J.L. Arriola 1 HUMANITIES DILIMAN (JANUARY-JUNE 2014) 11:1, 1-29 Korido-Komiks into Film: Sourcing, Adapting, and Recycling the Bernardo Carpio Story Joyce L. Arriola University of Santo Tomas ISSN 1655-1524 Print / ISSN 2012-0796 Online ABSTRACT This paper explores the generic transformations resulting from adapting a korido (metrical romance) into a komiks story and into a film. The resulting discourse is an examination of Filipino film adaptation practices as exemplified through the film Bernardo Carpio, a 1951 Sampaguita Pictures production that has been faithful to the Liwayway komiks story authored by novelist Faustino Galauran who freely adapted from the pre-existing korido. The idea of sourcing and adapting is based not only on the premise that an existing text summons immediate acceptance by the viewers but also on the argument that a culture of recycling is in place and allows for certain stories to take on an allegorical implication. An original is allowed its life, its own life, in the cinema. – Dudley Andrew, “Adaptation” Keywords: Korido, komiks, sourcing, adaptation, recycling, allegory From 27 November 1950 to 26 March 1951, Liwayway Magazine began the publication of Bernardo Carpio in dual-format, with the prose version on the left side of the spread and a serialized comics version (to be referred thereon in its vernacularized spelling, “komiks”) placed on the right. This provision of space for komiks is indicative of a growing interest in a popular form which began when it was brought by U.S. soldiers to the Philippines during the Second World War (Lent 67). This has been confirmed by Soledad Reyes: The komiks steadily supplanted the other forms of literature, as it forced the plots and characters of earlier literary types – the myths, epics, awit and corridor, novels and short stories – to conform to a new set of codes and conventions. (in Roxas and Arevalo 48-49) Coincidentally too, the peak of komiks magazine took place alongside the so-called golden age of Philippine cinema in the 1950s. The popular following of the comics