Babbling Point

Thanks to everyone that made 2009 such a great year for TRESE. The latest unofficial count is we’ve already sold over 5,000 copies of Books 1 and 2. We hope that Book 3 will sell as much. Thanks to everyone who got copies --who got copies and gave them away as gifts (we’d get the occasional email from people abroad about how they got copies of Trese from their relatives over here). Thanks to everyone who reviewed it on their blogs, Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Friendster, and Multiply. It’s just amazing how these reviews range from the simple thank you's to lengthly, complex analysis that reads like a thesis paper. Thank you very taking the time to say all those wonderful things about Trese. By the way, there is now a Trese Facebook page which you can now join: http://tinyurl.com/tresefacebook This January, me and Kajo start working on the next Trese case. We hope to finish a new book just in time for the Komikon in October/November. And just so that you get your Trese-fix a bit earl...

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...

Disturb us, O Lord when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little; when we have arrived in safety because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms shall show Thy mastery, where losing sight of land we shall find the stars. In the Name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow him. Amen. update : I found this prayer years ago in a magazine (or was it a newspaper?) and clipped it out. I tried to find out the original author of it, but only found different versions of the prayer. Well, it seems like Ma-an's Google powers are more powerful and here's what she found... It is attributed to Sir Francis Drake 1577, the year he set out to circumnavigate the world. He was the first Englishman to successfully do this. He was a pirate and a knight at the same time. Here's the complete prayer: Disturb us, O Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves when o...

If they asked me I could write a book about the way you walk and whisper and look I could write the preface on how we met so the world would never forget And the simple secret of the plot is just to tell them that I love you a lot Then the world discovers as my book ends how to make two lovers of friends

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...

You can now order the complete set of TRESE at http://powerbooks.com.ph Just click on the links below: TRESE: MURDER ON BALETE DRIVE http://powerbooks.com.ph/webinternal/products.asp?product_id=4204 TRESE: UNREPORTED MURDERS http://powerbooks.com.ph/webinternal/products.asp?product_id=4770 TRESE: MASS MURDERS http://powerbooks.com.ph/webinternal/products.asp?product_id=5049

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

Read the complete TRESE: MASQUERADE at http://rogue.ph/features/entry/trese_masquerade/

I got this text : Hey budj!! I'm in Bohol airport,sitting beside a pink-studded tweener. She's reading Trese instead of Twilight. And that just made my day. But I do wonder how Trese's younger readers are liking the book. Most of the people who email and blog about it are already in college or are already working. Last Christmas, my boss bought TRESE for her nephews and nieces. The day after Christmas, she started getting text messages from her sister, saying, "Why did you give my kids this comic book? It's scary and violent!" Couple of months ago, a similar thing happened. A friend got his kids copies of TRESE and I got a text about how his two boys were now sleeping in the same because they got scared after reading the book. It took that as a compliment. At the recent comic book conventions, a 12-year old girl approached the table and asked for our autographs. Her mom was standing right behind her. The girl looked nervous. Her mom was smiling. I wasn't ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip2OaZNZogI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxe4QYpjCAg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTpQP4Sb0Q Client: URC, Granny Goose Product: Tortillas Agency: Harrison Communications Production House: EURO ASIA

Winner! Bronze Award, Digital Banner category We're happy that we didn't go home empty-handed from this year's Araw Awards. Thanks to our partners at Yehey! and to Bea for reminding us to enter this banner ad. Agency: Harrison Communications Client: UN World Food Programme DECD: Budjette Tan Writer: Shirley Tan Art Director: Gisselle Bautista Accounts : Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Bea Atienza Traffic: Yolly Liban See the winners of the ARAW AWARDS at 2009 Philippine Ad Congress http://www.adobomagazine.com/global/module.php?LM=creativeshowcase

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...

I found an old journal entry, the year I turned 30, where I was sulking about how I wished that I was going to celebrate my birthday with a book launch – a comic book launch! Of 100-page comic book! In full-color! Which, of course, didn’t happen because I had not written a single page of said comic book. Which reminded me of the joke about the guy who kept going to mass every Sunday to pray to God to make him win the lotto. One Sunday, he was so frustrated, he yelled, “Dear God! Give me a break! Let me win the lotto! Please!” And God finally said, “Give ME a break and go buy a lotto ticket!” So, kids, the lesson here is you gotta go out and buy your own lotto ticket -- or maybe the better lesson here is -- you have work hard to make your own luck. On my bookshelf now sits the first three Trese books and a copy of Underpass . (I guess the universe heard my birthday wish and granted it seven years later and didn’t exactly get all the details right, but I’m not really complaining.) Aside...

I got this in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It still feels great to receive snail mail; to see a package on your desk with stamps from far away countries, to wonder what might be inside the envelope and hope it's not a bomb or an ancient curse passed on to you. KARAVAN is literary magazine published in Sweden. One of their writers thought of doing a shirt review about Trese and here it is: Many thanks to Anna Gustafsson Chen, who originally reviewed TRESE in her blog: http://baodaobooks.blogspot.com/2009/08/trese-gothic-horror-fast-fran.html KARAVAN http://www.karavan.se/ a literary magazine that travels between cultures

It's somewhat strange yet wonderful to see Neil Gaiman on stage with Amanda Palmer and to see supers crawl on the bottom of the screen to explain to you that she's "Neil Gaiman's girlfriend". Which sounds like a high schoolish thing to do. Grade school, even. Also great to know how he keeps himself busy; how he seems to be moving from medium to medium, genre to genre (now that he's writing non-fiction). And how he looks so happy (and somewhat tired). Was fun to hang out with the Dream King again. Thanks to RAZOR.TV http://www.razor.tv/ for uploading all these videos! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Welcome to Volume 1 of KOMIX 7107! This online comic book anthology features... The complete first issue of SKYWORLD. http://komix7107.blogspot.com/2009/11/skyworld-apocrypha.html Preview pages of THE FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE. http://komix7107.blogspot.com/2009/11/filipino-heroes-league-preview-pages.html The complete story of THE LAST DATU, a project that me and Kajo worked on before Trese http://komix7107.blogspot.com/2009/11/last-datu-lawanas-story.html We have a lot of stories to tell. Give them a read. Tell us what you think. Come back for more! KOMIX 7107 is a launch pad We hope that the stories we tell in this site will take flight; that the creators of these stories be inspired to keep writing and drawing and that their works find new readers out there. We hope to tell, not just 1,001 stories, but to tell 7,107 tales. And just in case we do reach that seemingly impossible number, we’d like to tell 7,107 more. KOMIX 7107 is a laboratory This is also the placed where we’ll also try...