2019, April 19. Francisco V. Coching, Birth Centenary
National Artist for Visual Arts
Litho Offset, Amstar Printing Company, Inc., Perf 14
Singles, Sheets of 40
12p Francisco V. Coching - Singles
(25,000)
Designer: Victorio Z. Serevo
First Day Covers: Manila
FRANCISCO V. COCHING - NATIONAL ARTIST
FOR VISUAL ARTS - BIRTH
CENTENARY
Francisco V. Coching was born January 29, 1919, to novelist Gregorio
Coching and Juana Vicente, in Pasay City, Metro Manila. He dedicated
his life to his family and to the art of writing and illustrating
comics novels for four decades. Mostly a self-taught artist, Coching
started with pen-and-ink drawings and later graduated to
storytelling, via comics illustrations. His father was a novelist
for a magazine, and Coching apprenticed under him at first. Under
the tutelage of the acclaimed Tony Velasquez, creator of the "Kenkoy"
series, Coching's first serious work was "Bing Bigotilyo," created
in 1934. This was followed by "Marabini," a creation interrupted by
World War II, during which he joined the ROTC Hunters, enlisting in
its guerrilla group called the Kamagong Unit. In 1944 Coching met
and married Filomena Navales, who became not just his wife but his
lifetime assistant.
Coching's seventh creation was "Hagibis,"
which he created from 1947-1950. Loosely inspired by Edgar Rice
Burroughs' "Tarzan," "Hagibis" proved to be so popular it was made
into a film with 'Fernando Poe Sr' (Hagibis (1947)) and Coching
followed it up with several sequels. "Hagibis" helped secure his
fame as an illustrating artist. From "Hagibis" through "Pedro
Penduko" in 1954 to "Thor" in 1962, "Tiagong Lundag" in 1966 and "El
Vibora" in 1972, Coching churned out endless sagas of romance and
adventure, of heroic exploits and mighty deeds that fed the popular
imagination of the Filipino reader and movie-going audience. Coching
was very prolific, credited with approximately 60 titles, and his
works covered many genres: mystery, fantasy, romance, adventure,
mythology, folklore, horror, biography, sex, drama and comedy, for
example. Although from time to time he was inspired by foreign works
like "Tarzan" and Louis L'Amour's western novels, Coching stuck
close to Filipino local color, and today he is considered the "Dean
of Filipino illustrators," his name revered in the same league as
one reveres Balagtas and even 'José Rizal'.
Coching died in
1998, and his wife and children gave him a tribute at the Pasig
Museum (Pasig City), where huge movie posters of Coching-written
films and studio stills from LVN Pictures, Sampaguita Studios and
Premiere Productions adorned the museum. The lead stars of his
works-turned-movies, like Vic Vargas and Cesar Ramirez, attended the
tribute. Coching helped to make the "komiks" an effective medium of
verbal and visual literacy, thus promoting Filipino as national
language.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1338622/bio