Martial Law Babies

Last Saturday, I attended Arnold Arre's books signing at Powerbooks in Trinoma. I had meant to write about it here the Friday before the event but memory is a slippery thing. The signing was great. Lots of Arnold Arre fans showed up, some of them with his complete works in tow. Arnold Arre is probably the most prolific and certainly the best known graphic novelist in the country today. His works include Mythology Class, Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden and Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat. He's also one half of the team that creates the Private Iris series for kids, a comic book about an extremely young and extremely smart girl who goes around solving mysteries. Though you could get anything by him signed during the event, it was mostly to highlight his latest work, Martial Law Babies. His work just keeps getting better and better. At the risk of revealing my age, I will say that I could identify with a lot of stuff in the graphic novel, though you don't need to have to be a Martial Law Baby to understand it. A Martial Law Baby, by the way, is the term used for kids who were born either from 1972 - 1977 or 1972- 1986 (depending on who you talk to), during Ferdinand Marcos' Martial Law years. We grew up thinking that everything was right in the world, while a little voice in our little heads said, No all is not right. Why do you think you're not allowed to see the last few episodes of Voltes V? Here, Arre deviates from his usual fantasy mode to tell a tale that will, in one way or another, hit close to home. His characters are real. They could have been your friends. Heck, they may have been patterned after your friends. They could have been patterned after you. I'm not going to go into details as I don't plan for this to be a review. Let's just say that I bawled my eyes out while I was reading it, partly because the story was so compelling, partly because of the nostalgia it induced. After being introduced by Jaime Bautista (the other half of Private Iris), Arnold said a few words about his works, then fielded questions from fans. Afterwards, the signing commenced. I got in line with a copy of Private Iris, which I plan to send to relatives in the States. Arnold was very nice, taking time out to chat with his fans and have pictures taken with them. The girl in front of me had about three books and was telling Arnold how she envied her boyfriend because he had a copy of After Eden, which is apparently now hard to find. Inspired by Arnold's success and prolificity (is this even a word?), I wandered over to his Web site. Aside from the requisite bio and glowing blurbs from established writers like the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Ruey de Vera and Manila Bulletin's Luis Katigbak (insert wiggling eyebrows here), the site had a page called "From My Generation to Yours," which has a slideshow of pictures from the 70's and 80's. It's really trippy to see, especially when you can recognize the places in the background. "That's the Greenhills Shopping Center!" I found myself yelling. Good thing everyone was asleep. They think I'm crazy enough as it is. "A Scooby Doo mascot! And Howie the Magnolia Ice cream dude!" Like I said. Trippy. What really interested me though was the page called "As Approachable as a Landing Strip," which talked about Arre's creative process. It shows Arre's test strips, thought processes and inspirations (like old memories and The Electric Company) -- proof that comic book writing is no easy task. It also lets you glimpse into the mind of a genius. It also has an original letter from Uncle Bob from Uncle Bob's Lucky Seven Club where he hopes that he and the recipient will be friends forever and ever. Those were simpler times. But then, childhood usually is.