Jeff Estrella explores the immigrant experience in ‘Balikbayan: The Return’

Here’s my chat with Jeff Estrella about his new comic book on Kickstarter entitled Balikbayan: The Return.

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Jeff Estrella is a Toronto-based, Scarborough-raised, Pilipinas-born writer who has been active in the Toronto comics community for over a decade. He has been featured in three volumes of the Toronto Comics Anthology from TO Comix Press and has self-published a short comics collection and zine.

Balikbayan: The Return will be his first full-length comic book and is joined by Filipino-American artist Fabian Lelay, colourist Riely McFarlane, letterer Devon Xavier Wong and editor/publisher Allison O’Toole.

Balikbayan is named for the care packages that Filipinos living overseas send back to family in the Philippines. This book is the 24-page opening chapter of a story that draws from traditional Filipino folk tales and is inspired by films like ‘Hereditary’, ‘The Wailing’, and ‘The Farewell’. 

It explores the often-strained relationships between the children of immigrants and their parents, and the difficulties of reconciling those two worlds. It asks: What if those old stories of ghosts and monsters from back home were true?

You can discover more about Jeff Estrella on Instagram at @jeffstrells

You can check out Balikbayan: The Return #1 on Kickstarter

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