100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Johnny Balbona.

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Back in 2004 I was contacted by Mr. Boboy Yonzon to ask if I could contribute to a humor magazine he was going to publish called “Mwahaha!”. “Johnny Balbona” is one that I came up with. Sometimes, friends of mine would inspire me to draw them into my comic books. Johnny was a different case because I was inspired not just to put my friend in as a cameo, but I was inspired to create a main character after him. I’m talking about my old buddy Johnny Danganan, who is probably one of the more unique individuals I’ve come to know.

Johnny’s character is so singular that I decided to base Johnny Balbona’s look around him. For those who are unfamiliar with Tagalog, “Balbona” is a take on the word “balbon” which means, well, HAIRY. And hair is something that Johnny has… everywhere.

Although Johnny Balbona looks like Johnny Danganan, the character itself resembles me, albeit a really exaggerated version of me.

Johnny Balbona represents an evolution of how I express my opinions and viewpoints on everyday life. In the beginning I was more emotional and dark, expressing what I felt through violent stories like Wasted and Dead Heart. After getting over a lot of the anger of those years, humor has slowly crept in my work, but I’d like to think my commentary is as pointed as ever.

In this first installment of Johnny Balbona, I presented my admittedly cynical point of view of Philippine politics. While I usually try to be subtle in how I want to say things, here I say my points directly, without euphemism or subtlety. Knowing the magazine would get wider circulation, I wanted to slap readers with what I wanted to say, and I didn’t want them to miss anything. It’s been my experience in my other writings here on my blog and in my comics that subtlety doesn’t work with most people, and some pointed things I want to express go completely over people’s heads. I didn’t want to do the same thing here.

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Last Meow.

Although I’ve always preferred print over the web, I was never hesitant to try and do new things. And when the idea of doing comics online came about, I tried it as soon as I could. So I uploaded one of my strips from Crest Hut Butt Shop, “Last Meow” on the web on November 2000. You can still read it here: http://www.alanguilan.com/sanpablo/cat.html

And when Scott McCloud, the father of online comics read it and sent me feedback, I was ecstatic. On the subject matter of the comic strip itself, “Crest Hut Butt Shop” was supposed to have been short autobiographical strips that I’ve wildly exaggerated for comedic effect. However, once in a while I would do these strips that were straightforwardly honest and sincere. “Last Meow” was one of them. I just had lost a cat and for someone who loves pets as much as I did, I dealt with the loss by creating a comic strip about it.

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Believe It… OR ELSE!.

Several years ago, I was asked to contribute to a comics magazine called TOPAK!, edited by Stanley Chi. I thought about doing a spoof of “Ripley’s Believe It… OR NOT!” by coming up with some ridiculous “facts” and passing them off as real. It seemed like a real cool idea to have as a regular thing, so I just might do that when I’m not doing anything else. But as of now, only two pages were ever made and published. Topak! might still be available at some branches of National Book Store and Powerbooks.

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100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Flashpoint, and Sterling Paper.

The very beginnings of the modern Philippine Independent Komiks Industry can be traced to this comic book. Flashpoint #1, published in January 1994 by Straight Lines International, owned by Sterling Paper, had creative people who would eventually become to be some of the biggest movers and shakers of the Philippine comics industry, including Carlo Vergara (who went on to create ZsaZsa Zaturnnah) and David Hontiveros (Pelicula, Bathala). I thought the work was really raw, inconsistent and rough. But I think that can only be expected for a bunch of young creators just beginning to learn their craft. But here and there were sparks of potential and each page displayed a remarkable sense of passion for the medium.

Today we all know how brilliant these creators have become, having come a long way from Flashpoint more than 25 years ago.

The fact that Sterling Paper was behind the publication of this comic book is interesting, considering the events of the past several years.

Flash forward to 2007. The old komiks industry has faded. Carlo J. Caparas was going around the country on a Komiks Caravan spreading awareness of komiks, talking about the “revival of komiks”, perhaps completely unaware that for the past 23 years, a generation of comic book creators younger than him were already reviving komiks in their own way, self publishing, and self distributing. In that 23 years Philippine comics have evolved and moved on from the old formats and old sensibilities. They were holding comic book conventions several times a year, promoting and selling comics, without the benefit of big publishers, completely out of a sense of self reliance and independence.

Many people were pining for the good old days of komiks when they could be found at every street corner, every sari sari store, all across the country. The older creators were pining for the days of Atlas and GASI, big time publishers who gave them their jobs to create comics. But with all the big publishers gone, no one is there to hire them, and no one was there to print and distribute their comics. To get an industry like we had in the old days going, what people didn’t fully understand was it required an enormous amount of money. It didn’t require a million pesos, it required millions of pesos. Think about it. You needed money to hire people to write, draw, color, edit the comics, and that includes an renting an office to work from, and hiring a staff to do the production work. You need to buy all the office equipment including chairs, desks, computers, scanners, desktop printers, and so forth. You need to pay the utilities to run your office (water, electricity, telephone). You need a printing press and people to run it. Supplies like paper and ink to keep the presses running. You needed vehicles and drivers and workmen to move the comics. And for your comics to reach all corners of the country, you need solid contacts with the distributor cartels in the country and you need the cash to keep that distribution line well oiled. All this has to be in place just to bring an inexpensive comic book to your sari sari store in Jolo, Baguio, Iloilo or Batanes.

Bottom line: You need tens of millions of pesos to revive the Komiks industry on a national scale.

The average Philippine Independent comic book creator has how much personal money in his pocket to publish his comics? 500 pesos? 1000 pesos?

So you can only imagine the frustration one feels when morons online who think they know what they’re talking about rant online about how these new comics are too expensive and can’t be bought everywhere.

The independent creators, let me reiterate, pay for the publication of their comics out of their own pocket. They don’t have the millions of pesos required to mount a nationwide revival of komiks. They do the best they can, out of their own initiative. The fact that the independent movement is still alive after 25 years, and is still growing today, is only an indication that this is a little industry that isn’t going away.

So, in 2007, the independent creators have been at it for the last 20 or so years, doing the best they can, and yet they have been successful in creating some of the most interesting and most significant comic books in Philippine comics’ modern history. But they lack the money to go widespread and nationwide.

Carlo J. Caparas was also in the same boat. CJC was one of the biggest names of the old industry, and in 2007 he launched on a massive media campaign with the hopes of reviving Philippine komiks. He did this by going on a “Komiks Caravan”, and later putting together a Komiks Congress. However, like the Philippine Independent creator, he too did not have the millions to actually start publishing comic books. All he did was well, talk about it. And unless he came up with his own money (like we did) to publish his comics, talk is all he will ever do.

And this is when Sterling Paper re-entered the picture.

Sterling Paper once again wanted to publish comics, and they had millions of pesos to do it. By all intents and purposes, this was exactly what everyone was waiting for. The first people Sterling Paper contacted to help them in their venture was Mango Comics, headed by Mr. Boboy Yonzon, who was then currently publishing Mwahaha! and Mango Jam. Mr. Yonzon in turn, recommended me as one of the creative people. Sterling even sent over a representative to my home here in San Pablo so we could talk about and plan how we are going to go about it. Their plan was staggering. Regular comic books will be released and will be sold very inexpensively (10 pesos a copy) on a national level. I would invite many other comic book creators of the independent industry, and was excited by the fact that they would be equally hiring veterans to work on other stories as well. I came away from the meeting so excited that I drew an online comic strip the minute they left.

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Time passed and I wondered what had happened. I am not fully aware exactly how events transpired, but all I know from my end is that Mango Comics and I were no longer involved in creating the comic books, and Carlo J. Caparas was now creative director. And CJC opted for an almost fully veteran-created line of comic books, created with the same storytelling sensibilities of the old komiks industry. Except for one or two exceptions, the younger comic book creators were completely shut out, as we were shut out during the Komiks Congress, the supposed congress organized to study how Philippine Komiks can be revived, which became anything but that.

Isn’t it a wonder that the Sterling Comics project failed spectacularly? As a fan, I appreciated the amazing art by some artists, including Hal Santiago who really gave it his all, but in general, I found it difficult to connect to the material. It felt like reading old komiks, which spoke nothing to who I am today as a Filipino.

Imagine Darna as reinvisioned by Arnold Arre and myself. Imagine TRESE by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo. Imagine ZsaZsa Zaturnnah by Carlo Vergara and Kiko Machine by Manix Abrera. These could have been the kind of stories Filipinos would have read nationwide (and inexpensively) had Mango Comics remained with the project. Sterling Paper had the millions to make this possible. But I guess it was not meant to be.

It’s a lesson that future publishers ought to keep in mind. You can’t keep ignoring us, pretending we are not here. Even now, there are efforts to revive the industry without involving us who have done comics for the last 20 years. Even today there are people who believe that it was Carlo Caparas who revived komiks in 2007, when in reality, it was Sterling Paper. You need to involve the younger creators, because if you don’t, any effort you may have will surely end in disaster.

And what is Carlo J. Caparas doing now with regards to “reviving komiks”? I have no idea.

But the Independent Komiks creators are still at it. They are still spending their own money to publish their own comics. Other fans are still organizing events across the country. In July 16 is a comic book convention in Baguio. In November is the 7th Annual Komikon. Carlo Vergara is on his way to creating a new ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Book. David Hontiveros is continuing to write Bathala. Budjette Tan is creating more Trese. Arnold Arre and I are going head with our Darna plans (and a project of our own). The same is true for hundreds more creators who continue to do Philippine comics today.

If you would like to meet some of them, click here.

Back issues of this magazine sell for an astonishing P500-P2500 at Ebay Philippines.

The cartoons and comics featured in this magazine, specially during the 1970s, presented what may well be the first alternative to what the mainstream publishers were releasing at the time.

The two page comics strip below appeared in the June 1978 issue.

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This website is basically a regularly updated journal of the things I want to write about Philippine comics including the work I do, and all the other stuff I do aside from that. For more info about who I am and what I do, click on the links above, specially “Who Am I?”.

Clicking on “Portfolio” will bring you to my gallery of artwork, which I have done for various companies, be it inking, drawing, coloring or writing.

Clicking on “Museum” will bring you to the Philippine Comics Art Museum Online, a large library of Philippine komiks art from the 1950′s to the 1970′s. It’s not as updated as often as I would like, but as long as I have time, I’ll keep updating it.

Clicking on “Interviews” and “Reviews” will bring you to published articles, whether they be in print or online, about the work I do.

Clicking on “FAQ” will bring you to a list of questions I get asked frequently (which I answer).

If you want to read my comics, I have some free comics online. You can read WASTED entirely here.

The first 30 pages of ELMER can be downloaded in PDF form here.

“Last Meow” can be read here.

Many of my stories can also be read for free online here.

Of course, some of you may know me from the videos I do. I have almost 400 videos uploaded at You Tube, which you can see at my channel here. Once there, click on “Fun!” for the crazy videos I make. I also do serious videos, cooking videos, documentaries, interviews, etc.

I’ve been writing this journal since 1997, and you can read the archives (extending back to 1998) somewhere in the links in the left column.

If you like, you can add me up on Facebook or on Twitter.

Feel free to come visit again, and thank you!

I thought it would be nice, as an occasional exercise, to take a random panel from one of my old komiks, restore it, translate it, and then color it. It’s really fun to do, and it would give our non-Filipino readers the opportunity read it. I don’t think I can do this for longer pieces though. This way, I can spotlight various artists from various komiks magazines.

The cover to the comic book reads “All proceeds from this comic book are being donated to famine relief and recovery in Africa.” And for such a cause insane collaborations between people you wouldn’t expect to see together came to pass.

The Master Post Journal posted the collaboration between Alan Moore and Richard Corben here.

Another titanic collaboration included Stephen King writing, Berni Wrightson pencilling, and Jeff Jones inking. Chris Claremont, Brian Bolland and P. Craig Russel worked together on another four pages.

DC Comics came out with their own benefit books shortly after, entitled “Heroes Against Hunger“, which featured awesome collaborations as well including between Robert Bloch, Berni Wrightson and Mike Kaluta. There was also one with Gerry Conway, Barry Windsor Smith and Jeff Jones.

While most Filipino comics artists are making waves in mainstream superhero comics at the big companies like Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse, Andrew Drilon has been slowly and quietly making a name for himself as a fresh and innovative creator in the independent comix scene abroad as writer and artist.

His latest short story, “What the Cigarette Said“, is a featured story at Top Shelf 2.0′s web comics site here:

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/ts2.0/cigarette/1

Here at home, Andrew has contributed to Siglo as well as writing and drawing the weekly color strip RAN Online for the Sunday Comics of the Philippine Star.

Congrats Andrew!

It’s a direction that I hope more Filipinos take when considering a career in comics. It’s definitely cool to dream about drawing Wolverine and Spiderman and the X-Men… cooler still if you end up doing it yourself. I’ve been that position and it’s just awesome. But there’s also a strange lack of interest in attempting to both write and draw your own stories for independent companies. Definitely it’s a much more difficult thing to try to do. But I’m sure there are plenty of talented creators out there who can do it, if not now, then in time and with practice.

There are very few Filipino writers in International comics. Rarer still are those who both write and draw at the same time. To anyone who ever dreamed of doing this kind of thing, I strongly urge you to pursue it. It’s difficult, but it’s possible. It’s an opportunity to deal with the art of comics more fully. Drawing is only one aspect of it, and being able to do both writing and drawing would allow you to offer a more complete and pure expression of your ideas.