If you wish to contact me for any particular reason, please click here.

Nov

3

Entity Original Art

Filed Under Filipino Artists, My Comics | 8 Comments

My first professional inking job was a few pages of Harriers, published by Entity Comics back in 1994. I inked Mark Vunkuykiat (did I spell that right?). It was then followed by two near-full issues of Aster: The Last Celestial Knight, where I inked Oliver Isabedra.

I was very young back then, at least very young in my career in comics. I had been very excited working in local comics (I had already finished illustrating several stories for local komiks companies by this time), but I was even more excited to have something finally published in the US.

To be honest, I was so excited I would have been glad to do it for free. Sadly, this kind of neophyte enthusiasm is something that could be taken advantage of in a variety of ways. It’s a lesson I learned the hard way. I never got back ANY of my inked original art for anything I worked on for Entity. There was a 2-page spread pin up of ASTER that I freely gave to my boss, but I never gave anyone permission to keep my other originals. They were just simply GONE.

I completely forgot about it until someone approached me a few days ago to tell me he had bought all the pages of Harriers from a local seller. I won’t name names here because I think the buyer is an innocent party, and we really didn’t talk about who the seller was.

After all this time, I’m not after any of these pages anymore. I consider those pages simply a victim of my inexperience and foolishness.

But to anyone who was in possession of these pages before it was sold, and who may still be holding the Aster pages, you have to know that some of them are NOT rightfully yours. You are in possession of it because someone DID NOT RETURN IT TO US. I say some of the pages only because I don’t know if Mark or Oliver, or maybe even Jay Anacleto, Michael V, and Leinil Francis Yu (who all did work for Entity the same time I did) got back any of their originals so I can speak only for my inked share of the artwork.

I hope you younger artists who are reading this, learn from my experience. This certainly won’t the hell happen to me anymore, and I certainly hope this doesn’t happen to you.

Comments

8 Responses to “Entity Original Art”

  1. jerome dizon on November 4th, 2007 8:50 am

    Gerry,

    A few months ago I saw some if not complete issue of jay anacleto’s artwork on ebay philippines.. i think mga 18 originals yun. Ito yung link
    http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110178533390&sspagename=ADME:X:RTQ:AU:11

    di ko lang alam kung alam ni Jay or kilala nya itong taong ito.

  2. Ed on November 4th, 2007 10:18 am

    Gosh. I thought you still have those pages. I thought the same way before when I broke in the biz, but we starve and need to be fed.

    -ed

  3. Gerry Alanguilan on November 4th, 2007 11:08 am

    I can’t speak for Jay if he knows about this or not, but I can say that this particular auction was deceptive. Those pages are NOT drawn by Jay Anacleto, as the description states. They are pencilled by Mark Vuykunkiat, and INKED by Jay Anacleto. Granted, having inked Harriers pages myself, that Jay must have did more than just ink, but still, omitting the credit of the penciller is very deceptive.

  4. jim on November 7th, 2007 7:00 am

    Hi sir Gerry! medyo off topic to pero somewhat related. i just bought Aster #1 sa jae collectibles megamall yesterday for P10! in a very good i think near mint condition. naka foil cover. astig! nostalgic ako kaya i would have bought it for more pero p10! wow. and andun yata (kung iyun nga iyon)yung 2 page spread aster pin-up you mentioned. astig siya kasi this was the time when every comic is an image style rip off, kaya this style is really something better back then. i even saw some issues of harriers. sir, do you remember kung anong title at issue number lumabas yung gawa ni michael v? is he a penciller or inker?

  5. Gerry Alanguilan on November 7th, 2007 7:17 am

    Jim, Michael V pencilled Shaianna #1, I think. Inked by Jay Anacleto.

    Jae Collectibles sa Megamall? Bagong store ba yan? Where is it?

  6. jim on November 7th, 2007 7:51 am

    malapit sa C.R. sa basement very near sa ace hardware. i think building b tawag sa area na yun. you’ll know kasi may mga nakatayong lifesize statues ni superman at batman. they sell mostly toys.

  7. arthur on November 17th, 2007 3:22 am

    Gerry,

    Ibinenta na ng may-ari ng CATS na si billy lim-it (local contact[?] ng entity) ang karamihan ng comics niya (along with toys, ang talagang habol ng JAE) sa JAE, ang toy store na dating nasa greenhills na lumipat sa mega. 65000 pcs yata, according to JAE co-owner jun tolentino, pati na rin ang original art for harriers of which 7 pages lang ang nabenta sa ebay.com (including $70+ for the cover; ang 18 pages sa link na iyon ang unsold sa lot sale siguro) and a certain issue (or issues) of aster, which jun said balak niyang ibenta as a lot, as in ang buong issue! Kung may nawawala mang art, malamang alam ni billy kung nasaan iyon. Wala akong idea kung ano’ng usapan ninyo regarding the original art kaya mahirap sumabat dito.

    Deceptive man maituturing ang description pero face it, si jay talaga ang selling point dito. Kahit inks lang niya, art pa rin niya iyon.

    Btw, hawak ko ngayon ang harriers 1, nabasa (as in “wet”) ko kaya di ko na pinapirma kay jay. Vuycankiat ang spelling. According to the credits, co-penciller si jay (at solo inker siya)pero hindi ko alam kung aling pages ang full art niya. P10 ang bili ko sa Aki’s sa gh some months back.

    Nagtataka lang ako sa seller na ito, wala siyang paypal dahil may paypal account si jun.

  8. Gerry Alanguilan on November 17th, 2007 5:37 am

    Arthur, it’s still deceptive because the buyer does not know that it was not actually Jay who fully pencilled it. To omit Mark’s name outright, and sell these artworks as something that Jay fully did because it would sell better is LYING. It’s unethical, and may well be illegal because the artwork was misrepresented and sold to be something that it was not.