It’s much noisier here than I remember. There is a road outside that’s rather well used by public transportation, as well as private vehicles as it’s an important road that links into inner subdivisions. I’m kind of not used to the racket. The apartment we had was at the end of a dead end road where hardly any vehicles pass. It was quiet. All you could hear were chickens and birds. Here, it’s chickens, birds, cars, tricycles, jeeps, trucks, ambulant vendors, dogs, and the occasional crazed screaming guy. It almost got on my nerves once or twice, but thank goodness I had (and still have) a deadline that keeps me focused on my table.

About work… yes, although it will never be mentioned in ads and solicitations, I am currently inking Mark Millar and Leinil Francis Yu’s “Supercrooks” as well as Avenging Spiderman #5. I think I will talk a bit more about my inking job from now on because I was starting to realize that there’s no other way for people to know I actually worked on an upcoming book unless I talk about it. I realized (I guess I’ve known this for a long time), that inkers are never really mentioned in ads and other promotional material for comics. It never used to be this way. Time was I would look at ads and I would see who inked the book. And believe it or not, sometimes it was the deciding factor in me buying a particular comic. If I saw Terry Austin was inking for instance, even if I didn’t care for the writer or penciller or even the characters, I would probably have bought it. Not that I’m saying there would actually be people out there who will buy the book simply because I had inked it, but it would be nice if I got a mention.

From Comic Book Resources, here’s a page from the upcoming Supercrooks #1, coming out in March 2012!

Because even in times of great disaster, people can still use the occasion to scam other people, I’m naturally very picky about where to send donations. It’s difficult for me to trust random people who I don’t know, who for all I know are truly trustworthy. But the problem is, there’s no way for me to know if I don’t know you. So I do apologize if I would only send donations to, and always recommend people send donations to the Philippine Red Cross.

Comics artist Carlo Vergara has provided a nice graphic showing how to easily make such a donation. Please do consider sending any amount.

Another agency I would trust would be LBC, and they’re offering to send any donations (food, blankets etc) for free. Just go to any nearest LBC branch.

It’s difficult to imagine how bad it is for our fellow Filipinos down south specially if we’re far from it, but I assure you, it’s pretty bad, and donations are badly needed. Thank you.

As if I have all the time in the world.

Let me explain something about what it’s like being a comic book creator to many of those who may not be aware.

Most professions work on a five day schedule. You go to work at 8 or 9am on a Monday, go home at 5am and you have a nice rest for the rest of the day. You get to forget about your work after you go home. Repeat that everyday until Friday, and OK, perhaps even Saturday. Granted many do go overtime, but even then, you still get to go home, forget about work, rest on Sundays, holidays and so forth.
Students got it made because they only go to school 5 days a week. And sometimes there are long holidays, summer and Christmas vacations, religious holidays, and so on.

And there are those who don’t get holidays most of the time like security guards, nurses, doctors, call center agents, mall workers, etc. But even then they still get breaks. They still go home at some point and get a rest. They have off days. They can collect vacation points and can take off for a while if they wanted.

Now, comic book artists don’t have that luxury at all. We work all the time. We may start work at 8am (some start at any point of the day), and then continue working all throughout the day and well into the night. In my case, since I’m quite an active creator, I start work anytime between 6am and stop work at around 12 or 1am. I sleep, and a few hours later I wake up again. I don’t have off days. I don’t have holidays. Christmas, New Years Day, Labor Day, National Heroes Day, All Saint’s Day, Saturdays, and Sundays… I spend all those days working. Just working.

But I don’t hate it at all. Because I love comics, I love working on it all the time. I don’t get bored at all. I just keep going and going and creating more.

So it’s really difficult for me to find the time to answer 20 questions explaining the state of Philippine Comics, explain how I broke in, explain my opinion on the future of Philippine comics or if I have any adivce to young artists individually to several people a week. It has come to the point that I find it difficult to answer interviews at all. And I’m pretty sure there are some pissed off students out there who feel I’ve ignored them. That may well be true.

This is why I made up my FAQ. The students will be able to get their answers, but at the same time, I still get to work. And unfortunately, this is probably the only way many of them will get answers from me. I apologize for that, but as I explained, answering these questions individually just take too much time. It takes HOURS just to get through one interview. Sometimes it takes half a day. I can finish a comic book page in the time I answer one interview.

So this is really a plea for understanding. If you have questions, please refer to my FAQ which you can find here. And if there is any question you have that I have not answered there, then please feel free to email me again.

Thank you very much.

Once again, I need to emphasize I am only speaking for myself. If you want to disagree, go write your own blog post.

Having browsed the RH Bill, and all the arguments FOR and AGAINST it, I think it’s a healthy thing that it’s being addressed and talked about. The Catholic Church is perfectly within their right to say that this bill displeases them, and it’s perfectly within their right to teach against it among their flock, specifically the Catholics. And it is perfectly within people’s rights to say that this is a bill that they support and that this bill is what is right for them.

Now the government, and the law-making bodies should be independent of all this. No church should have influence on how laws are made in this country. This is why:

*The Catholic Church disapproves of the RH Bill because they believe that many of its provisions violate aspects of Catholic Cathecism, specially with regards to contraceptives.
*Not all Filipinos are Catholics.
*The Philippine government should speak for ALL Filipinos be they Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Baptist, Iglesya ni Kristo, Aglipayan and so forth.

The question is: Why is the Catholic Church so hell bent on disallowing a bill that affects not only Catholics but everyone else? In effect, it’s trying to push a Catholic agenda on ALL Filipinos including not only Catholics but also Muslims, Buddhists, INCs, Aglipayans, Baptists, Protestants, and Atheists alike.

NO CHURCH SHOULD HAVE THAT KIND OF INFLUENCE.

What if this were turned around? What if this was a predominantly Muslim country? Or what if this was a predominantly Atheist country? What if THEY force the government into passing or not passing bills that follow THEIR agenda? How would Catholics feel then? Pretty bad, I’m sure.

This is why government and religion should always, ALWAYS be a separate thing. There are reasons for it, and this is one of them.

The Catholic Church should simply concentrate on teaching their flock, the Catholics, not to follow the contents of the RH Bill if ever it comes into law. And Catholics, if they are true to their church, will follow. After all, this is what they signed up for. As Catholics, we Catholics should follow what the Pope says, and what the Church teaches us. And if Catholics no longer believe in the church, in the Pope and their teachings, they are free to leave, or just lapse. In my case, it doesn’t mean I no longer believe in God, or Jesus or the saints. I still do. I still very much strongly do. But I have been very unhappy with the behavior of the Catholic Church of late, specially with regard to this bill.

Instead of priests berating their flock, they should do the opposite. The should be more sympathetic, be more understanding, they should reach out with love and respect. Make their flock understand with utmost patience and kindness. If this is their approach, I’m sure many of their flock would be more willing to listen. The church should think of this as a new missionary mission. Just because we are already converted that doesn’t mean we will always stay that way. The church should always continue the effort. This is the only way for the church to survive.

Hahaha! This is me. Laughing at YOU.

This post has nothing to do with comics. This is just me thinking about things, as I would often do when my mind wanders. When I’m having lunch there’s this cat that hangs outside our backdoor wall, waiting to be fed. He’s not our cat. I don’t think he’s anyone’s cat. I’ve seen him around all over the place, looking for other cats among the chickens. Outside, this cat doesn’t know who I am and doesn’t even respond to me. In fact, he even runs away from me. But when he’s at the backdoor, he’s my best friend, as he eyes the fish in my hand. He meows demandingly, as if I owe him this fish. I’ve taken to calling this cat Lolcat. So when he’s here, he’s kind of my cat, but most of the time, he’s not.

Once in a while Lolcat would appear at the wall with a large bloody gash on his side. Sometimes he would appear with a swollen paw, unable to jump. Sometimes he would appear, mouth open full of saliva. Turns out he would sometimes get some fish with a large bone somewhere and it gets stuck in his mouth or throat. I would try to help him if I could, but then he would disappear for days. I thought he would be dead. But he would turn up sometime later, perfectly all right, once again demanding food. I swear this cat has more than nine lives. He ought to have been dead several times over. I’ve seen him get injuries that would have killed other cats. But not this one. This one is a survivor.

It got me thinking, you know, Elmer style, what if this cat was human? It’s got to be a really lonely life. He has no friends, no family. He’s all alone. He doesn’t know where he’s going to get his food tomorrow and how he’s going to survive. And if gets sick or critically injured there is no one there to help him, no one there to keep him company or hold his hand and tell them everything is going to be all right. It’s terrifying. If Lolcat was human he would have gone insane from loneliness and despair.

So perhaps this is an argument for animals not really having the intelligence and consciousness like ours. Because it they thought and felt like us, animals like Lolcat and other animals under similar circumstances would just go insane. This is perhaps why animals can survive on their own like this. They don’t have any silly psychological and emotional problems to think about. It’s all instinct.

I don’t want to be like that though. I like having friends. I like having people I can count on and depend on. I like having someone hold my hand when I dearly need it.

My wife Ilyn recently wrote an article on her blog about being Catholic with regards to the RH Bill. She does not say whether she is for or against the bill, but she has a lot to say about the Catholic Church’s behavior in this whole affair. And you know what? I completely agree with her. It’s what I had been thinking about for such a long time and I’ve been trying to mull over what to say. She went ahead and said everything I wanted to say, and she said it pretty well. If you have time, please go on ahead and visit her blog at the link below.

Ok…I Really Have to Talk About This…
http://paper-basket.blogspot.com/2011/04/ok-i-really-have-to-talk-about-this.html

I think the Catholic Church in the Philippines is finally drawing the line. It’s either you’re in or you’re out. And like Ilyn says, this is not the proper way of reaching out to their flock. It forces us to draw our own lines, and I truly hate it if it comes down to this.

I think the leadership of the Catholic Church in this country has a lot to think about this Holy Week. They need to think of the following words: Understanding. Compassion. LOVE. Their actions of late have been so un-Christian that as a Catholic, I am very disappointed.

I’m quite surprised at the reaction my recent haircut has been getting. At the recent Komikon (post forthcoming), a few people made a big deal of it. A few people thought I was sick, and a few thought I was maybe giving a statement (since everything artists do must have some kind of profound reason). I admit I’m sick of a few things, but none of which is the reason for the haircut. And no, it wasn’t a statement for anything at all. If you tell you the real reason behind it, you’ll just laugh and say it’s stupid.

But I’ll say it anyway just for the peace of mind of a few people.

When I went out a couple of weeks ago, as in when I stepped out of the house that day, all I wanted to do was to check out some new computers. I had no intention of getting a haircut at all. The thought didn’t even occur to me until a few minutes into my tricycle ride. I thought… why don’t I get a haircut? And perhaps surprise Ilyn when I get back since she’s been asking me to get my hair cut for some time. It has been getting rather long.

Now I have TWO barbers. One barber is an old guy who I had been going to ever since I was 4 years old. I stopped going to him two years ago ever since he poked my neck with his scissors. I’m thinking he’s gotten too old to cut hair and should just retire. I just don’t trust him with the razor anymore.

So I went to another barber a couple of blocks away from my original one, a young guy who has given me excellent haircuts for the past two years. This is the guy I went to first. The barbershop was empty of customers, except my guy, who had a few people in line for him.

Now I’m NOT the most patient guy. I can’t stand waiting. I wanted my haircut right away since I had to go to the mall and look at computers. I didn’t have time to dick around the barbershop waiting for my guy to finish. So I thought… I really want a haircut. I wanted it right now.

I decided to go to my old guy. If he’s busy then I’ll go straight to the mall without a haircut. Not a problem. But the thing was, he was free. And he saw me. He saw my long hair. A big smile broke on his face and immediately prepared the seat. I had to go. But like I said, I don’t trust him with the razor or the scissors anymore. The only haircut I can get without him using scissors would be this semi bald cut using an electric trimmer.

I liked the semi bald cut anyway so I went for it.

I’m actually surprised people made such a big deal out of it because I’ve already done it twice before over the last few years. Anyway, that’s my reason for doing it. Nothing serious, nothing profound. It was really just a random thing.

It is during this time that they get in touch with someone like me. And for some inexplicable reason, what they write to me consist of the following or similar:

“gud pm poh pd poh kyo interbyu para klase namn plsss poh babagsak kmi pag di poh”

What the fuck is this? What the FUCK?!

Although I can understand this shit quite perfectly, I never entertain the request. I do either one of two things. One, I ignore the email completely. And two, if I’m in a particularly bad mood like I was tonight, I tell the student off and ask what the hell his school has been teaching him. Either way, you never get what you want from me. I do the latter more and more now as I get older.

I don’t apologize for being too harsh. I think students need a wake up call, and if it comes from me (and they end up hating me all their lives), then so be it.

I remember my own wake up call when I was barely out of high school when I made a request inappropriately to someone I was asking assistance from. The person taught me a lesson on the spot in front of my other classmates, and I went home not getting what I needed. It was harsh and embarrassing, but I never forgot it. I still feel the sting of it today. But I learned, and I never made the same mistake again.

Teachers, please teach your students the proper way of communicating with potential resource persons. Back in school we were taught this. Is this still being taught now? And if it is, are your students listening? And students, are you taking all this seriously? Are you taking school seriously at all?

Capitalize the beginning of sentences, names and proper words. Spell your words right and write your letter well (or at the very least show some effort in writing your letter well). Introduce yourself properly. Write down your school and your purpose for writing. Be courteous and respectful. Never write anything like “please do this or we will fail” because that’s blackmail and I don’t respond well to it. Write your real name and not some stupid Internet handle.

Better yet, OK, don’t learn it from school. Wait and learn it from ME. It is a lesson you will never forget ever again.

It all really began in October of 2009 when projects that I had been working on for years finally came out. The ELMER collected edition, which I started working on in early 2006 finally came out. “Where Bold Stars Go To Die”, a story I wrote in 2000 which struggled to find the right artist came out at the same time. And the digital restoration, compilation and republication of Francisco V. Coching’s “EL INDIO”, which my studio had been working on since 2004 finally came out as well.

I immediately started sending ELMER out to editors, writers, artists, journalists, reviewers and publishers abroad. I felt that Elmer could have a life outside of the country. I had nothing to lose anyway except shipping expenses. Of course, I hadn’t realized that postal rates had quadrupled in the last few years. Sending one copy of the collected Elmer set me back around 500 pesos, which is worth more than twice the book costs. INSANE. I was used to losing money to the post office anyway, ever since I started sending submissions to Marvel on a regular basis starting 1986. Such expenses are part of the process, I guess. Most of the time you don’t get a return on it, but to get a return on it at least once, all of the trouble and expense becomes worthwhile.

Very soon I had TWO publishers who wanted to publish Elmer. One was SLG in the US, and the second was Editions çà et là in France. I almost didn’t get the latter one because of the freakish nature of the Internet. The email from the editor found itself in the spam folder of my email. If I deleted my spam unread, there would be no French edition of Elmer. But thankfully enough, it’s become a habit of mine to check the spam folder regularly. Thank goodness!

I spent the entire 2010 waiting in excitement for the release of Elmer abroad. Both of them eventually came out in November. Wait, rewind. Let me go back to January.

Philip Tan had a wedding on January 9! Superstar Marvel and DC penciller Philip Tan was in town and got married at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros.

I like weddings. Well, I like weddings now. I used to hate them back when I was Wasted. Nowadays, I love them. There’s something about new beginnings that hold so much potential and promise. In attendance was future president of the Philippines, Jiggy Cruz. Well, Jiggy will probably freak when he reads that, but I can see into the future. (Well actually I don’t.) I just like saying it.

February wasn’t very good. Actually it was pretty bad. It’s the only truly bad thing to happen in 2010, and it’s a big one.

My good friend Arlan Esmeña passed away on February 18 due to cancer. He passed away less than a year after he found out he was sick. Towards the end, he mounted an incredible effort and drew “Where Bold Stars Go To Die” from start to finish where he displayed an outstanding growth as an artist. We lost in incredibly good artist that day, and I lost what I realized was my best friend.

The night of February 18 I was on the air at NU107, on the program RockEd Radio to promote the Renaissance comics event. I was touched when they dedicated the show to Arlan, and I broke down when I spoke about him.

Photo by Anvil.

The Renaissance event was held a few days later on February 21. It was a special event to launch the Renaissance book, part of the proceeds of the sales would go to benefit Komikeros in need. Little did I know that the earnings of the sketching sessions would go to Arlan’s family, which touched me incredibly.

Early that month, on February 13, the first Comics Convention in Los Baños was held, the Komikstrip event, co-organized by good pal Jonas Diego. Sputnik! in Cubao X had a grand relaunch on February 6. I attended both events. Arlan almost attended the Sputnik! relaunch, but was too sick at St. Lukes Hospital a few kilometers away to make it. Instead, he signed 20 copies of Bold Star on his hospital bed. Looking at those autographs, you would never know Arlan was sick.

March was interesting. It was the month Lolcat came into our lives.

Lolcat is this stray tabby cat who wandered into our backyard while he was in heat. I distracted him with food, and he stayed.

I met and hugged Neil Gaiman.

And that wasn’t so easy. I’ve wanted to meet Neil Gaiman since he came to visit the Philippines in 2005. I stood in line for 9 hours just to get his autograph at Greenhills, but I never got a chance to talk to him. I’ve been sending him Elmer through the mail because I was genuinely curious as to what he thought about it. If he didn’t like it, I would gladly accept it. But I was ecstatic to learn that he did, through a post card that he sent. When he came back to do a series of signings in 2010, I racked my brain for ways to hand him the collected Elmer book, as well as talk to him. Not fleeting small talk, but really talk to him. When I was invited to judge the Neil Gaiman and Fully Booked’s Graphic Fiction awards, I accepted right away because I knew I would get to meet Neil properly. It was so awesome finally meeting one of your heroes. I didn’t wash for days after.

In March, the Province of Laguna gave me this thing.

“Gawad Pinakamaningning na Alagad ng Singing” para sa Sining Biswal.

Now I didn’t want to say what it was when it first happened back in March so people won’t have the opportunity to protest. ha!ha!ha! (Little inside joke there.)

Also, the dirt road outside was finally paved with concrete. FINALLY. It’s election period that’s why. However, they didn’t bother to finish it. There’s some five meters more of dirt road between this concrete road and the road outside. Magnificent.

In April I finally got my life long wish. Playboy Philippines visited me to yeah, take pictures of my naked body for the entire country to see. No they didn’t. They just came to talk to me about comics. They did take my photo, but they balked when I hinted I wanted to show some skin.

April 17 was Summer Komikon!

Photo by Roi Fernandez.

Much thanks to Oscar Gailan, Timawa superfan! Now I really don’t like using the word “fan”. I’ve never used it before to refer to anyone who likes my work. I don’t know. I just don’t like to. I only use it this time because Oscar really really likes Timawa. As in I’ve never met anyone else who likes Timawa as much as he does. At almost every event he brings along stacks of The Buzz Magasin for me to sign and I love doing it, not just for Timawa but for any other work of mine anyone else would bring. I never sell my original art (Timawa, Elmer, Humanis Rex, Johnny Balbona), but for Oscar I’ll gladly make an exception.

May was extraordinary. Easily one of the best months of the year for me because I got to act in a short film!

Photo by Jonas Diego.
Teenage Heartthrob, that’s me!

“Tin-tin, 15″ is a short drama film, directed by Lem Garcellano (Batibot) where I got to play a bad guy. A really bad corrupt cop type guy who likes em ladies! Oh yeah!

It was shot for 3 days here in San Pablo, and I was there on the location for 2 days. I probably would not have been able to participate had it been shot elsewhere. It was a long and exhausting two days. We were there from morning up until around 4 in the morning. I would go home, and return early afternoon, and be on hand to shoot, this time well into 5 in the morning.

I was there for only two days, but I was able to form friendships with a few people who I’m still good friends with today. There’s something about intense experiences like that that tend to leave an indelible mark that you carry with you for a long time.

Hot on the heels of Laguna, San Pablo City also gave me this thing on May 7:

As with the Laguna thing, what makes me happy about things like this that I was given the opportunity to do my parents proud. For many years I went around with a cloud over my head believing I had let my parents down for seriously pursuing a career in art. There were definitely moments in the past that I can consider low points in my relationship with my parents because of the decisions I’ve made. I’m old and mature enough now to know that they were only so passionate about what they wanted for me because they didn’t want me growing up destitute and regretful of my youthful and immature decisions.

I’m at least very glad that I had the chance to show them that I knew what I was doing and I knew what I wanted in life. Even if they were wary of my decisions, they nevertheless supported me in the end and it is really for them these recognitions are for rather than for me.

By this time I was back fully into inking comics with Ultimate Comics Avengers and later on Superior, both with Leinil Francis Yu. After being away from inking for years, I realized I had missed it a lot. I also realized how much more detailed Leinil’s pencils had become. While they looked spectacular, it took me longer to ink each page compared to say, a typical page of Superman: Birthright. But nevertheless, it’s a job I love having and love doing.

It was also around this time I realized that I was really getting old. I had hit 40 a couple of years ago, and like turning on a light switch, my eyesight suddenly became blurry. I can still see perfectly when I look around me. It’s just when I read or draw, anything really close to my eyes tend to become blurred. I was aghast. I thought I just need to rest my eyes, wash my face, take a nap or something like that. But no, my eyesight has indeed decreased. I went to an eye doctor and I was prescribed reading glasses. The results were stunning to say the least. Once I put those glasses on, my eyes can suddenly see clearly. I swear, I can see more clearly now with these glasses than I could see before. It’s like lines in front of my eyes become magnified somehow, and I’m actually inking better because of it.

Towards the end of May I decided find happiness in everything I do.

Nothing much happened in June. Well, I did waste time at an event in Manila and was kind of surly during my short stay. This is the second instance my time was wasted in this way and I’m no longer waiting for a third. However, I did get to hang out with a good friend who I don’t get to see all that often nowadays.

June also saw the first public showing of “Tin-Tin, 15″ at Mogwai, Cubao X.

July brought with it one of the biggest surprises of my life. I was invited to give a talk on comics at St. Paul University in Manila. I thought I’d just give a talk and go, but it turns out it was something so much more.

The students were actually cosplaying my characters! It was amazing! I actually got kind of teary eyed at some point.

August was Metro Comicon and I was stunned at the reception us artists got at our panel.

On January 2009, I uploaded this seemingly innocent video on You Tube:

For more than a year it sat at You Tube, content but almost forgotten with a couple of hundred views. I myself had forgotten all about it. By 2010 my interest in making videos on You Tube was kind of waning, specially since comics was making me a little too busy to make them as regularly as I once did.

Suddenly, for some weird reason, views for the video skyrocketed overnight. I didn’t notice it at first. Then someone downloaded it, reuploaded it at Facebook, and retitled it “Lakas Tama ni Manong”. Since Facebook doesn’t count views there’s no way to know how many times it was viewed, the comments nevertheless reached the thousands. I was flabbergasted. In the meantime, insanely enough, the video reached a million views on You Tube. Crazy! By the end of 2010, it’s gotten more than 2.5 million views at YouTube! Bizzarro world!

The thing pretty much evolved a life of its own. I’ve received emails from people telling me that it’s been shown on TV in the UK, Spain, France, Japan and so on. A Japanese TV station even sent a director here to the house to interview me for an entire day about the video and about my comics.

Here’s a video from Fox News:

It was getting so insane that people were recognizing me at SM when I wanted to hang out and relax with the wife. It’s died down a bit, and I’m just so relieved because I didn’t want it to start getting in the way of doing comics. I’ve had to decline another visit from another local station because those things just take too much time. And lately, I really don’t have that much time to spare. There’s really just so much work to be done.

September saw me and Ilyn taking a trip to Cebu! We went there for vacation, but at the same time we went there for the first Cebu Comics Convention!

Photo by Carlo Pagulayan.
With JOHN AMOR.

In October, my mom cooked her specialties for Ilyn’s birthday!

Kulawo. San Pablo specialty.

Ampalaya Salad. Always becomes everyone’s favorite!

The end of the year was just pretty much me burying myself in work. I didn’t even go to the 6th Annual Komikon in November because I had to stay home and ink. It’s the first time I ever missed a Komikon and I missed it. I monitored uploads and status updates from Facebook and Twitter all day from people who went just to be updated what was going on.

ELMER finally came out in the US and Europe during the second half of November. I was extremely nervous because I had no idea how it would be received. At the same time I was also paranoid because I didn’t want SLG and Editions çà et là to regret having published my book because it bombed. I believed in my comic book though. I worked hard for a couple of years to make it the best I could possibly make it. I had no regrets and there’s not a single page I simply hacked out. Of course, there are things I see now that I want to change, but it’s too late for that, and there comes a time I have to move on or else I’ll never get things done.

Thankfully enough, the reviews have been quite positive. Massive relief. Already, SLG and Editions çà et là are asking what other books I have that they can take a look at.

Christmas Day is family reunion time!

My nephew Robin (the one in black next to me) is such a huge comic book fan. I gave him a three-story volume of The Adventures of Tintin and he flipped. He’s a hardcore Tintin fan now. He’s about the same age I was when I was flipping out myself on Tintin.

December 28 was our 8th wedding anniversary.

We planned on a massive date which involved Tagaytay, Mushroom Burgers and Ferris Wheels at Enchanted Kingdom, but the van we were to rent broke down so we settled for a massive date right here in San Pablo.

First we went on a window shopping spree at SM San Pablo, then we had a long walk at Sampalok Lake, and then we spent early evening and had dinner at Ultimart.

In the end it didn’t matter where we were, as long as we were together.