Artist Grant Perkins part of Bayani comics project, a tale of Filipino folklore and mythology

By Antony Esmond on August 2, 2015

The creators of the all-ages comic book series Bayani, who include British artist Grant Perkins, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to continue the adventures, which if successfully crowdfunded, will be published by Caliber Comics.

A tale of Filipino folklore and mythology, Bayani is an 11-year-old boy desperately trying to care for his sick father (a fisherman) and keep food on the table for his small family. Unfortunately, the sun has been shining down on the islands for the last month and night refuses to fall. The land is growing parched from the constant heat and the fish are moving further and further away from shore.

During this disaster, the rain god, Pati, recruits Bayani to undertake a quest rescuing the nine kidnapped daughters of Lady Moon from the horrible monsters of lore. Bayani embarks on a great adventure with his friend, Tala, and using their wits, the kids defeat one hideous creature after another in their quest to rescue each of the Moon’s daughters…

Written by Travis McIntre with art by 2000AD, Penguins of Madagascar and Image Comics artist Grant Perkins, lettering by Taylor Esposito and graphic design by Rich Bloom, the first issue has been released as a free download to encourage backers – the start of a proposed 11-issue series.

Travis has worked for a variety of anthologies and is also a co-founder of The Michigan Comics Collective, a non-profit publisher, one of the principles of Source Point Press and the writer of Up The River, a 21-issue story that is currently on the shelves.

Bayani an all ages book that has some remarkable design work by Grant and Rich (the latter previously worked for the Image Comics C.O.W.L. series), both colouful and iconic in style with some great imaginings of Filipino ghosts, demons, smiling fish and monsters.

Grant describes the feeling when he receives a script from Travis like getting “A Pixar movie as directed by Spielberg.”

The free first issue is a scene setter, full of gorgeous art, scene setting and explanation as Bayani and his pal Tala set out on their adventures, crammed with humour and fun throughout.

One small niggle, in my humble opinion, is that is contains a little too many talking heads pages. This may make it a little bit of a slog for a younger reader. That said, the last few pages of the book begin to build the energy back up however and it leaves you on a great cliffhanger.

Don’t be put off by the surprisingly serious, low-key and possibly a little grumpy Kickstarter advert! It really looks great. There is definitely a huge audience for this sort of book and it would make a great oversized kids book once it is complete.

• The Kickstarter runs until 15th August 2015 and if you like what you see, you can back it here

• You can find more information about the series and other Caliber Comics over at www.calibercomics.info

• You can find Travis on Twitter @TMcIntre1 and at www.sourcepointpress.com

• Grant Perkins can be found at www.thegrantperkins.com and on Twitter @TheGrantPerkins

• Taylor Esposito can be found at www.ghostglyphstudios.com and on Twitter @TaylorEspo

• Rich Bloom can be found on Twitter @RichEBloom

Many thanks for reading.