Babbling Point

Last Tuesday, went to Galleria. While my mom did the groceries, I had the chance to walk around the mall. I was surprised to see a Nescafe Cafe at the entrance of the Body Place. I immediately texted some of the guys and said: NEW CAFE AT BODY PLACE, GALLERIA. COULD THIS BECOME THE HANG-OUT OF NEXT GENERATION OF COMIC BOOK GEEKS? :) Some texted back that maybe we should start hanging out there. Claim what was once our terriroty! hahaha One of the guys texted that they (the next gen geeks) better know what they're getting into because we certainly didn't and look where it got us. I texted back, that I think we were better off not knowing how difficult things were going to be, else we would not have attempted to achieve the impossible. Maybe it's time to try again. "There's a fine and wonderful moment near the end of `The Phantom Tollbooth`, that rich, wise children's book by Norton Juster, where Milo, the hero, having succeeded in a mighty q...

June 12 Today is the Philippines' Independence Day. We have delayed celebration of our independence til tomorrow so that we may have a long weekend. That was the president's bright idea. Back to work. Tomorrow we sleep.

In an alternate reality, Ronald McDonald married Mother Lily and took over the Philippine movie industry. And every movie ticket will came with a free Happy Meal.

HMMMM.... FFFOOOOD! 9pm Still haven't had dinner. Saw this food gallery by Jake Verzosa . HMMMMM... HHHUUNNNGRY YUMMMM Don't think I can eat half of what he's showing in his site. GRRRRUMMMMBLE

Janjan Binks starts her own phlog ... well, kinda. She's now in New Joi-sey! Looks like a cold place. Here are two Pinoys who are also using PHLOG: Caffeine Girl , a girl after my own heart consider the amount of coffee she's drinking. Orange Crush , who seems to be working in another ad agency and his office mate was my classmate back in grade school.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE Just answered another questionnaire about the local comic book industry. Of course, part of the questionnaire asked for my influences as a comic book creator. Here's what I said: I got into writing / creating comic books because I grew reading them and liked them so much that I wanted to make my own. I liked the works of Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Neil Gaiman. I also liked reading Stephen King, William Gibson, the Dragonlance Chronicles, Isaac Asimov, and other sci-fi / fantasy writers. I also liked listening to Sting and Kenny Rogers (yes, Kenny Rogers) and Pearl Jam and Tori Amos, who told their stories through song. So, I’d like to think that all those people somehow influenced my work. I don’t think I can pinpoint that I picked up this or that style from a particular writer. They all just become a jumble once I start to write. For example, BATCH72 was probably influenced watching ARCHIE’S ...

Dear God, I pray my future-comic-book-editor won’t be like my current clients. For the past month or so, we’ve been working on a series of ads that involves an illustrated character. And every time we present to client, we’ve been getting a whole bunch of really “entertaining” comments like… “Can you change the expression of his face?”, “He looks too mean.”, “There’s something about his eyes.”, “Can you change that one eyebrow?”, “Does he have to smirk like that?”, “Why does he look angry?”, “Can’t you just make him smile?”. AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!! I wonder if artists at Marvel or DC have to put up with such comments. I’d imagine, that when you’re a novice artist, your editor would ask you to make changes in panels and maybe even whole pages, but I wonder if they nitpick like that. I pray I get my break into comics really soon, so that I may leave these clients behind. I pray that I stop being a lazy bum AND WRITE THE STORIES I’M SUPPOSED TO BE SUBMITTING. I...

Behold! The Miraculous, Fabulous Adventures of Little Jesus ! Witness how man once again uses cutting-edge technology for something really riduculous. And for something even more ludicrous, check My Life As Seen Through My Nokia 7650 .

Jessica Zafra’s TWISTED FLICKS is now available in Powerbooks (and, I’d guess, National Bookstore). It contains a collection of published and unpublished movies reviews, as well as interviews with local film directors. In one review, she quotes me, and then disagrees with what I said about the movie. TWISTED FLICKS will be launched on June 10, 6pm, at Greenbelt 1. Afterwards, there will be an advanced screening of ADAPTATION . Must remember to bring two aspirins for me to take after the movie. Now go! Go get Twisted!

DARNA! DARNA! DARNA! Posted three magazine articles about DARNA in the KOMIX101 blog (just scroll down past the Carl "ZsaZsa Zaturnnah" Vergara interview). "[Darna's] mabait yet matapang . Strong yet sympathetic. Sexy yet dignified. And she looks damn great in a pair of teensy-weensy red pekpek shorts." --Abi Aquino, Cosmopolitan Philippines I think Abi's article was best written of the bunch. It was concise, informative, and an entertaining read. The Men Zone article felt like a bad written press release that kept repeating information through-out the article. It even had cheesy photos of the Mango Comics creative team being beat-up by Darna. Still haven't found any reviews for DARNA #2.

Carl said that Jon Lapus was raving about ZSAZSA in THE BUZZ last Sunday(?). I hope that translates to more buzz about the book (and more sales). Carl's interview with Business World came out today. Posted in KOMIX101 .

thrilling comics From the website THRILLED : These are comics which are online. Some of them have been specifically designed for the online format and some have not. They were done for ourselves for various reasons. This site exists so that you may read and enjoy them and share the experience. Some people have enjoyed our stories and felt somehow moved or enlightened and that is nice. Please enjoy, or don't, and move on to something else on the internet that is better. These comics are please not for children please . My favorites are: Trepanation and Ride .

Rachel texted that I should read LITTLE PRINCE and figure out what is really essential in life. Maricel texted that I should: take a break. read rilke. take a week off. get a girlfriend . Which makes me wonder if I should do it in that order and will I become a better writer if I get girlfriend or will I just become more neurotic (or will I make her more neurotic because of all my OT)? Well, maybe I'll pick up a copy of LITTLE PRINCE this weekend. Something nice to read on a rainy day.

THE END... FOR NOW Presented the SAD STORY(Version Oh-I-Already-Lost-Count) last Thursday and it got the REALLY REJECTED stamp. Even if it was Mother One who presented the storyboards, it wasn’t enough to convince client to go for the story. They said, it’s not the type of story they’d want to do. I’ll just die if competition comes up with a story similar to mine. This reminds me of how the whole team was back in the office the day after EDSA DOS and we came up with over a dozen ads to commemorate that peaceful revolution and how text messaging connected a whole nation (or at least, the several million who had cellphones in the city). But client didn’t want to run a single ad because of possible political repercussions. A week or so later, the competition came out with their EDSA DOS ad, which got an award for best print that same year. So, now we’re back to a similar situation. Client doesn’t want to produce this story. They admit that it’s a realistic story b...

AD MAN'S PRAYER Dear Lord I pray for wisdom to understand my client, love to forgive him, patience for their inanities. Because Lord if I prayed for strength I'd beat them to death. Amen.

Well... so much for that bright idea... Presented my story today. They still didn't buy it. Oh well... Not meant to be, I guess. So, we're back to square one. New story. Same deadline. That's just great. Hmmm... haven't had my comic book-fix for over a week. Maybe that's what's wrong. Need to go to Comic Quest. Hopefully, tomorrow or Saturday I get to go.

Dreaming it was already August Written by Neil Gaiman; art by P. Craig Russell, Milo Manara, Bill Sienkiewicz, Miguelanxo Prado, Barron Storey, Glenn Fabry, and Frank Quitely; painted cover and book design by Dave McKean... this is THE SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS Neil Gaiman returns! Endless Nights presents seven tales - one for each member of the Endless - that reveal strange and surprising truths about the Sandman and his uniquely dysfunctional family. 160 pages,Oversized Hardcover (7 1/4" x 10 7/8"), $24.95 = P1300-1500 (depending where you buy it) Also launching on that month is Gaiman's 1602. Preview images can be found here . Preview art looks good, despite you don't see much. Keeping fingers crossed.

SECOND CHANCE Got an email from Mother One. They want to represent my story to client. Funny how you come up with a story that's favored internally and yet, is completely misunderstood and disliked by client. But then again... they are client. So, here we go... one more shot. Let's see if it flies this time.

SAD STORY After revising it several times, presenting it again and again, client finally stamped my story with : REJECTED. No matter what I did to make the story "lighter", they still say it's too sad, too depressing, and that's not what product is all about. They agree that it's an everyday, realistic story, but it's just too depressing that they don't want that. End of story. What a great way to start the week. Things should get better.

THE MATRIX RECYCLED (no spoilers) Well... it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. The action scenes were great, but could have been edited shorter. After awhile, all that flying and kicing and punching just got tiresome. I think they spent too much in Zion and it suddenly turned into some domestic drama set in the core of the earth. In the scene where a whole lot of stuff is explained, I felt like I should have reviewed my Philo 101 before watching the movie so I'd have better time understanding all that blah. So, don't expect it to be like the first one.