The North Vista
Artist puts Dagupan in the Comic World Map
By @SiRVis
A travel journal that will give you a pleasant view of people, places, food, culture, history and events from a refreshing perspective
MOVIE adaptations of Marvel and DC comic book characters have been blockbusters for the past few years. The success of the comic movies had spiked up interest for comic books and created a renaissance of sorts for the children’s (and for the child-at-heart) superheroes like Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, X-men, Avengers, Spiderman, etc.
Few Filipino artists have broken into the international scene but there’s a Pangasinense who is making waves and is currently putting Dagupan and Pangasinan in the comic world map.
Meet Dex Soy, a comic artist and illustrator who is born and raised in Dagupan City. Among his works for Marvel comics are Captain Marvel, Spiderman, X-men, X-force, and Gambit. At DC Comics, he did Masters of the Universe vs DC Universe, Justice League Beyond, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis. His recent work was DC’s Red Hood and the Outlaws (Rebirth).
He studied at the St. John Cathedral School from elementary to high school and at the University of Pangasinan in college. Before becoming an international comic artist, he worked at Filco Calasiao (now Home ideas) as a sales assistant, a coordinator for Monde Nissin at the CSI malls and an illustrator for some websites. According to him, it was never his intention or goal to be a comic book artist. He wanted to be an illustrator or concept artist for games. He was planning on taking up fine arts during college, but the second choice available was architecture which he took at University of Pangasinan.
He started to post his works online and eventually gained clients until he was contacted by Devil’s Due Publishing to do an issue of “Spartacus” based on the TV series. This was officially his first published work. After that, he was contacted by EA (Electronic Arts) to do an story arc for comic adapted from their game, “Army of Two”. It wasn’t long when Budjette Tan, a popular comic book creator here in our country saw his works and eventually tagged C.B. Cebulski (Talent Roster at Marvel). The rest according to Dex is luck and history.
He looks up to comic artist masters Joe Madureira, Shinkawa, etc. and draws inspiration while doing comics from music, artwork, movies, photography or even listening to philosophical talks. His daily routine? He reads the script then conceptualizes the scenes by doing thumbnails of the pages. After approval from the editors, he renders them and sends them again for final approval. He works for about 6-12 hours a day.
He sometimes incorporates his being a Dagupeno by putting some “easter eggs” on the backgrounds to give hints of the popular things here in our city, like commercial stalls and popular spots. Spot the “easter eggs” he left in DC’s newly released Red Hood and the Outlaws #12.
Dex plans to do a sketchbook and some paintings in the future. He believes the future of comics is great since comic based movies are so popular nowadays. His advice to the youngsters who want to be comic artists: “Try not to always follow your goals, lower your expectations, and just do what you think can or can’t make you happy. Have fun doing it and make it a habit not to practice too hard. Don’t try to consciously improve your skill– it’ll improve by itself.”
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