“Author ka na! Congrats! (You’re now a published author! Congrats!)” Rodel Tapaya recalls quipping to his long-time friend Russell Trinidad, more popularly known as Doktor Karayom, an artist notoriously beloved for his single-tone, surreal, body-horror, dark humor art.
In 2023, art columns reported on Grade 3, Karayom’s first (hopefully not last) book, with one publication cheekily noting that while it was about childhood, it probably isn’t child-friendly.
This is all part of Tagpo, a collection of books by Bulacan-based publication IsTorya Studios. Describing itself as a narrative design studio, Istorya Studios creates toys and other print-based products on the history and culture of the Philippines.
For Tagpo, each book was “written” by an author “more known in the art world than in the publishing or literary world,” explains IsTorya co-founder Tapaya, while in the next room, his wife and co-founder Marina Cruz holds a community workshop all as laughter peals and conversations buzz.
Many artists in the advanced stages of their career yearn to break free from styles, topics, artistic movements, and themes they’ve become known for or synonymous with in the insular art world. Of this, Tapaya says: “There’s an element of play that goes into it. It’s like being a kid again, just following your curiosity, not being constrained by the rules, conventions, and even politics in a field, an industry.”
Tapaya and Cruz have been active in the art world since graduating from the University of the Philippines, Diliman in the early 2000s. “Tagpo” was also the name of Tapaya’s debut show.
“There’s the literary and publishing world, which we’re new to, and then there’s our regular art practice.” Tapaya adds that “returning to work, that is, our art studios, we felt refreshed having tried a new form of creativity. That’s when we realized we wanted to share this experience with our fellow artists.”
Aside from Doktor Karayom’s book, the Tagpo series also features books by Tapaya, Cruz, and Archie Oclos. IsTorya Studios is named so from an old Filipino word, ‘torya,’ which can be translated to ‘meaning,’ which then plays with the English word ‘story.’ Meaningful stories.
Tapaya and Cruz are planning to invite more artists to contribute to the growing Tagpo series. “We don’t want too much pressure,” Tapaya says regarding deadlines and workflow, “our ‘day jobs’ have enough pressure as is. If Tagpo ceases to become a form of rest, a playground for the mind, then it loses its original vision.” The project was also supported by the Incubators platform of the 2024 iteration of Art Fair Philippines.
IsTorya Studios also published dedicated graphic novels using the established norms of the medium: panels of varying sizes, thought and speech bubbles, the works. These fall under a different line of books. Where Tagpo is an invite-only project focused on practicing visual artists, other IsTorya projects are open to pitches from the general public.
Additionally, Tapaya and Cruz want their publishing arm to champion topics and stories “that other publishers might not consider bankable, especially stories from the point-of-view of the marginalized.” Most recently, they published a graphic novel pitched by a child rights group.
Aside from publishing, Istorya Studios is also looking to foster their local community by hosting workshops revolving around tactile art and creative experiences. One such project was a typewriting-as-therapy workshop featuring restored typewriters from the personal collection of Cruz, held in May 2024. Participants hailed from Pampanga and Metro Manila as well.
Cruz pinpoints the publisher’s start to when, early in the pandemic, Tapaya and Cruz’s son made his own board game. Inspired by this, the couple eventually developed card games focused on Filipino history after play testing with friends, then later actual social science teachers, with further refinement contributed by historian Ambeth Ocampo.
Their games and books are distributed by both independent and mainstream book stores, like Mount Cloud in Baguio and some National Bookstore branches. They also have an online shop in e-commerce platforms like Shopee and Lazada.
While IsTorya Studios builds its identity on advocacy and community work, it’s sustainable enough to give full-time employment to its staff. This itself is a form of helping others as well, showing that advocacy and self-sustenance do not have to be mutually exclusive.
For Cruz and Tapaya, aside from visual art, publishing—as demonstrated by IsTorya Studios—is one such medium that can tie multiple, complementary goals, from the personal to the communal.
Follow Istorya Studios via their official social media channels: @istoryastudios on Instagram and Facebook