COMICS AND REVOLUTION

There's comics and there's comics, and revolution has a way of coming about on its own accord, and never the twain shall meet.

- JUANIYO ARCELLANA

Except perhaps in the rare intersection of political cartoons, sorely missed lately in the opinion pages of the broadsheet dailies due to streamlining, general reluctance of artists, or complete overhaul of layout to give the page a more text-heavy look.

Whatever's the case, there's no forgetting the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris 2015, where Muslim extremists went on a rampage on the weekly satirical magazine's offices for recurring caricatures of the prophet Mohammad. It's something the religious don't take too well, the lampooning of prophets. Thus any aspiring satirist may find himself six feet under before he picks up pen under, say, Taliban rule.

Ongoing until third week of March at the VMeme Gallery in Estancia, Pasig is "Afterglow: EDSA 40 Years After," with drawings and paintings commemorating the 40th anniversary of the EDSA people power revolution, by four distinct editorial cartoonists at that time of reckoning: Jose Tence Ruiz of Who magazine and Manila Chronicle, Dengcoy Miel of Jingle magazine and Philippine STAR, Elno Rosales of Mindanao and later Straits Times, and Pinggot Zulueta whose forte includes photography being on the staff of Manila Bulletin for years before migrating south of the equator.