Jim, a good friend of mine, asked a question. I was going to answer it in the same thread but I thought it’s a good jump-off point for some discussion about comics and animation industry.

Jim asks…

“This might not be a direct response to the article, but I was just wondering whatever happened to the animated Panday or even the comics on Panday. It’s a pity that we have great animators and comics artists (like you!) working for Hollywood/US but we can’t even give our people first class animated series or comics for that matter.

It’s good to know that here in Thailand, aside from Ragnarok, they also have digitally animated movie shows. I remember the animated Panday never got off from what it should have gone due to high production costs and lack of investors but I believe it just needs a break. If and maybe if the animation will work in the Philippines, maybe the comics industry might follow. What do you reckon? just a thought.”

Jonas replies…
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of investors in the foreign market as compared to the local scene. Part of the problem is not really that we have a lack of talent (we’ve got lots, actually) but we don’t have a lot of investors and business people investing in animation and comics.

Not that you can blame them.

Investing in these two media here in the Philippines is very risky and also requires a lot of money. Foreign investors bringing money in the Philippines are more inclined to invest in outsourcing talent to produce content for their own respective markets which doesn’t include the Philippines.

One way of bringing back animation is to democratize them through technology. Before it took a good number of people to produce even just 2 minutes of animation. Now 1-2 person can do it with Flash and more and more people are doing it and uploading their work in the web.

I am espousing a similar avenue of attack for comic creators.

We shouldn’t wait for the big money to come so we can produce content. Instead the better alternative is to create content and find an audience.

Once you get popular it’s easier to find bigger funding.”