Lights! Camera! Pasta!

If you click here, you'll see Noel F. Lim aka FLIM, me, and Gerry at Italianni's, Greenbelt 2.We met there to practice my scene with Gerry for WASTED THE MOVIE. I arrived around 6:30pm. For some reason, Noel was wearing his motorcycle goggles, which is weird because he sold his bike years ago. I guess he misses it.

We started our "reading" / workshop after dinner. I thought we'd go elsewhere to practice our lines and try-out the blocking of the scene. But we didn't. And I'm just glad the place was full of people and noisy, else they would've heard me bumbling around and Gerry cursing about love lost.

We did two readings, enough to figure out which lines needed to be edited and got directions from Noel on how to say this line and that line. Noel also started to sketch some ideas on how to shoot the scene. He said he wants to shoot the scene in one continous shot! No cuts! Which means it's going to be a very long day.

The rest of the time we talked about comic books, movies, and the eternal search for Jenny. I told them they'll probably just bump into "Jenny" one of these days and she'll be perfect for the part.

No sched yet on when we're going to do the shoot, but I'm sure it's going to be fun.

AND... CUT!

an email from Paolo Manlapaz


Jonnel was a quiet, simple, unassuming person. He didn't stand out in a crowd or draw attention to himself. He may have looked timid, but if you pierced that disguise, you'd find that he could be fiery and passionate about many things.

During our elementary and high school years, I would often spend weekends with Jonnel, either at his Malabon or Xavierville residence. Day and night, we'd fight ninja warriors in Legend of Kage, listen to When In Rome's The Promise, and walk around Virramall in Greenhills. We'd go through his stacks of Teen Titans, watch veritechs dogfight on Robotech, and strafe Kilrathi ships in Wing Commander. We'd drink those pulpy Japanese orange drinks that came in aluminum cans. We'd draw (hopefully) like Ryoichi Ikegami. When we'd play with miniatures, we'd make ridiculous battle sound effects. It was all simple, honest fun and it didn't get better than that.

Over the last few years, his Hobby Cafe came to reflect his life. In it, he created a place where he merged the things that he loved the most. There was Tita Pining, chatting with his friends. There was his fiance, Jaimie, by his side. There he was, commanding his Warhammer army against Jeff or Owen's troops. He offered networked computer games like Counterstrike and Starcraft. He sold Magic the Gathering cards, Samurai X anime videos, Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks, and Mage Knight miniatures. He created a place where he could share his joys and passions with family and friends. He made a business out of his pleasure.

On Saturdays, I would make is a point to pass by Hobby Cafe, even if just to say hello. During my last visit there, I saw him talking with some people and proudly showing off some of his wares. He called me over, "Pao! Mechwarrior!", referring to a new collectable miniatures game. He grinned at me, sensing a sale like the Hero Clix I bought from him two months ago. I laughed, "Maybe next time, buddy. I need to save up a bit. I gotta run, but I'll see you later, okay?" He nodded but when I came back two hours later, he had already left Hobby Cafe.

On Monday morning, I received a call from a friend, informing me of the tragedy that had befallen Jonnel.

I do not know why this happened to him, but I would like to think that, at the time, God acquired a large shipment of Warhammer and Mechwarrior miniatures. I would like to think that He needed someone to paint His figures and command His miniature armies. I would like to think that He called Jonnel to run the Great Hobby Cafe in the Sky. In Jonnel, He couldn't have picked a better person.

Jonnel, my friend, I keep my promises. When my time here is done, I'll see you up there. You can teach me Mechwarrior and blitz me off the field with your Jupiter mech. I'll see you later, okay? Okay.

Jonnel Apolonio Mendiola (March 22, 1972 - September 22, 2002)

Filipino comic book writer J.Torres will be one of the contributors to an upcoming issue of X-MEN UNLIMITED. I asked him how he got that writing gig. Below is his answer.

My first Marvel gig was a text piece in Marvel Knights: Millennial Visions edited by Mike Marts. I first met Mike when he was an associate editor at Acclaim about three or four years ago. I was supposed to do some work for them, but the company's comic division folded before that happened. After Millennial Visions, Mike asked me to write a two-part Black Panther fill-in (which will probably never get used given the series' problems). Around the time I was finishing up that assignment, C.B. Cebulski was offered a position at Marvel. C.B. was my editor at Fanboy Entertainment, the company that originally published Sidekicks. He was initially brought on to manage the Mangaverse books. But about three months into his tenure he was assigned as the assistant editor of X-Men Unlimited, and at the time Mike was the interim editor of the series while Marvel did some editorial reshuffling.

So, in short: it's all about who you know :)

J.

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Of course the other important tip that J. mention in a previous email is that he was able to get his first writing gigs because of his self-published works, which eventually got him that SIDEKICKS gig, which eventually got him... well, you already read what he was able to get.

It's been a year since I've published BATCH72 #1. I thought I had everything planned, that it was going to be a 5-issue mini-series and it would actually come out monthly. So, I've now simplified my plans to just releasing #3 and that would be that. I'd still love to release #4 (which is actually the very first issue of B72, but with additional pages) but that will all depend on the sales of the other books.

Maybe next year will be better.

Not a hoax. Not a dream. Not an imaginary story.

I just received a text that Jonnel Mendiola, a batch mate from Ateneo died yesterday in an attempted kidnapping incident.

I met Jonnel because we were the geeks that hung out at the covered courts, not to play basketball, but to talk about comic books. (Of course, Jonnel was usually at the covered courts because he was part of Ateneo Rifle&Pistol team.) After college, Jonnel set-up a comic book store and was one of the people to support Alamat Comics during our early years.

God bless Jonnel.
God bless his family.
God bless our country.