Talking Trash, Email Answers

A friend of mine emailed me to show me a couple of links to sites where they talk trash about me, and lambast my book, Elmer.

One of those I had already seen, and although the writer was rather passionate (as many Internet writers seem to be empowered by anonymity), it was nothing more than an honest opinion of what they think of my work. So they don't like it. And at the other site, apparently, they don't like me. But you know, that's just the way it is. There are local comic books I don't like either, and there are people I don't like as well. We're all different people with different tastes. There's bound to be people who don't like my work, or even hate it, but that's OK you know? I can't exist to please everybody. I just try to do the best work I can.

So the next time you see someone talk trash about me or my work online, and you feel perhaps a little sorry for me, just shrug it off you know, because I've never felt sorry for myself at any time about my work. I'm doing what I want man, and I'm having the time of my life!

Ok, time to answer some questions that came in the mail....

Good afternoon! Jessie V. Beldia here. I sent an email this morning regarding my intention to send to you some photocopies of my artworks for critiquing. I am sorry to say that I sent a wrong email address. It should be jessvbeldiaatixii@yahoo.com instead of jessvbeldia@yahoo.com. I am sorry about this lapses and hope that you will still be so kind enough to consider my case. Thank you and God bless.

Hello Jessie! I'm answering your email here because when I replied to the first email you supplied, my message to you bounced back to me. Feeling relieved that you wrote back to correct the address you gave me, I wrote you again. But once again, my message to you bounced back. I checked, and none of those addresses you supplied exist. There's really nothing I can do except wait for you to write back again with the right address.

If anyone has written me using my contact form, and haven't received a reply, one of the reasons could be the same as the above. Make sure you type your address correctly. Better still if you just copy and paste it so you don't risk making a mistake while typing.

There are other reasons why I haven't been able to reply. I've been extraordinarily busy lately and I'm really lagging behind in responding to email. I'm guessing it's the thesis proposal season, and there is a large amount of students with questions about comics that suddenly flood my inbox.

Answering questions via email is easy to deal with as I take only a short time away from work, but requests for personal interviews is a bit harder to deal with. As much as I would love to help, personal interviews take a whole lot more time, and it affects the time I need to deal with work. Last year I dealt with at most three personal interviews in a week. Although I had a nice time each time, it did take quite a big chunk from my working shedule affecting my output quite a bit. This year I might need to pull back a lot, as much as I would hate to do that.

I'm really glad though, that a lot of students are getting very interested in komiks and komiks history. It tells me hope is not all lost.

your site is a treasure trove that has helped me connect with the comics or should i say \"komiks\" of old. ang galing. i was wondering where i could purchase these komiks. are they being reproduced? thanks po ser gerry. ingats po lagi. - gab

Thanks Gab! I'm also answering your question here because I think a lot of other people are thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, none of our komiks are being reproduced. There was an effort a few years ago by Kislap to reprint old material, but the scanning and printing quality wasn't too good and the paper was so bad it easily ripped. There is some mention about some of Carlo Caparas' komiks novels that would be translated and published in the US, but there's no definite reports about that yet.

My own El Indio restoration continues, and I've already gotten in touch with a printer to get an idea of how much money would be needed to print 500 copies. The difference in cost between 500 copies and 1000 thousand copies is startingly small, so I will be opting to have 1000 copies printed. I'm hoping all of that will sell, not because I'm making any money out of it (I'm not) but for many Filipinos today to be made aware of the remarkable comics work that have been published in this country in the past. All of the profits will go back to the Francisco V. Coching foundation.