October 15, 2011

May 2010 on the set of Tin-tin, 15

Workwise, it’s been just fantastic. Marvel’s been keeping me really busy with the inking job. I’ve been working on Ultimate Avengers, and then currently Superior, and I was also able to ink a few pages of the upcoming Fantastic Four #600.

Working on Superior is great, but I can’t help but get a fanboy tingle when I inked those characters in Fantastic Four. I don’t want to say what that character is, because they may be keeping that under wraps, but it’s pretty awesome.

Of course, my pride and joy will always be ELMER. I really can’t believe the recognition this thing has gotten this year. An Eisner nomination, and Award in France, and a couple more nominations in other comics and sci fi festivals in Europe. And now National Book Store has published a second Philippine edition. Nevertheless, I wish it would sell much better, as the recognition it has gotten doesn’t seem to be in direct proportion to sales, as my publishers in the US and Europe have told me.

From the beginning up to now, there has been resistance from people to read it inspite of the reviews it has gotten. Most of the feedback I get is that people are turned off by animal comics, or that it’s chickens and they think it’s funny animals. I even read one review where this guy, after much hemming and hawing, finally borrowed Elmer from his local library, dumped it in his car and forgot about it until the library came calling looking for it. He found it under the seat of the car, soaked with water. He then had to buy a replacement and keep the soiled copy. After he finally owned it, he decided to read it, and he really liked it.

I read other similar reviews where people were hesitant to read it for one reason or another, and kept putting it off, until after finally reading it, they found that they really liked it.

I guess I’ve come to accept that Elmer is just the slow burn kind of thing… which is just OK. It’s like cooking. My favorite technique in cooking has always been to boil the meat for a long time under low heat. That means I usually start cooking earlier, but it’s really worth it.

Photo by Aileen Apolo

The other night I attended the Official You Tube Philippines Launch at White Space in Makati. I wanted to go because You Tube has been a large part of my life for many years now. I have like 480 videos up at You Tube, 440 of them public. One of those videos exploded last year and went viral, and made my face a regular sight on Tumblr and other places.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I went to the launch. I figure I’d see a lot of the other Filipinos creating videos on You Tube, some of whom I should be familiar with. But that really didn’t happen. I did see a lot of Google people. And I did see what may probably be the most popular Philippine based You Tubers, Moymoy Palaboy, but I didn’t recognize a lot of the others. I had wanted to talk to someone about an issue I have with You Tube where my Hey Baby! video was cited for copyright violation. Apparently, You Tube thinks it’s owned by ABS-CBN. It hasn’t been resolved yet as of now.

I did see Aileen Apolo, who also does videos on You Tube, as well as old pals Jonas Diego and Budjette Tan, who also upload videos up at You Tube. I did enjoy the bands that performed. Seeing Moymoy Palaboy doing their schtick live was weird. That kind of stuff works online, but I’m not sure if it works live. The roast pig was great.

I couldn’t stay too long though, as the place didn’t have chairs. Hehe. Events like these are for people younger than me. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it. It was nice to get out like that.

Comments are momentarily disabled as I try to figure out what’s wrong with the commenting system. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Noticing a lack of audio podcasts on the subject of Philippine Komiks, Johnny Danganan, Jonas Diego and I decided to do what we hope to be are weekly one hour weekly podcasts. Podcasts were difficult for us to do before (we have done several in the past) because we had to meet to do them. Nowadays, all three of us have Skype and we figured we can all do it remotely. Instead of the rambling podcasts we used to do, we hope this one will have a definite structure and programming.

We will feature almost exclusively Philippine made comics since there’s hardly any podcasts out there on this subject matter. Sometimes we could probably talk about Marvel and DC stuff that were written, illustrated, or colored by Filipinos, as well.

The podcasts are created solely to promote and talk about Filipino made komiks, and are not meant to offer hard hitting critical analysis of local releases (someone else can probably do that). But we will try to be fair, and offer congratulations or constructive criticism accordingly. To avoid offending anyone, we will simply not talk about komiks we didn’t like, and only talk about komiks we did like. But take note that if we don’t talk about your comic book, it may be just because we haven’t read it yet. Rest assured that if we read it and liked it, we will talk about it.

This will be an all Tagalog podcast.

We begin on May 6, 2011 and every Friday afterwards! Excited! Yeah!

Over the last day alone, two separate people wrote to me asking a different question each. I answered both questions directly. They both responded with thanks, but proceeded to ask the same questions again. I’m like WTF? Didn’t these people READ my response to them? Did they even see or even comprehend the words? The answers to their questions are RIGHT THERE in my response. I know they saw them because they confirmed they got the message.

Complete head scratching moment here.

pfft. Bad day. Don’t ask.

KOMIKON 2010 – Nov 13, 2010
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32099&id=129669377054175

Selected tweets:

jiggycruz Jiggy Cruz
Came from the 6th KOMIKON at Starmall. Congrats to the organizers! Huge success! Daming tao!

comicbiography Jose Gamboa
is overwhelmed with the crowd here at the Komikon 2010!

callouscomics Carlo Jose San Juan
Had a blast at Komikon!

HubPacheco Hub Pacheco
1st issue of WIPCOMICS is sold out, but The FUDGE shirt is still in stock! Awyeah! komikon 2010! :D

anitero Paolo Chikiamco
just left #komikon -full of people. Good to see indies out of copies. Manix can really draw a crowd. Havent seen that knd of line in a while

zenjamibu Jan Buensuceso
So many people at the komikon venue right now.

Photo by Jonas Diego

Photos from Rocket Kapre
http://rocketkapre.livejournal.com/76030.html

Gio Paredes
Photos and Videos
http://gioparedes.blogspot.com/2010/11/just-got-back-fromo-komikon-2010.html
More Photos from Komikon
http://gioparedes.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-pictures-from-komikon-2010.html

Photos and Coverage from Geekmatic!
http://geekmatic.blogspot.com/2010/11/emerging-success-of-komikon-2010.html

Photos from Anitero
http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv199/Anitero/Komikon%202010/

Photos from Macoy
http://mcoy.blogspot.com/2010/11/november-komikon-2010-starmall.html

Photos and coverage from Marialuna13
http://marialuna13.livejournal.com/6211.html

Photos and Coverage from Michael Buntag
Part 1
http://nonsensicalwords.blogspot.com/2010/11/komikon-2010-part-1.html
Part 2
http://nonsensicalwords.blogspot.com/2010/11/komikon-2010-part-2.html

Photos from Decafclub
http://decafclub.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/6th-komikon-2010-short-update/

Photos from Callous Comics
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=248036&id=124724964411&ref=mf

10 Things about Komikon 2010 and Why It was a Hit
by Andrew Villar
http://ambush007.multiply.com/journal/item/103/10_Things_About_KOMIKON_2010_Why_it_was_for_me_a_hit

Komikon 2010 Report
by Hazel Manzano
http://callworkcomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/komiikon-2010.html

Komikon: A Few Notes and Observations
from Komiks Advocate
http://komiksadvocate.blogspot.com/2010/11/komikon-few-notes-and-observations.html

Fit to Post: The 6th Komikon
by Jiggy Cruz
http://ph.yfittopostblog.com/2010/11/15/the-6th-komikon/

Video by frbarba

My Komikon 2010 Experience!
by Martin Jimenez
http://proud2begeek.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-komikon-2010-experience.html

An Assessment of Komikon 2010
by Paolo Chikiamco
http://www.thepoc.net/thepoc-features/metakritiko/metakritiko-features/10263-an-assessment-of-komikon-2010.html

Komikon 2010: Second Sulyap Panel (end)
by rocketkapre

My Komikon Experience. Whoa!
by Carlo Jose San Juan, MD
http://www.callouscomics.com/blog/my-2010-komikon-experience-whoa-

AstigTV Photo Gallery
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23034&id=117983178258139&ref=mf

I was supposed to be a speaker on DAY 2 where I will discuss how self publishers can survive in the Digital Age. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond my control have forced me to bow out of the conference. It was a difficult decision to make because there were plenty of things I wanted to say, specially in a program that made it seem that going digital was a forgone conclusion. I felt it was an obligation for me to offer a dissenting voice.

Nevertheless, below is the complete transcript of the talk that I would have had.

**********************

Komikero Publishing’s Survival Plan in the Digital Age
by Gerry Alanguilan

I have been self publishing my own comic books for the last 12 years. I started out as many comics people are starting out today….by making multiple photocopies of our work and then sell them ourselves. There are many ways to do this. We can deliver copies to sympathetic stores and comic book stores, sell them at local comics conventions, or sell them via mail.

In recent years I decided to legally establish my own publishing company, the sole purpose of which is to publish work that I wrote and/or drew. Instead of photocopy I went to an actual printing press. My output is sparse, with just one or two comic books a year since 2006. It is by no means something I can exclusively make a living out of, but I can honestly say that through selling the book myself, each publication has been quite profitable in comparison to the money I spend in printing them.

As early as the year 2000, I have been encountering furious discussions on the viability of online comics as a commercial enterprise. Over the years, the discussions have grown to include downloadable comics for reading on portable readers like the Kindle or the iPad. Advocates of digital comics have been quite vocal, I have discovered, and I am very sure there are many of you are here in this audience right now.

I have heard all the arguments. While it’s cool to have an actual copy of a book in your hands to see and smell, such attachments to tangibility is a characteristic that only the increasingly old may have. The younger generation are growing up without actual books so reading online or on a portable gadget won’t be a problem for them. In fact, entire libraries can fit into one of these gadgets giving more space in your house, and in your luggage when you travel. Now this all makes perfect sense, and I’m not here to argue the point.

As a self publisher in this increasingly digital age, how can I possibly survive? I have several answers for this.

Take note that I am speaking only for myself, as publisher and owner of what I consider to be a specialty publishing company, releasing only one or two books a year. What I say may not be applicable to bigger publishers and my experience cannot speak for those that are.

I honestly and truly believe that a third world country like the Philippines won’t be doing away with print books and publications anytime within the next 10 years. Because most of us, if not all of us here in this conference are most likely online, and we are in touch with the biggest and latest news in terms of publishing from abroad, I think we may be getting a skewed notion that all THAT is applicable here in the Philippines as well. Countries like the US or Japan can afford to go digital because majority of their population can afford it. Here in the Philippines, does anyone actually believe that the typical Pedro on the street who can barely make enough money to buy newspapers will be able to buy an iPad or any similar gadget, no matter how less expensive it may be, within the next 10 years, or even 15 years? I seriously doubt it.

Print publications here in the Philippines still has a long way to go yet, I believe. I am 42 years old now. Personally, I doubt that digital will overtake print in this country even within my lifetime. So why would I waste the time I have left in this world chasing after a market that will never be truly widespread until I die? It does not make any business sense.

So as a publisher, I will continue to have my comics printed, and will resist any suggestion to do otherwise.

Of course, I could be wrong. I could be devastatingly wrong. In 15 years, I might be out there, pan handling like a bum in the middle of Quiapo as the executives, students, cops, fortune tellers, florists, evangelists, dried fish vendors and takatak boys blissfully pass by with their iPads and Kindles.

But what is publication but a risk? As publishers, we are ALL taking a risk with the books we publish. As a publisher in the Philippines, to be specific… as a small time specialty Publisher… it is with print comics that I place my bets.

Let us say I was proven completely wrong and the Philippines has indeed gone digital in the near future (if not already) I will nevertheless still continue to have my comic books printed. I will still continue to do it, frustrating the naysayers no end until they scratch their heads and exasperatedly exclaim, “Why don’t you just die?!”

I won’t be doing this out of spite (perhaps partly I will), but only because I love print books. I love making them. And in the future, I really believe a few people will still feel the same way about books as I do.

Indeed, since I, and perhaps a couple of other people will be the only ones left doing it, our work will then become much more valuable. Imagine it. In an almost completely digital world, only a few rare individuals still create their comic books in print. We become a novelty, that’s true, but even among the young generation and the generations that will follow, there will be those who will be looking for the tangible thing. As many things from the old world fade and disappear, I believe the more we as human beings will value them. I’d like to think that I’ll be that TV repairman who still makes housecalls. I’ll be that crotchety old man whose job it is to repair typewriters. I’ll be the old school hippie selling vinyl records. I’ll be that curmudgeonly old shoemaker on the far side of town who will still measure your feet to make you shoes. I’ll be that weirdo who still writes letters by hand and sends them through the post office, no matter how expensive it is. I’ll be that grumpy old man in San Pablo City who draws on paper and prints his comics.

I am, by no means, a complete luddite. I have uploaded a few of my comics online and I have used the Internet considerably to promote my publications. In fact, online promotion has been a major part of my marketing strategy.

WASTED is the title of a comic book that I created from 1994 to 1996. It has gone through several editions in print, the first edition coming out in 1998 through Alamat Comics. In 2000 it was serialized for several months in Pulp Magazine. In 2002, Pulp Magazine published another compiled edition. A few years later, Wasted went out of print. In 2007, I decided to upload Wasted completely online, including a DVD-like commentary for each page at Webcomicsnation.com. It allowed a lot more people to read it, specially those from abroad.

But then, a strange thing happened. I still get letters and emails to this day from people looking for copies of Wasted. I always point out that they can read the entire thing for FREE online. The reaction is almost unanimous and immediate: No, we want to buy the print edition. There is not a comics convention that goes by (and believe it or not, we have something like six or seven of those a year here in the Philippines) that people don’t ask me for a copy of Wasted. The demand has grown so much that I’ve put it in the front burner of my company’s publishing schedule.

My other book ELMER was published through my own Komikero Publishing in 4 issues from 2006 to 2008. The first issue very quicky sold out. And when it did, I digitized it and uploaded it online as both as one HTML file where you can read it in one go, and as a downloadable Comic Book Reader file. FOR FREE. My purpose for doing so was to encourage people to buy the rest of the series in print, and the compiled edition which came out in 2009.

To further entice people to buy the printed comics, I collaborated with my wife’s paper crafting company to create a limited edition ELMER Box Sets which included a hardbound hand crafted copy of Elmer 1-4, photographs, facsimile of some of the objects found in the story, one piece of original artwork, and a certificate of authenticity. These are things that cannot be reproduced digitally, but can be created simply by hand. The minute I made the announcement on my blog about the existence of these box sets, I never had the opportunity to sell them at our local conventions because reservations for it came pouring in through email and quickly sold out.

Inspired by the success of the Elmer Box Sets, I am now currently planning what the WASTED special edition set will contain when I publish a new edition of it next year.

The next book I will publish is entitled “The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Doctor Rizal”. To encourage people to buy the print edition, I will be taking another risk and print it in a large format, with a width of 9 and half inches and height of 12 inches. Each copy will be hardcover, full color and printed on matte paper. Unless one has a large vertical monitor, the reader will not be able to fully appreciate the comic book in a digital format.

As a print publisher, I use the latest technologies to promote the work I do that’s available in print. I think it’s the perfect compromise between my personal sensibilities towards print publications, and the undeniable impact that the digital age has brought.

In spite of what I said earlier, I well and truly believe that digital books will and can exist side by side with print books and that both will flourish, and sometimes even complement each other. Not all people are created the same. Not all people will go digital, and not all people will be reading books in print. As we go slowly towards that day, I sincerely believe that technology, as well as us human beings, will find our proper places naturally through evolution and experimentation, and we will find there is a place for everyone, print and digital books alike.

At 42 minutes, Three Days is a not so short film that my friends Maya Salas, Jonas Diego, Johnny Danganan, and dog Boney helped me make during periods when I wasn’t working on my comics stuff. Thanks guys! I shot it over the past couple of months, doing a few minutes here and there.

Ok, it didn’t work as an April Fool’s gag, but I guess I knew it would be pretty obvious. I did plan it well in advance, even disappearing from my usual online haunts for a couple of weeks before April 1 just to help sell the gag. Even though I knew everyone would get it right away (you guys expect me to do something foolish this time of year after all), it was nevertheless a really fun thing to do.

Click below for the Three Days Official Site, where you can watch the not so short film in its entirety.

THREE DAYS Short Film
http://threedays.tk
Directed by Gerry Alanguilan
with Malaya Salas, Jonas Diego, Johnny Danganan and Boney

At first I didn’t realize I was doing it, but then it occurred to me that I was actually doing a rather loose film adaptation of my own comic book story “ATAKE!”, which came out in Sindak! Horror-Thriller Magazine, published by ABS-CBN Publishing in 2008.

I’ll be selling DVDs of this at Summer Komikon, which would include a few additional features like interviews with Maya, Jonas and Johnny, outtakes and bloopers.

That said, Happy Birthday to my mother in law, as well as Gilbert Monsanto!

DUH?!!

UPDATE! The OLX site has since taken down the item. Good for you OLX! However, the person who is selling Wasted is still offering unauthorized copies of Wasted for sale at his site here:
http://ebooksgalore.tk/

Hackers! Do your stuff!

The video is funny, but the subject matter not so much. The fate of newspapers is pretty grim. We don’t feel it yet here in the Philippines, but technologically advanced countries like the US do. Newspapers have closed, and creative people are getting laid off slowly but surely. Some publications have gone web-only.

But HOLD THE PRESSES! I think I may have a solution! Oh ho yes, I do!

What if, in the future, print newspapers become completely “print on demand”? Newspaper dispensers in the street wouldn’t contain newspapers but a printer and a whole lotta paper. If someone wants a print version of the newspaper, they can just get one from the dispenser.

BUT HERE’S WHAT’S INTERESTING!

The dispenser/printer prints only the most up to date news, depending on what time of day you buy the newspaper. Let’s say there’s a developing story, like an Election where results are coming in all day. You buy a newspaper at 10am and you get the results that are currently available at 10am. When you buy the newspaper at 3pm, you get the results that are currently available at 3pm.

Feature articles, reviews,cartoons, editorials, etc. get a maximum life of like 24 hours before being replaced, but news change minute by minute, second by second.

The newspaper you get may well be different from the newspaper the guy ahead in line got just a few seconds before!

In this setup, only those who want print will get theirs in print, while those who want to read it online can still continue to read it online.

Hey, you heard it here first!!

No anonymous comments means no anonymous comments. No code names. No pseudonyms. No handles, except unless I know you personally. This is NOT a joke.

Stop being puzzled. Work it out in your head. CAREFULLY. You’ll get it eventually.

But for a couple of days I’ve had a chance to really rest, but not quite. Even lying down I came up with comics ideas and one that amused me (and Ilyn) the most was one with the title “Captain Noah and the Battle Ark”, complete with Battlejeeps and Trike-Cruisers. I’ve been puttering with the idea of a huge ark in space for quite some time, not realizing that it had been done many times before. So that’s why Leinil yawned at an ARK idea I had a while back. But this one I came up with sounds really fun, and its going to be for kids. Once again, it’s another idea that goes into the big black book, and as to when I actually start work on it (if I ever do), it won’t be for a long long time.

Lying down I also got a bit of a chance to read. Budjette Tan had given me a copy of WISDOM, written by Paul Cornell. Now I’m a huge fan of Paul Cornell because of his stories for Doctor Who. I thought his writing on Wisdom was terrific and it made me want to start collecting his stories.

I also read a magazine on Genealogy, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, published by the BBC, and it’s made me interested in finding the roots of my own family. It may be difficult as there might have been a couple of undocumented name changes in our past that could obscure accuracy. But still, it might be interesting just what I would find investigating our old church records and what it would say about our family.

I also listened to a few podcasts I downloaded into this neat little gadget that Ilyn bought me for my birthday. I’d been hankering for this thing for several years now and I’m glad to say we could finally afford to get it. So I downloaded a few episodes of Comic Geek Speak, which I’ve been listening to on and off for the last few years. Only now did I stumble into an episode that featured “Uncle Sal”, apparently a recurring guest on the show who is much enjoyed. Me, I was laughing my head off the entire time. This guy is hysterical. Politically incorrect, inappropriate, but just absolutely hysterical.

I’m kinda worried for my friend Arlan, whom many of you know as the artist of “Where Bold Stars Go To Die”. It seems his illness has gotten a bit worse. To those out there who believe in a God, please pray for him, and even if you don’t, if you could just send good vibes his way or leave messages for him at his Facebook page, I think it would be great. We are of course, still holding on to hope that Arlan will be with us for many more years to come.