As the poster says, it will be held on May 26, 2012 at the Bayanihan Center, Unilab Compound, Pasig City from 10am to 7pm.

How to get there? Check out this map!

Special guests include Heubert Khan Michael, Freely Abrigo and Elmer Damaso. But you can bet a whole lot more artists from the local independent comics scene to the guys doing comics for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image are going to be there.

I will have a table myself, but I really won’t have any new comics to sell. I’ll probably let go a few more pieces of original artwork at that crazy slashed Komikon only prices, plus a few comics and mags in my collection that I’m willing to let go. Elmer is going to be sold by National Book Store, and I’m all out of Bold Stars. I was considering giving Summer Komikon 2012 a pass, but I thought well, I might as well go and just hang around and check out the new comics the other guys are doing.

Oh yeah! Every year there’s a huge line at the entrance to Bayanihan Center. Do you want to avoid standing in line? You can buy your tickets right now and you can just waltz in the con as soon as you arrive, providing the con is already open that is. You can buy tickets at any branch of Comic Odyssey!

For a more in depth guide to Summer Komikon goings on, check out their Facebook Page as well as their Official Page.

And because no Komikon is complete without Omeng Estanislao’s amazing drawings….

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See on the 26th!

Oh yeah, if Summer Komikon is not enough, see you as well on the following day, May 27, where you will have a chance to meet THIS guy.

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I’ll be there as well, drooling. I’m a big Mark Millar fan, and it’s something that never really went away even when I got to work with him.

In the last 10 or so years, appreciation for an earlier generation of comic book creators has grown here in the Philippines. It’s something that I personally feel very happy for because there a lot of things to admire in the decades of work that the men and women of Philippine comics have done. In many ways, they all matter to us today, we who currently work in comics. They *all* matter, no exceptions.

Tony DeZuniga mattered a lot to us because he became one of us. He joined us at our conventions, he hung out with us, interacted with us, and by doing so, he showed that he embraced us and accepted our contributions to the comics industry.

He was our friend.

And when he fell ill, the local comics community quickly gathered to help. We really could do no less for any of our friends.

On a personal level, I found Mang Tony’s presence at conventions gave me a sense of security. He was a rock. An anchor. A steady presence I knew I could count on. He was there every time without fail. I knew that if I went to a comics convention, he would be there. And that was comforting to me.

He was, and still is a huge inspiration. I’m not exactly a very young man anymore, but whenever I think of Mang Tony, who was still active and still pushing his artistic boundaries well into his 70′s, it was terribly, terribly inspiring. I wish I could be as active and creative when I reach his age.

Now that he’s gone, I have no doubt that he will continue to inspire us. And while our conventions may seem empty now without him, as if something would always be missing, his memory will help keep us going, and keep us making comics.

Thank you very much, Mang Tony for believing in us, and for accepting us, and for making us feel good about being comic book artists.

This event at Comic Odyssey will be extra special because the local comic book community is rallying around to do a sketching event for the benefit of an ailing komiks legend, Tony De Zuniga. I think it has affected a lot of people, specially in the local indie industry because Tony has been a long standing an almost reassuring presence at nearly every local komiks convention for many years.

Although I will be at the event, I will be unable to do on the spot sketching, but I will be putting up a page from Avenging Spider-man #5, specifically page 14 (image below) for auction.

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This is probably the one and only time I will be selling a inked page from this issue for the foreseeable future.

I won’t be accepting bids via this site or via email… you just need to be at Comic Odyssey on FCBD to place your bids. Although 100% of the proceeds will go to help aid Tony De Zuniga for his rising medical expenses, this is also support for Sandy and Comic Odyssey, so bidding really would have to go through them. Come to the mall and check out Sandy’s comics. You will not only get FREE comics, but you might find something you might want to buy yourself.

Sandy and Andrew Villar have organized a free comic book giveaway to be given at this event, a special issue (very much like last year’s Indies Maximus) with stories contributed by many local comic book creators.

I’ll be pretty much hanging out all day beginning around 1pm. I’ll sign every comic book you bring! See you there!

Over the last week Elmer has gathered more recognition, the first as a finalist for the Bédélys World category of the 13th Annual Prix Bédélys, held at the la Grande Bibliothèque (475 boul. De Maisonneuve Est) in Montreal, Canada on April 4, 2012.
http://joeshusterawards.com/2012/04/05/winners-of-the-13th-annual-prix-bedelys-announced/

On April 3, Elmer received the Prix Bulles de Cristal 2012, in the 15-18 age category at the Hotel de Massa at the Société des Gens de Lettres in Paris. The award, established by the bookstore The Blue Angel in Périgny (Loir et Cher), is in its first edition. It was attended by 121 colleges, students, libraries in France and abroad.
http://blddpro.free.fr/blog/?p=592

Jean Giraud, aka Gir, aka Moebius passed away a while back, and it saddened me a lot. Sure, I accept that people do pass on, but nevertheless, it was a loss that I felt half way around the world. Digging through my memories, I realize how big an influence Moebius was on me even as a child. I first encountered his work in the children’s section of a local bookstore. I thought, “Ooo! Comics!”. What I got was a naked man with his dick flapping around, getting it on with a fully naked woman, breasts and everything else in full view. Horrifyingly, the girl slowly transforms into a tentacle beast, and there’s this memorable shot of the guy, realizing what was on top of him, tentacles pulling at his dick, and he’s freaking out. He shoots her to death. It completely blew my innocent 8 year old mind.

I hesitate to say that memory traumatized me, but it did sear indelibly into my brain. I never forgot it. And in the back of my mind, the amazing drawings probably stayed.

I next saw Moebius’ work in the book “Masters of Comic Book Art” by P.R. Garriock. The back cover featured a startling portrait of a monkey in a spacesuit that Moebius drew. Inside, the drawings were just tremendous. It is also in this book I was exposed for the first time to the works of Barry Windsor Smith, Robert Crumb, Wally Wood, Will Eisner, Richard Corben and Frank Bellamy, artists who would, unbeknownst to me at the time, would greatly influence me as well.

I saw this book on the shelves of Alemars in Makati in the early 80′s. I couldn’t afford to buy it back then (I remember it was around 200 pesos) so all I did was whenever our family would go to Makati, I would go to Alemars just to look at this book.

When I went to the San Diego Comic-con in 1999, I saw Moebius. I tried hard to keep from freaking out. I didn’t have any of his works with me so I scrambled to the retailers and got me a copy of the Dark Horse edition of Azrach, and ran back to Moebius’ table to have him sign it. But a woman stopped me with a hand in my face and told me, “Moebius not signing anymore.” rather bluntly.

So there I was, holding Azrach with both my hands, staring woefully at Moebius as he chatted with some guy behind his table. Of course, I didn’t take it against him. It was just awesome just standing there and actually seeing the guy. It was enough to bring me over the moon.

Over the years I started collecting many of his other works, and I was finally able to track down the story that I saw that traumatized me as a child. It was “The Long Tomorrow”, and strangely enough, I also got it from the children’s section of that same book store.

When the Internet came, I was able to track down a copy of “Masters of Comic Book Art” online and bought it. It was great seeing the book again. It’s one of the priceless books in my collection.

A couple of weeks ago, British artist Mike Collins invited me to participate in a tribute book for Moebius. I was very honored. After a couple of days, I knew exactly what I wanted to draw. I would go back to the back cover of “Masters of Comic Book Art”, and do homage of that drawing. Instead of the monkey, I would place Moebius’ face in it. The problem was, I was bad at copying people’s likenesses. So I had to do extensive photo referencing just to get it right.

I did the drawing over the span of a few days, through a massive toothache and a tooth extraction, but in the end, I was very happy with what I did.

I hope it’s a fitting tribute.

The first issue of Supercrooks, written by Mark Millar, pencilled by Leinil Francis Yu and inked by me has just recently been released, and Leinil and I will have a signing at the Robinson’s Galleria branch of Comic Odyssey. This will be on March 24, Saturday, from 1-4 pm.

Take note: Comic Odyssey has moved to the basement, next to JRS Express and Abensons. It’s one floor below McDonald’s. You can’t miss it!

Photo by Mark Torres

We will be joined at the signing by Harvey Tolibao, who is also signing his debut on the DC’s New 52 “Green Arrow”. And as it usually goes with signings like these, there will be plenty more artists who will show up, including guys working for other Marvel and DC books as well as creators from the local independent komiks industry.

Speaking of Supercrooks, a video has just emerged that plays as a teaser to the book. Directed by Nacho Vigalando in collaboration with Mark Millar, it’s a video that gives you the basic concept behind the new comic book, documentary style.

For more info on the video (and the comic book), click here.

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David Finch will be signing books at 4:00 pm on both Saturday and Sunday at the Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street branch! Pre-registration for the signings start at 10:00 am when the store opens on each day. Comic Odyssey will also be on hand at the event. From Sandy Sansolis:

We will be at the Fully Booked Fort branch for the David Finch in Manila event this weekend. The confirmed schedule is as follows:

Saturday, March 17
3 pm – 4pm – talk by David Finch in U-View (limited to 60 slots)
4 pm – onwards – book signing

Sunday, March 18
3 pm – 4 pm – talk by David Finch in U-View (limited to 60 slots)
4 pm – onwards – book signing

For those interested in the talk, please make your reservations with Fully Booked ASAP as the slots are limited to only 60 people.

We will be setting up at 10am on both days, and YES, any purchase you make with us on both days counts as a Fully Booked purchase.
See you all this weekend :)

Although I’m not exactly a great fan, I appreciate the work he’s doing and I appreciate the impact he’s having on a lot of young Filipino artists. To me it’s perfectly obvious that quite a lot of the hot new emerging Filipino artists are greatly influenced by David Finch and it’s easy to see why. His work is intense and intricate. Very detail driven, which Filipino readers and artists just love.

Nevertheless, it would be awesome to meet him, but deadlines keep me at home this weekened. It will also keep me from meeting the guy I work for, CB Cebulski, who will also be in town this same weekend, via Powerbooks and National Book Store. The deadline to submit samples for CB to peruse is up, but Powerbooks was able to collect over two hundred samples. From their Facebook:

Thank you to the over two hundred artists who submitted portfolios to BE THE NEXT COMIC MARVEL! CB will certainly have a great time looking over all your work. Please keep your mobile phones attended as we will be calling shortlisted artists for one-on-one interviews starting Saturday morning. Good luck to everyone!!!

Good luck to all those who sent in samples. Although most likely 99% will not make it, I wish to congratulate everyone who made the effort. And to those who make it, I hope to see your work on the shelves soon enough!

I began sending submissions to Marvel Comics in 1986. Back then I was so confident of my “talent” that I worried that I would have to stop going to school so I can begin work at Marvel right away. I mean, I thought I was that good. But then this rejection letter came and my immediate reaction was that of relief. Relief that I wouldn’t have to quit school. Later, I realized hey, it looks like I’m not good enough yet. Later, I got the sinking feeling that I might not be good at all.

Nevertheless it was thrilling to receive a letter from Marvel, signed by Eliot Brown no less. At the very least, someone at Marvel knew I existed, and for it to be Eliot Brown, I thought it was great. I was familiar with Eliot’s work. He drew technical drawings of various gadgets, ships, and structures for Marvel’s Official Handbook. Since I was taking up Architecture and was heavily steeped in technical drawings, I understood Eliot’s work and I connected to it.

It was to be the first of many rejection letters from Marvel that I would receive over the next 7 years.

I was never discouraged by the letters. In fact, I took them as a challenge, improving and developing my work with every submission. While I was sending samples to Marvel, I was also sending samples to DC Comics.

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I had read about the late Neal Pozner from various letter columns, and how he was much admired as an editor. I had heard he was very helpful towards aspiring artists in improving their work. And to receive a letter from him was just fantastic. In fact, before he sent this rejection letter, he had sent me another letter saying he had wanted to see more and sent me a Green Lantern script to work on. It was my understanding that if I did a good job on it, it may well have been my first published work.

Unfortunately, as I was doing the submission, my girlfriend broke up with me. I had been trying to break into comics partly because I wanted to follow her to the US, and have a good job when I got there. With her gone, my will to do comics went with her. Needless to say, I bombed that submission. And that is the letter I got in response. I stopped drawing for an entire year.

And I think that was the last submission I had sent via the mail to either Marvel or DC. I would later meet Whilce Portacio who would help me develop my art further, leading to jobs not only for Image Comics, but eventually Marvel and DC.

My first work for Marvel was inking Wolverine over Leinil Francis Yu on a few pages of Warren Ellis’ “Not Dead Yet” around 1997-1998.

My first work for DC was Superman: Birthright with Mark waid and Leinil around 2003.

I post these rejection letters in the hopes of inspiring other aspiring comic book artists to keep the spirit alive in the face of great challenges. All of us working in comics today underwent years of rejections like this, years of disappointment and heartbreak and in my case, even tears. Nobody got it easy. Plenty of times I just wanted to give up. And one time I actually did. From 1993 to 1994 I never drew anything. I went back to Architecture and worked as a draftsman and construction supervisor. I thought comics and I were done.

But if comics is in your blood there’s no discouragement strong enough to keep you from drawing. And I eventually went back.

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

That said, you can no longer send submissions to Marvel and DC through the mail. For a detailed account of how to show them your samples, click here.

If you wish to show your work to Marvel, you’re in luck because Marvel’s talent guy is coming here to the Philippines this March. Click here for info. Hurry, you don’t have much time.

Due to health problems early on, I wasn’t able to ink bits of this book, but I think it would be fair to say I inked around upwards of 85% to 90% of the book. I definitely remember fully inking the first two issues, as well as the last three issues.

This is definitely the last time I’ll be missing pages because I kind of like looking at completed projects where I can confidently say I worked on every single page. That wholeness and completeness of work is very satisfying to me. It’s probably one of the reasons why I just loved working on Superman Birthright because I can say I worked on all of it. Same is true for High Roads, the New X-Men 2001 Annual and Batman.

I very rarely read things I worked on because it’s difficult to lose myself in the story. I’m too distracted by the knowledge that I’m the one who put those lines there. I keep looking at the lines trying to judge how I did, assessing my work work. Knowing the nuts and bolts of creating this story makes it hard for me to be a fan of it, or at the very least make it real enough for me to follow it as a story. But I will try to read it this time around because it’s Mark Millar and he’s one of the few modern day superhero comic book writers whose work I actually like.

National Book Store is holding a promo which will give you another chance to win a specialized iPad, this time including an awesome drawing by Leinil Francis Yu (drawn directly at the back of the iPad). By buying a copy of the Superior book, you get a raffle stub which you can enter and well, hopefully win. Click here for details!

Also out this month, also from Mark Millar and also from Leinil Francis Yu (who I also inked) is Supercrooks #1.

Now the behind the scenes stuff on Supercrooks is amazing. Mark Millar held a contest called “WIN MARK MILLAR”. The contest goes like this: the retailer who orders the most copies of Supercrooks #1 will get a visit from Mark Millar to do a signing, no matter what part of the world you are in. Early on, Mark Millar announced that a mystery retailer was in the lead, who ordered so many copies it drove Mark a little crazy. It turns out, that retailer was NATIONAL BOOK STORE.

And that means Mark Millar is actually coming HERE. To the Philippines. He, Leinil Yu, myself, and probably even Sunny Gho (from Jakarta) will be holding an epic signing somewhere in Manila sometime in May. That is just insane.

AND NATIONAL BOOK STORE is not finished! They, in cooperation with Marvel Comics, is bringing in Marvel talent coordinator (actually Marvel’s VP for Creator and Content Development) C.B. Ceblulski for a talent search right here in the Philippines.

Get a chance to have your work reviewed by the man who may well give you a job with Marvel comics! Those who are asking me how to break in at Marvel, well, here’s your chance guys. My one advice to you… don’t blow this opportunity! Even if you don’t get hired, just the knowledge that this guy is coming in for this purpose should be enough to fire you up to do your best. That in itself is a good thing to your development as an artist.

Good luck!

The 2nd one is happening in Bicol, from Feb 24-26, at The Gallery, Avenue Convention Plaza, Magsaysay Avenue, Naga City.

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Of course I’m ecstatic that the independent comics spirit is alive and well enough to sustain this many conventions, I’m kind of puzzled why two such significant events are scheduled to happen at the same time. Readers and even visiting professionals would have to choose which event they can go to, when they could have gone to both if dates were different. I myself would have probably gone to Bicol if I hadn’t planned on going to Baguio first. Nevertheless, I’m sure each convention would find its own regional audience and I’m confident both will be successful.

Good luck to both the Baguio and Bicol Comics Convention organizers!