Babbling Point

UP ICW ANNOUNCES BEST FIRST BOOK NOMINEES FOR 2009 by Arvin Abejo Mangohig The UP Institute of Creative Writing and the Madrigal-Gonzalez family are pleased to announce the nominees for the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award for 2009. The nominees are: The Proxy Eros by Mookie Katigbak, Stories From Another Time by Benjamin Bautista, Antisipasyon by Victor Dennis T. Nierva , The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David , Girl Trouble by Alan Navarra, Trese: Murder on Balete Drive by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo , I Hate My Mother by Perpilili Vivienne Tiongson and Playing It Safe by Gerry T. Los Baños. This year's selection mirrors the changing landscape of Philippine literature as it includes the bestselling graphic novel Trese, a collaboration between Tan and Baldisimo—a possibly controversial inclusion among purist circles. READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT: http://panitikan.com.ph/newsarchive/monthly/november2009.htm#bestfirst

Q&A with comic writer Budjette Tan INTERVIEW BY: GELO GONZALES October 18, 2009 http://www.fhm.com.ph/entertainment/interviews/article/1797/ How did you start as a comic book writer? I started writing when I was a kid because I loved reading comics. I felt like I wanted to write my own, and write my own heroes. As a kid, I did a comic called Cosmic Man, who was like a Batman in space. He had a cosmic ship, a cosmic belt, and a cosmic ray gun. As I got older, I realized I couldn’t draw, so I just ended up writing more. I started to meet better artists in college, and we decided to collaborate with each other. It was in college when finally we decided that we should do a real series, and seriously make a comic book. I was graduating from college then, and for my grad gift what I asked was for my parents to send me to the San Diego Comicon. That was in '94. And I thought, if I'm going to go there, I wanted to be able to show stuff to editors. Because before the wonderful age o...

The 2008 National Book Awards was held last Saturday night at the Ayala Museum. TRESE: UNREPORTED MURDERS was the only nominee in its category. We did not win. We did not get the unanimous vote of the judges. We did get to bring home some nifty certificates of recognition that say TRESE is the Finalist for the Best Book in Graphic Literature category. Below: Kajo, my partner-in-crime; Nida, our publisher and willing accomplice; and me We keep on writing. We keep on drawing. We try again next year. thanks to Wella for the pictures and for being there

Last Friday, we attended the 40th Anniversary of KBS, the Kanlaon Broadcasting System, where my mom and dad once worked. I was still a baby when my dad worked there. I barely remember the people there. One of the first people to greet me was Lando, my dad's old driver. Him, I remember. As the story goes, when I was a baby, I could not pronounce his name and just started calling him "Agoong". Hence, he got that nickname and that's what everyone called him. I remember how we used to play chess while waiting for dad to finish work and how I always forced him to make me win. (Makes me wish I forced him to teach me how to play chess better and learn how to not win things so easily.) As expected, as my mom re-introduced me to her old office mates, they all looked surprised and delighted to see me. They would then immediately extend their hand, palm down, and show me how small I was when I first met them. Some would pretend to carry me and tell them they were the ones who ca...