THEY say if you’re a jack-of-all-trades, you’re a master of none.
But Fil-Am Rafael Kayanan is definitely one to dispute that belief.
The youthful-looking, 50-year-old Kayanan is a master of everything he does.
He’s a renowned comic book illustrator, a master-level Filipino martial artist, Hollywood fight choreographer, and concept designer for Broadway.
Most recently, he works as an illustrator for Marvel Comics and has just finished working as a fight choreographer for an upcoming episode of NCIS:LA titled, “KillHouse,” and as a Technical Advisor for action star, Liam Neeson for suspense thriller, Non-Stop, which also features Julianne Moore.
“Had a great time creating the fight sets for most of this episode. Keeping it semi- realistic, but of course factoring in the dynamics and the drama required to tell the story for the TV screen,” Kayanan wrote on his blog.
“It’s also one of the most action-packed episodes as well, directed by Larry Teng.”
He added that for Non-Stop, he served as a weapons advisor “for weapons related sequences.”
A naturalized American citizen originally from Manila, Philippines, Kayanan has been working in the US comic book industry since the 1980s.
For the past three decades, Kayanan’s work has been featured on every major comic publisher — from Marvel, Acclaim, Vertigo, to DC Comics.
He’s best known for his work on Conan, Turok and Firestorm. His other works include Spiderman, Batman and Star Wars.
In 1996, his illustrations in Chiaroscuro: The Life and Times of Leonardo Da Vinci for Vertigo Comics was nominated for The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, or the Eisner Awards — the Comics Industry’s equivalent of the Oscar Awards.
Aside from comic book illustration, Kayanan is also a master Filipino martial artist, specializing in Sayoc Kali or edge weapons fighting.
Having trained with the Sayoc Family System of Kali since 1983, Kayanan has trained with some of the finest Filipino masters, including Tuhon Baltazar “Bo” Sayoc, and Tuhon Christopher Sayoc.
In a bio about Kayanan, KBS System of Filipino Martial Arts website wrote that Kayanan comes from a family fighters, with many of them former Special Forces officers and/ or have fought in guerilla units during World War II.
“Even his family name (Kayanan) is related to the Kayans of Borneo, a tribe of headhunters, and distantly to the ManKayans of the Igorot headhunters in the Philippines,” wrote KBS. “You might say some of his skill is ‘in the blood!'”
Kayanan’s gift of comic book artistry, along with his Filipino martial arts training, has boded well on screen in Hollywood.
He has provided concept illustration for movies: The Immortals, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and The Brother’s Grimm.
He also trained actor Sam Rockwell in George Clooney’s spy film, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Kayanan was also one of the two fight choreographers of the Sayoc Kali-Silak System for the 2003 film, The Hunted (starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro).
Kayanan told KBS, “It took my combined experience in the visual storytelling medium of comics, to somehow translate some of the subtleties of Sayoc Kali into the film.”
Along with The Hunted, Kayanan has served as a technichal advisor or fight choreographer for other films and TV, including NCIS.
In 2007, Kayanan provided set design art, fight boards and character sketches for Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark musical.
He’s even designed a weapon collaborating with master weaponsmith Dan Winkler, who designed the weapons in the movie, The Last of the Mohicans. The two created the Sayoc-Winkler Tomahawk.
Truly, Kayanan is a renaissance man. And he continues to do well, so far.
(balikbayanmag.com)
(LA Weekend January 12-15, 2013 Sec. A pg.10)
