Taga-ilog was at ToyCon

If you read Culture Crash magazine in the past, you probably remember the comic book artist known as Taga-ilog, Melvin Calingo in real life. He often represents himself as a character with a bucket  for a head in the magazine, alongside Dha Boss (Jescie James Palabay), I.Q. 40/Memer II (Elmer Damaso), J.I.O. (Jerard Beltran), and Taga-Kanal (Michael David). I met Taga-ilog during ToyCon 2013 at SM Megamall and the first question that I asked him was, "Asan na si Kubori Kikiam?"

Taga-ilog, the Buckethead of Doom

Culture Crash was a bi-monthly magazine that started in 1999, when anime was at its high, and sadly ended in 2004 with issue #14. The magazine featured anime-styled comic series, which include the sci-fi Solstice Butterfly, modern day teen-serye One Day, Isang Diwa, fantasy Cat's Trial, uraban action Pasig, and deliciously funny Kubori Kikiam. The artwork may be Japanese-inspired but the characters, theme, and content shouts Filipino. CCCom's claim to fame is that they created their own process to make comic books.

Day two of ToyCon, I was passing by the Komikon booth, and I saw the familiar art of Pasig in black and white. I can only identify the CCCom artists via their avatars and the man behind the booth did not have a bucket covering his face. It was only when I asked for his pen name that I realized who he was. So I got a copy of Pasig, a little chat with the artist and left. I came back to his booth twice. First time to get a photo (as seen below) and second time to get his autograph. It was a little embarrassing because I kept bothering him for things I should have asked for in the first place.

Melvin Calingo (Taga-ilog) with Pinoy Gunpla Modeler

So where is Kubori Kikiam these days? Taga-ilog told me that he only appears during Komikon and Indiket. The next Indieket will be on August 10, 2013 10AM-7PM at the Bayanihan Center, Pasig City. Needless to say, I will be going.