Information AboutBeerkada |
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Beerkada is a popular comic strip that appears regularly on the Philippine Star since 1998. Created by Lyndon Gregorio , the strips revolve around an eclectic group of friends as they try to survive college and post-college life. The humor employed in the strips are a mixture of Filipino slice-of-life gags, social commentary, and satires of popular culture fixtures (such as movies and TV shows). More often than not, the inspiration for the strips are taken directly from the author's personal experiences. This, in part, explains the strip's occasional foray into sci-fi themes (most notably Star Trek ), the fact that the strips seem to take place in a cartoonized UP Diliman , and the fact that the author himself and his friends regularly appear in the strips from time to time. NAME The name "Beerkada" is a combination of two words: "Beer", and "Barkada", a Filipino word for a close-knit group of friends. It's nearest english equivalent is 'drinking buddies.' It is interesting to note that, although the word Beerkada may have been coined before the strip started, the comic strip has popularized that word to a great extent, that it is now a part of popular Philippine lingo. MAIN CHARACTERS Glen dela Costa - He is the everyman of the group. He's nice, dependable, loves a beer as much as the next guy. The one thing extraordinary about him is his extreme ''katorpehan'' (Filipino slang meaning "bashful and shy when it comes to women"). Dana Aguila - Flaky, chic, a bit of a ditz, a bit naughty, and extremely hot, Dana is the sexy friend you wish you had. Her most noted accomplishment was winning the campus beauty pageant, after all her competitors got disqualified. Boopey's best friend. Alan Polantoc - Alan is a hopeless dreamer and a career student. He's a dreamer, and he's hopeless, too. Legendary for all the outrageous thesis proposals he's ever presented. Wooed Boopey using sweet nothings, engineering-style. Boopey Valenzuela - Pragmatic, severe, a bit scary, Boopey will rip your head off if you're being an idiot around her. Boopey has yet to explain her attraction with Alan. Dana's best friend. Bryan Strada - God's gift to women, according to him. Manages to have a dozen relationships at any given time (and always getting caught as well). Only person to have dated Sadako and lived. Jimmy Goco - The most clueless person in the face of the planet. Two steps away from being autistic. Manages to get a girlfriend and Magna Cum Laude honors without even knowing it. Harry Galisaso - Evil incarnate. If you need pirated DVDs, contraband stuff, tickets to a concert, or the answers to the upcoming midterms, Harry's your man. And it will cost you (and him, as well). Jay Bilasko - The resident activist and outdoorsman. Always seen at rallies and hikes, and has an intimate knowledge of cops, truncheons, and firehoses. Jay got hired by his college as an instructor, and he uses his position to undermine the establishment from within. MINOR CHARACTERS Aling McBeal - The proprietor of "Aristocart", a sidewalk stall that serves cheap meals to students. When Aristocart was threatened by a rival eatery (operated by a certain G. Congee), McBeal hired Burkha ninjas to neutralize the upstart. Macky Agong - Dana's ex-boyfriend, who got married to someone else while they were still seeing each other. Yeah, he was her professor, too. Fe - Jimmy's girlfriend, who's every bit as clueless as he is. Andrea - Glen's girlfriend, who has the nasty habit on chomping on his shoulders out of ''gigil''. He met her after graduating while she was still a freshman. Positive, fierce, and sassy, Andrea is intensely loyal and supportive to Glen and is more than a match for his shyness towards women. Psychocow - the official mascot of Beerkada and its fan base, the ''Beerkadets''. Foul-mouthed, sarcastic, and brash, Psychocow is Beerkada's (and Lyndon's) greatest critic. BRAND OF HUMOR Beerkada relies on satire and social commentary to provide humor. Most of the time, the strips are humorous takes on everyday life, college life in particular. Every now and then, the strips will poke fun at the current hot trend or item. Films, of both Filipino and Hollywood staple, are a particularly favorite target. Oftentimes, the strip takes the premise of a movie and applies it to the Beerkada world, with comical results. Examples of this would be the use of Precogs to determine if a student will pass or fail (from Minority Report ), or the gang's quest to get rid of a "cursed dvd" (spoofing The Ring ). Also, the action shifts to "the real world" from time to time, when the author himself appears on his own strip. He is usually depicted in a scenario taken from real life. TRIVIA There are currently five Beerkada books available. Beerkada merchandise include shirts (under license with Spoofs, Ltd.), buttons, mobile phone wallpapers, and collectible cards. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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