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British producer John Yorke mentioned in his book Into the Woods that our fictional characters often find consolation mainly in the materialistic and palpable categories of money and sex. Towards the conclusion of a huge number of movies—and stories—you’ll know that the characters have succeeded if they have a huge amount of cash and someone to be intimate with. If you feel that this is true, it’s because, really, too many stories (especially Western stories) adhere to this advice. Of course, there are beautiful exceptions, and this is what I’ll discuss in this short review. I will talk about the protagonist of Randy Valiente’s Sining Killing.
NOTE: Pol Medina Jr’s Pugad Baboy, Tonton Young’s Pupung, Arnold Arre’s Mythology Class, and Gerry Alanguilan’s Elmer made me appreciate and respect Filipino comics. For some reason I stopped reading them, which is a shame. Thankfully, I rediscovered this underrated art in the FBM 2024 through Randy Valiente’s Sining Killing.
The graphic novel Killing Sining published by Komiket is one of these stories in which the main character—like most real and fictional people—grapples with money (though less so with sex). It starts off as one of your basic Philippine narratives of someone who needs to overcome poverty. Now in a typical story, the formula goes: if they get the money, they win—happy ending. If they don’t get the money, it’s a tragedy. But Killing Sining does not follow this common formula, as its main character, Karl Lenin, deals with his challenges in a more creative and uniquely personal way. And it does it well using the elements of graphic novel: the interplay between images and words. How exactly it happens, well, that is for you to discover. Let us just say that the author has made good creative decisions in his work.
Karl Lenin (Sining Killing's protagonist
I will try not to reveal too much about Karl’s approach to addressing his problems. This is to avoid spoilers, but it should be enough to describe the kind of person Karl is. Hopefully, this will encourage you to delve into his identity in the graphic novel, where his story is more fully explored.
Karl embodies the “typical” Pinoy working man archetype, which tends to be easily misunderstood. This archetype is hardworking to a fault but nevertheless uncomplaining about his situation. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t dream of something better—he does. He is rather perceptive and wise. He thinks and labors to improve his position. If he fails, he simply shrugs and learns from his mistakes. Perhaps a key characteristic of this archetype is that he never complains. He doesn’t brood over the injustices of the world or walk through life with angst. One might think of the pinoy working man as an idealized servant—cheap, meek, passive, and docile—but not exactly, because he holds a clear understanding that life can and should be better, and he actively, often slowly, works for his own betterment.
A Pinoy working man. Photo by Joseph Sullan on Unsplash
The main character of Killing Sining is such a man. He understands that money will make his life better and sees the promise of taking advantage of money-making opportunities. What does he do? That’s where your reading of the comic book comes in. Karl is surrounded by strong-willed, highly principled men—his own father and the mysterious artist named Tao—who each have their own take on how one must gain wealth and power. How does he interact with them? Again, this is where reading and appreciation of the visuals in Killing Sining come into play.
Reading Killing Sining is like witnessing the journey of the good man who is Karl. He is good because there is a case for him being moral. He is good because he is intelligent. As a good man, we might think him weak and out of place in a cruel world. But if he is indeed a good man, he cannot be all that frail. He might appear so, only because his appearance belies his strength—a kind of power that conceals and deceives. Karl’s strength can be worthy of this particular praise, borrowing a quote from a 17th-century French writer: “Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.”
I heard there is going to be a sequel to this graphic novel. All I can say is that I look forward to reading it. Karl’s story is complete on its own, but it is easy to imagine how his ending in Sining Killing serves as a seed for even greater narratives, human experiences, and adventures.
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