1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

8. The chapter pages

The chapter page is really my tribute to a 70s educational show called The Electric Company where, unlike in Sesame Street, kids are taught more complex grammar lessons and sentence construction. I watched it everyday when I was about seven and I still remember the ads in Daily Express saying something like "After you graduate from Sesame Street, The Electric Company is the next level." The man spewing out the letter C on the left is none other than Easy Reader himself, Morgan Freeman, during his pre-Oscar days (he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Street Smart in 1989 and has become a Hollywood sensation since.)

9. Punctuation Guy

The scene where Carol meets the Punctuation Guy is another tribute to a skit in The Electric Company. It's hard not to forget the catchy tune Punc-punc-punctuation after I first heard it. The woman on the right is Oscar awardee Rita Moreno who is best known for her role in West Side Story in 1962. In the show, she made the phrase "Hey you guys!" her very own.

10. Art style

I mentioned the art style I used in the book in the previous page. Now way before The Simpsons graced our tv screens, there was Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the US in 1971 though it only aired here five years later. The show dealt with adult topics such as racism and freedom of speech, stuff that I never understood back then but I loved watching it for the sketchy art style and the funny characters. The simple lines and uncluttered spaces leave a lot to the imagination and I knew that this was the look I wanted for Martial Law Babies.

11. Harry Gasser, news reporter

Harry Gasser along with his contemporaries Bong Lapira, Eddie Ilarde and Tina Monzon-Palma were the faces of newscasting during my childhood. This is how news was told back then -- calm, focused, and relaxed... never loud or irritating, if you know what I mean.

12. Uncle Bob's Lucky 7 Club

GMA7 used to air a show called Uncle Bob's Lucky Seven Club in the late 70s. The highlight of the program is a "show and tell" where kids get to describe their favorite toy to Uncle Bob and the audience. In the 80s, the show was taken over by his son and it was never the same since then. I guess we all missed Uncle Bob's "bum-barum-bums" (or was it pum-pa-rum-pums)?

Below is an original letter from Uncle Bob himself. (From the personal collection of Lizza Gutierrez. Thanks, Lizza!)

Previous page | Next page