Editor’s Note.
My Archie Comics fascination started when I was still very little. Back in school, I remember skipping snacks and, sometimes, even lunches in order to save at least P200-P300 from my weekly allowances. By the end of the week, I will use up all my savings to purchase a new Archie. You cannot imagine the joy I get every time I hold a new copy — it was extremely gratifying.
Fast forward to 2017, who knew my fondness towards Archie will surface again as an adult? Watching the first season of the US TV series “Riverdale” brought back blissful memories of my childhood.
For our second issue of Random Republika’s “Spotlight,” I decided to recreate “Riverdale” borrowing concepts from the hit TV series.
I engaged Singapore’s Dream Top Model (DTM) 2017 winners (Paulo Canlas and Irayori Gonzales-Pioquid) to play as my comic heroes: Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge. Paulo, a father of five, works professionally as an IT executive and is now a Singaporean citizen. He joined DTM to set a good example to his kids about pursuing their dreams. On the other hand, Irayori used her DTM experience to boost her self-confidence. Aside from school, this young lady is now busy with various modeling gigs such as her recent catwalk participation in the 2017 Singapore Modest Fashion Week.
Since this whole e-zine issue was inspired and borne out of my childhood-Archie dream, I decided to discover Paulo and Irayori’s random personal dreams too. While on the shoot, we talked about their dream dates, dream jobs, dreams for the family, etc., and it was indeed thrilling to hear their personal stories.
Special thanks to the team behind this shoot: Zainudin Dollah (photographer), Dicson Agcaoili Jr. (hair and makeup), Devon Kan of Carlton City (venue), JP Quitco (Random Republika production assistant), and Dresabelle Singapore (for Irayori’s clothes).
We hope that you will find this issue enjoyable to read as much as we enjoyed producing this too.
— Paolo Avis
To read our e-magazine, click the image below:
Or click here to view the e-zine