BAD DREAMS

Man, what a horribly bad and yet incredible dream I had last night. I sometimes have these really astounding dreams and I've written only a few of them. I think I better write this one down just so I won't forget.

I don't remember where it started, but I was out in a mall of some kind. I get the impression that my dream had more things happening in the mall, but I just don't remember anymore. Anyway. I had my art portfolio with me as I went walking through the halls. I saw a really nice looking dog and I became really friendly with it. Because of that, I met the owner, a really attractive looking woman. I became really friendly with her, talking about a lot of stuff that made us get to know each other better. Then I recognized her. She was Sharon Cuneta, a real famous Filipino actress and star. I emphasize STAR because she's indeed one of the biggest, if not THE biggest stars here. After telling her I wasn't really much of a fan but I was really happy I met her, I said my goodbyes and moved on.

I needed to pee so headed off to the men's room. For some reason, I had to go to a hut outside the mall to do that. I went inside but all the lavatories were broken. I looked around and there was this mean looking fellow inside that seemed threatening so I went out quick. The guy followed me so I turned here and there and then lost him.

And then I remembered why I was there in the first place. I was to go to the offices of Marvel Comics to meet my editor. I did not find it strange that the offices were here in Manila and not in New York. To get to the offices, I had to climb up a really steep rocky cliff. I assumed it was the standard way of getting there. My editor was patiently waiting on his desk at the top waiting for me to arrive. It was tough climbing the cliff but I got there anyway. Once I did, I noticed that there some kind of party going on. It was noisy and there were lots of people.

I was in the middle of mingling when we heard some really loud exploding noises. At first I thought it was just firecrackers, but the sound quality of the booms were different, and they seemed to be coming from very far away. For that kind of sound to reach us the explosion must have been really tremendous. I looked out the window, which were huge and extended from the floor to the ceiling. And outside the window we could see the entire vista of Metro Manila spread in front of us.

And Makati was burning. A huge bomb exploded just then, instantly destroying everything in a kilometer radius. Many other places were exploding and many other buildings were on fire. I thought of watching this in FOX news or CNN, because they would know what was happening, but I just remembered they didn't have a TV there. I wanted to get home, but for me to get home I needed to pass through Makati. I was stuck. Then I saw a huge passenger plane burning arching up into the air. It was too much for me to bear. I thought I must be dreaming.

And with that realization, I woke up, but I dreamed I was waking up. And other people in my dream woke up too, who had shared my dream. We looked outside to the window and we saw that Makati was fine and it was not burning. The airport was busy and nothing seemed amiss. It was such a strange coincidence that we had all dreamed the same thing.

And now in that dream, I was convinced I was in the plot of some movie. I thought, this must be the plot of "Memento". The story was different maybe, I've never seen it, but I have heard that the events in the movie are out of synch, arranged non-linearly so it's tough to know which came first or after. I thought that it was a story I could use in a comic book, with the ending coming in first, that of the destruction of Makati. People wake up thinking it was a dream, not realizing it was a fate that awaited them in the end.

Then I woke up for real.

MY 2002

Next year is going to be pretty hectic. Probably the busiest year of my life so far. All throughout the year I'll be inking High Roads, Leinil Yu's Cliffhanger book. January and February and probably even March I'll be staying in Manila to supervise the filming of the Wasted movie. I'll be in hand to also work on the script and make sure the essence of the story is kept intact.

In March I have a deadline for a 28 page comic book adaptation of Francisco Arcillana's The Yellow Shawl which I'll be pencilling, inking and lettering. I'll be doing the pages smaller, probably 8.5"X13" and I'll experiment a bit with simple lines. It's not a book with Ochlocrat like detail so I'm reasonably sure I can finish it by that time. I need to color this myself so hopefully, I would have bought a Wacom and installed a Painter program so I can at least try to color it.

Immediately after that I'll start work on my Alamat book for the year, in which I'll be collaborating with Budjette Tan and another artist, which should take the rest of the year to finish. I also have a July deadline for a single illustration interpreting 2 segments of H.P. Lovecraft's Fungi From Yuggoth, which I'm doing for Graphic Classics. In August, I hope to be able to go to San Diego for the International Comic-con to promote High Roads with Leinil and Edgar. And upon returning, I'll be moving out of the parents house into my own apartment.

And on December of course, I get married. Probably all this work is so I can have enough money to settle down. And I'm telling you all this so I could embarrass myself into doing all of these things because If I don't, I'll look like an idiot by the end of the year.

Since I'll be moving to Manila for a while, and I won't be bringing my computer, I won't be able to read your emails or monitor the message board as often as I would like. I'll be checking emails only on the weekends when I'm back here in San Pablo. I'll try to check my mail via an Internet Cafe, if I can only wrestle my way through all these zombiefied Counterstrike kids hogging the computers.

So if during this time you write me and I don't write back, this is why.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

And for those of differing faiths, Happy Holidays to you! And if someone greets you a Merry Christmas, try to take it in the spirit of the season. For Christians, it's to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. For others, well, it's the season when families that were separated for many months, be it because of school, of work, etc., come together as a family and be one again. For some people, it means gifts and Santa Claus. For some, its a time for Children, for some it's a town fiesta. Whatever reason people want to celebrate at this time is perfectly allright to me. Just as long as people are happy and they are nice to each other, with the hope that they carry this feeling throughout the year.

And the weather, man, can you beat that? I swear, this weather is so cool. I just wish it didn't drizzle so often. Well, the lighter side of this is that if we were in a more colder country, that drizzle would be snow. And since it drizzles often during Christmas here, well, if we were in a colder country, we would have lots of white Christmases!

Last night I baked a chicken, some ham, drank some leftover beer that went into baking the ham, wrapped some gifts. Emailed Christmas greetings to some folks. Just on a whim, I emailed this pretty newscaster from CNN, Monita Rajpal. I told her that watching her on CNN makes bad news doesn't seem so bad. And I really did mean it. I wished her Happy Holidays and that was pretty much it. It was a very short email which I would not have otherwise sent if I was just a little bit sober. And wow, she wrote back thanking me for the greeting. Well, at least I hope it is her.

Up for this day, heating some of the leftovers. he.he. Then go visit Ilyn, then do some work. Yep, work. I still have a ton to do which I need to Fedex first thing the holidays are over. 2002 is going to be a pretty busy year for me, I think. And that's the way I like it.

Wow, it's almost Christmas! The weather is terrific! The cool weather that started November seems to have persisted, which is just terrific. I try to go out as much as I can, but work still needs to be done. After finishing Ochlocrat, I needed to start work on High Roads, the book I'm inking over Leinil Yu for Cliffhanger. I'm nearly done with issue #1, which I hope to finish before Christmas Day. I hope.

Surfing the net this morning, I stumbled upon this terrific Alex Nino site. It's a Japanese site, so the text may not register on your browser (unless you have Japanese text plugged in), but the pics are absolutely AWESOME. If you are an artist looking for inspiration this just might do it for you.

Japanese Alex Nino Site
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/techno/drome/alexnino.htm

There will be a comic book exhibit at the Robinson's Galleria in Ortigas early January for which I'll be contributing artwork to. I'll post more news about this later on.

OCHLOCRAT

Is finished at last! And I have to say that it was quite an extraordinary experience. I've written about the entire experience at the Ochlocrat Page at my site. No holds barred! No spin! Can't write more about it here. Just head on over there!

WASTED NEWS

News for all you Wasted fans. A Wasted movie is now in production. Several scenes have already been shot and man, they look damned cool. I'll talk more about it when I get more info.

WOMEN

Women! Bah! Who needs 'em? Well, actually I do. I love em! But damn, I'm still having trouble drawing them! Bah! Working on Ochlocrat has made me realize this even more. I just bought the magazine DRAW! where there is a really nice feature on drawing sexy women by Brett Blevins. I need to work on this thing really bad, if I'm ever going to continue drawing much more....

The sun has finally decided to come out this afternoon! The rains the past couple of days were due to the tail end of a cold front hovering right over the Southern Tagalog province, meaning right on top of me! Now that the rain has gone, and the cold front remains, it's pretty damn cold now! Which is cool! Add to that the smell of fresh paint, well, it's Christmas! Strangely enough, I associate the smell of paint with Christmas because many times in the past we have had painters come in the house for some painting work which all have coincidentally occurred during Christmas. So the smell of paint always brings back the memory and the feel of Christmas to me.

Hello to my architect friends who visit the site! Hello Bimbo, Darwin and Cesar!

It's amazing. Just yesterday the sun was out, it was hot, and nary a cloud in the sky. Today I woke up and I thought I woke up early because it was still dark out. Actually I woke up the same time I always do, it was just dark, and it wasn't supposed to be. It was raining, and it rained all day without stopping. It's so dark and wet it makes you think it had been dark and wet for weeks and you don't remember what the sun looks like and how heat from it feels like.

Aw man, I haven't been here in a while. I've recovered from my illness and now I'm desperately trying to finish the deadlines that were further delayed by my 2 weeks of not being able to work. I haven't been able to visit the message board much and I haven't been able to post here much. I feel so bad about those people I've inconvenienced. I hope I can make it up to them.

I'm sick of being sick.

I'll be in Cebu for the next few days. Architect stuff. I've brought work with me anyhow. See you guys...

I saw a woman get hit by a car today. It was one of the most blood curdling things I've seen. It's one thing to see it in movies (and in that case I've seen a LOT), but to see it for yourself right there with your own very eyes is truly quite shocking. The woman on the side of the road lying still, a younger woman trying to help her get up. It was horrible. I was in a bus and I saw it in a split second, but it's enough for the sight to sear right into my mind. I don't know really how long I'm gonna carry this. Probably a very long time. Probably all my life. The woman didn't seem to be seriously hurt as I looked again as our bus passed by. She was moving, and it was a good thing a police jeep was immediately behind the car that hit the woman. I'd like to think they were able to bring her to the hospital.

I'm currently trying to design a new page for WASTED for this site. One of the sections I've thought up is a "Letters" section where I would reproduce letters I have received through the years in response to the book. Since Wasted was first published before the Internet became big, most of the letters I got came through the post office. Yes, I've still got them all in a box here in my room. I've been rummaging through that box, which also contains many other personal letters from friends and other acquaintances. And looking at all these letters I suddenly became sad. I realized that writing letters and sending them through the post was a huge part of my life back then. When I got into the Internet, I literally forsake letter writing for this faster and more immediate mode of communication. I hadn't even missed it. But upon seeing all these letters, I realize I miss it more than I expected. It's always a terrific feeling peering into your mailbox and seeing an envelope with your name written on it. And inside are pages of paper with words written by the sender's own hand. This is a physical part of this person that is now in your hands.

This has made me think and reflect really hard. It's a part of my life I want back. I feel like I want to start writing and posting mail again....

More Email Blues

Sometimes I get attachments in the mail, which is OK, as long as they're not too big. By big I mean anything that exceeds 500K. The only files that I accept that are larger than that are those that directly relates to my work. Someone I know sent me a THREE MEGABYTE file and man, that's just NUTS. I'll be online for an hour just downloading that stuff. And I can't afford to hold my online time hostage to something like that. So I made a safeguard, and programmed my mailer to automatically reject files that is larger than a certain size (and I'm not telling). I may get your email, but your attachment will remain at the server where I've asked them to delete such attachments automatically. But those sending me files with regards to work, you need not worry. Just let me know you'll be sending me something...

Where's My Email, Laguna?

I haven't been receiving email for the past 24 hours or so, save for 1 or 2 spam messages. To receive 1 or 2 spam messages is unusual in itself because I usually get more than 20 in a 24 hour time span. I haven't received any messages from Yahoogroups at all, and I suspect, I haven't received much personal mail as well.

So if you've written me and haven't gotten a reply, well, there's why.

So Long MSC! It's been fun.

I've finally let go of my other server, MSC.net.ph. So if you send me an email to my old address "sangabriel@msc.net.ph", I will no longer get it. I've long told my friends and other correspondents not to write there anymore because I'll be letting it go really soon. When they called today to say my 100 prepaid hours are up, I decided it was also time to finally give them up.

My account there seemed to be a hacker favorite because my account runs out even though I'm not using it. Viruses are sent and are made to appear to come from my IP Address. I just decided to close it just to give those hackers someone else to kick around. Besides surfing had been painfully slow the past few months. Instead of just infuriating myself, well, I thought I'd just let it go.

It's been quite a tiring week, emotionally and physically. Emotionally because I've had to deal with much sadness, shock and anger in the continuing events in the US and now in the rest of the world. I really don't know why this has affected me so much.

I was watching TV within the hour the tragedy happened in New York. I watched, horrified, as a plane hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center, as the other one burned and smoked. I could not even begin to comprehend what was happening. I cried out silently in horror as I thought of all those people in those buildings and those planes. In my head, I was screaming, "Get out! Get out!" And just as I thought things couldn't get any worse, it did, as one of the towers collapsed. And then the other one collapsed as well. I sat there, not knowing really what to feel or do. It was beyond what I was capable of feeling. I thought of all the thousands of people there and they were dying, right there before my eyes. It really was just too much. Those poor people, what have they done do deserve something like this? They were just doing what they were doing every day of the year. They were just working, working to earn a living, working to support their families.

As soon as the second plane hit, I knew this was no mere accident, but an act of terrorism. Terrorism of the highest order. An act of absolute evil. What human could even consider doing something as horrible as this? The answer is none, because those who did this were not human. Whatever America decides to do to bring guilty parties to justice, then they have my full support.

As the days wore on, more horrifying, heartbreaking stories followed. Reports of cell phone calls being made by people on the plane, saying farewell to their loved ones. Stories of relatives carrying pictures of loved ones who were missing. I can't even begin to imagine what they were feeling. I wanted to have something to do, anything to help, but being from halfway around the world, there is probably very little I could do. I've made donations on line and I would give blood if I could.

I pretty much hate war myself. And I prefer not to participate in it when I can. But you know, I wish every person on the earth feels the same way I do. The problem is, that's just not possible. No matter what we do, there will always be people who want to hurt others for reasons that they strongly believe in, no matter how despicable we think it may be. If these people come knocking on my door tomorrow, I can't just let them bash my door in and massacre the people I love just because I love peace. Give me a gun and I'll blow these people's brains out. If anyone lets their loved ones die because they don't want to raise their hands against oppressors, then it's not pacifism. It's cowardice.

These people killed more than 6000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, and they hurt more than just lives. They hurt humanity as well. I'm not an American, but I'm nevertheless deeply affected by these events. Those killed were human beings. I'm a human being. So this was an attack on me as well. Whoever responsible must pay for their crimes. If nothing is done, then it is a huge multicolored invitation for them to attack again. The guilty must be punished, but then great care must be given to ensure no innocents are harmed.

Many people are concerned that America is on the warpath and would bomb the hell out of countries now and ask questions later. But people who think this mustn't be paying too much attention. At the moment I am really surprised that the American president has shown extraordinary restraint. If Americans are truly out for blood as many claim, they would have bombed Afghanistan before now. I watch with great fascination how careful they have been, letting their investigators pursue clues to their ultimate direction before doing anything else.

I have no sympathy for the Taliban. Their treatment of their women is atrocious. They do not allow women an education. If they are caught studying, they are executed. They are not allowed proper medical attention. They are not allowed to work. Offenders are carted off to their football stadium, made to kneel and shot in the head. Children are raped, while their dead mother they shot rot outside. Homosexuals are executed as well. You do not believe me? Tune in to CNN and watch "Behind the Veil", where an undercover reporter reports on the Afghanistan we never see. With hidden footage to prove it.

With people like these, how can there ever be peace?

Yes, go after the terrorists and bring them to justice. That is only right. But after all this is done, don't think that this is over and terrorism will go away just like that. The people of the world must try to determine the root of this problem, and I believe Americans must also look to themselves. For one to say that these terrorists did this just because they hate freedom and democracy, then one is just looking for an easy, acceptable, and understandable answer. That may be true, but I also believe it may be far more than that. These people hate Americans, and they have proven that they are willing to die because of this hate. The big burning question here is "WHY?"

As I continued to watch the news on CNN or BBC, I start to hear comments by many Americans in talk shows that they are "The greatest nation on earth.", "The most powerful nation on earth", "The greatest democracy on the face of the planet". Well, what are they expecting the rest of the world to feel about that? And what does that make me feel as a person? I want to support them and be with them in this, their time of great need and pain, but when they continuously prop themselves up as better than everyone else, that their country is better than every other country, well it gets really hard. I feel a bit insulted, to be honest. And I suppose a lot of other people are too.

There is a danger to haughtily consider oneself as the "greatest" or the "best". Such overconfidence leads inevitably to complacency, and complacency inevitably leads to lax security. We all know now what lax security has led to. Many commentators on CNN say they can't believe that this has happened on American soil. That they felt that this kind of thing happened only on "other" countries. Maybe this is why the terrorists were successful. Nobody believed that anyone "less great" could do it. This is something that should be considered when Americans are looking to the answer to "Why?"

I certainly hope that many of the Americans I see on TV who treat their fellowman harshly simply because they have middle eastern names and looks to stop doing it. I can't believe that one pilot of an airline actually asked one of their passengers to get off because he was Muslim. Many Islamic people are harassed, killed, beaten up and their children scorned and taunted. Such actions are unforgivable, and uncalled for. They are doing nothing else but create more victims in this tragedy that has already claimed more victims than anyone could have imagined. They are also creating something much worse, and that is planting the seeds of extremism. These people will be deeply hurt by this, and this is the kind of pain they will carry to the day they die. We don't want to see more terrorists born because of this.

That said, I also must commend the thousands of Americans who have shown extraordinary courage and spirit during this time. My heart goes out to all those firemen and policemen, who at the cost of their lives, ran back towards the buildings in the hopes of saving more people, to those people who probably saved more people by rushing the terrorists on the plane, and to those thousands of people continuing to look for survivors mindful of the danger to their own lives. My hats off to you guys. I draw superheroes for a living, but you guys...you are the real superheroes here.

I've been intentionally avoiding local news because I don't want to be disappointed when some idiot of a government official says something stupid about the recent tragedy in America.

Well, today I did just that and guess what? Some idiot of a government official said something stupid about the tragedy in America. I'm talking about Edsa turncoat Gringo Honasan, of course. They guy who'd rather hide the truth than let it out at the recent Estrada Impeachment Trial. Essentially, what he had to say went something like...

"Sen. Gregorio Honasan, once classified by the US state department as a "terrorist" for staging coup attempts against the Aquino administration, said any military participation "might endanger the lives of our people and affect our ability to survive any global conflict."

http://www.inq7.net/nat/2001/sep/17/nat_2-1.htm

Gringo, grow some BRAINS. Are you BLIND? Our people are ALREADY in danger. Or didn't you know 19 Filipinos are now confirmed dead at the World Trade Center tragedy? Didn't you know that terrorist Osama bin Laden has ties to subversive elements in the Philippines? He may well have been responsible for many terrrorist attacks here in our own country. This wasn't an attack on Americans, this was an attack on all peace loving people in the world. If it can happen in America, it can easily happen, and may well already been happening, here in the Philippines. Every citizen in the world is in danger of terrorism. It is the duty of every citizen to do his best to put a stop to it, in whatever capacity he can. Go ahead, tuck your tail and run. Escape. Go into hiding. You're GOOD at that.

THE REAL SUPERHEROES

Something that I came up a few days after what happened, when it really started to sink in. Where are our superheroes? Where is Superman? Spiderman? Batman? We're looking for them all over the place but we don't realize that they've been here all along...

Attack on Humanity

I've been watching the news since last night and I've hardly had any sleep. It's all too unbelievable. It's like I'm watching a disaster movie. But it's not a disaster movie. It's all real. Real people dead. Thousands upon thousands of them. I'm hard pressed to think of anything to say to describe it. I'm really at a loss for words. I see people from a certain country dancing in the streets, waving their flags, rejoicing that something so unfortunate has happened to America, not realizing that they too are lessened because of it. It's not simply an attack on the US. It's an attack on our very humanity. It's an attack on ordinary human decency and respect for life in general. Anyone who rejoices at that, or makes fun of that, or ridicules that, are not human. And I wish it is THEY who had died, rather than the thousands of innocent people. And when you die, expecting to be in heaven, I wish you all burn in hell.

I'M WASTED!!

Here's a cover I came up with for Wasted. Can't believe how fast I did this one, just a few hours. Pencilled it lightly on strathmore paper, then inked lightly with .2 tech pen. I then cleaned the paper and erased the pencils.The tech pen line is done simply so I would have a guide for when I would color it. I then proceeded to watercolor it. After it had dried, I drew the final lines over the thin tech pen lines with black Higgins ink with a brush.

I then brought the image to the computer, added the title ( which was designed by my girlfriend Ilyn) and the name text via Photoshop.



I'll be going to the Pulp office on Friday to finally get this book going. Edgar Tadeo sent me a drawing of Eric for the pinup section which is really cool. Drawn completely on the computer, actually.

Hello. I've been a lotta sick. Still sick, actually. A lotta bummed as well. A good friend of mine died recently. He and his girlfriend had been planning on getting married next year. He's a Filipino living in the US and he had just come home to visit his girlfriend here in the Philippines for a couple of weeks in June. Upon returning to the US, he fell sick. A fever at first, but later on, doctors speculated it might be dengue, which is rather rampant in the Philippines lately. He was hospitalized, but it turns out to be worse than dengue. Something was wrong with his liver, something life threatening. His family had a history of deaths due to liver problems. His girlfriend, upon being told that his condition was serious, tried desperately to get a visa so she could be with him in the US. Less than a day before she would board a plane to leave, he died, 2 months after falling sick.

I was really saddened by it. What a tragic thing to happen. We talked via email a lot. He was a comics fan, just like myself. We talked comics, music, all kinds of stuff. We had planned on meeting in San Diego for the comics convention in case I had been able to go this year. I really wish I had, but I just didn't have enough money to go. Rest in peace, Stephen. Sleep well, my friend.

I had been sick myself this past week. I feel like I'm falling depressed again, much like the time I was sick during Christmas when my cat died. Nothing really serious, just this stupid fever that I seem to get on a regular basis yearly. I've been trying to work and when I can I do. My scanner broke and I had my bro get me one. My DVD player broke as well and I sent it over to Sony for fixing. It's been with them for 3 weeks now and it's still not fixed. My room light is broke so I need to stand on my table so I could reach and twitch the starter for it to light. A thief broke into the garage and stole my sister in law's bike. Small problems compared to the problems of other people, but knowing how worse some other people's lives are somehow doesn't make me feel better.

I try not to wallow in it though so I try to make myself feel better. I got a couple of new DVDs which I will watch as soon as my player is fixed. They're both Criterion titles of "A Night To Remember" and "Spartacus". Expensive bastards, but Criterion titles are usually worth it. A Night To Remember (1958) is the first Titanic movie that paid really close attention to the facts of the events. I saw bits of it previously, and I was amazed at how many of the elements of this film can be found in James Cameron's Titanic as well.

And since my CD Rom drive is working again, thanks to ED, I reinstalled Thief 2: The Metal Age and I'm playing it again. I could play only a few minutes each time though, since I can't sit for long before I need to lie down again. Besides, it makes me dizzy. Inspite of that, its still one of the best games I played ever. Leinil played Thief 1: The Dark Project but he wasn't able to finish it because it scared the bejezzus out of him. Yeah, this one is really scary. But I like to scare myself, so there.

I watch a lot of TV. I've been actually seeing CSI now as a whole because previously, I would only half see and just listen because I'm hunkered down on my table drawing. Seven Days is OK, but the lead guy's face is annoying. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire pinoy edition is always hilarious, and I'm tempted more and more to join every day. Finally saw Born In East LA on HBO. Thought it was hilarious because Cheech spoofed Bruce Springsteen's song Born in the USA so well. CNN has been disappointing. The CNN we used to have was replaced by CNNfn, the financial news channel of CNN. I didn't realize they had many channels. Just financial news all day. Ho hum. I could get that with Bloomberg and CNBC, for crying out loud. I want my World News! I want to see people fighting on Larry King!! I miss Larry King.

So Gerry, what do you want to do next? A. Sleep. B. Draw. C. Play D. Write in Blog
Hmmm...can I get a life line? 50-50? I want to Sleep. Sure? I want to Sleep. Final answer? I want to SLEEP. My eyes and head hurt and I'm getting dizzy again. Ok then....

Expect to see some of this in Crest Hut Butt Shop #3.
:)

Overnight went great. Leinil, Edgar and I watched Akira Kurosawa movies in succession. First was Hidden Fortress, then Seven Samurai. By then it was already 3 in the morning so we just played Tekken until the sun came up. Ryan and Richie came by, but didn't stop to stay. They did bring a pizza, which is great! Thanks guys!

So it's back to work!

But I Hate Edgar. Because of him, I'm having difficulty keeping my mind on work! My CD Rom drive was broke for the better part of a year, but I've never gotten the chance to replace it. Diablo 2 was just taking too much of my time back then, back when I was inking other stuff. I didn't want it to happen in inking Xmen and now Ochlocrat, so I just let it be. But Edgar gave me an idea of how to fix the drive, namely, to disconnect the thing, turn on the computer, shut it down, connect the drive again, and turn the computer on again. And holy crap, my drive is working again! Now I can finally play the Diablo 2 Expansion Pack!! Grrrr!

But no, I won't buy the Expansion pack until I finish Ochlo. Because If I do, man, I'm never gonna finish it! he.he.

But I'm glad I got it running again because there are some programs I needed to re-install, like my anti virus program. It was going wonky on me so I had to take it out. What with viruses going crazy lately, I'd like to update it as much as I can. I mean, I'm still getting that damned Sircam virus. I got two of them just today! This virus has been going around now for a month and people still fall victim to it? Jeez...

Roy Allan Martinez just sent me a kick ass Wasted pinup. What he sent me was just a half finished piece so I could determine if I would like it or not. But jeez, anything Roy draws is always impressive to me. I'll share it here once I get the finished piece on Tuesday.

And speaking of Tuesday, Leinil Yu, Edgar Tadeo and I will be meeting up on Tuesday. I've suddenly realized that we spent YEARS together in various studios working, but we've rarely been together just to have some fun. It seems that whenever I see them, work is always involved. We're going to try to make an exception of Tuesday. We're just gonna hang out, drink some beer maybe, but I know Nil doesn't drink. Maybe play some Max Payne on his computer, but definitely we'll be watching Seven Samurai on his DVD. I've told Ed many times how he looks so much like Kyuzo, the master swordsman in the movie. Now he wants to see it really bad. Plus, Ed's a real manga freak so he'll probably like this movie a lot. Seven Samurai is a totally different experience of Japanese culture, if one is so used to Akira, Ghost in the Machine and all those anime stuff.

We're all busy with our own respective projects, Leinil with High Roads for Cliffhanger, myself for Ochlocrat and High Roads later on, and Ed with his several coloring jobs for Marvel. Plus, he'll be coloring High Roads as well. I guess we just all just need a break before we go back and drown ourselves in work again on Wednesday.

My Sony DVD player is on the blink. I can't believe it. It's only been a year and it broke down. SONY may have kick as TVs, but their DVDs still need lots of work. I just recently got UNBREAKABLE on DVD and I'm dying to see it. Some are considering it to be one of the greatest comic book films of all time. I'm wondering why. I also got Notting Hill Ultimate Edition DVD. What can I say? This movie charmed the hell out of me. It's great to finally own it. This coming months I'd be spending a LOT on DVDs. I can't wait to get my hands on the highly anticipated upcoming titles like Citizen Kane, Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Cut, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Terminator Special Edition, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Doctor Zhivago, Forrest Gump (out now I think), and of course, the Godfather Box Set. Whew! Good thing I've got a job so I can afford all this! Now, I'm only waiting for Sony to call to say my player has been fixed. :)

Hello to Isi, Sumida, Mark, Budje, Jonas, Jason, Jenie, Jeca, Laya and everyone else who visits! Sorry if I forgot anyone. My mind is dulled by too much coffee from staying awake.

Need....to...finish.........pages!!!

KATIPUNAN 2000

I just got back home from the K2K comic book launching at National Bookstore Shangrila. K2K is a comic book written by Mark Navarro, drawn by Lan Medina and colored by Gilbert Monsanto. What surprised me about this comic book is that it is being published by traditional comic book company ATLAS, who was responsible for publishing Pinoy Komiks and Espesyal Komiks, all these years. K2K is fully computer colored and lettered, and printed on better paper than any Atlas comic book has seen before. And all that for only 35 pesos.



Like I mentioned before here and in several interviews I've done in the past, I had always thought that the traditional comic companies where not doing to good. The quality is often bad and they're not as prevalent as they were before. But with the publication of this comic book, it's certainly a step in the right direction for them. I applaud their guts in testing out new ground, and being open to doing things in new ways.

I got to meet with Lan Medina and Gilbert Monsanto, and I finally got to meet their writer, Mark, which I thought, at first impression to be quite a funny guy. I met with Roy Martinez, my one time collaborator in many comic books like Loner and Hazard for Wildstorm, and artist of Wicked. We had a nice long talk about many things while we downed some pretty wicked hotdogs.

It rained all day. And me, having lost my umbrella, was pretty wet. I feel like I'm getting sick. Oh NOOOO!

K2K

I was in Megamall yesterday meeting with Leinil and Edgar and when I passed by National Book store I saw a poster of an upcoming comic boook called "K2K" by Lan Medina and Gilbert Monsanto. I worked with those 2 before. X-Force with Lan and Hellcop with Gilbert. It's a superhero/sci fi comic, I think, based on what I saw on the cover. What surprised me was they were able to manage to publish it via one of our venerable comics comapanies, ATLAS. I think that's terrific! For a long time I believed our tradional comic companies to be on life support, and are mere shadows of the giant thriving industry they were before. I hope this book injects new life into the industry, and with these 2 talented people at the helm, I'm pretty sure of that.

So come join them on their launch of their comic book, K2K!! Here is a message I received from LAN today:

Hi everyone,

We are inviting you to the launching of K2K comics.
Me,Gilbert and Mark Navarro will be there for signing
of this book this coming friday August 24.

It will be held at Nat`l Bookstore Shangri-La Plaza Crossing
start around 1:00 o'clock PM.

We are hoping for your presence.

Thanks,

Lan

NEW X-MEN ANNUAL 2001
Out this week!



I finally got a good look at the just released Xmen Annual. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I was pretty disappointed by how the last job we did turned out. I'm talking about our 6 page back up story for this year's Fantastic Four annual. My lines seemed to have thickened out and blotted all over the place. In this Xmen annual's instance though, it's just right. There are still a few things I feel uneasy about and can't bear to look at, but those things are my fault. In a few areas, the lines do blot, but that's because the day I inked that page, it was quite humid and really made inking difficult.

So anybody notice the different format? I think it's cool! Sort of like Frank Miller's 300 some time ago. It made for really LOOOOONG 2 page spread. Check out one such spread below.



I still can't believe I've been involved in something like this. 15 years ago when I was still in college, I had already been sending submissions to Marvel, and the characters I drew were the X-Men. Sort of really pleasantly surreal that I've finally worked on the book many years later. And to be working on it with amazingly talented people like Grant and Leinil makes it all better!

Thanks to Richard Starkings. You rule, dude!!

Some interesting discussion on comic book inking in the message board. :)

Haven't been doing much but draw Ochlocrat, and I'm painfully slow. It concerns me a lot because if I'm going to be pencilling and inking for a living for US companies, I better find a way to make myself draw faster. I may be going overboard on the details too much, so I think pulling back on the detail may be the one thing I need to do. I really hope that I could get a handle on it as I go along. I need to finish this book this month, or I'm screwed for all time.

New Xmen Annual '2001

Is finally coming out this week! It's the annual that Grant Morrison wrote, Leinil Yu pencilled and I inked. Grab your copies, kids! Just leave some for me! :) I'll post the cover here or some nice panels when I get my copy.

Why Barry Windsor Smith is the God of Comic Art

http://www.syntheverse.com/images/preview/2365-016.jpg
'nuff said!

Oh ok, here's more....
http://www.dreamers.com/g/psyche1980.jpg
http://www.barrywindsor-smith.com/galleria/mitrasprint.gif

Moulin Rouge: Stunning! Spectacular! Fantastic! Tremendous! Beautiful! Wonderful! One of the rare movies that made me cry, not because of sentimentality, but because of the sheer beauty of it. Strongly recommended. You'll miss a lot if you don't watch it.

YOU MORONS

You Stupid Stupid MORONS. Where else in the world can you see people celebrating the death of innocent men, women and children? Where else can you see them clapping their hands, dancing in the streets because they are happy that one of their people have killed innocent people just wanting to live their own lives?

The parents and relatives of these suicide bombers are even proud, PROUD, that their child has killed innocent people, and that they believe their child would go to heaven because of it. I've got news for you, you moron. Your child will go to HELL. YOU will go to hell. You think your god is happy over this? Don't be stupid. No god is happy when man kills his fellow man, specially when that other one is innocent.

How can I say such things when I don't even live there, I have no idea what politics, conflicts and beliefs that make such things possible in that place? I can say that because regardless of what stupid politics or what stupid religion that propel and justify such actions, all I see are dead innocent people. And whoever rejoices at that is nothing but a bunch of dumb, stupid and idiotic entities masquerading as humans.

This applies to both sides.

THIS of course, is what I'm talking about...

Ochlocrat Variant Cover

I just saw this AWESOME variant cover to Ochlocrat by this artist named Mike Bohatch. Check it out!



Admittedly, it's a bit Dave McKean-ish, but it looks great nonetheless. Check out his entire site HERE.

I just learned that Christopher Hewett died yesterday, August 3, Friday. He was best known as Mr. Belvedere, star of an 80's family sitcom of the same name. Some of you may probably know that I run a Mr. Belvedere website. Without apologies, probably the biggest Mr. Belvedere site on the net. I haven't been able to update it much because of all my work, but I've updated it a bit to give him a brief eulogy. I'll write something longer over there later on.

I should be able to finish another Ochlocrat page tonight. Damn, Gerry step on it.

I'm trying out a new browser called OPERA. I downloaded a free non-Java version from their site and wow, I'm impressed at the many features it has that other browsers don't, like being to load several pages at once. I'm really liking it, but I tried posting on Blogger and I can't! Must be a Java thing. So I'm downloading the Java version now.

I got this online game from a blog that I regularly go to. Check it out because it's fun, simple, as well as mentally challenging.

Bad breath ba ang email ko? E bakit out of 10 emails na ipadala ko, parang isa lang or dalawa ang nagre-reply? hmp!

Ang masama pa, di lahat ng ini-email ko natatanggap ang message ko. Nagtatampo na pala sa akin at hindi raw ako sumusulat. Ba't ganun? Minsan ang labo din talaga.

Damn, I had to kill a snake today. A real snake! It wasn't all that big, but it was still damned scary. I was washing dishes when I suddenly heard whacking noises in the dining room. I looked, and my mom was pointing to this snake which she seems to have killed. I looked at it and thought that it might only be stunned. I got a dust pan and when I picked it up, it jerked and coiled crazily. I ran outside to the garage and crushed its head with an umbrella. And damn it was still going nuts. I had to crush it in several places to make sure it was dead before I threw it out the road.

It was the second snake we discovered today. My cousin Kute found another, much bigger snake out in the patio earlier today. We had to kill it too. Why is man's instinctive reaction to snakes is to kill them? I don't know for sure, but there are chances that they could be poisonous and could kill us, I guess.

And speaking of other cold blooded animals, a lizard took revenge on me the other night. Remember the stupid lizard story I mentioned earlier in this journal? The one whose tail I accidentally cut off? I had come to call him "PUTOL" fondly. Putol meaning something like "cut off, cut in half". Well, he still hangs around the room, but he's amusingly paranoid. Unlike the other lizards, this one reacts strongly to me. When it sees me, even when I'm far away, the thing quickly scampers away and hides. Well the other night, something happened. I was about to go to sleep. The lights are out, I'm lying on my bed, my shirt up to my neck because I was scratching my stomach. Then I suddenly felt something wet drop on me. I felt it on my stomach and it felt ew, DISGUSTING. A lizard shat on me! I turned on the light, and on the ceiling I saw it, trying to scamper away. It wasn't Putol. It was probably a friend of his. Oh man, I was so pissed. I picked up whatever I could in my hands; coins, erasers, candles, combs, pencils, whatever and I tried to hit the damned thing off the ceiling. But damn it, no matter what I do, I couldn't hit the damned thing! He got away clean. DRAT!

Drawing Ochlocrat

I knew that most of the action taking place in Ochlocrat would be in a stretch limo. I needed reference. I went out to buy magazines and I tried to see if I could find a model. I looked at SM's Toy Kingdom and other toy stores out there and I couldn't find what I was looking for. The best I could find was THIS:



What can I say? It was the only one I could find. It looks too old for what I need, but I got the magazines for that. I can at least use this for figuring out angles and perspectives and to get a feel of how a vehicle of this sort looks like in 3D.

Saturday was break day for me. Me and Ilyn would usually go out to Megamall or Makati, but at the last minute, we decided to go to Manila instead, and visit the National Museum, for a change of pace. It's been, my God, 15 years since I went there? The National Museum is located at the old Senate Building near Luneta. I have heard that there is a new museum, an extension of the old one, at the Finance building right next to it. I heard that the new Museum here was kick ass so I was rather excited on seeing it.

The old museum is where the colossal SPOLARIUM by Juan Luna is located. Measuring at 4 meters high and 7 meters wide, it literally dwarfs everything in the room.



The room contains other remarkable Juan Luna paintings, but aside from the Spolarium, the only other painting there that truly impressed me was a portrait of Juan Luna himself painted by Hidalgo. I looked for other Hidalgo paintings, but it seems it was the only one there. I remember seeing more the last time I went.

The new museum contains the wreck of the Spanish Galleon "San Diego" and many of its artifacts, found off the coast of Nasugbu, Batangas. The presentation is really amazing. They tried as much as possible to lay out the wreck in very much the same way it was discovered. Can't describe it more than that. It has to be seen to be believed. Not only does it have this wreck, it also has a lot of artwork. Paintings by Hidalgo, Juan Luna, Amorsolo, etc., and a couple of sculptures by Jose Rizal.

The one thing one will notice is the huge amount of potteries there. Some of them look like potteries I have here at home, but the difference being some of them are more than 700 years old! One funeral urn is purported to have come from 700BC. 2,700 years OLD!!

While I have been truly humbled by what I have seen there, I have discovered something that has disappointed...no, CRUSHED me terribly. For a long time I entertained the notion that somehow, somewhere, dinosaur bones would be discovered somewhere beneath some land or in some cave here in the Philippines. Sadly, I discovered that it would be impossible. In one interactive display where the geologic history of the Philippine islands is played, I learned that the lands that form the country have only come to existence 60 million years ago, 5 millions years AFTER the dinosaurs became extinct. AAARRGGHH!!

Oh well, it was a great experience nonetheless, and it's something I'd recommend anyone here in the Philippines to try.

Drawing Ocholocrat



Here is the inked version of the panel I put up here earlier. Pencilling it took less than 15 minutes, but drawing it in ink it took several hours. I'm pretty slow now. It's been a while since I've really drawn like this. I hope to get faster as I draw more. Gad, I'm going to have to.

I'd Like To Put Some Morons in a Jar

Damn, I'm so gullible, I can't believe it. Someone sent me a link to this site: BonsaiKitten.com. It's a site that purports to put live kittens in a jar for decoration purposes. Wow, I found myself getting angry. I love cats. And to see something as horrible as this being done, well, it could get anyone mighty steamed. Well, it turns out to be a huge cruel joke, and no kittens were really harmed. Well, that's one joke that's done in really poor taste. Who knows how many whackos out there who believed it as much as I did and started doing it to THEIR kittens?

It was so easy for me to believe in it. What does that say about me, and about my fellow man? Man was capable of killing millions of Jews simply because they were Jews. Man was capable of dropping atomic bombs on Japanese cities with thousands and thousands of innocent people. Man was capable of throwing Filipino babies into the air and catching them with their bayonets, laughing in the process. Compared to that, kittens in a jar is NOTHING. If man is capable of doing those things, I'm capable of believing the worst in them.

Secondly, "Free Speech" is probably one of the most abused phrase ever in the history of modern man. I thank it for allowing me to say what I want to say in this forum. But sadly there are a lot of stupid, cowardly people out there who say all kinds of stupid, moronic, insensitive, horrible and despicable things and then hide behind the skirts of "Free Speech". I say cowardly because they flaunt their right to say what they want and yet refuse to accept responsibility for the consequences. In fact, they throw back what consequences their words have created back at those that they have victimized. You think you're smart, but you're NOTHING.

Who Wants to be A Millionaire, Pinoy Style

For want of something to watch on TV, I turned in to the Pinoy version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" hosted by Christopher De Leon. They really must have spent a lot on production values because the sets are amazing. The pacing is quite fast and the watching quite enjoyable. Oftentimes I found myself screaming at the set saying something like "The answer is D! you fool! Ringo Starr is the oldest Beatle, everybody knows THAT!!"

And just as I was really enjoying the show, it pissed me off BIG time. One of the questions asked was, "What does a magazine called "Bondage" contain?" A. Sexual Techniques B. International Espionage C. International Banking (or something like that) D. James Bond.

Pervert that I am, the answer is simple! Sexual Techniques! I kept screaming the answer at the contestant, who seemed to honestly didn't know what the word meant. He looked quite religious and quite conservative, so it's understandable that he might not have encountered the word before. He used up ALL his lifelines just to have a hint as to what it could possibly mean. In the end, he chose Sexual Techniques. Guess what? They called it wrong, and said the right answer was James Bond. Why? The host Christopher De Leon said that it was a family show and that they cannot have an answer like that. The contestant lost. What the FUCK? If they cannot allow an answer like that then why the fuck did they pass that question in the first place?? Morons. It's MORONS where ever I go. I can write a whole article on my typical day where I can enumerate the many instances of stupidity I see on TV, on the street, on the bus, jeeps etc., and I'd continue writing to Kingdom Come and I still won't be finished.

Drawing Ochlocrat

Here is a panel from a page I'm doing for this book. Believe it or not, this is as far as I go on the pencils.



Very loose huh? Sometimes it's even looser. It's probably why I can never be just a penciller, because I find it difficult to be more tight with my pencils. I have to have to ink it myself because I don't really draw with the pencil. I draw with ink. I come from that school of comic book art where separate pencillers and inkers are really unheard of. All the artists who originated in the Philippines (at least until recently) have pencilled and inked their own work, and treated that process as not 2 separate steps but as one. It is only mainly in America where comics need to be turned out on a monthly basis did the drawing of the page was split into two steps between two people so the pages could be finished faster. The aesthetics of having one artist as opposed to 2 is a whole different article all together. Maybe next time.

I'll put the inked version of this panel here later on...

Feeling better (I wish!). I'm leaving (I wish I wasn't). I'll be back in a few days.

Aw, man, I feel so bad again. My nose clogged with like a huge ball of phlegm, coughing fits, I'm glad I don't have a fever but I fear I may be getting there. I've been feeling like this for the past 3 days. Trying real hard to fight it off because I've got lots to do. So far I've kept my hair straight. You know when you get sick pretty soon your hair is all messed up and you look like a zombie. But I've managed to avoid that and look like I'm NOT sick. God damned mosquitoes. It's their fault. I've been sleeping without a mosquito net for years now. Maybe that's the problem. With DENGUE so common today (5000 cases reported nationwide, 50 dead), I really got to be more careful.

Anybody else getting those damned Nigerian spam email that reeks of money laundering scam? I've been getting an average of 2 of those a day! It's getting ridiculous.

Another earthquake! This time it lasted less than 10 seconds, maybe only a little over 5, but it's the third earthquake within a month. What's going on?

Today I realized just how much the Internet has changed how we live. I know it already has, but I see more and more changes every day. I was watching the premiere of C.S.I. on AXN last night. It looks to be like a terrific show and it looks to be something that I'll be watching on a regular basis. Well, the pilot episode ended pretty much on a shocking, and unbearable, cliffhanger. The way it ended, it looks like they just fatally shot one of the major characters. Well, in the old days, you would have squirmed, writhed, and suffered horribly for 7 days before you found out what happened next. Not so with the Interent so close at hand. A few texts typed and a click of a button, you FIND OUT what happens next. It would have been better to have watched it 7 days from now, but jeez. I knew I couldn't resist.

Anyway, showing right now is The Immortal, starring Lorenzo Lamas. Oh boy, am I really starting to HATE this show. I haven't been particularly thrilled to see Lamas in anything, but to see him star in a show thats oh so obviously, and unashamedly, a Highlander rip off is just too much. I'm a HUGE Highlander fan. Both of the movies and the TV series. To watch this thing is just too painful. I'm tuning somewhere else now...

BHONG.COM

THIS is what I'm talking about. This is a site of a friend of mine from here in San Pablo. THIS is the kind of site that should get nominated for the webbys and should win every single one of them! I think he's an amazing talent. Set side by site to MY site, mine looks like road kill. Congrats on your nomination, Bong! You should damn well win it.You deserve it. All the best to Maia.

Whoa hey, look! I've rearranged, repainted and repaired my blog! Cool eh? Blogger added a whole new bunch of templates to choose from. Which is great for me since I still don't know HTML that well yet.

Gad, I'm feeling a little bit sick again. But it's not so bad. hung around the bed longer this morning, but I'm back to drawing. I'm really feeling good about the pages I've so far done. I had been scared because I had been inking and not really drawing for such a long time. I was concerned that I may have lost it, that I can't draw anymore. I'm still struggling, but things seem to be doing OK. I have to finish doing Ocholocrat within a month because sometime middle of next month, I'll be inking Leinil's new book for Cliffhanger. He sent over a promo piece of the characters before he left for San Diego and it looks cool...and a lot of FUN!

Oh, I relented and accepted the nomination of my site for the Philippine Webby Awards. I looked at the other nominess and they're TERRIFIC. I don't know what the hell I'm doing with all of these guys. Ibalik.net for instance, is nicely designed, as well as Arnold Arre's site, designed by the talented Cynthia Bauzon. Maybe I only accepted the nomination because I really don't want to put off whoever nominated me! he.he. Whoever you are, thanks. I really do appreciate it.

This is the time I usually pack my bags and leave for San Diego for the comics convention. I want so badly to go. If I had the money I would have. It's always fun going to America, to San Diego and the convention. I miss the cool air, the unmistakable smell of brewed coffee and newly baked bread that defines the smell of America for me. I miss the uncensored Cinemax and HBO, the huge servings of chili, burger and fries. I miss the thrill of striking out on my own, with only my wits and my maps to guide me. This is the time of year I feel my wanderlust more strongly than any other time. And it's painful when I don't get to go anywhere for some reason or another.

The feeling passes quickly though. There was a time in San Diego in 1999, the last time I went, when there was nothing else on my mind but to go home. America is a nice place to visit, but I feel I can't stay there for long.

My site was just nominated for a Philippine Webby. I'm quite unsure as to how to take it. I'm flattered that someone out there feels my site is worthy for nomination, but I've seen many other sites out there that have blown my mind. My site is simply not in their league. I have to reply to the nomination so that my site can be entered and I'm still debating whether to do it or not. Any opinions out there?

I just saw Castaway on DVD. I never expected I'd like it as much as I did. Tom Hanks is truly one heck of an actor, and truth be told, I was never a Helen Hunt fan until I saw this movie. She really blew me away. She was on screen for what? 15, 20 minutes? And yet her performance was both subtle and powerful and so moving that I could not help but fall in love with her a little bit. The plane crash was simply harrowing. It was probably the most frightening plane crash I've ever seen on any movie.

I also finished reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods. It's a wonderful novel and I strongly recommend it to anyone who not only loved Sandman, but to anyone who likes to read something unique. Damn, this Gaiman fella is GOOD.

STUPID LIZARD STORIES

I was lying in bed talking to my girlfriend Ilyn on the phone when I noticed this lizard on the far end of the ceiling slowly making its way towards me. The lizard moved slowly but deliberately towards the part of the ceiling directly above me. Now I've seen this happen before. Lizards hate me for some reason. They'd position themselves on top of me, then they drop a load of shit. I'm not kidding. Like I said this happened before and now there's this lizard, a bit of a large one, maybe planning on doing the same thing. I wasn't about to let him. Still lying on the bed, still talking to Ilyn on the phone, I picked up a coin, intending to throw it at the lizard to scare him off. Ilyn expressed concern that the coin may fall back on me and I said it's cool and that I've got it handled. Lining up my shot carefully, I threw the coin. It hit the lizard square in the back, cutting off its tail. Flailing wildly, the tail fell right on my face. Naturally, I freaked. If there's one thing I hate are those ungodly things that moved of it's own volition. I had let go of the phone as I wildly shook and patted myself trying to get the damned thing off. I swear I could hear my girlfriend laughing.

And then I saw it. Right on my bed, still twitching. God, what a horrible sight. Good thing I didn't swallow it. Mustering my guts, I picked it up with two pieces of artboards and threw the damned thing out the window.

What the hell am I doing? This is a perfect Crest Hut story and I just spoilt it! Aw, it's going in there anyway. Next to chickens, I love telling stupid stories about lizards.

A new issue of PULP has just come out. I think all the files to this were already in Hong Kong for printing when the fire happened. Fortunately, this was also the issue of PULP where the last installment of WASTED appears in. I'm not sure if the magazine will still continue, but it's likely because Vernon doesn't seem like a guy easily fazed by things like this. Plus, one of the editors told me that they are currently rebuilding their offices.

A new Fantastic Four Annual has just been released. It includes a short story written by Jeph Loeb, pencilled by Leinil Francis Yu and inked by ME!! he.he. Cool beans inking the Thing. Bummer they spelled my wrong again. For the Xmen annual, I contacted Richard Starkings directly. No mispellings on this one. I made sure of that! Once I get a copy of the FF annual, I'll post the cover here, as well as artwork from it.

I just learned today that Ochlocrat will be in black and white. Which is just fine with me. I just need to go back to the pages I've done and add some texture on some places to compensate. I think I may have gone overboard with some of the textures, I think. Oh well. I think I'll be able to post at least a panel here or there when I'm done.

I went on a Big Country CD buying binge. I bought a couple of them in the past week alone. Pretty much everyone I talked to know Big Country for their song "In A Big Country", but they've got lots of terrific songs aside from that. Though they are an 80's band, their music never gets dated or old. I bought all their cassettes when they first came out, and now I'm buying them again on CD. I sometimes go soundtripping and nostalgicate (tm). :) A friend of mine says I'm on that nostalgic mood again, but I realize I'm a nostalgic person by default. Does that mean I like to live in the past? Maybe, but naah. I just like to reminise a lot, and get on with my work and my life.

CITY OF LIGHT

I don't know what happened to the story and when it's going to come out. I have all this artwork sitting here and I thought I just might as well share a page. This is page 2 of the story I drew.

Heh. Messed around with the fonts and text sizes. Cool! I can do it!! he.he.

I went to bed at around 12:00 midnight. I read a chapter of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Neil's new novel which I'm enjoying tremendously. Unlike novels I've read before, I'm reading this one slowly, taking in each word carefully. Neil's stories are deceptively simple, but in truth they're so dense that many stories are told at once without you even realizing it. I don't want to miss a thing! Getting sleepy, I fell asleep.

All of a sudden I woke up. And the bed was shaking. The whole house was shaking. It's an earthquake! It was rather strong. I lay flat on my bed really still because I wanted to feel it. I wanted to feel if it was getting stronger or getting weaker. I heard my nephew start to cry. I heard dogs start to bark. I heard our walls and ceilings creak. What's strange about earthquakes is that they make time seem longer than it really is. It felt like a long time passed before it stopped. But it was maybe just only 15 seconds or less. I got up to see what time it was. It was 1:20am. Turned on the TV and channel surfed for an hour until I felt sleepy again.

I just turned down inking jobs for Dark Horse! I can't believe it! This is the 2nd time I declined job offers from them. The first time I was offered to draw GHOST, but I had to decline because I was currently committed to inking stuff for Avalon. This time around, I'm committed to drawing Ochlocrat. And I prefer to be drawing Ochlocrat rather than do more inking jobs, even if it is from Dark Horse. I really want to try pencilling and inking a whole book myself. And I'm really grateful to Doug Miers of Conspiracy Comics for giving me this opportunity. Thanks man.

Are you a Filipino Comic Book creator? If you are head on over to the Filipino Comic Creator Directory and have yourself listed. The database is still small, but with the help of Filipino artists around the world, it could be a comprehensive source of information on Filipino Comic Art and it's creators. Contact the webmaster now!

I've updated my Filipino Comic Book Art Article. Actually, I've rewritten it, not to drastically change anything fundamentally, but to give due consideration to the many messages I received responding to it. These messages gave me new insight and new angles by which to look at what I had originally written. And hopefully, I've rewritten everything so people won't feel I'm attacking them..if they still feel that way after reading this well....

MAJOR SITE UPDATE!

Head on over to my MAIN SITE for lots of updates. No new art yet, but I've rearranged the articles a bit, added a new Artist of the Month, and added a Pictures section.

The new Artist of the Month is Alfredo Alcala. I've uploaded an amazing piece of art by him which I think has been rarely seen. It's a page from an old issue of Man Thing from Marvel. I got it many years ago at Booksale. The comic's cover was torn off but the art was really interesting. When I saw it was by Alfredo, I flipped. It looked terrific.

I've also put up a Pictures section. A little self indulgent, but what the heck. It's MY site. he.he. See me thin! With long hair! See Mimiws in the uh....FUR.

Holy SHIT, I gotta learn HTML. I've been browsing some blogs and they look fantastic. Ever since I started doing web pages I've relied on my trusty Netscape Composer and sometimes Dreamweaver to do my pages for me. For some reason, the codes produced by Composer, when I copy the html from notepad to Blogger, it doesn't work. It seems I have to figure out how to do the HTML myself, which I know next to nothing about. Maybe it will be useful to me later on....

CITIZEN KANE is finally coming out on DVD! And the features are simply awesome!! I can't wait to see it!

Working on this book Ocholocrat, I suddenly realized that 60% of the story happens in and out of a limousine. The story specifies a long sedan. I don't even know what a sedan is! I think I better do some vehicle research first before going on. I've been spending the last hour or so browsing the net for limousine photos and to find out just what a sedan is. Typing "What is a Sedan?" in any search engine gets me nowhere. I finally resorted to dictionary.com for the definition and it basically means 4 doors. Allright, a limousine with 4 doors. But I need to get the details right. I can't bullshit my way to drawing a car, specially a kind of car I've never even seen with my own eyes. I gotta have reference, at least so I know what I'm drawing is essentially technically correct. I'm gonna go to Toy Kingdom tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to get a nice limousine toy, get some auto magazines....

A preview of the X-Men annual I had been working on has been released at Newsarama. The annual is written by Grant Morrison, pencilled by Leinil Francis Yu and inked by some inker who suspiciously looks like me!! Check it out!

http://www.comicon.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000117.html

The format is fascinating because it's laid out horizontally. Nothing new in comics, but the difference is that the staples will be on the shorter side. Never been done in standard format comics yet, I think. It's been done in some Garfield books and other compilations of comic strips, but I think this is the first time it's been done on comics of this sort. Can't wait to see it myself!!.

Started working on Ocholocrat. Loads of fun because I finally get to strut my own stuff. I can't post any of the pages here yet, but there is one artwork that I can share. Nothing to do with Ocholocrat. It's art that I did for Filipino singer-songwriter Cholo Paz and his upcoming CD. I'm a huge fan of this guy and when he asked me to draw something for him, I was stunned, literally.



I don't know when the CD is coming out but I'll let everyone know when it does. If you like Filipino folk music with a twist, I highly recommend it. Yep, I heard some of the songs already and they're terrific.

If you're a fan of the film The MUMMY, stay away from the Region 3 version of The MUMMY: Ultimate Edition DVD!! I was pissed because the package lists a full screen version of the film on Disc 2 but it isn't there at all. What a rip off. Get Region 1. Screw Regional Coding. I went to the Universal Pictures website to complain. I filled out their feedback forum. Bam! Error. The error message tells me to write to an email address listed there in case of error. I did. Bam! The email bounces back to me, telling me "Returned Mail: User Unknown". Holy Shit! Ah screw it.

Go to bed. Watch Wowow. Hope something interesting pops up. Wowow watchers know what I mean. he.he.

The Internet isn't what it's cracked up to be. Admittedly, it's still a fantastic tool for communication, but many other things have been a huge letdown for me, and for many other people. I guess people went into Internet expecting it to be the next big thing, and in many ways, it is. But for those people expecting to make big bucks, it's a major disappointment. I didn't come in expecting any money, but I made the mistake of trusting those people who expected to.

Disappointment #1: XOOM.com and NBCI.com

There are lots of free stuff on the net and like many people, I got caught up in many of them. Free web space being one of those. Many of these free services have promised free lifetime claim on your own home on the web. I put a couple of my sites on XOOM. In exchange for the free service, Xoom would put a banner ad on every page on my site. Which is OK. Free isn't really free after all. I trusted that my site will remain there for a long time.

Less than a year later, XOOM gets absorbed by NBCI.com. There was some concern, but NBCI promised to continue whatever service XOOM has offered. Less than half a year later, I am informed by NBCI that I need to move my site outside of NBCI. They were very coy about it, but the gist of their long-winding email is that they're closing their free web space service. I got a little angry at that. If you are going to usurp something like XOOM, then it stands to reason that you've got the machinery to back it up. What happened? Bite off more than you can chew?

NBCI recommended the site be transferred to Homestead.com. Doing some web research, I discovered that Homestead has gotten really good reviews and come well recommended. Going to Homestead, I was further disappointed to learn that they will soon be charging for their service. A free service will still remain, but bereft of features which made Homestead a good place to go in the first place.

Disappointment #2: NAMEZERO.com

A year or so ago, a new service surfaced on the net offering free domain names in exchange for an ad on the site. I got one for one of my sites. But less than a year later, they deprive me of the use of the domain, demanding that I pay for it or they will sell the name to the highest bidder. Fuck you. Keep your stupid name. And while you're at it, change your name from NAMEZERO.com to NAMENOTZEROAREYOUCRAZYPAYFORMEYOUSHILL.com
You reeled me in because you said it was free. Now that you got me you make a u-turn and ask me to pay. That's tantamount to extortion. If you couldn't hack it, why offer the free service in the first place? If that was the case, then I wouldn't even be here yammering about it.

Disappointment #3: Ravelly.com

Ravelly.com is also a free service on the net offering free message boards for your site. They haven't asked to charge, but they are down a lot. For a service that ought to provide a stable environment for communication, it's a major disappointment. I have gotten in touch with a lot of my former classmates and friends because of a couple of message boards I put up with them. Now they are gone, along with all those messages, and contact info I have of my friends.

Ok, ok, nothing is really free in this world. I know that. And while these people offered their services for free, I should have been wary enough not to trust any of them. But I still can't help but feel angry at them for not living up to anything they have promised.

I can't totally blame them though. They trusted that they could profit from ad based revenues, but it's just not cutting it. The only thing making any real money off the net are pornographers. It's a match made in heaven (uh, pardon the reference). The Internet is a place where you can buy porn while affording you the utmost anonymity. It's the best any pervert can ask for. (Hey, I'm no saint. I look at porn sites myself but only those that are free of course.)

Now I can't trust anything that comes to me with "FREE!" written on their foreheads. I still entrust some of my things to a couple of these services. (Including this here BLOG) I have to because there's no way I can afford to pay, and have no means to pay those offering the same services for a fee. I've put my sites up at Geocities and my mailing lists at it's partner, Yahoo. Because of their popularity, I hope they are some of the more stable free services out there. If these 2 go down, then I guess it's time to bail out of this area of the Internet for good.

All right! I've finally put that X-Men annual to rest. For those just tuning in, I've spent the last month and half inking a 42 page X-Men annual over Leinil Francis Yu and written by Grant Morisson. They're trying out a new format this time around. Can't talk about it yet, but it looks really cool.

For the next month I'll be pencilling and inking Ocholocrat for Comics Conspiracy written by Doug Miers. I'm all stoked about doing it. In the meantime I'll do a quick drawing first for a pal of mine, Cholo Paz, a Filipino-American folk singer who came out with LA 105 hits "Pulut-Pukyutan" and "Anting-Anting" back in the mid 90's. I'm a huge fan of his work. I met him on-line several years ago and we exchanged stuff. I got a couple of his cassettes and I sent him my comics including Wasted. Now he is coming out with a new CD and he's asked me to contribute artwork for it and I agreed right away. I should be finished with that one tonight and I'll continue Ocholocrat starting tomorrow. Once I finish that, I'll begin doing a Timawa story for Alamat Comics.

I did a Galactus drawing for someone in the US a while back and the payment for the artwork arrived a month of so ago. 2 Bruce Springsteen DVDs!! Cool! I think it's about time I wrote an article about Bruce Springsteen. I can put it here but it would be too long. I guess I'll also be needing to update the format of my main site a bit, and collect all the articles I've written in one place.

I was invited to be a speaker at the still ongoing Zine Convention at Surrounded By Water (in front of Robinson's Galleria) last June 15. I was probably invited because of the mini comics I did, and still do which includes Wasted, Dead Heart and Crest Hut. I honestly didn't know what I was going to talk about and I thought the heck with it. I'd go and I guess I'll just feel it out.

When I got there, I hadn't realized how small the venue would be. It's probably a third the size of Comic Quest Megamall and it was hot. But the room practically crackled with the energy of creativitiy. Posted on the walls were drawings, pictures, fanzines and mini comics dating back to the eighties. When I entered, they were showing "Crumb" on the VHS. I was pleasantly surprised. I had always wanted to see this film; the look into the life of legendary underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. I saw bits here and there while I talked to one of the organizers, Lena, and the guy who invited me, Glenn from Bedbugs: Illusions of Snow. Wow, I never realized how much Robert Crumb looks AND talks like David Hontiveros. It was uncanny.

There were only a few people at this point, and pretty soon, the place filled up and I think we fit like nearly 25 people in there. Along with me to give the talk on what became an open forum was Glenn, and a girl whose name I can't recall, and Vic, one of the guys who did Quatro Komiks. Generally, it was really about the history of Pinoy Komiks, from the mainstream, branching to underground. Roxlee was supposed to be there to give a history of underground comics, but he wasn't able to make it, so they looked to me. But what did I know? All I knew of Pinoy underground comics at the time I did Wasted was Dino's Sigaw Saklolo (sikat ka pala dun, Dino). And I talked a bit about that, and how I came to do Wasted.

In the open forum, I realized that there were people who were actually disappointed that I did Wasted with Alamat, and then later on, PULP. The word didn't really came into the picture, but I knew what they were trying to say. Why did I "Sell Out"? To be honest, I didn't know what that was all about. I said that I did Wasted for personal reasons, and was initially intending on just sharing it with friends, but people seemed to like it and I was urged to share it with more people. That was simply what happened. Alamat made it possible for more people to read it, and PULP made it possible for even more people to read it. Not once was the work itself compromised, censored, edited or changed by any editorial interference. Those publishers are very open and supportive, and they are not the kind to tell you what to do, and for that, I think I consider myself fortunate.

Be underground for being underground's sake? I don't believe in that. You want your stuff to be read. You want your stuff to be read by people who will find themselves in. How can that happen if no one sees your stuff?

Moving on, I've had to step in once or twice to inject Alamat into the history of modern Pinoy Komiks because it's being left out by the other speakers. The discussion hovered around the reason for the birth of underground comics, and that was probably because of the declining quality and the restrictive nature of mainstream traditional comics. I responded that that was the reason for the existence of Alamat Comics in the first place. I said that it was a group of writers and artists who were disappointed by the state of local comics so they came together to hopefully create good comics, something that has been scarce of late.

There were many other things talked about because the talk/forum lasted nearly 3 hours. All in all, a very enlightening experience. Hope to be there again at their next con.

I just learned today that the offices of PULP Magazine, along with the publisher's house, burned down last June 10. Practically all the office equipment and all material currently being collected, developed and laid out for upcoming publications are now lost. I feel bad for Vernon Go, the publisher, because it's his house, and his equipment. I also feel bad for all the friends I have over there who lost their jobs.

Unfortunately all the originals of Wasted save for 1 page from issue 4 burned down as well. When I learned about it, I wasn't particularly devastated. Well, OK, I learned about it only a half hour ago so maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. But still I do get a sure feeling that while I may feel bad about it, it won't bother me too much in the long run.

Wasted has had a GREAT run. It was a project that I never expected would go where it eventually went. It's as if I created this little thing that grew into a monster (a good monster) that I could not control. Long after I thought I had put it behind me, it always came back, brought to me by people who liked it, who said that it had helped them in some way. Here in my computer are dozens and dozens of emails from people who had written to me about Wasted, all of them connected with the story or the characters. I started writing that book in a particularly BAD time of my life. I was ready to cash it in, give up. But the response to the book really encouraged me. It put me in touch with people who felt the same way, people who were going through the same crisis that I was. It made me feel good. Wasted, and the people who supported it, really saved my life. And I'm truly grateful for that.

Thanks to Budjette Tan and to Vernon Go, who both gave the chance for Wasted to be read by more people than I ever imagined.

Wasted had indeed got a great run. But I guess it's time to put it to rest and move on. Thanks to everyone who helped make the book possible, and thanks to everyone who wrote! I really appreciated reading all your letters.

Yeah, yeah, I know I'd stay off the Internet for a while, but a lot of things went on that I just HAD to write down. I'm still currently doing the Xmen thing. I'm just a little over halfway through and the pressure is starting to mount. That's the way I like it! he.he.

Well today I was set on finishing a page before noon. That's what I was planning on doing. I'd wake up, eat my breakfast, hunker down to my desk and work all morning with coffee and iced tea. All right then. Then what the heck happened that less than 2 hours later I'm at a meeting at San Pablo City hall with the incoming Mayor Boy Aquino? I didn't even vote for the guy. This is what happened.

As I was having breakfast, my friend Cesar Esguerra called me up to say that we are going to have a meeting. As in within the hour. You see, Cesar and I are both architects, and we belong to the San Pablo Chapter of a Nationwide architect's organization called the UAP (United Architects of the Philippines). I told him I had a deadline and I can't go, but he said he too had work to do but we had to go because it was important. I still didn't know what was up, but since he said we will be meeting at the City Hall, then that probably meant talking with someone in authority about the organization and numbers were needed to convincingly make our case. So I agreed. I went there and when I met up with the other guys (and girl), we learned that we would be meeting no less than the upcoming Mayor himself. At the meeting he had a lot of plans that really sounded good and would bode well for San Pablo. I didn't vote for the guy, but it seems that I no longer feel bad that my candidate didn't win because this new guy seems to have the balls to make really good changes. Well let's see. But I didn't hang around long because I really had to go and work. And so here I am.

Guys...I gotta get out of the Internet for a while. I need to buckle down and chain myself to my desk until I finish this Xmen thing. I'll only be checking my mail for work and that's it. If you need to contact me, I'll still be able to receive mails, but I'm afraid I won't be able to answer them for the time being.

If you visit my message board regularly, I'm sorry, but it seems the entire site, and not only my message board, are down. Oh well. Perfect timing I guess. See you guys. I'll be back in maybe a month.

A couple of people have been asking me to update my diary more often. I would, but most of the time I really don't have much to talk about. Nowadays my life is simply an endless routine of work, sleep, eat, girlfriend, and go to Nil's once a week. Nil has lent me his DVD of Fight Club a couple of weeks ago and I STILL haven't been able to watch it. Angela has also lent me a Wonder Woman TPB last week and I still haven't been able to read that.

I do check mail every once in a while through the course of the day. I still get interesting mail once in a while. I got a letter from a female artist from Ireland today which was really nice. Talked art and stuff. Some guy wrote asking me to manage his acting and singing career because he saw one of my stories in PULP. What's the connect?? Oh man, I'm not a manager, dude! But good luck! I got an email with an attached virus. It's an email that was sent to many subscribers of my MSC account. With a cursory trace, the email came from someone using another MSC account. Armed with an IP address, I approached MSC Support and told them about it. Strangely, they told me that the one logged in during that date and time using that particular IP address was none other then MY account. Holy CRAP! I wasn't using my MSC account during the time the email was sent. In fact, I haven't been using MSC for a bit and I've never sent emails to people with any other MSC accounts. Someone has been hacking my account and has been sending viruses with it! God DAMN! I changed passwords real quick.

I still get replies and sometimes violent reactions to my Filipino Comic Art article. I don't answer some of them anymore because they just talk about the same things over and over. Dudes, I'm not attacking your precious Manga. You're free to enjoy it as much as you can. The only think I've been saying is to BE ORIGINAL. How hard can that be to understand?

Gad, 2 days, very little sleep. Who says comics was an easy job? Certainly not me. You gotta love it to stand it, to continue doing it. And so I keep on doing it because I don't see myself doing anything else. More crap mail. More morons from some country asking me to invest in some stupid scheme. More spam, this time I don't even understand the language. Nearly half my mail everyday is spam? What the hell is going on?

What a day. Got the pages from Nil (which look great by the way). Lots of mail to deal with. A couple of hate mail, spam requests for autographed pictures (what??), mailing list stuff, more spam, more and more spam. Christ, I wish I could slap these spam mail in their stupid faces, these spammers. Got a couple of comics. JLA: Earth 2 and Swamp Thing: The Curse TPB by Alan Moore.

Aw man, it's 1:12 am and I'm so sleepy but I gotta finish this pa...snnnrrRRKK!

Oh CRAP!! The humidity, as I feared, is making a mess of the pages. Dammit!!

Good thing I've got my trusty hair dryer with me. Takes a minute or so of passes and some reinking after erasing and it's all fine. I'll be fedexing stuff soon, and I'll be going up to Manila again today to get pages from Nil. I guess I'll pass by ComicQuest again to check out new comics if there are any.

Just got The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, Bride of Re-Animator and Hidden Fortress DVDs from Amazon. I got Pippi because it's the one movie that NONE of my acquaintances has ever heard of. The only one person that I know who has seen the movie happens to be my girlfriend so we think of it as our "theme" movie. he.he. I'm glad that I got it on DVD. Re-Animator, as well as Bride of Reanimator, are some of the best horror B movies ever made. If you like stuff like that, then check it out. As for Hidden Fortress well, I talked about this one earlier. I hadn't had time to watch it because it requires me to actually step away from my table to actually look at it because I need to read the subtitles to understand it. Maybe when I get back.

Aw man, Blog was down for a long time. A week I think. I wasn't writing in anyway so I really couldn't care less. I'm doing this blog thing only because I'm so damned lazy I couldn't bother myself to html and FTP this thing on my own. If blog goes down one more time I'm bailing.

Still inking Xmen! Doing Ocholocrat when I'm free. Tough going, but I'm OK. It's been hot all day, and now it's raining. Damn it! Imagine the heat and humidity this kind of weather is going to kick up. I can feel it in my face. I'm worried that it will affect the Marvel paper like it did last year. Oh man that was a tough time. I had to blow dry those pages to get the damned humidity out just so I can ink them. If this fucking weather is going to screw up my chances of doing a good job on this XBook, well by God, I'm gonna. I'm gonna....well, I'm gonna cry. HU!!

Gah, can't cave in to that. If there is one thing that Whilce taught me is that if you're an inker, you aren't only laying down those black lines down, you're also a problem solver. If the ink isn't going down good, well damn it, find ways make it go down good. Find other inks, experiments with inks, whatever. Don't complain about the paper, don't complain about the ink, don't complain about the weather, don't complain about the cat piss on panel 3. Don't make any excuses. Look at the problem and find ways to solve them. Don't bother your editor or penciller with problems that you can solve well enough on your own.

Damn, this thing flew from outside, through my window, and landed right on me while I was inking, sticking itself to my shirt. I had the scanner on, so I scanned it. It's still alive so it moved when the scanner light passed on it. Then it flew away, the vile foul creature.



Actually, the thing is quite harmless. Over here we call it "kuliglig". It's a kind of cricket that makes a shrill high pitched noise when the sun comes down.

It's 6:00am and my dad has just come home. Man, I'm really proud of my dad because he stayed up all night as a Namfrel Volunteer safeguarding the votes being counted. And what have I been doing all this time? Working? Inking a comic book? Not to dismiss this job. I love it. I'm grateful for the opportunity, but in hindsight, this job could have waited a day, enough time for me to have done my civic duty. It's by no means compulsary, because it's one of those things you want to do and be proud doing it. I'll definitely do this the next time around, even if I have a pressing deadline.

If any of my fellow San Pablo denizens visit this page and would be interested in how the voting is going here in the city, check out this quick count by SPERM, or the San Pablo Electoral Reforms Movement. CLICK HERE.

I'm disappointed at the results, but I respect it, because it's what people from San Pablo want. I just don't want to hear any bellyaching from these people when these candidates start screwing us in the ass. This is what YOU wanted. You've made your bed, now by God, you better sleep in it.

It's 5:30pm, and it looks a lot of those senatoriables I don't like to get voted are getting lots of votes. I'm not going to wring my hair over it. I'm not going to get distressed over it. If most Filipinos in the country are dumb enough to vote for people who will screw them over, then like I said, it's what they deserve. These are people YOU voted for. If our country goes down in flames, don't you DARE looking for someone to blame. You've got nothing and no one to blame but YOURSELVES.

In the meantime, I'm inking a 2 page Xmen spread right now which I need to finish tomorrow morning so I can Fedex it to Marvel straight away. I'll then head off to Manila to pick up more pages from Leinil, and to pick up some comics at Megamall. I'm going to check out X-Treme Xmen #1 and Thor Visionaries by Walt Simonson. I'll check if there are some new DVDs too. :)