Babbling Point

It has become a habit of mine, when surfing the web, to just cut-and-paste articles that I’d like to read later on and file them away in one of the folders on my desktop. Reviewing these things that I’ve saved, I came across these two entries that were both posted last March. The first one is from Neil Gaiman’s blog (March 08, 2009) , where he talks about the death of his father. My agent, Merrilee, told me last night that the first time she met him [Neil Gaiman’s father], at a signing in New York, she said to him, "Neil is doing so well. I bet you must always have known he'd be a success." "Actually," he told her, "I thought I'd probably be supporting him for the rest of his life. Well... he wanted to be a writer." And I thought, the best thing about that is I never knew. The other entry is an interview with Joe Quesada on the Times Online (March 21, 2009) . Towards the end of the interview Mr. Quesada, talked about his most personal story “DAREDE...

PROJECT: TRANSLATION This was a classic example of figuring out the winning idea at the last minute and by accident. We've been working on this project for sometime and was given the extra challenge of: FEATURE THE FOUR NEW FLAVORS IN 15 SECONDS. We had just wrapped up the meeting and agreed on which stories should be storyboarded when Erwin started to talk in Tagalog but with a Japanese accent. So, I suggested, what if one of the potatoes was trying to teach the other potato how to talk in Japanese. It sounded simple and stupid at the time and we were just laughing about it. Isabel wrote the final script and client approved it. When we got Direk Luis to work it, he was the one who suggested how the words were supposed to be pronounced and when he said it in his accent, it sounded funnier. So, that's how we recorded the dialogue. Great work by the Roadrunner team on designing the look and characters of the potatoes :) Client: Jack N Jill, URC Product: V-Cut P...

PROJECT: WOOT! WOOT! We had a lot of fun working on this campaign. I think Shirley and the team wrote enough jokes to fill up a book. So, we've got enough jokes to keep this campaign going for the next five years! WOOT! WOOT! But seriously folks... At least we can now tell our parents that all those years of watching BULAGAAN, BUBBLE GANG, TODAS, TVJ, and CHAMPOY did not go to waste. I wonder if we can now use this material to apply for a gig in Bubble Gang? WOOT! WOOT! Client: Jack N Jill, URC Product: Cloud 9 Agency: Harrison Communications ECD: Alex Arellano, DECD: Budjette Tan, CD: JB “Taps” Tapia Copywriter: Shirley Tan Art Director: Gissele Bautista Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzales, Madel Palman, Noelle Segundo Producer: Jho Moya Director: Matthew Rosen ProdHouse: Unitel

ANG MASKOT by Macoy 48-pages, black-and-white (P50.00) Available at Comic Odyssey and Sputnik Comics If I were to do the Hollywood-pitch for ANG MASKOT, I’d say : it’s WASTED meets ELMER which then crosses-over with CREST HUT BUTT SHOP ANG MASKOT tells the story of what happens when you put a very angry man in a very cute, chicken mascot suit -- someone’s going to get hurt. (Thankfully, nobody gets killed, which is what sets it apart from “Wasted” and “Elmer”.) The story starts with a guy wearing the chicken outfit and he’s seated on the sidewalk, outside of a McBird fast food store. The chicken’s head/helmet sits beside him, ogling at something in the distance. He’s smoking and realizes that his shift is about to begin and the first words out of his mouth is, “Siyet.” He gets called in and is introduced as Jholeebird and the kids mob him. He counts down his mandated 15 minutes, sweating and cursing while inside the chicken suit. At the end of his shift, he stands in the middle of the ...

The Balut in a Superhero’s Underpants by Budjette Tan http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view/20090517-205447/The-Balut-in-a-Superheros-Underpants These days, the “Easter egg” has been given new meaning. It refers to the secret scenes and paths hidden in DVDs and video games. They’re the “in-jokes” left by the creators of movies and TV shows for their fans to discover. If the Americans have their “Easter eggs”, we Filipinos have our “Balut eggs”. (Okay, I just made up that term, but it seemed appropriate anyway.) “Balut eggs” are those moments when Filipinos (or something Pinoy) suddenly pops up in foreign movies, TV shows, novels and comic books. You know what I’m talking about, right? Like that scene in “Constantine”, starring Keanu Reeves, where the possessed girl says, “ Papatayin natin siya! ” (Seems like demons converse in Tagalog.) Pinoy speaking characters were also seen in movies like the maid in “Her Alibi”, the pirates in “The Life Aqautic”, and Rob Schei...

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... :-)

Client: Globe / Product: Globe Broadband Tattoo Agency: Harrison Communications ECD: Alex Arellano, DECD: Budjette Tan, CD: JB Tapia, Art Director: Reinard Santos, Louie Aquino Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzalez, Jello Tan-Goloy, Happy Robles Strat: Gen Cruz, Ez Abero Producer: Chona Bustamante Director: Adrian Calumpang ProdHouse: Provill PostHouse: Optima / Roadrunner And just because you want to see more, here's the first commercial...

every day feels like Thursday / the smell of Friday / just around the corner / but Friday / Friday never comes! / never comes too soon! / (one of my favorite songs from the BLUESKRIEG album)

We've been working on this project for the past two months and it was great to finally see it air. One of the first ideas we had for this service involved super-heroes. Us, being the geeks, loved the idea. It was a matter of trying to sell it to client. Since the main idea behind the service is: no matter how tough things get, it's easy to get your friends together if you've got a Globe. So, we thought: super heroes always get into trouble and they always need help, so instead of using a Bat-signal, they'll just text the whole Justice Legion of Super Hero Avengers. If we did push through with that idea, we would've had to face the logistical problem of designing and making 200+ super hero costumes. The next idea that Taps came up with was a guy being chased by ninjas (or ninja... since that is supposed the plural of the word ninja, but it just sounds so cool to say ninjas). So, the guy is being chase by a bunch of ninjas, he texts his clan and 200+ samurai c...

Thanks to everyone who dropped by the Visprint table and the Alamat table! (Got a text from Paolo that his preview books for FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE got sold out before 6pm) Very sorry we got there late. As usual, I forgot to bring an electric fan for the booth, and thanks to my polar bear body, I was sweating buckets the minute I sat down. So, I must apologize to all the people who asked me to sign their books and I just ended up sweating on the pages. I must also apologize to everyone that I already and forgot that already met them. (You have to help me out! I'm on old man!) Many thanks to Melvin Arciaga for the TRESE caps that he created and designed for me and Kajo. You can check out Melvin's other creations at: http://vinarci.deviantart.com/ To the lucky ones, we hope you liked your exclusive sneak preview for Case #9. As you can see, we're working as fast as we can to finish TRESE: BOOK 3. And, of course, thank you and congratulations to TEAM:KOMIKON for another succ...

THIS SUMMER... ... SEE TRESE ...LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HER BEFORE ... AT THE U.P. BAHAY NG ALUMNI THE FLOOR PLAN : FIND US AT THE VISPRINT AND ALAMAT BOOTH THE MAP: JUST IN CASE YOU STILL DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET THERE KOMIKON SUMMER FIESTA 2009 UP Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman May 16, 2009, 10am-8pm, Saturday Entrance Fee: Php 50.00 http://komikon.blogspot.com/

Here are two great, simple examples of how to get people to interact with your brand, get them to talk about your brand, if you do it right, they'll love your brand as well. SING "The exclusive 4 minute extended version of the moment 13,500 people sang Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square. Everyone involved arrived thinking they could be dancing - no-one had any idea how the event would unfold." DANCE "Watch the moment Liverpool Street Station danced to create this special T-Mobile Advert."

where Sharon considers being an action star (kind of) ... where Sharon Cuneta slaps someone on the set...

a tribute Trese and to H.P.Lovecraft :) Art by Bow Guerrero Bow was my artist/partner for THE FLYING PHANTOM. The last time we worked together on a comic book project was for our contribution to Psicom's FANTASYA (edited by Reg Ting) It's great to see Bow draw again. Told him that we should do a Trese story rendered in this style. (And maybe we could even go back make the Flying Phantom take flight again.) see more TRESE artwork at http://www.exhibit13.blogspot.com/

G.I. JOE RESOLUTE Story by Warren Ellis http://gijoeresolute.com/ 1 2 3&4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Thank you Warren Ellis for making feel like I'm in grade school all over again. (And thank you Hasbro for letting Mr. Ellis play with all those nifty toys in your toy box, even if it meant that some of those toys would get broken.) If my memory serves me right, the very first G.I.JOE toy I made my dad buy was Destro. Back then, me and Brandie still collected Star Wars action figures and were still big fans of the Force. I got Destro because I thought he'd make a cool villain to pit against Luke Skywalker. Couple of weeks later, we saw the Snake-eyes and StormShadow actions figures, and since I was also a big ninja freak, I just had to get those toys as well. Soon enough, the Joes were outnumbering the Rebel Alliance in our toy closet. Then there was that one Sunday when we drove all the way to Magallanes, to visit a small video rental store. That's where we borrowed one VHS tape o...

READ THE COMPLETE STORY AT: http://diabolical13.blogspot.com/2009/04/coffee-black.html

Hey kids! Kajo’s first art gig for Dark Horse ( THE DEFUSER ) comes out this week and this Saturday (April4) he’ll be at Comic Odyssey, Robinsons Galleria for an autograph signing session (1pm to 3pm). See you there! “My comic will be hitting stores April 1st. I had a hand in the story and have seen all the art for the book. Very great style. I love the artist; Kajo Baldisimo.” – The Defuser Yup, that quote came from the The Defuser himself, which he posted at http://forums.scifi.com/index.php?showuser=2953422 The full-color preview pages of THE DEFUSER comic book came from http://www.comixology.com/previews/FEB090051/ Art from : http://kajobaldisimo.blogspot.com/ More artwork can be viewed at: http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/creators/pencilers/kajobaldisimo/index.htm

We apologize for the extreme delay in the release of TRESE: BOOK 3. I just wanted to take this time to explain why it’ll take awhile for the book to come out. I’ve been tracking the reader response for the past year and I noticed we’re not getting a lot of teens and tweens reading TRESE. I think it’s great that we’re getting college students discussing it in class and that we’re getting feedback from the young adult market. (I’ve even received one or two text messages from friends that even their parents have started reading TRESE.) Analyzing the sales and box office receipts of books/movies like TWILIGHT and HARRY POTTER, I’ve come to decision to start showing Alexandra Trese during her teen years. Following the formula of those successful properties, I’ll be introducing new characters that may or may not become the love interest of Alexandra. In Book 3, you’ll get to meet Alobo B’mam, the dark and handsome Prince of Aswang and Jester Guerrero, a rookie cop who happens to be Capt. Gue...

When I was working on that photo meme last week, I found this pic in my Flickr page. I wrote and drew these comic books when I was in grade school. (Because it would be very embarrassing if I just wrote and drew these last week.) JBB were the first letters of my name, my brother's and my uncle's. I’d use whatever paper I'd find lying around and draw with colored pens and stapled the pages together. JBB COMICS had three titles back then: COSMIC MAN, who rode the cosmos in his cosmic ship and fought evil with his cosmic gun and cosmic net and cosmic utility belt. LIGHTNING HAWK, who got his powers after he was bitten by a hawk that was struck by lightning. I had a team book called THE COMPUTER CREEPS. They ordinary computer parts that suddenly came alive when they were struck by lightning.(Yes, I wasn't very original back then.) The team was composed of The Monitor, The Keyboard, The Hard Drive, The MicroCHiPs (who rode on little motorbikes), and The Transformer (because ...

Failure. The mere thought can paralyze even the most heroic thinkers and keep great ideas off the drawing board. But is failing really that bad? We get an inside look at the mishaps of Honda racers, designers and engineers to learn how they draw upon failure to motivate them to succeed. From poor color choices to blown race engines, these risk-taking individuals provide an honest look at what most people fear most. Watch the film and discover the upside of failure. After I saw that documentary, I remembered this story which I blogged about three years ago. CHAMPIONS (june 19, 2006) ...we found out today that we lost the Tuseran pitch. That was the other project we were working on for the past two weeks. We really felt that we had a really great campaign and that client would like it. Well, they didn't. This is the second time we're lost a Unilab account in a pitch. Last year, we lost Enervon. So, on the cab ride back to the office I remembered something my friend Rog once to...