I’m also inking another Leinil Yu project, an issue of Avenging Spider-Man for Marvel Comics. I don’t know yet what number it is, or other creative people involved, but I’m nevertheless excited that I’m getting to ink SPIDER-MAN. Oh man.

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I received an email asking me to audition for an ad for a drink product where I’ll be asked to play the typical energetic dad. Yes! It’s my chance for people to get sick of my face as the ad is played over and over in between people’s favorite TV shows. It’s a thrill to be asked, but really, it’s not my thing. As I’ve often mentioned before the videos on You Tube are simply stuff I do on my free time, and when I need to release some stress. It’s not something I want to do professionally.

More later.

At the fifth floor of Fully Booked. The place was, well… FULLY BOOKED!

Marvel and DC artist Harvey Tolibao working on a monster Psylocke drawing using only a ballpoint pen! His piece raised 30,000 pesos!

Comics retail chain store Comic Odyssey owner Sandy Sansolis and Marvel superstar Leinil Francis Yu.

The ELMER illustration I drew at the event. It raised 13,000 pesos at auction!

IDW artist Mark Torres draws up some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Marvel artist Edgar Tadeo draws up a Thor!

Marvel artist Stephen Segovia!

Dynamite artist Heubert Khan Michael!

Marvel artist Mico Suayan!

Legendary artist Tony De Zuniga!

With host RJ Ledesma!

Signing copies of Superior.

Harvey and his completed illustration. WOW!

I went to the event thinking it’s going to be a little fun event where I’ll get to meet and hang out with friends… it turns out to be much more fun than I expected, and surprisingly, also kind of a big deal as there was an incredibly huge turnout, and our collective artworks raised as much as 125 thousand pesos for the UN World Food Program. I thought that was incredible.

Check out these articles for more coverage of the event:

Red Dot Diva Coverage
Yo! MC: The NextJam! Coverage
The Web Journal of John Ray Coverage
Toysrevil Coverage
Flipgeeks Picture Coverage

Here’s a particularly nice video made by Marvene Rom Munda.

vinyl+SPLASH Event (AVP) from Marvene Rom Munda on Vimeo.

With my wife Ilyn enjoying some quiet time outside the venue before we went home.

The crowd at Komikon yesterday, right on top of this post, just to give you an idea of how crazy it was. I was taken quite by surprise by the sheer amount of people who showed up. Having gone to this thing for years, I have a fair idea of the amount of people who visit. The mornings are usually rather calm, with things picking up after lunch. But the crowd this time around was intense. From the moment the doors opened in the morning up until the event closed at 7pm, it was this crowded. I saw a lot of new faces, which is great!

Click for larger image.

That photo above represents the stash I got from Komikon. And to think I barely had time to leave my table and go around and buy stuff. These are the only things I managed to get, but this is by no means the entire output of the convention. From the looks of it, I probably got only less than 10% of new komiks being offered on the floor. I wish I could have gotten more, but that’s how it goes, I guess. It may seem like I’m complaining that I can’t break out of my table for long periods of time, but I’m really not. It was great so many came over to buy Elmer and Bold Star and my other stuff for sale, including some original artwork. It was great meeting everyone who came. I just wish I had more opportunity to go and buy stuff. After all, I’m still very much a fan myself.

The Tintin stuff over there are gifts from French journalist Laurent Melikian, who visited the Philippines specifically to attend Komikon. Isn’t that amazing?

With Laurent.

Laurent also brought with him the Prix Asie ACBD 2011 Trophy from my French publisher Editions Ca Et La.

Here are more photos from the event.

The calm before the storm.

The line outside.

Tepai Pascual.

Doc Carlo Jose San Juan taking a break from his medical duties to sell his comic book… about a doctor and a talking duck?

Law Student Teddy Pavon cramming for a test before selling the print version of his webcomic Work in Progress.

Johnny Danganan sells comic books that features Johnny Balbona, a character I created based on him.

Melvin and Joanah Tinio Calingo

Komiks veterans Jun Lofamia and Bert Lopez

Komiks veteran Rico Rival

Yes, I brought my work seat to the con. Got a problem with that? :D

Storm and Beast!

With Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah creator Carlo Vergara

On stage with Komikon organizer/host Sherry Baet Zamar

Hey, Baby! With Ariel Atienza, Tony De Zuniga and Lyndon Gregorio

Heubert Khan Michael, Wilson Tortosa and Edgar Tadeo

With Leinil Francis Yu and Edgar.

GMA 7 Video Coverage:

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

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KOMIKON Coverage Links

Blog Coverage from The Comics Cube
Blog Coverage from NSW Online
Blog Coverage from Inside a Cat’s Mind
Plain Random Blog Coverage
Ika-Siyam Blog Coverage
Carina’s Words Blog Coverage
Mel Casipit’s Blog Coverage
NonSensical Words Blog Coverage Part 1
Nonsensical Words Blog Coverage Part 2 (Photos!)
JB Casacop Blog Coverage
Work in Progress Blog Coverage
Teardrop’s Photo Coverage

So much new KOMIKS coming out at Komikon. Here is but a sampling of Macoy’s site. If anyone out there still thinks Komiks are dead in the Philippines, then they’re just plain STUPID.

Although I’m still promoting Elmer and selling Bold Stars, I do have new stuff coming out. And it’s crazy. It’s the return of Johnny Balbona!

Johnny will be making an appearance in Komikero Komiks Anthology #8, to be sold at Jonas Diego’s table. Oh yeah, here’s a map of the venue itself so you can much more easily find us.

Click for Larger Image

Here’s Ariel Atienza and Lyndon Gregorio, two of the Komikon organizers in a radio appearance yesterday, promoting the event.

Video by Mark Cerbo

As I mentioned, the amount of komiks coming out is INSANE. I wish to buy them all, but of course, I wouldn’t be able to. If I don’t buy your comic book, it’s nothing personal. Keep in mind that there’s only so much I can buy and there are specific things that I really wish to get. I’m really looking forward to Edgar Tadeo’s Jacara Zar, Gio Paredes’ Kalayaan Volume 1 TPB, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s Trese Book 4, Gilbert Monsanto’s new stuff…. and so many more.

I wish I have a bit of time to go around. Since I don’t have a new release, I think I can afford to wander the venue a bit. Yes, I’m really excited for today! See you all there!

More info on Komikon (What, where, when): http://komikon.org

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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.

The next big Komiks event of the year, GTMACCON 2011 comes this Saturday, October 22 at SM San Lazaro. Tickets are available at Comic Odyssey branches. This event is unique in that it’s the very first komiks convention that features a cosplay event that would feature only creator owned, Filipino indie made komiks characters!

Mel Casipit for GTMACCON

Cosplay Meets Indie Comics Characters!
(Interview with Kit Perez, event organizer)
http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/sunday-times/the-sunday-times-magazines/9345-cosplay-meets-indie-comic-characters

GTMACCON 2011 Filipino indie comic book characters cosplay competition entries include:

Ramil Antonio Ibay’s MASO

Gener Pedriña’s NARRA

Freely Abrigo’s KAPITAN TOG

Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s TRESE

Gio Paredes’s KALAYAAN

Carlo Jose San Juan’s CALLOUS

Matt Jabanette’s KAPAYAPAAN

Mel Casipit’s PRINCE ERIC

Paul Michael Ignacio’s BOY IPIS

Jeff Benz’ JUNIOR

Click for Larger Image

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 Chicken Joy: The Elmer Documentary by Edgar Tadeo.

Back in 2007 while I was in the middle of creating Elmer, my friend and follow comic book artist Edgar Tadeo visited me in San Pablo from Manila. He said he wanted to interview me about Elmer. I think he planned on making a large documentary on a lot of comic book people, and he was going to start with me. I thought, well, OK.

What Edgar came up with was a 40 minute documentary on not only Elmer, but on me and my process of creating my comics. I was extremely surprised and flattered at how expertly he had put it all together. I thought it was really well done and I’m still scratching my head why he chose me for it. But in any case, I’m still very thankful to Edgar for spending all that time and effort to do it. You’re awesome, man!

This documentary was included in the ultra limited edition Elmer Hardcover box sets Komikero Publishing released in 2009.

Elmer had been nominated for the Prix Asie-ACBD 2011, an award given to the Best Asian Comic Book published in France, along with other comic books such as Kamui Den by Sanpei Shirato, La Plaine du Kantô by Kazuo Kamimura, Le Voyage de Ryu by Shôtarô Ishinomori, and Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura, Kurokawa. Elmer won in an awards ceremony held last night in Paris.

I received an email from my publisher with the photo above and the following message:

“The award ceremony took place this evening at the Japan Expo which is a huge convention taking place near Paris and dedicated to everything related to Japanese and Asian entertainment (anime, manga, manwha, video games etc.)

There were awards for best anime, best feature film, best video games, best shojo manga, shonen manga etc.. And the award for the best asian comic book of the year, given by the ACBD which is the Association of Comic Book Journalists. This is the fifth year they are giving this award to the Best Asian Book of the Year, out of the 1500 (one thousand and five hundred, yes) or so Asian comic books published in a year in France.

Elmer won and the journalist which handed me the award praised about the book for a couple of minutes. You will find enclosed a picture of the award (you will see that I don’t have anymore French copies at home, so I’ve used your edition), I will send you the object itself next week.”

I was so ecstatic when I heard about it last night that I couldn’t sleep. I think I will celebrate today with a Zinger sandwich at KFC.

News at the ACBD Website.

VIDEO!