Taking Flight
A page from ALL THE SMALL THINGS
(Story by Budjette Tan, Art by Bow Guerrero)
It's been more that ten years since I've collaborated with Bow on a comic book project. The most recent thing we did was our submission to MANUAL magazine. Bow did the art for my story PLAYING WITH DICE.
I think the first thing we ever worked on was an 11-page stoty about a samurai that fought a monster that was terrorizing a small town. We did that back in 1992 (or was it `93?).
We also did an 8-page story about a female ninja that stopped a couple of bank robbers. We tried to pitch both stories to ATLAS KOMIKS. He got rejected because they said our style was "too Marvel" and both stories were too long.
So, we came up with 4-page story about how the President of the Philippines bought four hunter-killer androids to solve the problem of the New People's Army. After the President paid the men in black a billion pesos, the androids went on a ramage and killed all the NPA. Unfortunately, they didn't stop their massacre and slaughtered everyone in sight from the mountains, back to Malacanang Palace.
The story was rejected by Atlas.
Couple of months later, WILDSTORM STUDIOS had a talent search. So, I decided to extend the story of the killer androids and introduce a new superteam that would come in and save the day. We ended up with a 16-page story, which we sent to Wildstorm, which also got rejected.
I think it was because of those rejections that we decided to self-publish and that was when we created THE FLYING PHANTOM. (Back then, he was called COBALT X-29).
It was only this year when Bow and I collaborated again and came up with ALL THING NICE. I must thank Reg Ting for sending that text and asking me to contribute something to his FANTASYA anthology.
The story is actually based on an old T.A.G.G. tale called "The Long Tour". (Special thanks must go to the TAGG BOYZ for inspiring another tale.)
I orginally wrote the story in English and totally forgot that it had to be in Filipino, or at the very least in Taglish. So, I had to translate the story on the day of the deadline.
Still, I was excited because of the storytelling device I used for it. I thought I was so orginal! A couple of nights later, I picked up Sting's memoir "Broken Music" and discovered that's where I got the device. Sorry, Mr. Sting.
Which just goes to show that a story can brew inside you for a long time and that one must read, read, read before one can write, write, write.
Anyway, hope you can pick up a copy of FANTASYA. Now available at Comic Quest and National Bookstore. Then come back here and tell us what you think.
Thanks!
A page from ALL THE SMALL THINGS
(Story by Budjette Tan, Art by Bow Guerrero)
It's been more that ten years since I've collaborated with Bow on a comic book project. The most recent thing we did was our submission to MANUAL magazine. Bow did the art for my story PLAYING WITH DICE.
I think the first thing we ever worked on was an 11-page stoty about a samurai that fought a monster that was terrorizing a small town. We did that back in 1992 (or was it `93?).
We also did an 8-page story about a female ninja that stopped a couple of bank robbers. We tried to pitch both stories to ATLAS KOMIKS. He got rejected because they said our style was "too Marvel" and both stories were too long.
So, we came up with 4-page story about how the President of the Philippines bought four hunter-killer androids to solve the problem of the New People's Army. After the President paid the men in black a billion pesos, the androids went on a ramage and killed all the NPA. Unfortunately, they didn't stop their massacre and slaughtered everyone in sight from the mountains, back to Malacanang Palace.
The story was rejected by Atlas.
Couple of months later, WILDSTORM STUDIOS had a talent search. So, I decided to extend the story of the killer androids and introduce a new superteam that would come in and save the day. We ended up with a 16-page story, which we sent to Wildstorm, which also got rejected.
I think it was because of those rejections that we decided to self-publish and that was when we created THE FLYING PHANTOM. (Back then, he was called COBALT X-29).
It was only this year when Bow and I collaborated again and came up with ALL THING NICE. I must thank Reg Ting for sending that text and asking me to contribute something to his FANTASYA anthology.The story is actually based on an old T.A.G.G. tale called "The Long Tour". (Special thanks must go to the TAGG BOYZ for inspiring another tale.)
I orginally wrote the story in English and totally forgot that it had to be in Filipino, or at the very least in Taglish. So, I had to translate the story on the day of the deadline.
Still, I was excited because of the storytelling device I used for it. I thought I was so orginal! A couple of nights later, I picked up Sting's memoir "Broken Music" and discovered that's where I got the device. Sorry, Mr. Sting.
Which just goes to show that a story can brew inside you for a long time and that one must read, read, read before one can write, write, write.
Anyway, hope you can pick up a copy of FANTASYA. Now available at Comic Quest and National Bookstore. Then come back here and tell us what you think.
Thanks!