RAK EN ROL COMICS

I was Comic Odyssey today, collecting the sales of TRESE (where it got sold out! thank you, all five of you who bought!). While waiting to chat with Sandy, the owner, a butterball of a boy came running in the store. He was probably 11 or 12 years old. He ran to one of the sales ladies and asked, "Miss, do you have Umbrella Academy?" The lady quickly lead him to the shelf that had a copy and grabbed it with both hands.

"MOM!" he yelled, "This is the comic book!" He looked towards the door and his mom had not yet stepped in the store.

He stared at the cover, both hands still on the book, and he whispered, "I've been looking for this."

I couldn't help but ask, "You're a fan of Umbrella Academy?" Before he even said anything, I knew what his answer would be.

The kid smiled and said, "I'm a fan of Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance!"

His mom finally caught up with him and he ran to his mom with his newly found treasure. The mom looked harassed, didn't even look into the book, and just gave the boy some money to pay for it.

Sandy attended to the kid and then walked over to me.

"Did you see that boy?" I asked.

"Yeah, he's been coming to the store past couple of weeks, looking for Umbrella Academy."

"And he doesn't get any other comic book?"

"No, he just always asks for that. He comes in here singing My Chemical Romance songs."

So, for a moment, I thought I should start my own rock band, launch a couple of albums, make a few music videos, and then write a comic book. Then I'll have kids and fangirls wanting to buy my comic book. That grand plan came to halt when I started to imagine myself singing.

Seeing Little GerardWay Fanboy reminded me of the time I'd bounce into Filbar's under the escalator in VirraMall and ask for the latest issue of Crisis of Infinite Earths. But now that I think about it, at that age, I wasn't a big fan of any rock band. Makes me wonder what the appeal of My Chemical Romance is to the tweens. Are they into all that emo & angst? Do they start that young these days?


WONDERTWIN POWERS... DEACTIVATE!!!
I saw this SUPER INGGO comic book is the Children's Section of National Bookstore. It's 40-page, full-color comic book, being sold at P85. Published by VGOLD (an imprint of LG&M). Licensed by ABS-CBN.

I haven't read it yet, but the art looks decent. The lettering couldn've been better.

But the big question in my mind is: why wasn't this published by ABS-CBN Publishing? If you already own a company that produces, publishes, and distributes magazines, why aren't they producing the spin-off materials of their own TV shows?

Is there really a big difference between putting a magazine and a comic book?
(Did I just open a can of worms?)

I just find it weird.

Anyway, if they now have a SUPER INGGO comic book, does that mean they'll also produce a LASTIKMAN or a PEDRO PENDUKO AT MGA ENGKANTAO comic book as well?

That might just make the comic book scene more interesting.

WE HAVE SUCH SITES TO SHOW YOU


I still remember Andre lending me his copies of THE PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL with that dark artstyle that just blew you away as a kid. (Well, we were already in college, but I still felt like a kid.) The artist signed his name with Japanese characters, so I never really thought about his nationality even after reading that his name was "Whilce Portacio".

When Whilce took over X-FACTOR, "Marvel Age" ran an interview about him and that was the first time I found out he was Filipino. His Iceman vs. the Cyborg-Ninjas is still one of my favorite X-Factor stories.

So, after getting to draw most of the Marvel Universe, it seems like Whilce is setting his sights on the DC Universe. He just finished a gig at BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL and is now working on a SUPERMAN/BATMAN story arc. (Of course, he's still drawing WETWORKS.)

Go do the click-click thing and see new his art at: http://whilceportacio.net/


http://www.chemsetcomics.com/

CUT-AND-PASTED FROM THE CHEMSET:

The Chemistry Set is pleased to announce that Filipino comicker Andrew Drilon and his series, Kare-Kare Komiks, is joining it’s line-up. Previously displayed at Warren Ellis’ forum The Engine, Drilon is bringing his unique and emboldened take on comics to a bigger semi-monthly starting September 19th, 2007.

“These are wonderful,” says Warren Ellis. “I swear, the Pinoy make comics in the same way that the Icelandic make music … Fucking genius.”

‘Kare-kare’ is a traditional Filipino dish that incorporates various assorted ingredients into a delicious, meaty stew. ‘Komiks’ is a term for sequential art made in the Philippines, referring to Pinoy mass-produced newsprint comic books. Put these two together and you have Kare-Kare Komiks, the new semi-monthly webcomic at The Chemistry Set. Kare-Kare Komiks is an ongoing collection of self-contained short comics by Andrew Drilon that explores new flavors of the sequential art experience.

“Andrew Drilon does beautiful, otherworldly work– he makes comics like nobody else,” says Matt Fraction, writer of Casanova and The Immortal Iron Fist. “Kare-Kare is one of my favorite things on the internet ever. It’s even better than that one time where they blew up that whale everywhere.”

Read Andrew's MANG TOMAS THE STORYHUNTER at: http://tinyurl.com/26wtn5