Babbling Point

Last October, while I was in the UK, aside from getting to meet Alan Moore , I also got to meet Mike Carey, writer of THE UNWRITTEN , and Vertigo editor Pornsak Pichetshote. They were attending the British International Comics Show and they were in the audience of Yuko Shimizu 's talk, the cover artist of THE UNWRITTEN. After the talk, I tried to find the best opportunity to introduce myself to them. But a lot of other people were talking to them and I didn't want to be rude and just butt in their conversation. I finally saw my chance when they broke away from the crowd and went into the men's room. (No! I did not follow them in there!) I waited for them to come out and quickly blocked their way and blurted out: Hi!I'mBudjetteTanfromthePhilippines!AndIjustwantedtogiveYOUacopyofmycomicbookTRESE!ThankYOU! I gave them copies of TRESE and said thanks again. As soon as I walked away, other people came up to them greet them and talk to them. I looked back and saw tha...

As a VDay treat, here are some romantic scenes (as romantic as we can get in the world of Trese) from Heubert Michael Khan and from Kajo. Art by Heubert Michael Khan Art by Kajo And here are some old stories from the Diabolical about love, lost, and magic. I CARRY YOUR HEART http://diabolical13.blogspot.com/2010_02_13_archive.htm l COFFEE BLACK http://diabolical13.blogspot.com/2009_04_13_archive.html THE USUAL SPOT http://diabolical13.blogspot.com/2009_02_13_archive.html Enjoy!

Trese – dark mysteries on the streets of Manilla a review by Richard Bruton Trese is a supernatural series starring a female investigator who steps in to protect the streets of Manilla when the police can’t deal with the supernatural weirdness that appears. Produced by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, this Filipino book does so much right it’s practically scandalous we haven’t heard more about it here in the UK. ...Trese is definitely from the same mold as Hellblazer, just as it’s writer Budjette Tan is channelling equal parts Jamie Delano and Warren Ellis and artist Kajo Baldisimo does some impressive black and white work somewhere on a scale of Frank Miller and Eduardo Risso. But there’s a lot of other influences in there as well – is it just my prejudices or can I see Alan Davis as well? But the most important thing is that it’s a very impressive take on the whole mysterious magical investigator. Its’ a very original take on an old genre idea. A hugely entertaining series of...

Come knocking at the door of The Diabolical and get the chance to win a treat from Trese. What’s the treat? This limited-edition Trese poster by Kajo Baldisimo. To win, draw any character from the Trese graphic novels and show them trick-or-treating. Drawings can be in black-and-white or full-color. 13 winners will be chosen by me and Kajo. To submit: 1. post your drawing in your blog, DeviantArt, Twitpic, Flickr, Tumblr, or wherever it is you post your artwork. 2. Label it as TRESE: TRICK OR TREAT 3. Post a link of your artwork in the comments page and include the following: YOUR FULL NAME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS LINK TO YOUR ARTWORK Ready! Get set! Scare us! BOOO! Deadline is on October 31, 2010

page1 page2 page3 page4 page5 page6 PRECINTO 13: A Domestic Disturbance Story by Budjette Tan Script by David Hontiveros and Budjette Tan Art by Atan http://atanbz.deviantart.com/ TRESE created by Budjette Tan & Kajo Baldisimo

Check out Brandie's interactive artwork for the RE:VISION exhibit. Following the idea of "revisions", you can mix and match the comic book panels and it will still tell you a story. Read the story at: http://brandietan.blogspot.com/2010/09/trese-revised-at-revision-exhibit-at.html Idea by Brandie Tan. Art by Brandie Tan Story by Budjette Tan TRESE created by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo

I was surprised to get this message from Mark Torres on my Facebook: Hey Budj, congrats on being PowerBook's Filipino Author spotlight! was very pleasantly surprised to enter PB Megamall and see your stand. It's great that the shop's recognizing your great work and contribution to the local fiction industry. It's a pleasure being able to collaborate with you. Keep up the fantastic work... And so, I clicked on the link and found out I am PowerBook's Filipino Author of the Month! Oh wow! Talk about having a Happy Easter! Thank you PowerBooks! And remember kids, you can order TRESE via http://powerbooks.com.ph Just click the links below! Order now! 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

RJ Ledesma was lucky enough to have a really long interview with Neil Gaiman (and managed to hug him as well). It was also great that RJ got to ask Gaiman about what he thought of the local comic book creators. RJ: Did you also like Budjette Tan’s Trese? GAIMAN : I really liked it. What I’m really enjoying right now is that people from the Philippines send me and give me comics. This makes me happy. And I just love the fact that these are comics using Philippine culture and folklore. One of the things I really love about the contest is the feeling that I got to point out to people that this stuff is cool. Because when I first came out here, people were giving me books of local folklore and I was reading them. And I was loving them. People would then ask me, “What do you like?” and I would tell them “I liked the aswangs and the manananggals.” After that, they would ask me if I would put them in my stories. Then I started feeling as if I did (write about them) it would lend them some ki...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pngd_lPVzVE Many thanks for Dan and Dang of IDEALS Creatives for inviting me to be part of last year's Pecha Kucha. In Pecha Kucha " each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up." So, I decided to do make my presentation a tour of Trese's Manila, which became a 6 minute 40 second Trese short story. Doing this event was a dream come true. One of my favorite scenes in the move CAPOTE was the part where he read the opening chapter of his book to jam-packed theater. It amazed me at how people were willing to spend a night watching a man standing in front of a podium and slowly read his tale to them. No special effects. No grand soundtrack. Just the man, his story, and the sound of his voice. Watching that scene, I wondered when I would get the chance to do the same thing. It was wonderful to be given the chance to do just that. So, thanks again to Dan...

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...

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 ...

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

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

custom munny by JAN CALLEJA http://www.flickr.com/photos/30677525@N07/ These are one-of-a-kind customized dolls commissioned by Brandie. A sort of early birthday gift for me. :-) But don't you worry, we're now trying to figure out how to mass produce these babies.

PAGE 1 PAGE 2 PAGE 3 PAGE 4 Happy Halloween! This TRESE story was put together by the one-man production crew of Melvin Arciaga. I first met Melvin online at DeviantArt. He sent me a message, asking permission to cosplay Trese. I said yes and half-expected to see pictures of a girl wearing a trenchcoat taken in some dark alley. The pictures and scenes that Melvin later sent me just blew me away. (CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE THE PIX) Couple of months ago, Melvin told me he'd like to do a four-page fumetti story featuring TRESE. He also made one request: his nephew Prince, a big Trese fan, wanted to appear in the story as an aswang. How could I say no to, probably, Trese's youngest fan. (Actually, he's a fan of the Kambal, according to Melvin.) Anyway, this is just practice for Melvin, who's now gearing up to do a 200-page fumetti for his thesis. We've seen the preview art/pix and it looks great! Hope to eventually see that epic in some future Komikon! Photographed and pro...

While you're all patiently waiting for TRESE: MASS MURDERS and UNDERPASS to be delivered to a bookstore near you, might I direct your attention to the lady black. In the month's issue of ROGUE (with the bewitching Ornus Cadness on the cover) you will find a brand new, 6-page TRESE mystery. Kajo was busy working on Book3 and The Clinic when we got this assignment, so I was lucky enough to track down and dig up Mark Torres from his underground lair and convinced him to do this story with him. Mark had done a Trese pin-up before and we collaborated on another horror story (which has yet to see print), so I thought I already knew what kind of pages to expect from him. You can image how blown away I was when he started to email me these pages featuring his new art style. Aside from the Trese story, the issue also feature six haunted spots in Manila, as well as more pictures of Ms.Cadness. The October issue of ROGUE is now available in bookstores and magazine shops everywhere. See...

The Universe was created in seven days. It took Ian and Mervin two years to finish this corner of Skyworld. Let us all pray to Bathala that it doesn’t take them another two years to finish the third and last book of this epic tale. I must emphasize that the creation of this tome required the summoning of god-like powers; wherein time was carved out of their impossibly busy workdays. Like heroes on some noble quest, there were days (and nights) when they had to forego sleep just to reach their destination. And I must say, the two years was worth the wait. And let us all pray to Bathala that … oh wait, I already said that. Of course, this issue holds a special place in my heart since this is the first time Trese and the Kambal crossed-over to another graphic novel. As kids, we’d have a geekgasm whenever superheroes from different teams would team-up. And our heads would just explode when Marvel and DC finally started doing company-wide-cross-overs. So, it was during one of those drunken ...

meanwhile... at Powerbooks-Philippine Star Supreme Ideas Alive Seminar... i babbled about... Trese, comic books, and the importance of a strong, unique idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofw0h4z2hN8 my babbling continues... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGAR4Q920wY I shared the stage with Jomike Tejido, creator of the Foldabots and Robotars. Jomike's talk was more organized and fun and he didn't babble. Powerbooks-Philippine Star Supreme Ideas Alive: Jomike Tejido on Foldabots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYrTpQx8LxA Jomike Tejido on Robotars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb4zhXD8UH8 Thanks to Jan Vincent Ong for organizing the IDEAS ALIVE seminar. And many thanks to Supreme Philippine Star, Powerbooks, K-Zone, and Jack N Jill Pretzels. And I would like to thanks Bruno's for my hair and nobody for my make-up.