GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 20 Aug) — Filipino rock icons Eraserheads are stepping into comics with the launch of “Eraserheads: Combo on the Run” at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) last month, highlighted by an exclusive cover featuring the members carrying a traditional two-stringed boat lute from Mindanao.
Held every year in San Diego, California, SDCC has grown from a small comic book gathering in 1970 into the premier global event for comics and related popular arts, including film, television, gaming, and interactive media
Produced by Kid Heroes Productions in collaboration with DVent Pictures, the 24-page one-issue anthology reimagines the band as “music-powered heroes” in four action-driven stories blending music, mythology, and adventure.
Its SDCC-exclusive cover, illustrated by Filipino-American artists Whilce Portacio and Raymund Lee, shows the band walking heroically from a burning cityscape, carrying traditional instruments in place of their usual rock gear.
The instrument depicted is known across Mindanao’s indigenous groups by various names: kudyapi among the Maguindanaon and Maranao, hegalong among the Tboli, faglong among the Blaan, and kudlong among the Manobo and Bagobo.
Carved from a single block of wood, the lute has long been central to songs, epics, and rituals, carrying both music and oral traditions through generations.
Portacio, a co-founder of Image Comics and celebrated for his work on X-Men and The Punisher, has consistently woven Filipino myths and cultural motifs into his art.
His 1990s series Stone featured creatures like the manananggal and tikbalang, while his co-creation of the X-Men character Bishop drew from the resilience and sense of community he associates with the Filipino spirit.
Portacio has long woven his heritage into his art, once drawing the Philippine flag on Colossus’ outfit in the X-Men comics.
Reflecting on the Eraserheads’ rise during his own creative career, Portacio recalled his first encounter with the band in 1995 in an Instagram reel posted by Kid Heroes Productions last July 15.
“We were out here in the diaspora, balikbayans who didn’t always meet our kababayans back home. But in the ’90s, we were all standing up at the same time, doing art or what we now call Pinoy Pride,” he said.
Written by Patricio Ginelsa and Justin Quizon, the comic follows the band as they battle zombies and villains using the power of music.
It is illustrated by Raymund Lee, Felix Morales, and Ardie Aquino, and takes inspiration from Maria Diane Ventura’s award-winning documentary of the same name.
The documentary is the first Filipino-produced music film to screen at SDCC.
It also won Best International Feature Documentary at the 12th Ierapetra International Documentary and Film Festival in Greece.
The Portacio-Lee cover is limited to 250 copies. Other editions include a SuperManila-exclusive cover by DC Comics artist Stephen Segovia, and additional covers by Lee, Morales, and Aquino, as well as a blank variant for commissioned fan sketches.
Kid Heroes Productions announced on their Facebook page on Tuesday that pre-orders are now open for the edition featuring the SDCC-exclusive cover. (Guia Rebollido / MindaNews)
