Komiket’s Paolo Herras on the power of storytelling, how PICOF was born and the evolving landscape of comics today

In this year’s PICOF, this rich cultural chapter in our history was the subject of the documentary film Komiks with a K, directed and produced by National Book Award-winning author Jay Ignacio. The 60-minute film was screened multiple times at the Megatrade Meeting Room B.

Throughout the two-day event, students, professionals, creatives, and readers immersed themselves in the numerous titles and chapters that were unveiled.

“With the growing challenges in literacy, reading books that children or students love to read will definitely be a huge step in the right direction to solving this dilemma. Schools and libraries are more than welcome to start including komiks in their libraries through PICOF,” Komiket continued.

As the only comics festival that selects an Official Selection of ten graphic novel pitches that are developed in its Creator’s Lab, and published in time for the festival, PICOF 2025 proudly launched Blight by Yuri Punzon, which follows a zombie outbreak in Baguio City, and Cat Cafeteria by Arli Pagaduan, which tackles a mother-and-daughter relationship and how the protagonists build a safe space for their community cats.

Other titles that released new chapters or debuted at PICOF 2025 were: Doobiedoo Asks Whatcha Up 2 by Bambi Amago, Jakob Amago and Roland Amago; There’s A Daemon In My Head by Milo Galang; Hiraya by Fred Cabredo; Sibol by Patricia Ramos and Viel Vidal; P.S. by Danyel Maxin; The Dungeon by Kurt Arzaga; Bodies On Rooftops by Aaron Gabao; Strike the Spark! by Maria Maranan; Kundiman by Yen Peters and The Last Wild Swan by Tintin Pantoja. 

Meanwhile, the comic series Badingger-Z and the Accla Assassin made a triumphant return with its second chapter after debuting last year. Aiming to push the queer conversation in Filipino comics, Badingger-Z and the Accla Assassin delivers an electrifying blend of social commentary and pop fantasy with its inimitable heart, humour and heroism.

The series challenges the tired trope of queer characters as comic relief or sidekicks. “That’s a prevalent issue among young members of the LGBTQ community,” author Real Florido explains. “That they’re being seen, being heard—especially now in mainstream media, where LGBTQ+ members are still often portrayed as sidekicks.”

Among the international guests present were: Filipino-German creator Sheree Domingo (Long Distance Call), Eisner Winner for Best Webcomics Erica Eng from Malaysia (Fried Rice) and Singaporean Best Book winner Kenfoo (Cockman), who all launched the Philippine edition of their books under Vibal Publishing’s Agimat Comics imprint. There were also comics creators and publishers from Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Brazil, Slovenia and Turkey.

Meanwhile, the three-day comics masterclasses of globally recognised comics professionals were one of this year’s highlights. It included Randy Valiente’s Hagod: The Filipino School of Brush Illustrations for Komiks workshop, which discussed the lost art style of Filipino komiks; a cartooning workshop with the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas; Itaewon Class creator Gwang Jin on Korean webtoons and the comics industry landscape; award-winning Fil-German creator Sheree Domingo; Thailand-based British creator Jonathan Scott; Eng from Malaysia and many more.

PICOF also had three comics exhibits this year: one featured the PICOF Official Selection, another was a tribute to Mars Ravelo’s Mahiwagang Makinilya and the third was the country of highlight—Palestine through the Enter the Mulberry exhibition, which was first seen at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival last year.

Readers supported Palestine through their purchases of the merchandise from the Enter the Mulberry exhibition, the hourly live drawings of komiks creators doing “Panels For Palestine” and the book by Palestinian creator Safaa Odah. All proceeds from the book, merchandise and Komiks With a K film screenings were dedicated to the Medical Aid for Palestine.

“I hope we get to grow more readers to encourage komiks creators to keep creating, and inspire [aspiring] writers and illustrators to start,” Herras shares with Tatler.

The Komiket co-founder and festival director of PICOF humbly identifies himself as someone who has always been a storyteller. Starting off as a National Arts scholar for the Philippine High School for the Arts majoring in creative writing, Herras was able to join the 33rd UP National Writer’s Workshop and the 11th Ricky Lee’s Scriptwriting Workshop. After earning his degree in comparative literature from the University of the Philippines, Herras wrote and directed indie films and worked his way up from his copywriter position to being a creative director in an advertising firm.

“But I fell in love with komiks, because my stories were best told in this medium,” he says. “I felt the community was a magical place where people would create stories, and people would buy them.”

Herras co-founded Komiket with other komiks creators simply because there were no mixer events or any gatherings of that sort for comics enthusiasts and creators in the summer of 2015. “We decided to organise accessible and affordable spaces for creators to showcase their work,” he recalls.

Amidst the small number of art markets at the time to reach readers and discover emerging talents, Komiket gained traction, a following and eventually formed a community to promote and celebrate komiks. They also brought Komiket to other key cities in the country.

“To promote komiks creators to our attendees, we published creators in komiks anthologies called Kommunity, and gave them away for free to attendees,” Herras says.

Seeing comic books and graphic novels’ lack of visibility in nationwide bookstores, Komiket decided to build its own bookstore in Poblacion, Makati, which later moved to The Atrium.

“Still, it wasn’t enough. We had to grow more readers,” Herras says. Comparing their journey to how Cinemalaya ushered in a new era of  independent film festivals, Herras fondly recalls how PICOF paved the way for a wider appreciation for komiks. What drew more audiences and exhibitors was its Official Selection, a call for full-length graphic novel pitches from comic book creators.

“We didn’t know how we were going international, and due to the pandemic, our festival pivoted online, and we were able to connect with other international comics festivals around the world—creators and publishers from Southeast Asia, Australia, the UK and the USA,” says Herras. With the success of PICOF despite the brunt of the pandemic, Komiket pivoted its bookstore online to keep selling books and investing in its creators and publications. “I thought our NGO work was already my higher purpose, but publishing was the higher purpose of my higher purpose,” he remarks.

All their hard work paid off when the National Book Development Board took notice of Komiket’s relentless spirit amid the pandemic. This led to their invitation to participate in the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF). With an impressive feedback, Komiket returned to the 2024 edition of FBF, leading the Philippines’ booth dedicated for comics and graphic novels, together with other Filipino publishers. As the country becomes the Guest of Honour in this year’s edition, Komiket is expected to play a much bigger role in gathering more Filipino komiks creators and titles to be showcased at the world’s stage.

“It has grown,” quips Herras, looking back at how much the comics industry in the Philippines has developed since he started to be actively involved in the industry. “But creators come and go in waves, because 99 per cent are passion-driven hobbyists.”

Herras believes that it is a good sign that there are over 10 komiks publishers now making waves nationwide and joining conventions and art markets to showcase and sell their work. E-commerce also provides accessibility to these publishers, even the most obscure ones. “At least, we don’t have to compete with office supplies or furniture in a ‘bookstore’ with such high consignment rates,” he adds.

Besides the numbers, stories and topics that Filipino komiks tackle have also grown significantly according to Herras’s observation.

“There is more LGBTQ+ work, with the rise of BL and GL creators and stories,” he says. “We have more romance, autobiographies and slice-of-life komiks now. We still have a strong number of komiks strips online with Tarantadong Kalbo, Kikomachine Komix, Libreng Komiks, Hunghang Flashbacks and SSKAIT leading local webcomics. But hopefully, we will have more academic, literary journalism, biographical and historical komiks in the future. There’s still so much room to grow,” he continues.

The growth of the comics reading culture—not only in the Philippines but also throughout Southeast Asia, despite the lack of adaptations into the film and television media—is something Herras attributes to comics’ unique power as its own medium.

“Adaptations isn’t the only sign of success,” he says. “Before a comic book can succeed as a film, it must first succeed as comics. Both must be judged independently,” Herras continues. He concurs that not all comic books can do well as live-action films. There are production limitations which leave artist’s imagination and how audiences read the material as paramount. “Some of the best comics in the West (and East), do not have film, animation or game adaptations. If you look at the readership of the ‘supers’, its readership is actually declining, with manga and middle-grade comics rising. This shows that the taste of readers is also evolving, and that the old readers are, well, getting older, and new and younger readers prefer something else,” Herras weighs in.

Ultimately, what enchants Herras towards comics and graphic novels is how enjoyable they are when read. “I enjoy how the story unfolds and the characters unfurl... how the plot twists and turns... the emotional ups and downs... and even finding the richness of an idea’s meaning. The joy is in the reading, where time can move quickly or ever so slowly, I can meditate on one singular panel, or breeze through several pages in seconds. The joy is that time in limited space is infinite,” he concludes.

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