Reality bites: The Philippines' Manila Times profiles creators Elbert Or and Jamie Bautista, who conducted an informal survey of students that revealed young readers want realistic storylines about conflicts and struggles common among teen-agers:
 
"And from this objective, Cast was born.  It is a full-color comic book series, available next month, that has none of the fantasy-based and sci-fi plots that comics in Filbars or Book Sale have. The story is weaved through the lives of teen-age high school boys and girls who, through a tie-up between their exclusive schools, come together to put up a school play on King Arthur. During the course of the production, the characters discover world-changing ideas, develop relationships, and encounter personal problems, which might just affect the school  production all together."