Babbling Point

Last Monday, despite having a bad cold and cough that made me sound like a muppet, I got on Skype and chatted with John Amor and Migs Santos of TRES KOMIKEROS about how Trese started, how Trese was inspired by my favorite TV shows and how it was actually based on a rejected story I pitched to Marvel, and about how I got rejected by DC Comics and Atlas Komiks, and about how I really, really hate horror movies. So, if you'd like to hear me babble for an hour and overshare details of my life, download the episode at: http://treskomikeros.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/tk-73-budjette-tan/ Here's the blurb from their blog: In this episode of Tres Komikeros, John and Migs are joined by National Book Award Winner, Budjette Tan. Join us as he talks about the inspiration and research behind his hit noir-horror graphic novel, Trese. In this hour-long interview, we shed light on strange and amusing factoids such as Budjette’s writing process, his “technique” for writing action sequences,...

Two articles about Pinoy comic books came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer today. The first one reprints our Trese interview by Paolo Chikiamco of RocketKapre.com For fans of komiks, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo need no introduction, and neither does “Trese”, their komiks collaboration, now published by Visprint, which is one of the most popular and most successful komik series’ in recent memory. While komiks still remains, at this point, a niche market, “Trese” continues to make inroads into mainstream consciousness, its most recent success being recognition in the National Book Awards in the category of Graphic Literature. In their first post-award interview Kajo and Budjette talk about the success of “Trese”, the importance of their fans, transmedia storytelling, and the future of Philippine komiks: READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW AT: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/super/super/view/20101218-309565/Treses-victory The second one is an interview b...

Trese (and Komiks) After the Award: Budjette and Kajo Interview by Paolo Chikiamco For fans of komiks, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo need no introduction, and neither does Trese, their komiks collaboration, now published by Visprint, which is one of the most popular and most successful komik series’ in recent memory. While komiks still remains, at this point, a niche market, Trese continues to make inroads into mainstream consciousness, its most recent success being recognition in the National Book Awards in the category of Graphic Literature. In what I think is their first post-award interview, Kajo and Budjette talk about the success of Trese, the importance of their fans, transmedia storytelling, and the future of Philippine komiks: READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW AT: http://www.rocketkapre.com/2010/trese-and-komiks-after-the-award-budjette-and-kajo-interview/

  The latest issue of HIGH PROFILE magazine just came off the press and if you can somehow stop staring the fantastic Georgina Wilson photo-spreads and the "Land of Legend" fantasy pictorial, you'll get read three geeks (i.e me, Mark Torres, and Paolo Fabregas) talk about comics and making comics.   Many thanks to the High Profile-crew, headed by Marco Venditti, Carmena Moura, and Chad Rialp.   Flip through the digital version of HIGH PROFILE magazine at: http://www.vegamedia.com/pagcor/issue6/pageFlipper6.html   Or better yet, go to the bookstore and grab a copy!

Yvette Tan, author of the horror anthology WAKING THE DEAD , has started a new segment in her blog, where she interviews people about their beliefs and encounters with the supernatural and paranormal. I am honored to be her first victim. Click on the link below to read about the time we lived in a haunted house, the time we got caught between two warring tribes of duwende, and the time we tried to look for the 13th house on 13 Street. From Yvette's blog : This is the first post in an experiment I am conducting where twice a month (hopefully), I post a short interview of a person whose work have a tinge or more of darkness about them (although I may branch out later), not about their work (because you can easily google those), but about their beliefs and experiences in the supernatural. I am honored to have Budjette Tan, one of the country’s best known comic book writers and whose well-crafted works of dark fantasy I admire. CLICK THE LINK TO READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW: http://yvet...

This is our contribution to the Renaissance project -- the benefit project organized by Whilce Portacio, Philip Tan, and Ernest Hernandez of Hobbylink. Whilce recently did an interview with USA TODAY about the project / event which will happen on January 9, 2010 at the Megatrade Hall: Whilce said, "We're working on an event right now called Renaissance. It's a charity auction that's going to be held on Jan. 9 that will provide money to some of these artists who have fallen on tough times. I got the top Filipino artists together to create pieces for this auction. Their mission was to create a Filipino superhero. I told them, 'You're world-class artists, make a character that kids in the Philippines can look up to, can be inspired by.' I want these kids to see artists creating heroes that look like them and that live and interact in local places that they recognize. It's a key part of establishing that sense of history, pride and legacy. If we can do that...

A pedestrian walkway. A SIM card. A beauty clinic. These and other ordinary things become more than what they seem in “Underpass”, a full-color graphic novel recently launched by Summit Media. “Underpass” brings together such established names in the local comic book industry like Gerry Alanguilan, David Hontiveros, Oliver Pulumbarit, Ian Sta. Maria, Budjette Tan, and Kajo Baldisimo, who come up with urban legend for a new generation in stories like “The Sim”, “Katumbas”, “Judas Kiss”, and “The Clinic”. “In a strange and twisted way, I hope it’ll bring back some wonder and sense of the fantastic in their lives,” Tan adds. “Technology has made the stuff of science fiction a reality. It’s not fantastic anymore. It’s just common place. We don’t see haunted-looking houses these days. We are surrounded by condos and high rises. Maybe we can take such things and make them mysterious.” READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW AT: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/233564/a-sense-fantastic

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...

In the June issue of FHM, if you manage to not get distracted by the pretty pictures of RR Enriquez... ... and you manage to get yourself to this page... ...you'll get to read the interview conducted by B.A. Borleo ...wherein he talked to Arnold Arre, Gerry Alanguilan, David Hontiveros, Carlo Vergara, and me about the past and possible future of Philippine comic books ...and if that isn't enough reason to get this issue of FHM, then I must tell you that this issue also contain the first ever picture of Zsazsa Zaturnnah in the nude!!! ...which is accompanied by one of the funniest interviews I've ever read!!! ...Zsazsa Zaturnnah should be given a regular advice column in FHM!!! Itutuloy... :-)

Supernatural Storytelling By Ruel S. De Vera, Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 12. 2008 MANILA, Philippines -Almost from the very beginning, Budjette Tan has been surrounded by the unusual. “When I was a newborn baby, my parents moved into what turned out to be a haunted house,” he explains. “The ghosts were seen by my yaya and my uncles. My parents didn’t believe in such things, until one summer day after my mom gave me a bath. She said the right side of my face suddenly wrinkled up—that it looked like the face of an old man. She prayed over me until I became normal again.” Psychics were summoned and a séance held. “The psychics told the spirits that they had to move on to the next plane. The haunting stopped after some time.” Even Tan did not know that something similarly spooky would redefine his life later on. With him doing the writing and Kajo Baldisimo providing the art, Tan came up with “Trese,”a comic book series that follows mysterious investigator Alexandra Trese as she he...

For this special online edition of 13 Letters Down, we did a very quick Q&A with Kajo Baldisimo, artist and co-creator of TRESE. What comic books are you reading now? What was the last comic book /graphic novel you read that you really liked? I keep re-reading WATCHMEN (ang aking paborito) from time to time and I’m still in love with it. Pero, teka… if that’s not counted , uhm… the latest comicbook I’ve read na nakaka-aliw … Kiko Machine ni Manix. Who are your favorite artists? We’ll run out of paper if I put everyone kaya siguro yung top 5 lang: Jim Lee, Nestor Redondo, Fernando Amorsolo, Alex Nino, Mar Santana, Alex Ross… saka Hal Santiago. Why the change in art style in this issue? What inspired this? I’ve been experimenting since issue 1, looking for that definitive TRESE look. I want something gritty yet clean (an’labo no?). I think I’ve hit it with issue 7. This is the same style I used dun sa Trese pinup sa Ish 1 . I will be re-drawing Trese 1-6 after I’m done with Trese 13....