Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Culture Crash Comics

Culture Crash was a bi-monthly Filipino comic magazine published by Culture Crash Comics and J. C. Palabay Ent., Inc.. It features different stories of anime-styled comics drawn by their staff, these include Cat's Trail, Pasig, Solstice Butterfly, One Day, Isang Diwa and Kubori Kikiam. Aside from these series, the magazine also includes articles like Movie Reviews, Music Reviews, Special Events, and How We Draw which shows the staff's techniques on how they draw comics. In 2004, they released Issue 14, that was the last issue to be sold in the market.

Culture Crash Comics is a bi-monthly Filipino comic magazine. Jescie James L. Palabay, the publisher of the magazine states that the name is derived from a perception of Filipino culture, that is "basically a crash of cultures". It is basically a wordplay on the phrase clash of cultures. While the group's work standard is based on those established by publishers in the U.S., Europe and Japan, there is a strong, conscious effort to retain a Filipino character at the heart of the comic. The artwork is Japanese-inspired but the stories are uniquely and distinctly Filipino-based. Their anthology format was also inspired by the traditional way Filipino comics were published. One of their claim to fame is that they also created their own revolutionary process in making comics. They are also considered pioneers in standardizing the painted background style. The prototype for Culture Crash was the comic magazine Culture Shock, which was produced by the group Asiancore Komiks in 1996.