How does RAYGUN work?

No, not that Raygun :)

We loved seeing a bunch of you at our RAYGUN Publisher Launch on June 29! We’ve been greeted with far more excitement and love than we expected and possibly deserve at this point. We even have one named fan group now (shoutout #Gayguns) and it’s been satisfying to see people start to step in and get lost in our newest title, Night Gate by Lucia Asul.

We’re still an extremely small operation at this point, so every bit of support helps. I’ve personally been multi-hatting on business, fundraising, growth, book production, and Canva for all our socials (one day I will have time to write again); John Ray has the task of visual editing for our new titles even as he takes on a more aggressive production schedule for Maharlika Vol. 3; and our Santelmo House co-founder Deanne, with her daughter Michiko, is juggling her full-time day job with the task of doing our corporate admin and Shopee logistics.

Even in the midst of all that, I think it’s worth us taking some time to properly introduce ourselves: the RAYGUN imprint first, and then later, a bit of a peek into the Santelmo House master plan.

What’s a RAYGUN?

No, not that Raygun. This Raygun:

John Ray pitched this name to me some time before the Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn had her 15 minutes of fame. It was among a list that included more traditional Filipino name options—but when I saw this, I was sold immediately.

Because honestly: if you know, you know. YuYu Hakusho was a global hit, but only in the Philippines do we know it as Ghost Fighter; only in the Philippines are the main characters named Eugene, Alfred, Vincent, and Dennis rather than Yusuke and… I don’t even know the rest of the original names haha. And only in the Philippines is his signature attack called “Raygun” and not “Spirit Gun” or “Rei (Spirit/Ghost) Gan”.

As a 90’s kid born and raised for the first 10 years of my life in Dumaguete, I grew up on anime more than on any other media. I vividly remember hearing about Ghost Fighter from a schoolmate and watching it the same evening—and being absolutely entranced by the world that Togashi created. Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and One Piece may have had the biggest cultural impact, but for many of us Ghost Fighter was the awakening.

That’s the fun and nostalgic part. But the other end of the coin is: why did we not grow up with the same diverse canon of Filipino stories? Our belief is that there is no shortage of imagination or storytelling craft in the Philippines—just a shortage of resources to bring them to fruition.

You can read our ongoing “Heat Wave” series of posts for my ongoing analysis of this problem. RAYGUN is one part of our plan to shift the tide in a small way.

Heat Wave: How do we unchain the Filipino cultural economy? (Part 1)

Building a komiks publisher in 2025 (Heat Wave Pt. 2)

What does RAYGUN do?

We publish Filipino comics (AKA komiks) with a focus on (1) long-running serialized sagas, prioritizing (2) sci-fi and fantasy adventures that (3) can be accessible to a wide audience, particularly manga and anime fans while retaining (4) a strong and nuanced authorial vision rooted in the Filipino experience.

That’s a pretty specific intersection of stuff. And that’s intentional. There are quite a few existing publishers in the Philippines, and they do a better job than we ever will at supporting the rest of the book industry. But for this specific type of story that we personally want to see more of, there’s a not-insubstantial level of investment required to do it right—or at least to the level where it becomes a norm, and not just a few exceptions that prove the rule.

We invest deeply and for the long term. That’s a bunch of buzzwords, but for us it’s what our whole model lives or dies on. We pay creators more per chapter than they often get paid per book—this is to ensure that they are able to say no to other projects and can get close to full-time on comics creation. We put money up for marketing. We’re active in introducing them to readers and evangelists. We do all of this because we believe the industry can be much bigger in the future, if we can just put enough work and resources into it with conviction.

And in the long-term, we plan to adapt many of these stories to other mediums. Not as an end to itself; comics as a medium is powerful and it shouldn’t be just a stepping stone into film, TV, or animation. But to the extent that it fits the vision of the work AND broadens the number of true fans the story can resonate with, we want to help make it happen.

We’ve started this process with Maharlika, and we plan to do the same with some of the other stories in our library.

Strange things are happening on the Pasig River…

As specific as our focus is, you can already see from our initial slate that there is a fairly diverse set of stories that fit our thesis.

Maharlika is a tightly-wound alternate history puzzle box punctuated with anime action flair. Thank You And More Power is more inspired by crime and gangster dramas, with X-Men superpowers and corporate comedy sprinkled on top (a bit like The Boys, but perhaps more humanist and less cynical). Night Gate is moody and atmospheric and unsettling in the way a Junji Ito fan might like, but with more relatable characters who are coming of age amid war and horror. And Malaya (coming up next) is more inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender but with a dark twist, and heavy on themes of identity and culture.

Each of these stories can be a decades-long journey in itself. We’re just at the beginning.

Is RAYGUN accepting pitches?

The constraint of this strategy is that we can’t spread ourselves too thin. Every title we take on requires a lot of support, from financial to distribution—and that’s before you start looking at things like animation or gaming.

So no, not really—but we can make exceptions if we feel a story and artist is a fit + we think we can add value. And if you are passionate about something that you think could be great under RAYGUN, we are always happy to share learnings, trade ideas, and maybe plan for something further in the future if we can’t take you on now. At the end of the day, we want more of these kinds of stories to succeed.

As Santelmo House, we are also partnering with & building other imprints and resources to support Filipino comics, books, and stories. But that’s for another time. Stay tuned :)

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