ANG MASKOT by Macoy
48-pages, black-and-white (P50.00)
Available at Comic Odyssey and Sputnik Comics
If I were to do the Hollywood-pitch for ANG MASKOT, I’d say : it’s WASTED meets ELMER which then crosses-over with CREST HUT BUTT SHOP
ANG MASKOT tells the story of what happens when you put a very angry man in a very cute, chicken mascot suit -- someone’s going to get hurt. (Thankfully, nobody gets killed, which is what sets it apart from “Wasted” and “Elmer”.)
The story starts with a guy wearing the chicken outfit and he’s seated on the sidewalk, outside of a McBird fast food store. The chicken’s head/helmet sits beside him, ogling at something in the distance. He’s smoking and realizes that his shift is about to begin and the first words out of his mouth is, “Siyet.”
He gets called in and is introduced as Jholeebird and the kids mob him.
He counts down his mandated 15 minutes, sweating and cursing while inside the chicken suit. At the end of his shift, he stands in the middle of the party, with hands raised up high, and we see an x-ray shot of the guy inside the suit: he’s got both middle fingers raised and he’s thinking, “ MALAYA NA `KO, MGA P#@NG-INA NYO!”
And just when he thought he’d be free of his feathery prison, the zipper gets stuck and he needs to spend the rest of the day in the suit.
So, we’ve got angry man stuck in a ridiculous looking chicken suit walking around the city. You just know he’s going to get into trouble.
As happy endings go, he does get out of the suit with a little help from a cast of characters. And as happy endings go, he realizes that he needed to get out of something else, more than just the chicken suit; which is where Macoy brings the story to a neat and heartwarming conclusion.
It is also great to see a local creator do a “pop comic” like this. A “pop comic”, as Warren Ellis defined it, is a finite story, a done-in-one, a wakasan-story, that even a non-comic book reader can appreciate. We need more stories like this, to get more people reading comics and to get more people reading locally produced comics.
Macoy’s art style uses simple, clean lines, reminding me of the art style used in some animation story boards (which made me think that this story would make for a great animated short film). His style also reminds me of Mike Kunkel’s BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM and Art Baltazar’s TINY TITANS. It’s the sort of art and story that can easily fit into an anthology like Image Comics’ FLIGHT. This kind of art is brings in something new in the local comic book scene.
I hope it won’t take Macoy long to finish and release his next story.
SEE MORE OF MACOY'S ART AT:
http://mcoy.blogspot.com/
Comments
the, ah, management of mcbird foods, inc. wanted me to inform you that their mascot, "jholeebird", is a species-free ambassador of goodwill and quality family dining, and as such should not be construed to be a member of any avian groups, i.e. chickens. thank you.