Babbling Point

I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand and the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep and there are no words for that. Brian Andreas, www.storypeople.com

February 15. Malate is as busy as the night before. The restaurants and bars are filled with couples on last minute dates, with the drunk and the lonely who hope that they might still get lucky and have a Happy Valentine’s. Around the corner from Nakpil Street, in the back alleys where the waiters, bartenders, and delivery boys gather during their break time, stories of the strange and unusual cast of Malate are reviewed and discussed. They often talk about the little sampaguita girl and how if you ever bother to look at her eyes, you’ll notice her reptilian, vertical pupils. If you shoo her away and don’t buy flowers from her, she’ll stick out her forked tongue and spit at you. Someone would usually mention that man with the bouquet of roses, seen at the corner where the street lamp never works. They say, if you happen to be standing there while waiting for a jeepney or taxi, you’ll suddenly notice this man standing right beside you. You’ll notice his polo shirt is damp with blood; th...

ART BY KEVIN SABINO

BLOOD RED TRESE Art by Kevin Sabino aka "Sir Kevin",Harrison Communications' Head of Art Possible movie poster for Trese Produced and photographed by Melvin Arciaga http://vinarci.deviantart.com/art/TRESE-112202559 Possible look for TRESE : THE ANIMATED SERIES Art by JP ARCEO http://greathandjp.deviantart.com/art/Alexandra-Trese-111969917

So, I was thinking, for the upcoming Komikon, I'd dress up like... ... or maybe I'll just wear my Trese shirt again. :) More photos from the New York Comic-Con (NYCC) 2009 at http://flickr.com/photos/muckster/sets/72157613506954268/

This is from the TV show THIS AMERICAN LIFE. Aside from getting this couple to tell this story, and they're wonderful storytellers by themselves, you have a great interviewer who gets to ask the right questions and it's all dramatized by the wonderful art and animation of Chris Ware and John Kuramoto. Would be nice to do commercial like this. Or maybe even a short animated story.

Five dead bodies found in three days. All the victims had stab wounds Two of them had gunshot wounds. All of the victims’ faces were covers with packing tape. All of them were tied with straw rope or wire. One of them was handcuffed. Four of victims were wrapped in garbage bags. One of them was stuffed in a wooden crate with a message that said the man inside was “holdaper”. What’s the connection? Read about the recent "garbage bag" killings at: http://metrocrimescene.blogspot.com/ Some details of these crime scenes are very similar last year’s reports of dead bodies found in garbage bags : http://metrocrimescene.blogspot.com/2008/08/garbage-collector.html

In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures that our eyes can hear and touch.

The World Food Programme provides nutritious food to over 71,000 school-aged children from conflict-affected areas of Mindanao in the Philippines. Nutritious food brings children to school, keeps them there, and stimulates their learning, while also helping to prevent micronutrient deficiencies and undernourishment. Provide a nutritious meal and a healthy start to conflict-affected children in Mindanao to support their full potential. Give to the World Food Programme. www.wfp.org/donate/philippines CLICK HERE TO DONATE

“I hate comic books, by the way. I don’t read them. Not anymore. But somehow, it always comes to me, so I just do it. It is a job after all. But I got no love for it.” I was surprised to get this email from Mr M, who I’ve been trying to convince to do a comic book project. If you ever see this guy’s work, it will blow you away. He’s a great artist! Below is the rest of his email: “Hate comic books and that includes manga, by the way. LOL! As you know, doing comics isn’t very profitable for artists (unless you’re already working for big time companies), but if you’re working here in the Philippines, you don’t get much. You do a lot to finish a page and yet, you get so little. Before, I did it for fun. But I’ve been doing this ever since I was 16 and it’s now become a chore. So I guess that’s where my hate for comics comes from. Given a choice, I'd rather not work in an art-related industry. But still draw for fun. Drawing for work has become too tedious for me and maybe that’s why ...

"He puts down the pen, folds the sheet of paper, and slips it inside an envelope. He stands up, takes from his trunk a mahogany box, lifts the lid, lets the letter fall inside, open and unaddressed. In the box are hundreds of identical envelopes, open and unaddressed. He thinks that somewhere in the world he will meet a woman who has always been his woman. Every now and again he regrets that destiny has been so stubbornly determined to make him wait with such indelicate tenacity, but with time he has learned to consider the matter with great serenity. Almost every day, for years now, he has taken pen in hand to write to her. He has no names or addresses to put on the envelopes: but he has a life to recount. And to whom, if not to her? He thinks that when they meet it will be wonderful to place the mahogany box full of letters on her lap and say to her, 'I was waiting for you.' "She will open the box and slowly, when she so desires, read the letters one by one. As she...

Where Adam David writes about his Best Books of 2009 for the Philippine Free Press (January 10, 2009) TRESE By Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo (Visprint) A series of slick done-in-one stories, exactly like CSI, only it’s steeped in traditional Pinoy monsters and mythologies and the main protagonist is a goth chick with guns and emo hair. It’s a working off of the more common vein of action horror comic books and once you really read into it there is certainly a formula to the construction of the stories themselves. But Trese manages to rise above it all above it all by simply resorting to the most obvious thing: it spins us a good yarn page in page out. Tan and Baldisimo show us what can be done with formula, why formula work, how formula can work for you, all the while not making it seem like formula. Komikero all over should not only read this for the words and art but also study it for its craft as there is certainly craft at work here. There are currently two books out, both utterl...

Last Monday, got to work and saw this on my desk. It took me awhile to realize who sent it and when I did, my jaw dropped; which was the the reaction of the other people who saw the card. (They'd squint, try to read the signature, ask who sent it, flip the card, see the sender's name and their jaw would drop right beside my jaw) Thanks so much for the nice copies of Trese -- I can't wait! They look amazing! --Neil Gaiman And I had this silly smile on my face for the rest of the day.

...Alexandra saw a new group stumble into the club. They were lead by a man who smiled at every girl that looked his way. His red jacket seemed to blaze in the crimson lights of the club. He looked around and smiled even more. He liked what he saw. He popped a cigarette in his mouth, placed his finger on the tip of the cigarette and a bright blue flame shot out to ignite his Malboro. “Brim Yap Tan,” Trese cursed under her breath. Read the complete story at: http://diabolical13.blogspot.com/

Agency: DDB Creative Team: GADC (McDo Clients) : Margot Torres / Christina Lao / Mel Montemayor Creatives : Teeny Gonzales - ECD-Copy / Argem Vinuya - Sr. Art Director Accounts : Tey San Diego / Wella Balagtas / Lester Obice Producer : Irene Chingcuangco Director : Stephen Ngo Prod House : Provill / Sound Design Caster : Enrich Munchua Musical Work : "Ang Huling El Bimbo" by Ely Buendia

Some of the new art now on display at EXHIBIT 13 http://jaybhoi.deviantart.com/ http://ashburndaride.deviantart.com/

PRINCE OF STORIES: THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette, is a book that “chronicles, the history and impact of the complete works of Neil Gaiman in film, fiction, music, comics books and beyond.” (It even includes Gaiman’s blog entry about the marriage proposal that happened during the Subic Ad Congress. Yes, Jason and Maui, have gone beyond Google-famous. They are now part of literature!) Aside from providing Gaiman fans with a checklist of almost every single thing he’s ever written, it contains one of the most comprehensive interviews with him. (Although THE SANDMAN COMPANION by Hy Bender provides the reader with the very detailed dissection of the series, the book did not go into as much detail about Gaiman’s life story.) In PRINCE OF STORIES, you find out trivia, like how their family was originally named Chaiman or Haiman and when they moved to England, the spelling was changed to Gaeman, but was changed to Gaiman during ...

“They just kept coming back, night after night। And every night, it seemed like there would be more kids, enough to fill up the front gate of the house; all of them singing `Silent Night` like it was the saddest song in the world. And every night, I’d see her –the girl in the red dress. She’d look at me, as if she wanted to tell me something, but had this great need to sing this song, to finish the song and maybe if she did finish the song she tell me that thing that she wanted to tell me, but she just never gets the chance to do so. Read the complete story at: http://diabolical13.blogspot.com/2008/12/trese-choir.html

This will all be part of the great TRESE merchandising empire run by Wella, that we'll have up and running by the next Komikon. Well, at least, that's the grand plan. Design and art by Argem Vinuya http://argemv.deviantart.com/

Now online! GEEKS ARE EVIL: THE TRESE EPISODE! Hosted by Anansi Girl . Co-hosted by Charles Tan . Hear me and Kajo babble about Trese! Discover the secret origin of Kajo's name! Hear Kajo's voice (which disappeared when we were being interviewed on ANC... hehehe ). Find out if we'll tell you the secret origin of the Kambal (we don't, actually). Listen if we'll tell you what happens in Trese: Book3! (Maybe, we will.) Download the episode at: http://blog.literature-ph.com/?p=511