Knock...knock!!!

The Filipino “komiks” industry began with sheer luck... or by accident. You must remember that accidents are just unplanned that could be fortunate or otherwise. Antonio “Tony” Velasquez was just at the right time and at the right place. In the late 1920s, Tony was working as a subordinate artist for the ‘photoengraving’ section of Liwayway magazine. The writer Romualdo Ramos had a great idea of writing for a comic strip. Since the chief artist for Liwayway then had a congested work schedule, the task of drawing fell to Tony’s lap and the rest is the history of Kenkoy.

Kenkoy was, and in a lot of cases, still is a Pinoy icon. The weekly comic strip Mga Kalbalan ni Kenkoy (Kenkoy’s antics) proved to be so popular that it was translated to several regional languages, generated comic spin-offs of minor characters, and raked in cash for a then burgeoning film industry. Kenkoy with his slick hair, ‘plantsado(starched) pants’ and hilarious antics has endeared himself to the Filipino consciousness. We visited the Children's Museum recently and i had the chance to have a pose with this Filipino Comic Icon who made our life a little enjoyable most of the times.