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Over coffee at Dagupeña Restaurant one time, I had the chance to talk with Resty Basa, an authentic Pangasinan historian. Dagupeña, by the way, is a hub for media practitioners in Dagupan City as well as local political leaders.
Tiyo Resty who is a distant relative of mine, was lamenting on how the youth of today are reading less and less literature and history. They, as he rightfully observed, are hooked on the internet, the television and other “more exciting” forms of media.
I share the same lament with Tiyo Resty. I observed, even when I was still teaching in high school years back, that classic literature and history have lost their appeal to the majority of our young people.
Yet as I was starting to believe then that it was almost impossible to revive the literary sense of the youth - I got the surprise of my life - when my eldest child, Marco, was dropping some names of characters from Greek and Roman mythology while playing with his best buddy. Marco was then in sixth grade, and at that time, the Magic cards were in vogue among youngsters. I later found out that each card contained a name and illustration of a Greek/Roman myth character, with a little backgrounder written on the back. Hence, the name dropping by my son.
So I thought - well, why not? If they can serve as a more effective means of awakening the youth’s interest on these matters - why not these Magic cards? And again I thought - why not comic books?
This same thought came to me again while browsing the Internet and I came across this link: Rostam Comic Book.
Rostam: Tales of the Shahanameh, is a comic book adaptation of the Shahanameh or Book of Kings by the famous Persian poet, Ferdowsi. The Shahnameh, or The Epic of Kings is one of the definite classics of the world. It tells hero tales of ancient Persia (now Iran). This epic describes the events back to the ancient times dating back to the history of Iran’s past, preserved in majestic verse.
Consisting of nearly 60,000 couplets, the Shahnameh was completed by Ferdowsi in 30 years! It was written approximately 1,000 years ago and is written in the Pahlavi original or Parsi, which is pure Persian.
Now, who doesn’t love epics? Even our local ‘Biag ni Lam-ang” that featured the life of a Chinese warrior with noted superpowers who fought his enemies almost by bare hands, was a hit in my literature class way back in high school. But alas, due to their lengths, epics slowly started to lose readership especially among the youth who have more things to be preoccupied with in this age of computers.
I was awed therefore upon “bumping” into Rostam Comic Book adaptation of Iran’s greatest epic of all times. I consider this as another way of feeding the readers, much like when we feed a picky eater of a child. When a child is so picky and hardly eats his food, we find ways to make him or her like the food on the plate by changing the presentation or the manner by which the food is cooked. The same way is true with feeding the readers with good reads which they find too long and boring to consume. The answer, I guess, has been found by Rostam Comic Book: present the story in comic book form.
Not only is Rostam Comic Book catering to the kids. It is a valuable offering to adult readers like myself as well. Through this comic book, a window to the world is created in which people from all over the globe can take a glimpse of the historical/literary heritage of Iran in this particular issue.
Rostam: Tales of the Shahnameh is a standard American Comic Book following the standard 32 page format, printed in high quality semi-glossy paper with a slightly thicker cover for protection and durability. The amazingly handrawn images are detailedly colored on computer, with no less than acclaimed American comic book artist, Karl Altstaetter bringing the book’s lead character, Rostam, to life in the American Comic Book Genre.
Since it is published as a standard American Comic Book, it is clear that it is printed in the English language, to reach a wider readership among English speaking countries. If I may add however, there are clamors from avid followers for it to be translated to other languages as well, like French and Spanish. This way, a much wider readership can be penetrated all over the world, and thus making it more successful to spread the history and culture of Iran, in this particular issue, and hopefully of other nations global wide as well in the next publications.
This so very true. I was in fact worried about this fact for a long time now as I have observed that the Filipino youth is fast losing touch with literature where culture becomes a significant factor that molds the entirety of the individual. A man without culture and tradition lost some form anchorage and may progress into a stoic figure; unsensible and unsymphatetic to his/her environment.
These comic book adaptation is a good manner of re-inculcating literature into the veins of our youth and I hope it goes a long, long way.
Wow, Rostam Comic Book sounds really nice!
(:
Actually, using other forms of media to educate children is becoming more acceptable in that, they are more effective in arousing the interest among today’s youth than that stern-looking book we were forced to read back in school.
It’s very true. Hindi na ako nakakakita ng kahit anong uri ng comics around markets and sidewalks. Unlike before, comics are everywhere. Hindi nila alam na mas naiintindihan at interesting sa mga bata ang drawings and texts at the same. Now, we only have that in big bookstores and they are very expensive. I am not a good comic artist but I am a member of a club called Komikero. Lahat ng magagaling na comic artists ay nandito. We aim to advertise and revive all kinds of comics and also the great Filipino comic artists. You can visit to those interested in Filipino comic arts and artists. I hope mapanumbalik ang hilig ng mga kabataan sa mga kahalagahan ng history, values at makathang pamamaraan sa pamamagitan ng komiks o ng kahit anong media na makakatulong at mas interesting sa mga kabataan.
i suddenly feel as if i am a rare animal born of my generation.
i love reading books, especially the old ones, because they give me insights from the past which today missed. they have more appeal than mainstream books of today because i always thought of the past as a romantic age where values and emotions existed as absolutes, with no shades in between. unlike now, when things seem bland and ascetic.
also, I think Marco is a wide reader, beyond his Magic Cards.
Medyo na-iiba na nga ngayon ang approach sa pagtuturo. Kelangan na nga atang mag adapt sa new media. Comics are okay as well, medyo magandang production lang sana I think. Kasi I think there were some efforts before by a local comics group but the production wre not that successful
I’d like to read this comic book myself. Thanks for sharing.
Most local youths I know are not much into reading; sad I thought.
Tita, hindi pa pala ako nakakapunta sa Dagupena na nasa Calasiao na ngayon
I used to read comic books when i was younger. Ngayon internet na lang at tv ang source ko for entertainment.
Tita may isusumbong ako.. may nakita ako kanina :p
Hi Rhodora,
I remember the Illustrated Classics of my youth. These were comics versions of literary classics. I actually learned to appreciate a lot of literary works due in part to these comics. Though nothing beats the pleasure of reading the beautiful language of the originals.
Ditto that! But with me, I still love to read classical books and stories…in fact, I have collections of some of our Filipino classical stories. It was funny, before I read this entry of yours I just narrate to my hubby about our old epic Bi-ag ni lam-ang and my hubby is quite interested to read it..since he too love classical stories. We both shared our countries classical stories & it was fun listening to it. Hope youths nowadays will like & see the values in reading such classic stories..so they will not also forget our heritage & traditions
Thanks for the great review.
For people who want to see the comic books you can see the illustrations of the entire books on the website. For book one:
http://www.theshahnameh.com/flash/Rostam_Book_1/index.html
For book two:
http://www.theshahnameh.com/flash/Rostam_Book_2/index.html
Thanks for the great review.
For you information the illustrations of the entire books can be viewed on the “characters” link on the website then just click on the links “book 1″ and “book 2″
Thank you all for all the feedback. Reading all your comments made me see the whole point of Rostam Comic Book: that we should promote reading among youth today. Whatever form and style, so long as the materials impart valuable knowledge and develop love for cultural/historical heritage among readers - it’s worth a read.
CAMERON: My pleasure!