This entry for January 2006 is probably the earliest post I had about Elmer. If you asked me back then what Elmer would accomplish in 2011 I would not have believed it. I’m very glad I’ve proven most importantly to myself that this is something I can really do. That this is something I can be doing for the rest of my life. That I’m not just wasting my time. For the longest time I truly felt insecure whether I can really do something worthwhile in comics.

Thank you to everyone who bought, borrowed, downloaded, read and supported Elmer in whatever way you did. You guys have my gratitude. I promise I will continue to write and draw my stories, no matter what happens.

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

Of interest to long time readers of Wasted… you all probably know the background of that book, and why I made it. If not, you can read my account here.

After 21 long years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the girl who had caused me to do Wasted. I hadn’t seen her at all in all this time although we do correspond, albeit almost annually, via e-mail. It might sound dramatic, but the truth of it is, 21 years is a long time to carry hard feelings. I had gotten over her many many years ago, long before I even met my wife. Whatever fury and anger and drama that could have transpired had we meet soon after the break up seems to be almost laughable 21 years later.

We met, and we talked as friends, and it was great.

But I cannot deny that I would probably be a different person today without her. There would have been no Wasted, and I probably wouldn’t have pursued comics as hard as I did. So I’m grateful to her for that.

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

I hardly drink anymore, but I have half a bottle of champagne to finish by midnight (courtesy of my French publisher). No more firecrackers for me! Happy New Year, and Be Safe Everyone! See you all in 2012!

But the one place I loved going to was National Book Store. And of course, comic books were the thing I spent all my 20 peso baon on. But that was actually pretty good because National reprinted comics from America and priced them at P1.75 each, and I managed to get a lot of comics during each trip.

I collected X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Brave and the Bold, Justice League, Superman, Legion of Superheroes, Weird War Tales, Weird Western Tales, Swamp Thing, Spiderman, Marvel Two-In-One, Marvel Comics Presents: Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America…. pretty much anything I could buy. They pretty much all excited me. I collected these reprints for years and managed to gather a large box full of them. It sort of saddened me when they stopped reprinting, but by then I was slowly weaning myself out of comics.

When I came back to comics in the early 80′s, I returned to National and saw they no longer reprinted American comics, but imported them directly. During the 80′s National had some pretty amazing bargain comics sales. One particular time I found myself at their Avenida branch and there were shelves upon shelves of 10 peso imported comics! I went berserk. I went and bought stuff like Kull (with John Bolton Art), Daredevil (by Frank Miller!), X-men, New Mutants, Teen Titans, History of the DC Universe, Crisis, and many others. There were even prestige format books that were going for around 14 or 15 pesos. At their Recto branch they were selling the individual issues to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns for that price! Even though I already had them, I bought them again. I got a lot of Daredevils, Conans, more Teen Titans, various X-Men related mini series, Machine Man…. it was crazy.

Fast forward to around 1998. I was already carving a career for myself in comics. The Wasted compilation published by ALAMAT has been released, and I was absolutely freaking out when Alamat managed to sell it at National Book Store. To see my book on the shelves of the store I had visited for years buying my own comics as a fan, it was a moment that I could not describe. It was intense, it was exciting, it was like a won the lottery. Every time I was at NBS, at pretty much every branch, I would seek out Wasted and see if anyone was buying it. I would hang around nearby shelf and I would quietly whoop victory every time someone picked up a copy.

Pretty soon, Wasted went out of print and my book disappeared from the shelves of National Book Store.

For many years since then, it was a dream to see a book of mine appear on the shelves again, among the many other graphic novels for sale. When Budjette Tan, Arnold Arre, Manix Abrera, Carlo Vergara and all those other guys managed to get their books into National and were ever present at either the Graphic Novel or Philippine Publications section, I was secretly envious. I wished my books could be among them too.

So I’m extremely happy to finally see my book Elmer on the shelves of National, in all their branches nationwide, published by NBS, and will have a launching on October 15, no less. I suppose copies will be first available at the venue of the launching, which is the National Book Store BESTSELLERS on the 4th Floor of Robinson’s Galleria, and will soon be rolled out at other branches across the country.

If you’re in town, or at the very least Robinson’s Galleria on Saturday, please drop by!

Oh yeah, I went to NBS in SM San Pablo yesterday and I saw a bunch of 19 peso Marvel and DC comics. There was a bunch of New Universe titles like Kickers, Legion of Superheroes, Checkmate, and various other 80′s and early 90′s titles. It’s not a lot, but I’m glad to see some of them at least. I don’t know where they got them, but I wish they get more of them because once I go back, I’ll be buying what I can find! A tip to NBS. When it comes to comics… the older the better!

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 Wasted Online.

WASTED is a story that I wrote in drew from 1994 to 1996. I’ve written extensively about it, specially recently HERE.

I’ve been offering WASTED for free to read online since 2007 from this website.

However, some enterprising people still think it’s cute to bundle those pages and sell them. Specially this guy who calls himself RAVEN SHAW. He sells Wasted from this site here. His email is: raven_shaw@ymail.com and his cellphone is +639054350338. He claims you save 90 pesos because he only sells the book for 10 pesos. Well, you can actually save P100 if you just read it for free. If you want to help me out, send him an email or send him a text to tell him what lazy scumbag he is, that he stop stealing and making money from other people’s work and that there’s a bullseye pointed squarely on his back.

I’ve already encountered this guy a couple of years ago when he pulled the same stunt at another website.

I decided to further make it easy to read WASTED for free. You can now read Wasted via PDF, CBR, MOBI and trusty old HTML. And to give you further incentive, I’ve even put together a SPECIAL ELECTRONIC EDITION of WASTED! Download from the links below.

PDF File. Read using a PDF reader like Acrobat.
CBR File. Read using a Comic Book Reader like this one.
MOBI file. Read using Kindle.
HTML. Read this on the WebcomicsNation Website. This includes my commentary on each page!
SPECIAL ELECTRONIC EDITION. Includes CBR and PDF Files. Also includes notes from the author in RTF as well as a video introduction by me! (Windows Media Video).
TORRENT FILE. Download using your torrent download program. (Oh right SURE, you don’t have one!). Includes the Special Electronic Edition.

Why buy it when you can get it for FREE? Tell your friends! So you don’t scammed by lazy scumbags!

WASTED on Facebook!

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 Wasted.

I did it for the girl. More accurately, I did it because of the girl.

It was a break up that, I felt back in 1993, completely devastated me. It was one of those moments when a person literally changes overnight from one person to another. It had been my ambition to draw superheroes for Marvel Comics. The problem was, I was in a completely different profession. I was practicing Architecture and was convinced that it was what I wanted for the rest of my life.

And a girl just had to complicate things.

I had a crush on this girl since Grade 3. I was 8 years old. I met her again just a few days before I took my board examinations for Architecture in July 1990. And I was hit pretty hard. She was leaving for America a few days after that, and won’t be back for a long time. Throughout the next year or so I considered my options. Even though I hadn’t even considered it in my life, I thought of moving to America just so I could be with this girl. I knew Architecture won’t bring me there, but perhaps my hobby could. It was then I decided to turn my life long hobby into a new career. As soon as I began practicing, I realized it was what I really wanted to do, and not Architecture. It was one of the last missing pieces of my life.

It was difficult, starting over. In 1992 I was 24 years old. I should have been working but I was home drawing, retraining myself in a completely different profession. I applied at the Joe Kubert School for Graphic Art and was accepted, only to find out that they did not give scholarships to non-Americans. I could not afford it otherwise. I started getting jobs with local comic book companies, getting drawing, and sometimes even writing jobs at Mass Media Publications. I joined Lakan, and was inspired to create better work through interaction with other artists. I got rejection letters left and right from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image and other companies, but I didn’t let it stop me. All the things I did at the time were for one single purpose: getting to America so I can be with my girl.

But for various reasons I could not possibly say, she broke up with me in July 1993, right in the middle of a Green Lantern sample script that late DC editor Neal Pozner had sent to me to draw. And I just quite literally stopped. The break up was something so far from my mind that it literally stupefied me for weeks. And when I finally realized what had happened, I became self destructive. My friends at the time, whoever of them was left, would know how destructive, bitter and angry I had become. I stopped drawing for an entire year. I just stayed home doing nothing. I walked. Grew my hair. Hung around. My parents prevailed upon me to return to Architecture, but I just spent all the money I made drinking and eating. I didn’t last, and went back home. I knew I was in big trouble. Instead of getting over it, I felt it getting worse. I needed an outlet.

It was then I decided to channel all that anger and bitterness and hate into an 8 page comic book. At first I called it “Berzerk!”, but after listening to some Who records, I decided to retitle it “WASTED”. It was completely different from the fluffy conventional stuff I had drawn before the break up. I began with just one panel. Writing and drawing as I went along. And then I did another panel, and another, and within a day or so, I completed one page. The first page was quite literally a retelling of all the angry conversations we have had right before the end. I didn’t hold back. I swore if I needed to, and drew nudity if I felt like it. I didn’t have any reservations. After all, I thought, nobody was going to be reading this but me. After a week or so, I completed 8 pages of what I eventually thought would be Chapter 1 of a much larger story.

After completing those 8 pages, I felt an enormous kind of relief. It was as if I expunged a lot of anger that I felt and threw them all into those pages, indelibly imprinting those drawings and words with my emotions. After a while, I thought well, I thought I’d share this with a few friends. I photocopied the pages, made a mini comic book out of it, and sent several copies of it via mail. I was nervous about what my friends would think. It was so completely NOT me. And yet at the time, it WAS me, if I was being honest with myself.

Surprisingly, I got some shocked, albeit positive responses. And they wanted to read more. A copy was passed on over to Budjette Tan (who I have yet to meet), who wrote to me asking if he could include Wasted in his comic book “Comics 101″. I thought about that. Sharing Wasted with friends was one thing, but sharing them with strangers… a LOT of strangers is another. I still felt paranoid about the reaction that it would get, concerned perhaps that people will hate me for it. A few days later, I realized I didn’t care and sent the pages to Budjette.

Even though I thought I didn’t care, I actually did, and I continued to be paranoid about how people will react. And yet inexplicably, the feedback I started to get was really encouraging. People liked it, and wanted to read more. I then continued creating more issues and began selling copies through the mail, and through various comic book stores in Manila. I started to get letters from all sorts of people. LONG letters telling me their own stories, sharing their own grief and pain. Through creating Wasted, and through interaction with people who read it and got it, I slowly got over my own pain and anger. I stopped being self destructive. I regained my self confidence and my will to really live again.

And more importantly, I gained something new: my own passion for creating comics. It stopped being about another person, and it became a personal ambition. I took comics seriously because of the girl, but now that she was gone, I realized I loved comics on my own and I didn’t need anyone to push me to want it.

Reading Wasted again today, I’m quite literally shocked at the places I went to while creating it. I can’t see myself doing anything like it again, or even go to those places again. I read it and I can literally feel the anger seething between the words and drawings and I’m a bit taken aback that it was me who had done it.

Today I’m happily married. I’m still friends with the girl and we communicate like maybe once or twice a year. I don’t think she has read Wasted yet.

As a print entity, Wasted has gone through numerous editions:

1. The original 8 issue photocopied series, July 1994-July 1996
2. 8 issues compiled into two photocopied volumes, July 1996
3. The first compilation (Alamat), February 1998
4. Serialization in PULP Magazine, 2000
5. Final Edition, published by PULP Magazine, 2004

All printed editions are now sold out, but Wasted can be read completely online at the link below:

Wasted Online
http://wastedonline.blogspot.com

There are plans to reprint Wasted late 2012.

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.

Last July 10, 2010, I was invited to attend the freshmen initiation at the St. Paul University in Manila. The theme of their initiation was “Pinoy Komiks”, and I had been invited to give a talk on the history and the state of the Philippine comics industry.

I did not hesitate to agree because more and more I try and grab the opportunity to talk about Philippine comics to those who may not be completely aware of its history, its significance to Filipino culture, and the state of the industry now.

I was glad that the organizers of the freshman initiation at St. Paul this year decided on “Pinoy Komiks”. This speaks to me of how much komiks is still very much ingrained into our culture, whether komiks is around or not.

The theme was reflected through costumes the freshmen were be required to wear.

What I wasn’t prepared for was that the freshmen of the Nursing Department paraded in costumes based on characters that I had created. There was a group that dressed up as chickens, like on Elmer. There was a group that dressed like Apolaki Warriors in Timawa. There was a group that dressed like the characters in Humanis Rex! There were several Johnny Balbonas and an Eric (from Wasted). There were several Lastikmen (I wrote Lastikman for Mango in 2004). Even those comics that haven’t been published yet like The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Doctor Rizal, and the Adventures of Miko and Jec-jec were well represented.

For the first time perhaps in San Pablo City history, someone actually dressed up as the statue of the woman carrying a bilao located at Doña Leonila Park in San Pablo (as she is drawn in a Miko and Jec-jec illustration).

I was so surprised that for a long time I didn’t know how to react. I absolutely had no idea that they were going to do this, and I have to admit that it touched me deeply. I found myself shedding tears, no matter how hard I tried to fight it back. It had been so unexpected. I came in there with no expectations other than to give a talk on comics. What I saw was more than I could have imagined.

I wish to thank Michelle Sto. Tomas and all of those in the Nursing Department who gave life to my characters. I wish to thank all the students and teachers and administrators of St. Paul who organized the event as a love letter to Philippine comics.

Thanks to Jan Philippe Carpio for recommending me to the organizers in the first place. Hope to meet you soon, buddy!

For the rest of the photo gallery, click on the slideshow below:

And of course, here’s the inevitable video!

Once again, thanks to St. Paul University, Manila! That was truly a memorable day for me.

I come back to inking in a BIG way with Ultimate Comics Avengers 2, #1! The issue is already out, and Leinil Francis Yu and I will be launching the title tomorrow during Free Comic Book Day, at Comic Odyssey, Robinson’s Galleria. We’ll be signing, along with Edgar Tadeo, and possibly Jay Anacleto, from 1-3pm.

But if it’s the FREE COMICS you’re after, be at the store early, as early as the mall opens at 10am to claim first dibs on the awesome stuff, whatever it is!

After quitting (OK, “taking a break” is now my official line) inking comics in 2005 to concentrate on making my own comics, I feel I’ve accomplished enough to be comfortable to go back to inking again. This doesn’t mean I won’t be doing anymore of my own stuff. Amazing Doctor Rizal is still scheduled for Komikon this November, and as soon as I catch a break, I’ll continue to deal with Martians in a comic book project I’m drawing and coloring. I took a break from that for a while, but as soon as I catch a bit more time, I’ll continue working on it.

I have to say I really missed inking. When I used to visit Leinil’s place when he was doing Secret Invasion and Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine, I would look at the pages on his table and imagine how I would ink them in my mind. I couldn’t admit it to Leinil at the time, but I really missed it. I had joked to Leinil that I’d only ink him again if he gets to work with Mark Millar.

Me coming back to work with Leinil on a Mark Millar project is quite honestly a coincidence. I was prepared to ink whatever Leinil was working on after he finished Secret Invasion. It just so happened to be Ultimate Comics Avengers with Mark Millar, and I couldn’t be more happier.

I’ve been impressed with Mark’s writing ever since I read his work in his old Saviour series published by Trident from the UK. I read a couple of installments and they were both frighteningly awesome. This was a long time ago. Back then I thought…. wow, this Millar fella is gonna go places. And he did, and he continues to do so.

See you tomorrow! Bring your Elmers and your Wasteds and all the other stuff you want signed. I’ll sign them all!

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!

And so “CONFESSION” came to be. It’s a new 6-page Wasted story which can stand on its own (somewhat), but if you have read Wasted before, you would get a much better appreciation of it. This story happens immediately after issue #3 of the original series.

You can read “Confession” in its entirety here, or click the image below:

Creating new Wasted material almost 15 years after the strong emotions which drove me to create Wasted originally, was strange. Anger drove the creation of the original Wasted. As with anything I write, my state of mind and emotion always informs the work I do, whether I intend to or not. Having been very happy and content with my personal life for the past decade or so, the new Wasted material was informed by such happy emotions. It’s perhaps why “Confession” turned into a comedy of sorts. I didn’t intend it, but there you go.

It was nice revisiting Wasted, but I think Confession would be the first and last time.

Read the original WASTED in its entirety here:
http://wastedonline.blogspot.com
Official WASTED site:
http://alanguilan.com/sanpablo/wasted
WASTED on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasted_(comics)

I’ll be at the venue from 10pm until 7pm. My party includes myself, Ilyn, Zara and Arlan.

What to expect from me at the Komikon? Well, there’s this:

All Twenty ELMER Gift Sets have already been sold, and as we promised, there would only twenty of those made and no more.

However, since we had 7 extra copies of Elmer #1, we decided to just hand bound more books and create a slip case for it. This time around, only SEVEN copies will be made, 6 of which will be made available for sale at the Komikon. We will not be making further copies in the future.

The Slipcase includes:

1 copy of hand bound hardcover of Elmer 1-4, which has a pocket on the inside back sleeve which includes one Elmer Gallo family photo, as well as 1 piece 4″X6″ original artwork. The slip case is also hand crafted and is available in two colors, navy blue and maroon. Due to the extremely rare nature of this collection, we’re pricing it at P1,500. (The Gift Set was priced at P2,500)

All handcrafting was done by Ilyn Florese-Alanguilan.

These will only be available at the Komikon, so if anyone wishes to reserve a copy please email me at gerryalanguilan at yahoo dot com, but you’ll need to be at the Komikon to pick it up.

Aside from that, we’ll be bringing individual copies of ELMER 2-4, a comics sale of comics from my collection, and my Komikon-Only original comic book art sale.

In the table next time is Jonas Diego’s Robo Monkey Pixel Fighters table, and he is selling KOMIKERO COMICS #1, an anthology of comics stories by the Komikero Artists Group. It’s a back to basics photocopy affair, which I’m really excited about. It will sport a blank cover which you can have all creators present at the Komikon to sign.

It will include a NEW 6-Page WASTED story entitled “CONFESSION”, which happens immediately after events of issue #3 of the original Wasted. The best thing is, you don’t need to have read Wasted to understand it.

All right then, see you all there! :D