Literature Delights: Laguna

Map of Laguna

Laguna: Brief History

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Laguna Coast

Laguna, officially known as the Province of Laguna (Filipino: Lalawigan ng Laguna ; Spanish: Provincia de La Laguna), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Its capital is Santa Cruz and the province is situated southeast of Metro Manila, south of the province of Rizal, west of Quezon, north of Batangas and east of Cavite.

Laguna itself is one of the crowning seats of Philippine literature because it is the birtplace of the country's national hero: Jose Rizal, a novelist. In addition, Laguna's literature is made rich made by its very own writers.

Writers

Gerry Alanguilan

Doroteo Gerardo N. "Gerry" Alanguilan, Jr. (born January 20, 1968), better known in the Philippines by his stage name Komikero, is a Filipino comic book artist and writer from San Pablo, Laguna, best known for his graphic novels Wasted and Elmer.

As a young man, Alanguilan studied to become an architect, but decided to turn his hobby of comic book illustration into a career in order to be with his then-girlfriend. At first, much of Alanguilan's work in comic was on conventional American superhero titles. His first self-written comic was Wasted. Alanguilan at first intended the comic to be for himself and his friends to read, and was embarrassed by the large amounts of violence and profanity in the title. Eventually Alanguilan allowed Wasted to be published in the Philippines, and from there its popularity spread to the United States and put Alanguilan on the independent comics map.[2]

After Wasted, Alanguilan created several other titles which were published in several Filipino publications, such as Johnny Balbona, Humanis Rex!, ELMER, Timawa and Where Bold Stars go to Die. He also contributed to anthologies like Siglo: Freedom, Siglo: Passion and Filipino Komiks, all published in the Philippines. His self-created titles have also attracted a fanbase all over the world, including comic creators Neil Gaiman[3] and Warren Ellis.[4]

In the United States, he is known as an inker for such titles like Wetworks, X-Men, Superman: Birthright, Wolverine, High Roads, Fantastic Four, and Silent Dragon. He has also worked alongside fellow Filipino comic book creators Leinil Francis Yu and Whilce Portacio.

Alanguilan cites Barry Windsor-Smith, Alfredo Alcala, Frank Miller, Katsuhiro Otomo[5] and Alan Moore as creative influences, in particular Moore's reinterpretation of Marvelman.[6] Many of Alanguilan's titles take place in his native Philippines, or feature Filipino characters, such as Johnny Balbona, Humanis Rex!, and Timawa. Many of Alanguilan's graphic novels incorporate elements of social commentary, especially Elmer, which satirizes racism.

In 2007, Alanguilan created an autobiographical slice-of-life webcomic called Crest Hut Butt Shop, based on an earlier minicomic of the same name. However, the webcomic has not been updated since September 12, 2007. Alanguilan played the antagonist, a human trafficker, in Tin-Tin 15, a short film created to increase awareness of child trafficking in the Philippines. The protagonist of Whilce Portacio and Brian Haberlin's comic series Stone, Gerry Alan, is named for Alanguilan.

After a long sabbatical from mainstream comics, Alanguilan, partnered again with Leinil Yu in 2012 to help Mark Millar bring Supercrooks to success

Awards

2011

Winner (For Elmer) Quai des Bulles – Ouest France 2011, St. Malo, France

Winner, Best Asian Album (For Elmer), Prix-Asie ACBD, France 2011

Nominee, Best New Album (For Elmer), Will Eisner Industry Awards, USA, 2011

Global Pinoy Awardee, SM Calamba, 2011

2010

Gawad Pinakamaningnining na Alagad ng Sining (Visual Arts), 2010

Outstanding San Pableño for Visual Arts, 2010

Denny R.

Resulta ng larawan para sa haveyouseenthisgirl

Denny R. (HaveYouSeenThisGirl)

Well, Laguna writers don't conquer the traditional expression of literature only. It even enters the modern technology of producing literary texts.

Denny R. (born 11 February 1994, San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines), commonly known by her pseudonym HaveYouSeenThisGirL, is a Filipino author.[4] She is best known for her novel, Diary ng Panget. It first appeared on Wattpad[5] and was later published as a paperback by PSICOM Publishing Inc.[6] A film adaptation of her work was released in April 2014.[7]

Denny began writing stories at the age of 13.[8] Her book, Diary ng Panget (Diary of an Ugly) has been a commercial success[9] and widely followed in Wattpad.[10] The book has been adapted into a film. She also wrote She Died, a manga series that also has been published on Wattpad. Her other works include Voiceless, that became popular because of the book's theme song "Hear Me", Waiting for the Train (under the GOLD Manga Series), Steps to You, That Girl, One Bad Move, I Met A Jerk Whose Name Is Seven and 10 Signatures To Bargain With God.

Jose Rizal

And here, this one of the writers in Laguna is considered as the peak of Laguna Literature, as well as in the Philippine Literature. Aside from the national hero, Rizal is a great novelist, known for his two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which illustrates the condition of the Filipinos during the Spanish Regime, Though these two novels contains violent messages and ideas, it still garnered the hearts of the Filipino people.