Babbling Point

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down the dark side

Kristong Itim is a series of stories set in the Philippines. The stories span the history of the Philippines - from the 1896 Revolution to the present. The series revolve around the Andara family and their quest for redemption.

"The idea started out as a story in Alamat Comics 101 in 1994. There was an unnamed cop investigating a child murdering clown by the Tan brothers, Budjette and Brandie. Budjette asked me if I’d like to do a story about the clown. I said I’d thought about it. Later on, I said I was more interested in the cop. The cop then got a name - Crisostomo Andara III. Later still, he wasn’t a cop anymore. Five years later, his grandfather and father got involved somehow. The story then spanned into three generations of Andaras. Who wulda thunk?

"This blog hopes to chart the progress of the graphic novels production, culminating in the release of the books. Some of the shorter stories might also see print in between. Others, I shall post on this blog along with some of the stranger headlines found around the web." -- Mark

I think the "evil clown" idea was partly inspired when Brandie and I watched Stephen King's "It". As Mark plotted out the history of the clown, he ended up talking more about the cop who became not a cop, but now has a more interesting backstory.

Brandie and Mark actually got to finish like a dozen on so pages but it never saw print because of financial reasons. Oh well, the greatest of stories have supposedly gone through dozens and hundreds of revisions. Godspeed on this project, Mark!

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