About
Bong Redila is a Filipino American illustrator and author based in Miami, Florida. A self-taught artist, Redila began his illustration career in the early 1990s in Guam, where he worked as a graphic artist and editorial cartoonist for a local newspaper.
In the early 2000s, he turned to writing and illustrating short stories set in a fictional town called Meläg, where phantasmagoric and peculiar events unfold. These stories were later compiled and published in the Philippines by Anino Comics/Adarna House, earning multiple accolades, including the Philippine National Book Awards for Best Graphic Literature, the National Children’s Book Awards for Best Reads for Kids, and Komikon’s Best Graphic Novel. His work was also nominated for the prestigious Madrigal-Gonzalez First Book Award.
In 2022, Meläg was published in English by Fantagraphics. A follow-up, Meläg II: Balikbayan, was released in the Philippines by Anino Comics in early 2023.
In addition to the Meläg series, Redila contributed the comics introduction to E.C. Segar’s Popeye Sundays, Vol. 3: The Sea Hag & Alice the Goon, published by Fantagraphics.
He also created Borderline, an online single-panel comics series and a Meläg spin-off. Borderline features surreal and whimsical images paired with brief captions, inviting readers to enter the fictional town and encouraging them to expand their imagination by completing each story in their own way.
In 2026, Fantagraphics published Nocturnal Whispers, a collected edition of Meläg Volumes 1 and 2.