A comics anthology answers the question: ‘Are people still willing to work for free?’

By Sam L. Marcelo
Associate Editor

A YEAR FROM NOW, a recently published comics anthology, exists online as an answer to a question Lyra Garcellano and Merv Espina asked themselves while stuck in traffic: “Are people still willing to work for free?” This question, on the other hand, was posed in answer to yet another question asked by Salcedo Auctions, which hosted a talk in 2014 titled “Who determines the value of art?” (The very reason Ms. Garcellano and Mr. Espina were stuck in traffic: they were on the way to Makati City to listen to the talk.)

“Everything was serendipitous,” said Mr. Espina, the day before A Year From Now went live on the Internet. Fifteen illustrators from all over the world are gathered in this collection, which features both old and new work that run anywhere from two pages to 37. It’s an impressive roster that includes both well-known and emerging names. You have Tommi Musturi of Finland, who has been in the business for more than 20 years and whose work is regularly published by , and Kwon Yong-Deuk of South Korea, who just had a book translated into French.

“It was great that people were kind enough to share their stuff for free since half of them are professional comic artists who have their own deadlines,” said Ms. Garcellano. “Guys like Tommi Musturi and Kwon Yong-Deuk are big in their own countries. Let’s put it this way: they have fan bases there.” You also have the likes of Luna Beller-Tadiar, a Yale student who posts her comic strips on Tumblr, an online blogging platform. Ms. Garcellano saw Ms. Beller-Tadiar’s reflections on queer identity, which are told in a manner reminiscent of Joe Sacco’s graphic reportage, and asked her to develop a story for A Year From Now.

Those who know Ms. Garcellano for her installations and paintings should also know that she created Atomo and Weboy, a comic strip that ran in the Philippine Daily Inquirer for almost a decade. Many of the contributors to A Year From Now are people she met in 2006 through the Asia-Europe Comics Project, a residency in Singapore organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation. “We kept in touch. There was no Facebook then but we had e-mail,” she said. “When Facebook popped up, we all got together online.”

A Year From Now is the second anthology to spring from that residency. The first was Go Home: 12 Moving Stories, an actual print publication released in 2008 that was published and organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation in 2006. “This is a reunion of sorts,” said Ms. Garcellano, who added that the decision to shift the distribution of A Year From Now online was easy. “We don’t have money for an actual print publication and it would entail too much work. Besides, how else would somebody from Europe get to read a comic by somebody from Cambodia or from Indonesia. If it were a book, it could still happen but it would be harder.”

Available in different formats and different resolutions, A Year From Now is composed mostly of travelogues with an existential edge (as Ms. Garcellano put it) and autobiographical stories. Shieko Reto, a transgender artist from Malaysia, a country that has an anti-transgender law, tackled issues within her community with levity and humor.

“I have a lot of friends who do not read comics but who are intrigued because of A Year From Now,” said Ms. Garcellano. “Their concept of comics is Marvel and that’s it. A Year From Now is not Marvel. There are no superheroes but there are stories and narratives. I hope people see the possibilities of comics in terms of art, writing and narration.”

The fate of the project is up in the air. Neither Ms. Garcellano nor Mr. Espina know if there will be a follow-up. Despite the personal costs — time, effort, energy and money spent on beer and food — they both agree that putting together the first (and perhaps only) edition of A Year From Now was a valuable experience. “It’s worth it,” said Ms. Garcellano. “I’d be the first one to say ‘forget it’ if it weren’t.”

(For more information and download links visit A Year From Now‘s , or peruse the entire anthology below.)

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