Brown Monkey Theory

Did you ever feel as an outcast, misunderstood and a victim of circumstances. Do you think life as a piece of shit? Do you feel only your mother can really love you for who you really are? Or felt that a comet of cosmic waste just landed on you when you are beaten to the ground?

If you felt this way then you might relate to the adventures, misadventures and the universe of Nardong Tae. The tight jean wearing, plastic bigote sporting, literally half-man and half-shit farting, pistol carrying anti-hero from Cavite.

Cavite, 1986 --- From childhood, Bornek (okay just the name of the lead character already give you some hint) admired the 1972 film Nardong Putik and wishes to emulate the values of the anti-hero. He spent his free time watching the movie in beta-max from his neighbour's house.

When one night some of the kids who grow tired of Bornek's repetitive watching of Nardong Putik (hindi na daw kasi nakakasingit or something) wait in ambush. They beat him up and forced to eat the waste of his pet carabao Baldo. Beaten to the ground he tried to do what the bullies demanded from him, only to be hit by a big comet-like thing made from shit-alien's shit.

The molecules of the shit synthesized with his body and he emerge from it becoming a half human and half shit. Now if you wish to stop reading this I understand, haha, but the comics is quite funny in its own right. Marami ngang mura, pero di mo na rin mapapansin yun dahil sa dami ring kadiring moments, nanay ko nga hindi nakatagal eh. Haha.

But it is a good read. Maybe because of it's toilet humor, and mostly because of its social reflection and satire. I mean it is an underdog story with a heart. A social criticism in a Trojan horse.

Louie Cordero, even if his drawing is shitty at its best, made a cult phenomena (his work was already featured in magazines like FHM) by making a good story and mixing it with action, little bit of actual science ( he explains even the most mundane of things like a grade school science textbook), many wit, many more puns and countless subtle social commentaries.

Louie Cordero's world features a number of interesting characters which include shitoid-aliens who tries to capture Nardong Tae to fuel their mother ship shit, a newly promoted police officer who daydreams of endorsement from Good Morning Towels and declared Nardong Tae as public enemy number one of Manila for destroying the only police school in the country: Criminology University of Recto - Manila, and his friends like Puroy and the ever loyal carabao Baldo.

The series is not yet finish, actually I just borrowed the first four chapters of the series from my girlfriend, and I am looking and anticipating for further issues. It's popularity is spreading like a fart in an elevator!

Again, I present you Nardong Tae - An underdog story that smells so bad it is good and an upcoming new hero in the Filipino comics universe.

Buakang Ina Mo!