my first table, what was funny about that experience was that outside of Secret Identities, I had nothing else to promote at my table because everything I've written and drawn has been published only online. That's what I get for being a webcomic blogger.)

Despite the minimal photogenicity, I enjoy the smaller and much less crowded APE way more than the other two Comic-Con International cons. I prefer being able to walk around without getting poked in the eye by someone's Hasbro lightsaber.