Growing Up with Pugad Baboy

Many comic book readers would have grown up flipping pages filled with superhero action where a strapping man in blue tights and a red cape swoops down to punch a bad guy, or an armored tech billionaire blasts lasers from his palms.

Meanwhile, I was reading about a round dog (chonky, they would call it nowadays) who shoots his enemies with a gun that uses dog ticks as bullets— or simply, the garapata gun.

Gross right? But for me, it was peak comic book action.

What is Pugad Baboy?

For the uninitiated, Pugad Baboy is a comic book strip series by Pol Medina Jr., initially published in one of the country’s leading newspapers, The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

It’s about a place in Manila called Pugad Baboy (literal translation: pig’s nest), where the members of the community are largely… well, large-built people. The cast is composed of a cartoony bunch of friends and families, plus the main mascot, Polgas— an anthropomorphic dog who is just as healthy as his commune.

Through its long run, the daily Pugad Baboy comic strips were compiled and turned into comic books with equally-sized panels. There’s a lot to unwrap about the franchise though, such as the fiasco that caused Pugad Baboy and the Inquirer to part ways.

But for now, let me just focus on what this funny comic meant for me growing up, and how it actually cultivated my love for the medium.

Finding the Pig Sty

I was just a young kid when I first picked up a Pugad Baboy (or PB) book. A withered copy of Pugad Baboy 4: Ang Hiwaga ng Duenas just wound up in our house and after giving it a read, I was instantly hooked.

What’s not to love? The jokes were hilarious for me at the time and most still are for me today. Social media was still taking shape and the internet was not as accessible as today, so I wasn’t influenced yet by that global internet humor.

Another thing that I loved about Pol Medina Jr.’s books are the serial stories that I imagine ran for weeks in the newspaper (since each strip is only 3 to 4 panels long), which aren’t just for the funnies but featured adventures of the characters I have grown fond of.

For example, in my first PB book, the gang found themselves in a town filled with Philippine mythological monsters. Then there’s an epic time-traveling story in PB5, a run-in with a mountain werewolf in PB15 or Kinse!, a spoof called Babman where “The Pork Knight Returns” in the 14th book, and so much more.

Most of my allowance was saved up to buy these books and when I get to take home one, I’d read it over and over. Of course, not long after that I had a collection (which I now feel sorry for because careless younger me left them wilt and fade). I wasn’t able to grab them all, but I’ve probably owned a dozen.

I may not be the exact target audience back then, some jokes were dirty and the political and social references in those panels weren’t really comprehensible for me (it ran in a newspaper after all). But as a kid, all I wanted was to see where the next book (that I could buy) would take Polgas and the gang next.

The Big Bunch

So who exactly are the “gang”? Another thing that I love about Pugad Baboy is its colorful cast of characters.

Each Pugad Baboy resident is well-rounded (pun intended), while still having those stereotypes popular in Filipino society. It’s also a pretty diverse cast which allows PMJR (how the creator signs himself) to touch on different social and political issues as well as more scenarios for his jokes— from the inuman (drinking) sessions of the beer-loving dads to the classes of their mischievous children.

Now let’s get into the directory of the cast:

There’s Mang Dagul, a chef and family man who is the butt of many bald jokes, mostly from their house help Brosia.

Mang Dagul was the one who adopted Polgas, and while they’re considered tao at amo (human and pet), the two often share bottles of beer as best friends while they make pointed takes about politics, showbiz, and social issues.

Polgas is many things, as he is the comics’ mascot and PMJR has always shared how the dog is based on himself (actually most of the characters are based on his family and friends).

As I mentioned, Polgas is quite the superhero when he assumes his alter ego, first called Wisedog and then Dobermaxx. He even has an archenemy named Atong Damuho.

Meanwhile, there’s also the best pals Tomas and Ka Noli. Tomas is a sergeant of the Philippine military while Ka Noli is a member of the local rebellious group, the New People’s Army (NPA). Their unrealistic relationship is a source of many gags and some sensible conversations in the series.

That’s not the only irony here though, because the soldier Tomas is also afraid, colloquially “ander”, to his wife Barbie, who beats him up comically for drinking and womanizing in night clubs. He would often comment how the war is actually more peaceful than coming home to his wife.

There’s also Igno Ramos, an ex-convict and the cousin of Tomas. Aptly named, Igno is oblivious to many things, but he is also the scariest guy in the compound.

Then you have the hippie tambay or the unemployed loiterer Bab who is in love with Tiny (a misnomer), a college girl and Mang Dagul’s daughter; her gay and Filipino-Chinese friend Pao; Pao’s businessman father Mao; and the kids Utoy, Paltik, and Joma.

Also part of the cast are Mang Dagul’s loving wife Debbie, their OFW son Kules and his best friend Adre (also Brosia’s brother), Ka Noli’s wife Ka Beza, and the corrupt politicians the Cabalfins.

These have been their long-running roles in the series but you’ll also find development in their characters (it’s been over three decades after all), especially after the 30th book, which almost served as the finale for the comic book series.

PMJR revealed in the Pugad Baboy spinoff The Blood of the Shinobi that he was about to retire his characters in that book but changed his mind after fans got wind of his plans.

Plump with Epic Action and Comic Relief

As mentioned earlier, one of the things that made a mark in my young adventure-seeking mind (and I bet for most readers as well) were the longer stories that turn these proudly Filipino fatsos into comic book heroes.

There’s the hilarious adventure of Bab in the squatters area of Gothom City where he’s known as the “baryannaire” Bruce Swine (PB 14). At night, he wears a bat costume with a hippie peace sign on the chest, calling himself Babman as he fights crime in the community.

Then there’s the crime noir spoof Private Investigator! (PB the 13th) where Mang Dagul dons the coat of Bardagul Kapote and alongside his sidekick, Brossy, they investigate a mysterious mall bombing.

Most of these stories are akin to the comedy action flicks of the era, but with more wits to boot despite the limited panels per scene. It’s even funnier when the comic strips are self-aware about the cliches of such stories and pulls even more humorous lines and antics from this fact.

My personal favorite is Apo Hikers where the group treks the Philippines’ tallest mountain, Mt. Apo (also causing tremors that initially worried local volcanologists), but the hike turns into a wild ride when they discover a high-profile illegal logging operation in the area— complete with a Bond-villain-level machine that takes deforestation to new heights.

It’s a pure Pugad Baboy feature that starts off as a funny serial story, packed with all the hiking jokes PMJR could cook up, but then it becomes another misadventure for the bunch.

It’s not often that the majority of the main cast are involved in an adventure, but when they do, they each have significant roles and punchlines that nobody fades into the background.

Speaking of punchlines, the way that Pol Medina Jr. finds a way to insert humor or subtle comedy in every strip is a stroke of genius.

For example, Apo Hikers comes with one of my favorite running gags, which is the transformation of Polgas to Dobermaxx.

You’d think the people around Clark Kent are blind not to recognize him as Superman, not just by the looks but also by his actions— how he runs off only for the superhero to appear in the sky the next second.

But then you have Polgas, who literally changes his outfit in front of Tomas and Ka Noli in one comic strip, and yet at the last panel they’d still be shocked that Dobermaxx is suddenly there and wonder, where’s Polgas?

Sorry Perry, but Dobermaxx did it first.

Growing Up

I remember how obsessed I was with Pugad Baboy.

I know I’m not as big a fan of Pugad Baboy as before, but I also know that the characters I have grown fond of instilled in me the love for the medium of comics, be it intricate graphic novels or short strips of satire.

As I explored new stories from novels, manga, and webtoons, I still owe most of my taste for such tales to this funny comic series.

And throughout my many phases, I’ve always shared PMJR’s dream of seeing his Pugad Baboy comics taken to the next level— as an animated series.

It could be our very own The Simpsons or Family Guy. It could poke fun at the absurdity in today’s politics and society, entertaining while educating people. Although, let’s face it, like with these foreign adult animated shows, some of the jokes would be really controversial.

Still, an animated Pugad Baboy has been the petition among fans for years (even decades), but even if that break hasn’t come yet, we’ll surely be there to support it if it arrives.

For now, we have a few animated clips of Pugad Baboy, including a short commercial for Quake; a music video for Sugarfree’s Pugad; and The Pugad Baboy Shuffle clip by another famous local artist, Arnold Arre.

And there’s Pol Medina Jr., who’s been pumping out Pugad Baboy books for three decades now and has even released the separate series Blood of the Shinobi.

So whether or not we’ll get an animated show based on these strips, Pugad Baboy has really established itself as an icon in the local pop culture scene.

For people like me who grew up with Pugad Baboy and pursued the path of a creative, or simply found and nurtured their love for komiks, I’m pretty sure a fat dog with a tick-shooting gun inspired us, whether wholly or partly, to take this journey; and I’m glad I did.