Waking up Saturday morning and seeing the sun shine all my worries about the day disappeared. Normally, I’m a worrier, but I just let it go. Whatever happens will happen. If it rains, whatever, I’ll just sing. lalala. It did drizzle a bit, but thankfully it was short and in the end, I think we all had a really nice time!

Organizers Jonas Diego and Johnny Danganan organize the chairs.

Komiks Illustrator Jun Lofamia and his illustration.

The Great Manix Abrera’s fans arrived first!

Comic Odyssey

Alexis Ravana, winner of the art contest, Young Adults category.

My mom at the art exhibit.

Ner Pedrina, Rommel Estanislao, Freely Abrigo

Mel Casipit, Jon Zamar, Sherry Zamar, Ariel Atienza

Gio Paredes and the just released Kalayaan TPB!

Komiks Veterans Jun Lofamia and Danny Acuña were mobbed!

Jun Lofamia

Danny Acuña sketches.

Arhitect and Komiks Illustrator Marivi Hilos-Nepomuceno and special guest Pol Medina

My parents.

Marvel superstar artist Carlo Pagulayan and Marivi

With Pol Medina, Kajo Baldisimo and Carlo judging the art contest.

Acoustic music from local San Pablo talents Walk Me Home.

With much thanks to the Ultimart Shopping Plaza and the San Pablo Chapter of the United Architects of the Philippines for their generous support of the event!

Thanks also to Comic Odyssey, Fun House (Ultimart), Expressions (Ultimart), and Electro Magnetic Tentacle for their generous donations!

Link coverage as they come.

Click for Super Large Image

YES! The 3rd San Pablo City Comics Festival is finally happening. You may recall the first festival happened in 2003 at the Mariño Residence along Sampalok Lake. The second one in 2009 at Lion’s Club, also along Sampalok Lake.

This year, we’re changing venues once again, emphasizing another San Pablo landmark, the Ultimart Shopping Center. Long time residents of San Pablo cherish Ultimart as their very own mall. Recent renovations make it one of the best places for residents to hang out with its new pleasant design, excellent restaurants and shops.

The San Pablo City Comics Festival is presented by KOMIKERO Publishing and JONASDIEGO.COM in cooperation with the KOMIKERO Artist Group and the Graphic Literature Guild (GLG) of UPLB. Well,I guess I’m more of a figurehead than anything else. It’s Jonas Diego and his group that’s doing most of the legwork in the organization of this event, with me helping out in bits here and there. This festival is made possible by the incredible generosity and support of Ultimart itself, and the United Architects of the Philippines, San Pablo Chapter.

Special Guests include Pugad Baboy creator Pol Medina, and Kikomachine creator Manix Abrera.

For more information on this event including activities, contests, maps on how to get there, please head on over the official festival site below:

The 3rd San Pablo Comics Festival Website
http://sanpablocomicsfestival.blogspot.com/

Facebook Event Page. Click if you’re going! Thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/events/301393093220449/

National Book Store will be sending copies of ELMER 2nd Edition, and it will be sold at the Komikero Publishing table.

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

Stalwarts of local comics hold 3rd Comics Festival in Laguna
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekspeak/stalwarts-local-comics-hold-3rd-comics-festival-laguna-155442489.html

Ed talks about his current work, his side business, and the taggers on Facebook.

In this podcast I also review Carlo Vergara’s ZsaZsa Zaturnnah: Sa Kalakhang Maynila: Special Preview, as well as Andrew Villar’s Hari. I also talk about Free Comic Book Day, Metro Comic-Con as well as the hot flaming topic of the day: The National Artist Issue.

For a backgrounder of the National Artist Issue, click here.

UNWANTED: The Komikero Artists Group Podcast #1: All By Myself
Download audio file (komikeropodcast01.mp3)
36 Minutes. 33MB Download mp3 here.
Podcast is in Tagalog and English.

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!

It’s a couple of days late (I had to finish off killing, I mean inking a Superhero), but here it is, my photo blitzkreig of the 3rd Summer Komikon held at the Bayanihan Center in Pasig, Metro Manila, last April 16, 2011. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to shoot the video as I was planning, but I did take a lot of photos.

Ariel Atienza

Andrew Villar

The Komikero Artists Group

Robert Magnuson (center) and the Polyhedron Comics Gang

Danny Acuña

Johnny Danganan and Jonas Diego with some awesome Jun Lofamia art.

Jun Lofamia, Rico Rival, and Danny Acuña

Budjette Tan

Paolo Fabregas (who launched The Filipino Heroes League) and Carlo Vergara

Women Cartoonists Panel

Tony and Tina De Zuniga

Johnny Danganan, Heubert Khan Michael and Harvey Tolibao

These artists were at the Komikero table sketching for a cause. Donations go to help fund school supplies for school children in Mindanao. More than 5,000 Pesos was raised! That’s awesome guys! Later, Edgar Tadeo came in and donated two original artworks inked by him and pencilled by Whilce Portacio, raising another 6,000 pesos!

Gilbert and Glenda Monsanto. The foundation upon which Bayan Knights stand!

Melvin Calingo, Michael David and Jon Zamar

See? We’re all friends here.

With Carlo Vergara and Zara Macandili

More Summer Komikon coverage:
Jonas Diego
Rocket Kapre
Johnny Danganan
Hazel Manzano
Beerkada
Reimaru
Slangards
Budjette Tan
Gio Paredes
Impulse Blogging
Daily Mr. Sao

What can I say? It was starting to get ridiculous you know? Every year I do an April Fool’s Gag right on this day for the past 6 years or so. It’s become a tradition. The bad thing about traditions is people start to expect it. Whatever I do or say on April 1 on this blog is immediately met with suspicion. I guess it’s my own fault.

So I upped the ante. It was like a dare to me. All these people who say they know what I’m going to do… it was a challenge to me to do something that will get them. GET THEM HARD.

So I hatched an elaborate plan with good pals (yes, good pals) Johnny Danganan and Jonas Diego to make this year’s April Fool’s gag very memorable. People will hate us, I know, but it will be memorable. What we planned was so epic that we dare not show our hand so obviously so early.

And so I did TWO April Fool’s Gags. One fake April Fool’s Gag on midnight, making people think it’s the one I’m going to do. At the same time, our main gag has already been in progress for the past few days.

Yes, we started to fight. We started to tear each other’s head off. That’s what we agreed to do last Komikero Meeting. We would be cool about it, be subtle about it. But it would escalate on April 1 where all hell just breaks loose.

In the meantime, I planted a fake April Fool’s gag on midnight about me doing an ELMER SEQUEL because I supposed to have realized I could not draw people properly. It’s subtle as well, and I honestly feel bad for those people I duped. For that I wholeheartedly apologize. But yeah, I GOT YOU. Just to clarify, there’s no Elmer sequel, and I’m still working on Amazing Doctor Rizal.

And yeah, there were people we got with our epic main gag. Even those who were suspicious of us from the start had doubts I’m sure of it. I think it’s a successful April 1 for us, but yeah, I perfectly understand if you all hate us now. But please don’t hate us too long, and watch out for what we’re going to do in 2012 because that will be MORE EPIC!

Happy April Fools everyone!

The public is warned that the said individuals are no longer authorized to represent the group “Komikero”, or Gerry Alanguilan in any manner, shape or form. They are no longer allowed to use the term “Komikero Komiks Anthology” to publish their comic books, although they are allowed to dispose of any remaining copies. They are advised not to attend any more Komikero Meetings, and to stay away from my person for at least 100 meters at all times or risk legal action.

On a personal note, I wish that this issue had not been so public, and I take due responsibility for my own part in the matter, and for that I apologize wholeheartedly. I’ve known these people for most of my life. It was very difficult to think straight at the time, given the situation. My trust in people has been terribly shaken and I still currently remain incapable of complete and sound judgment.

I understand perfectly well what date it is, and it is unfortunate that I’ve had to make this announcement at this time. All I can say is I wish I were joking. But it was essential to get this information out to the public as soon as possible to prevent any further complications.

I will not be answering questions and I will be disabling comments to this post.

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.

Tomorrow is the 20th of December, and a comics convention will be held at Bicol. I wanted to go, but it’s too close to Christmas and it’s pretty hectic at home and at work. Anyway, here’s a poster:

And the cover to the anthology the organizers are releasing:

I’ve wanted to go back to Bicol for quite some time. The first and last time I was there was in 1983 for the National Boy Scout’s Jamboree. I was assistant Scout Master of the San Beda College contingent. Oh yeah, I was a Boy Scout from grade school up until high school. It was probably the only extra curricular activity I had. Looking back on it, it wasn’t bad, but I wonder why I had stuck to it for so long. I guess I just love collecting the badges. If I tie you up to a tree with my knots, I assure you, you won’t escape.

I love buying notebooks. Have you seen the new kinds of notebooks coming out now? Great thick creamy paper, hardbound with beautiful covers. I have a Moleskine that was given to be by a friend, but I love the much cheaper counterpart from Scribe, which looks and feels like a Moleskine notebook. I use the Scribe a lot for scribbles, sketches, story ideas, passwords, accounting, addresses and contact numbers. It’s pretty handy because it fits right in the pocket. I always teach any aspiring artist to carry with them small notebooks like this to carry around all the time so they can sketch at every opportunity.

But the bigger notebooks, I love buying them. I just got a really nice one for myself for Christmas. Actually, I remember buying one last year.

(Interrupted by smiling garbage men carrying an envelope. Sigh. Christmas!)

Anyway, I remember buying this really beautiful notebook last year, resolving to write stuff in it. Actually, I never did. I remember buying another notebook the previous year. I got so far as writing in a few pages. Pathetic! This new notebook I got so far as write the date. I think that’s an accomplishment! I want to write stuff in there… but what? I could write story ideas (well, that’s what my Scribe is for already), or maybe diary entries. I used to have an actual diary long before I had this blog. I must admit, I’ve become less personal when doing diaries online, so I guess that’s something I can come back to. There at least I can say everything I want to say about people and they won’t know about it. ahaha!

One definite New Year’s resolution of mine is to start writing letters again. I resolve to hand write at least one letter a week and send it, post office style. I also plan on getting a turntable. Vinyl seems to be making a comeback. I miss the scratchy sound they make before the music starts playing. I still have all my old vinyl records. I pretty much took good care of them and I’m quite sure they’re still in pretty good condition. My favorite musicians are actually releasing new music on vinyl, along with CDs and downloads. I want to get them not only because I love vinyl, but because I also get to see huge album covers. I miss those covers.

Sigh. I just found out that the unripe papaya that I needed to cook the adobo sa gata is already RIPE! I can’t use that! I guess this dish would have to go papaya less. Sorry guys!

“Tin-tin, 15″ is produced by Plan International to raise awareness of human trafficking, specifically trafficking of children in the Philippines. It depicts the true to life case of one such victim and the fact that guilty parties are attempting to escape prosecution.

I sincerely hope that “Bossing”, the character that I play will be brought to justice in the soonest possible time.

Here are video snippets from the screening last night:

Now that I’ve put a deadline to bed, I’ll be posting more often on this blog soon enough. I have lots of ELMER news as well as news of a “Where Bold Stars Go To Die” film adaptation.