A Visit to Ateneo High School (Part 3)

The last talk I attended for the day was Elbert Or's. Elbert is the layout editor and art director for PGS, and is a National Book Award winner to boot.

Elbert's situation is different as compared to Miggy's or Exie's. Where Miggy and Exie write prose, Elbert can both write and draw, and his specialty lies in comics.

"I can write okay, I think," Elbert told his batch of students. "And I can draw okay, too. I'm just all right. But when I put them together, you know, I think it ends up even better than they do separately. I think the sum ends up greater than the parts."

He spoke of how he discovered the power of words at an early age when he realized that just by using the right set at the right time, he could influence people to various emotions. For example, he recounted the time he was able to use just the right words to shift the blame of some family wrongdoing from him to his sibling. "Oh, I've got power!" he thought then. He also discovered early his talent for drawing, that he could bring images to life on paper. Of course, he now uses his talents for better purposes than framing his family members.

Elbert also prepared a Powerpoint presentation and showed the students samples of his work. He's illustrated and done comics for many Philippine publishers, and his style has become quite distinctive. His talents are very much in demand, and it is a fact that many Pinoy youth are admirers of Elbert's work. PGS is lucky to have him helping out, and I'm very grateful to him for being generous in sharing his thoughts, ideas, and opinions. If you like the way PGS's pages now look, as compared to the plain vanilla of PGS1 (before he came on board), you have him to thank.