Carlo Vergara, creator of the queer comic book character ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, expressed his disappointment in a Facebook post on February 17 over the unauthorized use of his material for an upcoming drag event.
The event, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah: The Cinemusical, was supposed to take place on February 23, 2025, with Drag Race Philippines Season 1 winner Precious Paula Nicole playing the titular role.
Although Vergara shared that he does appreciate and even shared online the drag queen’s previous performances characterizing ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, he felt that it was different this time around, “This presents itself differently. It looks like an event, a crowd-drawer, with a price.” It is no longer just a portrayal for the sake of performance, rather, it is an organized event that should have taken into account necessary intellectual property rights duly credited to Vergara.
“To those who dream of creating characters that find their way into pop culture, this is an example of a situation that you might find hard to maneuver,” Vergara voiced. He furthered that he was not necessarily angry at the situation, but rather felt “weird” about the turn of events, given that as a creator of ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, he was initially unaware of this major drag event where his own character takes the center stage.
Nevertheless, Vegara still took the moment to appreciate the queer icons in the poster, “In any case, Precious and Phi [Palmos] look gorgeous in the poster.”
Social media users weighed in on the dilemma and have expressed their concern toward Vergara and his works, with suggestions to take on legal action.
In light of the incident, the event’s organizer, the Philippine Bear Community (PBC), issued an apology addressed to Vergara via a Facebook post on February 18. Though an honest mistake, this is an oversight that we will make right,” the organization said. In a comment under Vergara’s post, PBC also mentioned that they personally reached out to the creator via private message and have since taken down all publication materials of the Cinemusical event. The organization had also expressed their apologies to Rampa Club the host of the event, as well as to the artists involved, Precious Paula Nicole and Phi Palmos.
On a Facebook post, Precious Paula Nicole, the supposed headliner for the show has also shared her side of the story. “I just want to extend my sincerest apologies to Sir Carlo Vergara. His work ZsaZsa Zaturnnah is close to my heart,” she said. Precious admitted that she should have been careful and double checked necessary details with the event organizers prior to taking on the project. At the moment, she asked for the understanding of her fans and followers as this is a lesson she ought to learn from.
ZsaZsa Zaturnnah is a fictional comic book character popularized by Vergara back in 2002. The heroine is the alter-ego of Ada, a gay beautician from the province who deals with various issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community. Since then, Zaturnnah has been one of the early queer pop culture icons in Philippine comics as the storytelling effectively blended in themes of love, humor, and social commentaries.
The story of the red-haired heroine has since been adapted into a film back in 2006 with ‘Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh.’ Currently, ‘Zsazsa Zaturnnah vs. the Amazonistas of Planet X’ an animated film of the comic series is currently in the works and will premiere in 2026.
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