The operative word, altercation, marks the tenor of Victor Balanon’s work, often in monochrome, and with the speech in the balloons shown censored, in a mock deference to decency. For someone who drew his references from films and comics – he studied films and animation at the Mowelfund Film Institute, the protagonists are often some humanoids with some animal features. This work is sourced from the Filipino’s artist solo titled Ante Bellum at the Artesan Gallery in Singapore in 2011. A similar-type work at the Nov 6, 2016 Henry Butcher auction sold for a premium of RM6,720. Balanon famously switched to Art a year before graduating from the University of the East in the Philippines in Dental Medicine. Graduating in 1997, he majored in Advertising. He had worked as an illustrator for films, comics and indie music labels and has self-published a comic-book anthology.