Samantala, Ikaw at Ang Hiwaga

Witty, spirited, and with a fair dose of mischief, this generous offering by Manix Abrera sees the comics industry giant handle the symbolic and its narratives – the imprecations of the tarot, the grandeur of planets, and a series of scenes that drip melancholy – with a wry, sometimes wicked glee. In the familiar good humor, the human dramas that play out are, quite literally, belittled, made small as with the works’ sizes.
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Manuel Luis “Manix” Abrera (b. 1982) graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He is a freelance cartoonist, and is the creator of Kikomachine Komix, his long-running daily strip in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He also contributes a weekly webcomic, News Hardcore!, for GMA News Online. To date, Manix has produced 15 volumes of Kikomachine Komix, and News Hardcore compilation volume 1. He also released two wordless graphic novels entitled “12” and “14”.

Manix is a three-time National Book Awardee for his works, “14” (2015), “News Hardcore: Hukbong Sandatahan ng Kahaggardan” (2016) and “Kikomachine Komix Volume 14: Alaala ng Kinabukasan” (2019). Manix’s art style and discipline is strongly influenced by his father, Jess Abrera, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and Inquirer pioneer, while Manix’s love and talent of storytelling is naturally honed in him by his mother, Prof. Bernadette Abrera, a historian and current Dean of the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Manix considers himself an incessant child of the universe, always in pursuit of stories and mysteries which he immortalizes and passes on through his art. Apart from Galerie Stephanie, Manix has mounted solo exhibitions at the Vargas Museum and Pablo Gallery, and has participated in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Erehwon Center for the Arts, and Galerie Raphael.