Kosme The Cop (Retired)

Introduction

By Ernesto Granada, Manila Chronicle 1958

While politicians, philosophers, sociologists, pedagogists, editorialists and members of civic clubs prescribe a variety of cures for the ills of the Filipino, Mauro Malang Santos, known widely and fondly only as Malang, encourages Kosme to defend himself successfully against threats of modern life ­– convention, brotherly love and democracy; the do-gooders, the charitable and the pundits; and the inexorable rolling pin. And Kosme defends himself only with his native wits.
Kosme survived cosmic changes in his and in other people’s world. This perhaps strengthens the theory he lives by but never speaks of, which is that life is a series of defeats which could be turned to victory, of blackeyes which could be utilized as beauty aids, of bill collectors who could be exploited to make of life a merrier chase which would anyway never be won.

The desire to achieve postery gnaws the heart of every creator, and Malang is no exception in this regard. For this reason, he now compiles the best Kosme strips for 1958. Most of the strips actually came out in 1957, the year when Kosme must have enjoyed life in the Philippines most.

For 1957 was the year when the rock and roll came to stay, when the sack dress turned women even more giddy, when a semi-literate national leader wrote a 'paper' which shook officialdom, when juvenile delinquency and delinquency not juvenile reached unprecedented heights, when the 'society' set outdid itself in splendor, and, if we are to believe the tabloids, perversion, and the when the middle-aged blamed youth and youth blamed the middle-aged to the sympathetic amusement of the aged or the really wise.

Malang, a man of deceptive calm, somehow chronicled all of these things in Kosme. And one who woke up in the morning to find Kosme dodging the very misfortune he himself would encounter that day, or enjoying the very luck he himself would find that day.

Kosme 1958, which Malang now presents, is a bit of history, a bit of commentary on the current life, a bit of prognostication, a bit of whimsy, a bit of day-dreaming, a bit of frustration, a bit of the Filipino life of the here and there - but every bit of it is humor rendered even more humorous because of Malang's love for the Filipino and the understanding of the things they do, the wise as well as the foolish, especially the foolish.

Kosme 1958, is required reading for everyone who fells that life - whatever it is - should be enjoyed.