DARNA! DARNA! DARNA!


Posted three magazine articles about DARNA in the KOMIX101 blog (just scroll down past the Carl "ZsaZsa Zaturnnah" Vergara interview).

"[Darna's] mabait yet matapang. Strong yet sympathetic. Sexy yet dignified. And she looks damn great in a pair of teensy-weensy red pekpek shorts." --Abi Aquino, Cosmopolitan Philippines

I think Abi's article was best written of the bunch. It was concise, informative, and an entertaining read. The Men Zone article felt like a bad written press release that kept repeating information through-out the article. It even had cheesy photos of the Mango Comics creative team being beat-up by Darna.

Still haven't found any reviews for DARNA #2.

Carl said that Jon Lapus was raving about ZSAZSA in THE BUZZ last Sunday(?). I hope that translates to more buzz about the book (and more sales). Carl's interview with Business World came out today. Posted in KOMIX101.

thrilling comics

From the website THRILLED: These are comics which are online. Some of them have been specifically designed for the online format and some have not. They were done for ourselves for various reasons. This site exists so that you may read and enjoy them and share the experience. Some people have enjoyed our stories and felt somehow moved or enlightened and that is nice. Please enjoy, or don't, and move on to something else on the internet that is better. These comics are please not for children please.

My favorites are: Trepanation and Ride.

Rachel texted that I should read LITTLE PRINCE and figure out what is really essential in life.

Maricel texted that I should: take a break. read rilke. take a week off. get a girlfriend.
Which makes me wonder if I should do it in that order and will I become a better writer if I get girlfriend or will I just become more neurotic (or will I make her more neurotic because of all my OT)?

Well, maybe I'll pick up a copy of LITTLE PRINCE this weekend. Something nice to read on a rainy day.

THE END... FOR NOW

Presented the SAD STORY(Version Oh-I-Already-Lost-Count) last Thursday and it got the REALLY REJECTED stamp. Even if it was Mother One who presented the storyboards, it wasn’t enough to convince client to go for the story. They said, it’s not the type of story they’d want to do.

I’ll just die if competition comes up with a story similar to mine.

This reminds me of how the whole team was back in the office the day after EDSA DOS and we came up with over a dozen ads to commemorate that peaceful revolution and how text messaging connected a whole nation (or at least, the several million who had cellphones in the city). But client didn’t want to run a single ad because of possible political repercussions.

A week or so later, the competition came out with their EDSA DOS ad, which got an award for best print that same year.

So, now we’re back to a similar situation. Client doesn’t want to produce this story. They admit that it’s a realistic story but they just don’t want their brand to be associated with such a situation. That’s not what their brand is all about.

Competition recently came out with their own “sad story”, which felt more like a guilt trip to me. So, I don’t know if it works. Don’t know if it connects to people.

We actually tested my story. Showed it to a dozen people, all cellphone users. They all thought it was too sad. That it’s just all too real. That it happened to their friend or a friend of a friend. But they didn’t like it because it left them with this heavy feeling.

If that’s the case, then I guess the story worked. I don’t think I wanted anyone to feel “great and wonderful” after seeing that story.

In Sandman #75, Will Shakespeare said, “My heart was broken by my dark lady, and I wept, in my room, alone; but while I wept, somewhere inside I smiled. For I knew I could take my broken heart and place it on the stage of the Globe, and make the pit cry tears of their own.”

And I guess that’s what wanted to do. I wanted to “make the pit cry tears of their own.” (And isn’t it interesting that Shakespeare staged his plays in a theater called The Globe?) But maybe this Globe isn’t my stage. Maybe I’m not meant to use it as my personal canvass. But it would have been great, because it would have most definitely meant that she should have seen it… seen my story… and, maybe, finally, make her cry as much as I cried for her.

(Ah… the truth comes out, you say.)

So, maybe it was off-strat / off-strategy. There is nothing great (or amazing) with such a sad story. I thought the great thing made possible was that he was able to get that thorn out of his side and he finally ended that which that gave him so much pain. I thought that was it. I thought it would work.

Maybe the universe didn’t want this story to be told, because it would reopen old wounds.

Or maybe the timing just isn’t right.

The idea to talk about things “made possible by Globe” was something that got shelved, because there was a change in the direction of the strategy. A year later, I found it while deleting files in my computer and it became the germ of the idea that became a whole new campaign.

The Shiloah-Valentine’s Day ad was another ad that got shelved because we already had several print ads at the time and didn’t need that one. Almost a year later, client asked for a V-Day ad and we dug that out that ad, gave it a new look, and it got approved.

So, for now, this story goes to the bottom drawer, where it will ferment… marinate… and when the time is right we’ll figure out how to make it work.

Or it could go into some other story… maybe in a comic book. I don’t know.

There are other ads to be done.

Another promo to promote.

Next ad, please.