Bannawag Fever

Long time ago, when we were little kids, Bannawag was a mainstay at home. Dad used to buy Bannawag every week. He would read it first, followed by Mom. Then they would bring the magazine to Abinganan, and Amang would read it, then Inang, then aunts and uncles. It would be after all the elders had read it from cover to cover did it land on our hands.

But the Bannawag fever suddenly stopped sometime when we were already in college. In my case, it’s not because I lost interest in the magazine. The primary reason had been money. I was part-scholar, part self-supporting student; I didn’t have extra for luxury. And Bannawag then definitely fell under that category.

Then, when I graduated in college and found work and could already afford to buy copies of the magazine every week, it was hard to find stores that sold it. It was only late last year that a bookstore near my place started carrying Bannawag. But only lately did I start buying copies of the magazine almost regularly.

But now, I know I will be buying every week. I can no longer miss an issue. Nor do I want to. There are two things in the magazine that rekindled my love for it: Cles Rambaud’s Ti Bassit a Kumpay ni Patay and Jovi Amorin’s Bonete ti Kaibaan. These two are my and my Dungngo’s favorites.

The truth is, Bannawag played a big role why it had been easy for me and my Dungngo to quit iluko.com blogs. It became one of our latest pastimes. We now have a ritual, which is way more fulfilling for both of us. Every afternoon, I would read to him stories from the magaizne. Our favorite, of course, is Ti Bonete ti Kaibaan, but I also read to him short stories. At the end of every story, we would discuss the plot, whether we like it or not, whether we think it’s good or not, and so on. I also read to him poems and other stuff. In fact, I’ve been offering to read to him Harry Potter, but it may take a while before I’d convince him. Hehehee

Back to Bannawag. I wish you’ve seen the smile on my brothers’ faces when they saw Ti Bassit a Kumpay ni Patay. You see, it was our favorite when we were young. In fact, my brother, Mans, is now planning to subscribe to Bannawag. He was just too excited about Manong Cles’ latest komiks, not only because it had been among his favorites, but also because it’s drawn by Jun Lofamia, his favorite cartoonist. As a kid, he idolized Lofamia. I had thought that now that he is older and already an architect, he would no longer think that high about Lofamia’s art, but I was pleasantly surprised to find he still thinks he’s the best. “Just look at the facial expression of the characters in his drawings,” he would tell me. “Nabnabiag!”

Nabnabiag. I guess the same could be said about Bannawag, especially now that it’s got double great reads.

What do you think?