Babbling Point

11:46pm Still at the office. I shouldn't be blogging. I shouldn't be online. I should be writing... A WHOLE LOT OF THINGS. But I'm not. I'm stuck. Which is why I'm online. Found out several things, thanks to Migs blog . First of all, Dominic "CyberCafe" Rivera has started his own blog! Alright, Dominic! Dominic, along with his wife Tina, ran CyberCafe in Robinsons Galleria during the late 90s and that's where Alamat had many meetings, brainstorms, comic book launches. But most of the time, we just stayed there doing nothing. Ha! Mall rats, indeed! Despite the fact we consumed vats of coffee it wasn't enough to keep CyberCafe open. Dominic is now in New York. Hey Dominic! If you ever open a CyberCafe there, you can be sure that Alamat will be there in the next comic book convention. (I wish) Second, found out that Lia's Cheesdip has been nominated for Best Asian Weblog in 2003 WEBLOG AWARDS . I somewhat expected som...

ITUTULOY! Thank goodness someone finally put Dr. Soleded Reyes' essay about Filipino komiks online. These articles were essential in doing my research paper and reports back in college. Click and read. Here is an a overview of the komiks medium . And here is an analysis on "The Structure of Meaning in the Komiks". Also online are some of the sci-fi stories that won in the Palanca's Future Fiction category.

More komix online Follow the radioactive rabbit down the hole and discover ATOMIC UNDERGROUND , the comic book that won 1st place in the C3 COMIC-CON's "BEST INDEPENDENT COMICBOOK CONTEST". Atomic Underground was made by M3 studios (pronounced M-"cube") which consist of Marvin del Mundo (Mario and the SPY Incorporated), Mark Oliver Santillan (Untamed Reality), and Michael Seludo (the Penciler). Got to meet M3 yesterday and finally got a copy! Yay! :) Hopefully, they will be able to distribute copies of there comic zine in Comic Quest and CCHQ soon. Email them, bug them, pester them so that they'll bring copies soon. Check out Elbert Or's 24-HOUR COMIC PROJECT . "The 24-hour Comic Project is a response to critic Scott McCloud's challenge - to write, draw, and letter a full-length 24 page comic in 24 hours. The 24-hour Comic Project is thirty black-and-white pages of superheroes, fictionalized histories, sexual disclosures, mi...

Strange things you discover after 48-hours of no sleep Kato was an OFW?! There is an urban legend that nationality of Kato, the Green Hornet's valet, was abruptly changed from Japanese to Filipino in radio broadcasts after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. This is false, according to the SNOPES site. According to radio historian John Dunning... "who notes in his comprehensive encyclopedia of old-time radio that although Kato was voiced by an actor of Japanese descent (Tokutaro Hayashi, later `renamed Raymond Toyo by director James Jewell for professional reasons` ), he was `described as a Filipino of Japanese descent at least two years earlier` than the events of 7 December 1941. The `Japanese descent` part of his character may have been downplayed thereafter, but he had indeed been identified as a Filipino well before 1941." Which kinda explains why he was doing all that driving for the Green Hornet. And think about it, when he wasn't in ...

duh! now it works!

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STARSTRUCK Over the holidays, I bumped into people I haven't seen for a long time and attended several reunions. Most the time, their first question to me would be, "Hey! Where's Donita?" ha. ha. ha. They were all referring to that TV commercial where I get a hug from MTV VJ Donita Rose. To all my friends and relatives who still haven't seen the TV commercial that has made me (in)famous, you can now view it online. Just go to the website of the director... http://www.martinarnaldo.com/moments/main.htm And then click commercial entitled STARSTRUCK. Feel free to laugh. :)

Spent today typing the second draft of the story. Also saw pencils of the first 18 pages of 1602 part 3, and was thrilled by them. I phoned Andy Kubert to tell him. "You know, either people will like this a lot," I told him, "Or they'll say things like 'Well, there was the Howard the Duck movie, and there was 1602'." --NEIL GAIMAN Why do I suddenly feel so unsure about this project? 1602 is Gaiman super-secret project with Marvel Comics that supposed to feature Marvel's classic characters. (Spider-Man? Fantastic Four?) Anyd Kubert is definitely not in my top ten list of favorite artists, now Gaiman says this... hmmm... scary!

Medieval VCD Torture I'm at the office and the guys at the other cubicle are watching LORT: TWO TOWERS!!! NOOOOO!!! Must... not... hear... Must... not... know... what happens... Huh? Who's that screaming? Sounds of war? No hope??? NOOOOO!!! Reaching for CD... play 10,000 MANIACS really loud... arrrrghhh... 10,000 Maniacs no match for the orc army!!! Five more days before I get to watch it... five more days...

DILIMAN #4 now online! In which Gabe, Bambi and Rich are caught in a growing scheme by elements of the supernatural. Tarot cards, cellular phones and hidden schemes intertwine until a glimpse of the scheme's desired resolution is revealed.

And for our last song... Now available is the third issue of Batch72, which is the conclusion to the “It’s a Mall, Mall, Mall World!” storyline. Giving a new spin to the term midnight madness, the super-villain Morgue has encased the entire UltraMall in ice and now holds everyone hostage using his mindless Ice Zombie. Last time we saw Batch72, Pammy, Brown-out, and Kadi were frozen solid and the rest of the band were about to be attacked by Morgue’s Ice Zombies. Could this be the end of Batch72? Rushing to their rescue are the ULTRACOPS, Manila’s Finest Super-Enhanced Law-Enforcers and the JUSTICE COPRS, the most popular superhero team on Philippine television. But will they be enough to stop Morgue? Things get really interesting when the hostage situation is shown on TV and is seen by Kadi’s grandfather… and we all know that Kadi’s lolo is actually Doktor Kadiliman, that infamous villain from World War 2. Obviously, the old doctor will not just sit in his sec...

FROM THE FWD TXT DEPT: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Wishing you a life less ordinary. Happy new year!

AN EMAIL FROM FILIPINO COMIC BOOK WRITER J. TORRES They say that the early bird gets the worm so here I am with some early hype for a couple of upcoming projects... "Marvel Comics are set to chronicle a new adventure of the X-Men of the alternate Mangaverse reality with X-MEN RONIN, a five-issue mini-series set to debut in March next year. X-Fan Correspondent Benjamin Ong Pang Kean recently caught up with writer J. Torres and editor C.B. Cebulski to find out more about the mini-series." The rest of the article can be found here: http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14091 Then Oni Press said there's be DAYS LIKE THIS: http://previews.diamondcomics.com/products/comics/jan_03/13_days_like_this.html With the big x-books push by Marvel in March, I was afraid my l'il creator-owned graphic novel might get lost in the shuffle. So, when you order your copies of X-MEN: RONIN (and I know you will - winkwink), think about orderin...

Color Me Red Got a kiss from Cooky Chua last night--- what a great way to end the year! :) :) :) Went to 70s Bistro last night. It was Triple-A Night aka Anti-Alcoholics Anonymous Night. That what they call it whenever Pin Wheel, Hydrophonics, and Color It Red plays in one place. Don't know how long they've been doing AAA, but I'm definitely going back their for their next "session". IT'S NOT A HOAX! IT'S NOT A DREAM! NOT AN IMAGINARY STORY! Welcome to married life, Gerry & Ilyn ... hope you survive the experience! he he he The guest list of Gerry and Ilyn's wedding read like a list to a comic book convetion. I should sold tickets and had an autograph signing session at the reception. In fact, their give-away was a mini-comic book on how they met and fell in love. Awwww. I was giving hosting duties during the reception along with Chris, Ilyn's classmate. I should've drank beer or wine or taken severa...

Congratulations to Mark and Petite on the successful launch of their joint-project ! Like I said in Moy and Dundee's wedding, "It takes a whole village to raise one child." So, you can be sure that we will raise your child. No. Wait. That's not my point. My point is, you can be sure that our crazy tribe will always be there for you two. Naks! :) KEKEKE!!!

SPACE... THE FINAL FRONTIER FOR SARI-SARI STORES Aside from that Pinoy in Starship Troopers, seems like Filipinos have found their way in different parts of the universe. So, should we now call them OFWs (Outer-space Filipino Workers)? LIFELINE A novel by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason --------------------------------------------------------------------- "In shock and grief the last remnants of the human race watched from space as the holocaust of war raged across the face of the Earth. Now the future rested in the hands of three fragile space colonies: Aguinaldo--The Philippine L-5 colony whose brilliant biochemist had engineered a limitless supply of food. Kibalchich--The Soviet space exploration platform that harbored a deadly secret. Orbitech 1--The American space factory whose superstrong weavewire could be a lifeline to link the colonies--or a cutting-edge weapon of destruction. As allies, they could unite to rebuild a better world. As enemies, they could ...

Back at the office. Attended the wedding reception of Jovic and Steph. Went with Moy and Dundee. (Moy made the wedding cake.) Met some high school and college batchmates. Found out that one of them owns a comic book shop that specializes in ordering back issues. (More info about them soon.) He also mentioned that some of our batchmates who used to draw/illustrate now want to work on whatever project and get something published somewhere. Hmmm... must meet up with them soon. One of those batchmates that he was talking about is Oliver Isabedra, who did pencils from Entity Comics' ASTER ... the same comic book that introduced such talents as Gerry Alanguilan, Leinil Francis Yu, and Jay Anacleto. Back then, they were just names. Now... they are legends! he he he Anyway, I don't really know what Oliver wants to do, but it would be interesting to see his works again. When he started drawing, he had that George Perez-style going . Last time I saw his sketches , he was gettin...

News from the Gutter Grant Morrison is working on an "Invisibles" computer game with some of the people who created Grand Theft Auto. And there's a lot of Scots there. One programmer was so excited about the collaboration that he text messaged a friend from his mobile saying "I'm having a shit in Grant Morrison's toilet!!!" at 2 in the morning. Will there be any cheat codes? When this game comes out, this might finally give Dave a good reason to buy a new computer.

MURPHY'S DAY Woke up and found out my rear right tire was flat. And my spare tire was also flat. So, I had both tires fixed only to find out that my rear right tire was beyond repair and had to buy a new one. So, I got the new one and drove home to finally take a bath, dress up, and get some errands done. When I walked back to my car my rear right tire was flat again! So, I brought it back to the same repair guy who then told me the "pito"-- that rubber thingee/nozzle where you pump in air had already cracked due to wear and tear. And so I got a new "pito" and finally had four running wheels. I then went to this upholstery shop along Santolan, because a couple of days ago, the driver seat of my car went on a permanent recline. Some metal bar snapped and I had to drive around the city lying down. After I got that fixed, I drove to E.Rodriguez to get some paperwork processed. When I got to the place, I discovered that I left my bag in the upholstery sh...

Four Weddings and Comic Book Convention Yup, that's what's jotted down in my calendar for this month. Which makes me wonder if December will become some strange, comedy routine. Weddings... Can you believe it? We're now attending weddings-- of our friends! No weddings of some aunt or uncle, but of people that we grew up with. Another sign of your getting old is when one of your batchmates runs for public office. So far, that hasn't happened yet. Anyway, I just hope that the workload here in the office stays this light.