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Writer's pictureJP de la Rama

Zamora : Cagayan de Oro's First Webtoon

Updated: Jan 6, 2022



Fear…

Is the oldest and strongest emotion mankind has faced

And the oldest and strongest fear is…

Fear of the Unknown.

By H.P. Lovecraft



When I was a kid I was fascinated by horror


Monsters


Aliens


Stories of the untold


And even before I knew what Cosmic Horror was, I’ve been enthralled by the ambiguity of the said narrative.

I remember those times when I was a kid, my parents’ rented Alien and horror movies and binge watch it through the weekends.



And yes, I was watching the whole movie with my hands covering my eyes and hide under the sheets. And my dad will always say ‘they are not real’!



But that doesn’t stop me from watching and enjoying those stories.



The Twilight Zone.


The Outer Limits.


Tales from the Crypt.


Are the fuel to my fire.

And even video games

Then this is the part where I die

Over, and over, and over again.


A game called Bloodborne


From a Japanese developer ‘From Software’

This introduced me to what Cosmic Horror feels like.


How horror should have been told.


And how it should’ve been played.


The fascination of the aesthetics doesn’t stop there, even when I place down the controller.

It made me more curious, and hungrier. This is what led me to the father of Cosmic horror.


H.P. Lovecraft

You may know him from his CULT favorite ‘Call of Cthulhu’

But I enjoy more of his short stories

From ‘The Rats in the Walls’

To ‘The Statement of Randolph Carter’

And, a lightbulb struck my head




‘What if, Bloodborne was set in the Philippines?’


Enter Zamora

A battle-hardened priest from the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro City

Father Zamora

Who lived hundreds of years

He’s a man shrouded in mystery and intrigue,

With decades of experience, he is a priest you may not trifle with.

With unusual methods of exorcising ‘Yawa’

And you might ask what a ‘Yawa’ is

Yawa is our local visayan dialect translation of ‘Demon’


It can also be a SWEAR word (no pun intended)



Not just the ‘yawa’, but he has a plethora of villains that can tear you apart.

From demons, to the Filipino mythological creatures of the night.



The Ungo

Ungo


The Kapre

Kapre


The Tikbalangs

Tikbalang


The Bungisngis

Bungisngis


And the dreaded Bakunawa




Beyond the creatures of the night, as well as our own culture.


Our history.


Our way of life.


Our Art of War.


Showing the whole world that Filipinos are legendary warriors of the night.


And speaking of Filipinos, Zamora webcomics has a ton of local artist collaborators, you can check out their pages.







Zamora started with an idea

And the idea was made into sketches

With tons of drafts

The costume

The look


Zamora Concept 1


Zamora Concept 2
Father Gomez Concept



Weapon Concept



He started as a generic character that we see on a typical anime

And ended like a modern battling priest

And unlike any Lovecraftian protagonist



Early Father Zamora Concept

Sister Therese Concept

Zamora was introduced as a strong, experienced battle priest that no evil can stop him.



Until He met eldritch beings, that throws his faith and knowledge out of the window.




That’s how the character took shape

The inspiration behind the narrative started.











Where priests are warriors of God against the hordes of ‘Yawa’ that are roaming on our material plane and those specific trained priests must be an adept in exorcism.


















Early Exorcism Concept

But with a different concept

The exorcist goes through the ‘In-between’ world, a world between the living and the dead and where souls reside.


This is where he will drive the evil spirit out of the possessed body by battling the Yawa with any means necessary.



Once the yawa has been removed, the exorcist will cast the Yawa to the pits of Hell.


Where It belongs.








Yawa.


Eldritch monsters.

Old Gods and Cthulhu


Gods.



It’s a battle between humans against demonic creatures and unearthly beings that will eventually drive us to extinction.




Zamora was inspired from a video game,

And a video game adaptation is planned and requires funding

Zamora: The Video Game


And the Graphic Novel format will be released soon

Zamora: The Graphic Novel


These are what’s in store for our battle priest, so stay tune



And if you want to see more Zamora content check it out on Scribbtoons



And if you want to know more about the Scribble Media check out our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk6FDWmgw7zpOvUmLS7zPVg










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