Babbling Point

THE AGENCY PHONE Thanks to the fast-acting,number crunching ladies of the Finance Department and our super-duper-executive-assitant Amy (who makes great things possible)... I now have a phone again! MWAHAHAHAHA!!! Please take note that I'm slowly rebuilding my contact list and typing in each and every name and number all over again. So, if you text me and I text back: WHO U?, hope you understand. :-)

HAVE YOU SEEN MY PHONE?! If you ever happen to see (or buy) a black Nokia 6630 and for some strange reason it has the Alamat logo as a wallpaper... THEN THAT'S MY PHONE!!! ugh I still don't have a phone. I feel so... disconnected from the world. (At the same time, it's so liberating.) ugh

I LOST MY GLOBE! ARRRRRGH!!! Please help me re-build my Contact List. Send me your cell# at: budj (@) rocketmail (dot) com Thank you. Ugh! I lost my cellphone in Starbucks, Greenhills (the one beside Chili's). I must have been too sleepy to notice that it fell out of my pocket. I was at work til 10am yesterday. I rushed home, took a bath, dressed up, then went with my mom and Brandie to meet up with family friends. After lunch, we went to Starbucks and that's where I lost my phone. I noticed that I didn't have my phone as we turned the corner. So, we rushed back. That must have only taken 5 minutes. Maybe less. By the time we came back, the table was already clean and my cellphone could not be found. The busboy who cleaned up our area said he didn't see any cellphone. Even the guard said he didn't notice anything. Bummer. It's just annoying how people can be so dishonest. I wish that whoever got that cellphone will put it to good use. Maybe he'll use the mon...

Our Golden Age Men of Justice and Speed of Mystery and Magic of Fire and Steel and War, Women who burned with the light and energy of distant stars, whose shoulders carried the weight of the world whose beliefs kept all of our heads high and whose lives were lived for the greater good. ("Justice", a poem by Wang about the Justice Corps of World War II , transcribed by David Hontiveros) Here's to looking forward to an even greater year in comic books, graphic novels, and storytelling. Congratulations to all the writer and artists who were able to find a way to get their works printed and published. Many thanks to all the shops and stores that carry our titles and to all the readers who got copy and shared our stories with others. May we someday look back and mark these times as a "New Age" for Filipino comic books. (I think it would be presumtuous to already call these times our Silver Age, but I'm sure we've already set the foundations of something truly...

Chief of Staff LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- John Spencer, who played a tough and dedicated politico on "The West Wing" who survived a serious illness to run for vice president, died of a heart attack Friday. He was 58. I read this news a couple of days before Christmas, but haven’t had the chance to blog about until now. I’ve been a big WEST WING fan ever since I saw “ Isaac and Ishmael ”, their special episode that dealt with what happened during 9/11. When the local stores started to bring in copies of the first two seasons of WEST WING, I got both sets. John Spencer played Leo McGarry , the President’s Chief of Staff, in the show. One of my favorite moments was a scene in the first season. President Bartlet was about to give the State of the Union address and he was talking to the Secretary of Agriculture in the Oval Office. From the adjoining room, Leo McGarry overheard this conversation: President Josiah Bartlet: Roger, If anything happens, you know what to do, right?...

Merry Legendary Christmas to One and All And here's the finished product! Ian gave me an 11x17 print-out of this fantastic pin-up. At the corner of the poster, he wrote: MABUHAY ANG ALAMAT! A challenge? An invitation? A call to action!

FLY HIGH, SEEK DANGER This is Ian's Christmas gift to Bow. So, Bow now has a poster of this pin-up at his desk. It now serves as a reminder of things past and future projects.

super pogi rock The boys from the band. A very cool Christmas gift from Ian Sta. Maria .

The 12 Days of Advertising Yup, this definitely represents our merry life. Click-click and sing along! http://www.garcia360.com/12days/

Ready? Get set... TRESE #2 is finally available in Comic Quest, Megamall. (Sorry it got delayed.) You can still check out the preview at: http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/

. Have you been naughty or have you been nice? If you've been a naughty aswang, you'll probably get a visit from these two guys. Although you should be more afraid of their "bossing". Preview pages of TRESE: RULES OF THE RACE can now be viewed at: http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/ TRESE #2 will be available in Comic Quest, Megamall by Friday.

Taking Flight A page from ALL THE SMALL THINGS (Story by Budjette Tan, Art by Bow Guerrero) It's been more that ten years since I've collaborated with Bow on a comic book project. The most recent thing we did was our submission to MANUAL magazine. Bow did the art for my story PLAYING WITH DICE. I think the first thing we ever worked on was an 11-page stoty about a samurai that fought a monster that was terrorizing a small town. We did that back in 1992 (or was it `93?). We also did an 8-page story about a female ninja that stopped a couple of bank robbers. We tried to pitch both stories to ATLAS KOMIKS. He got rejected because they said our style was "too Marvel" and both stories were too long. So, we came up with 4-page story about how the President of the Philippines bought four hunter-killer androids to solve the problem of the New People's Army. After the President paid the men in black a billion pesos, the androids went on a ramage and killed all the NPA. Unf...

13 LETTERS DOWN The online letters column of TRESE * * * * * * * * * * * * * Yes, Budj! I was able to read it. :-) It looks VERY promising. I liked the theatrically masked gun-toting minions. I liked the seedy underground led by aswangs. (It's a thread I intend to pursue in a Zaturnnah story, but with a different treatment, of course.) And Trese herself looks like an interesting character. I think the challenge here is upping the ante, so that it doesn't look head-on like Kate-Beckinsale-in-Underworld at first glance. (I didn't really think that at first glance, but we all know how critical some folks can be.) The artstyle is very appropriate; it lends strongly into the fast-paced nature of things. Also, I strongly encourage that this be released in full graphic-novel form. Even at a 100-page (or thereabouts) digest size. If you'd like to score a double-whammy: release a version locally in Filipino, then have the English version up for sale on Lulu or Cafepress. It'...

. FYI, the temporary, official Alamat Comics site is: http://360.yahoo.com/alamatcomics

The SEA Games start today. In honor of the athletes of Team Philippines, here's the lyrics to the Rivermaya's POSIBLE song. It also makes a nice anthem for the whole country. POSIBLE (song for SEA Games 2005) Music by Rivermaya Lyrics by Russel Molina Posible kayang labanan Ang agos ng paghamon Mabuwal at madapa man Sabay tayong aahon Posible kayang mabura Alinlangan sa sarili Ang tapang sa loob makikita Taglay mo ang dugong bayani CHORUS Sulong, laban, `wag uurong Pakinggan sa iyong puso Ang sigaw na dati¹y bulong Sulong, laban, Pilipino Pakinggan sa iyong puso Ang sigaw na dati¹y bulong Posible Posible kayang matikman Tamis ng gintong minimithi Sa kagat ng bawat laban Magtatagumpay kang muli BACK TO CHORUS Posible! Posible!

Congrats to the boys and girls of Harrison! I got so excited blogging about Brandie and Tin's win, I forgot to blog about my agency's wins. Harrison Communications brought home two Bronze Awards from the Ad Congress. SINGLE ENTRY RADIO – BRONZE BIOGESIC “38?” ECD: Teeny Gonzales CD: Sonam Mehra ACD: Nanni Aguilar Copy: Brian Avancena Accounts: Tey San Diego, Yvonne Salcedo, Monica Morelos RADIO CRAFT (BEST COPY) - BRONZE GENTXT “BOOM” ECD: Teeny Gonzales DECD: Russell Molina CD: Jeorge Agcaoili, Isabel Gamboa, Joey Campillo Copy: Jao Bautista, Maki Maquiling, Chan Dela Calzada Accounts: Maira Catacutan, Abby Nicolas The complete list of winners can be downloaded here .

A Sterling Couple Brandie and Tin got a Silver Award at the recently concluded Ad Congress, for their work on the Bench Fix Salon ad . They also got two Bronze Awards each. Brandie got his Bronze Awards for his work on the Imodium ads and Tin for her work on the print ad of Orbit Chewing Gum. Brandie and Carol Ong got Silver Award for their DM entry "Hanky", which was an invitation for CEO's to attend the Cannes Exhibit that was set-up by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Congratulations you two!

"thecraziestworkdayoftheyear" That's what I'd call yesterday. I'd like to call yesterday my birthday but there was not a lot of celebration. (Well, I did get the chance to have dinner with my mom and Brandie&Tin). If my day yesterday was ever released in DVD, I'd retitle "24". It was a crazy day. Six projects all running at the same time. An art director went on birthday leave and suddenly it was a mad scramble for a team to stage for an upcoming Christmas event. Later in the afternoon, we had a meeting with a man weilding a gold club. It was the craziest work day of the year. Crazy, I tell ya!

they're baaack!!! BACK FROM THE DREDD: Karen Kunawicz's snapshots and mementos from Club Dredd-Timog 1990-1993 November 9, 2005 (Exhibit runs until early December) *Big Sky Mind* #66 Dona Juana Rodriguez New Manila Performing bands are: Color It Red,Pinwheel,Hidrofonics (it's 1:33am and I'm still at the office. I wish I can go to this launch later.)

Happy birthday to the angels and ninjas, the new mutants and old gods, the timawas and flying phantoms, the vampires and them wasted youth. Happy 11th birthday to Alamat Comics! Today, November 3, marks the 4015th day of existence of Alamat. I had hoped that our anniversary would be marked by the launch of a full-color, hundred page graphic novel; instead we launched two new, black-and-white, Xeroxed comics books: TRESE and KUNOICHI BOY. Make no mistake, we’re might mighty proud of our latest creations. As far as TRESE is concerned, it’s the latest story I’ve written and gotten published. (Even thought “Batch72” did come out in 2001, those scripts were written in 1995. So, I couldn’t really say they were new.) After 11 years, we’re not really at the height of our imagines full-color, monthly dreams. I’m just glad that the “new komikeros on the block” are doing well, and doing things better. It’s really nice to see whenever a the latest issue of CAST and MANGO JAM hit the magazine racks...