Night Falls # 2 The Philippines Dragons

The Dragons of Philippine mythology's chief distinguishing traits are having a body  basically like that of a  snake, or crocodile covered in scales,  yet having the forelegs and head of a fierce animal or bird.  They also have the ability to emit fire. They have been classified into 4 types : birdlike, fish-like, saurian and snakelike.

Birdlike:

•The Minokawa of the Bagobo is said to have been a bird as large as the actual islands of Negros and Bohol.  Its beak and talons were made of steel!  Its eyes were mirrors and its feathers were sharp swords. It lived beyond the sky at the eastern horizon. Legend has it that the Minokawa always tried to eat the moon, which lead to local legends connecting it to Eclipses.

•The Baua of the Hiligaynon is a very large bird that lived above the sky in a very large hollow cave called Calulundan, the entrance of which was "guarded" by blue smoke.

Fishlike:

•The Baconawa of Hiligaynon on the other hand, has been described as resembling the form of a shark.   Its mouth was the size Ofa lake. "Its tongue was very red and about its mouth it had whiskers about one palmo in length." It had enormous ash-gray wings that had tremendous power in flight. It had gills and smaller wings at its sides. It lived in the depths of the sea.

Saurian:

•The Buwaya of the Tagalog were commonly known as crocodiles, was considered in ancient time to be a sacred beast of the lake and river. They usually gave offerings of fresh meat in the middle of the lake to  applease it so that it wouldn't trouble them when they passed by the lake. It is believe that it was  called a "Cayman" in the Pre-Hispanic Philippines and was considered to be a medium size dragon.

•An unnamed seven-headed dragon from Samar was said to make the earth tremble when it walked out of its lair. Such a dragon has been tracked down in the folk tradition of Timor, Cambodia, Sunda and Malaya.

Snakelike:

• The Mameleu of Negros Island was described as a large serpent living in the sea. Its body was a big as that of a carabao being thirty fathoms long. Its eyes were like two torches, and in their orbits gleamed two jets of fire. Its head is as large as that of a carabaos too and had two white horns. A sported long tusks and teeth about two cuartas long. Its scales, the size of dinner plates, were hard and resistant. It is also known to eject green spittle (saliva) when hungry. It was said it lives in the ocean.

• The Marcupo, or Macupo of the Hiligaynon was said to be a large snake with a showy red crest. Its tongue was long with thorn like hairs.  It had a sharp tusks  and its tail ended in a fork. It could exhale a poison that would kill on contact. When it sprinkled its poison on plants, the poison made them barren and killed any  birds found on their branches. The mere shadow of the poisoned plant could kill beasts. It could be found in one of the highest mountains of the ancient and well-known province of Bulgas which is between Marapara and Canlaon.

Special thanks to my friend, Wintrycynicism-chan for these reference links :)

And also to my friend dinosaurprinces for helping proof-reading this illustrated research.

REFERENCES:

Research book : Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology.

Links:

Philippine Mythology and Folklore

Magical Creatures and Non-Human Beings of the Philippines.

The Fan

The moral lesson of the story: "Think before using anything." XD

Story by Wavehawk and Art by yours truly :D

Night Falls # 1 The Philippines Demons

Also known as "My Illustrations of Philippines Supernatural Creatures of the Night". ^_^

Based loosely on my old College Thesis Research Project on the supernatural beings of  the Philippines. Illustrations were based on reports of each supernatural being and included their description and types.

The demons of Philippine mythology are said to be of a dark-complexion, as well as being generally quite huge.  They have a wide variety of terrifying shapes, some of them even being headless!  Some of them smoke large cigars, bletch fire and cause nightmares. For the most part, the chief function among them seems to be  frighten people into insanity.  Their ability to assume the sizes and shapes of people and animals appears to be another common characteristic.  They appear and vanish at will.  There are those among them that have magic charms, or jewels which can give humans tremendous physical strength.  These must be wrested from their mysterious owners by force and/or skill.  Still others are violent demons.  Most of them are quiet harmless creatures of the night that vanish the instant light is cast on them.

 It is believe that these creatures do not live in communities of their own.   They seem content with their silent adobes in, or among dark trees, especially those with large, oblong leaves. Of these, they prefer to reside in large trees, especially the balete (Ficus indica).


===== The Demons: ====

The Kapre are the most common demons.  They are describe as a black creature with the power to change its size from that of a manikin, to that of a giant with the proportion of a church tower!  Its glassy eyes were as large as plates.  It was known also to smoke a roll of tobacco big as a banana trunk.

In some provinces, Kapres have different descriptions:

• The Agta hail from Masbate. Is a creature that was black and twice as tall as an ordinary man. And said to carried a rattan cane.

 • The Bawo and Ungo of Cebuano have been described as "big muscular men dressed only with a loin cloth." They would sit in large trees to "smoke the biggest pipes."

 Next to the Kapre, the Tikbalang was another of the most famous supernatural beings.   It was described as "having bodies like those of men, but their heads are similar to those of horses. Their limbs are said to be so long that when they sit their knees reach above their heads." This is the most common specie in Manila.

 An incident happened on the night of April 15,1580. A Tikbalang is said to have kidnapped and murdered one of the belles at a grand ball in Manila.  It was describe as a "tall, hideous creature dressed in a dark tunic"  Its long straight hair flowed over its shoulders and although it had horses legs, it had the wrinkled yellow feet of a bird. It wore a cloak that hung down to its knees.

Aside from the regular specie only 2 ver of a Tikabalang can be found:

• One The Tulung found in Mt. Pinatubo in the Zambales Range, is usually described as being horse-like, but having clawed feet, long hair and very large testicles.

 • The other the Binangunan found in the Baler Area in Quezon Province is said to have "looked somewhat like a horse, but had a fire on its back from head to tail."

The Pugot was a creature widely known by the name The Decapitated One in Northern and central Luzon.  It was a headless, dark, terrifying being, that was infact not particularly harmful. In an Ifugao myth called "Tulud-Numputul: The Self-beheaded" proof of this demeanor can be found in the statement that he was seen with "his neck-stump bubbling and frothing as he dances along the way." It is also said it grab snakes and large centipedes and stuff them into his throat, the more he stuffed the more he feels better. While in the Iloko Region, it was known as the Awan-ulo-na (healess one) and like any demon, it could change its size and shape.

 The Mantabungal of Tagbanua are describe as cow like in body and voice but having no horns. They have shaggy coats of hair which hang to the ground and monstrous mouths with huge tusk-like incisors, two above and two below.  These were capable of ripping a person to bits.

The Batibat, described in  Iloko folktale as appeared in a nightmare as "a huge fat woman...  coming into the room and filling the doorway with her bulk." This creature would sit on the victim's chest causing him/her unable to move, talk and hard to breath*.
  

*You might notice, this kind of syndrome is identical to the common Bangungot aka Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome in the medical community.


Special thanks to my friend, Wintrycynicism-chan for these reference links :)

And also to my friend Dinosaurprince for helping proof-reading this illustrated research.

REFERENCES:

Research book : Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology.

Links:

Philippine Mythology and Folklore

Magical Creatures and Non-Human Beings of the Philippines.

Ask BEFORE pounding

Mikey is up to his old trick again, asking questions on a bunch of cultist before pounding on them ^^;

My partner Wavehawk said the cultist almost resemblance to Assasin's Creed's hoods. It was just a coincedence really ^^;

Let the drunk guy be.

Its hard to avoid a ranting drunkard, especially if it believe himself for some wanna-be cultist. LOL*

Script by Wavehawk, art by yours truly :D

No Short-cuts

Mikey, Phil and Shou went on a simple "replacement mission" and learn some things AREN'T suppose to do in short-cuts. Story by Wavehawk and art by yours truly. :)

ONE-SHOT # 1 The Boys are Back in Town.

2000 - onward, Wavehawk and I soon begin mixing new theme/genre on the current story. And we seem to get a good jive on it, Wavehawk suggested and wrote few "one-shot" story of the gang and now dubbed them as "Freelancers". Why and what on its background will for now remain a secret. ^_'

Here, let us re-introduced to you the gang with this short story written by Wavehawk and art by yours truly :)

Updated: Aug 10, 2011

 

How it began

It started in highschool around 1986 where I met my buddy and partner-in-crime, fic-writer Wavehawk. Always been a manga and anime fan and back then it was Dragonball Z was the rave and Sailormoon.

Just for fun, we begin drawing our own characters. And draw them on a notebook using just a mechanical pencil. And create our own world in it, just to have something to do on a sometimes boring school days.

Wavehawk came up with a name: Gakusei Senshi or "Student Fighters", story of group of kids with martial arts background that fights for justice and peace, like any typical shounen manga story.

The hobby went on till we went to college, then graduated in 1996. We soon have our own life called WORK but it never stop us doing what we do.

In 1997, we got a break meeting up with a fresh, small independent comic group and we manage to publish 2 story of Gakusei Senshi. However, it was short lived and we're back to the drawing board.

The first 2 cover Issue I did for our back to back comic format, I'm bit wayyy  novice on CG coloring way back ^^; In case you notice, yeah my old pen-name was Musashi.

 The pages, no CG or toning, just old-school gray-poster colouring and ...hand written wordings. XD