Comments Section

I've received messages asking that I bring back the comments section of this blog. A lot of the visitors appreciated that I'm reachable, and they are able to get in touch with me directly. Yeah, I really did like the interactivity this blog had when I had not only one but two commenting systems installed. When those services acted up, I decided to remove them entirely. I sort of missed it, but when I realized it gave me a little bit more time to actually do some comics work, I began to rethink it.

I spend a lot of time composing things I wish to say in this journal. Sometimes some posts take me half a day to do. It's great when comments come in and I appreciate the discussions that spring from it. When I get caught up in a particular discussion, it really takes a lot of time and it more often than not, it makes me spend much more time online than I should. Some discussions wipe me out, specially when I notice my points aren't really being listened to and understood, and I'm made out to have said things I haven't.

It had been suggested to me to just let the original post speak for itself, and that I should just let discussion about it go without me having to participate. But I really can't bear not to respond, specially when I'm asked a question. I'm just that kind of guy. I don't know how other bloggers do it, seeing a huge discussion in their blogs and they don't respond at all, even direct questions. If I had time to spare I'd gladly join discussions, but it really just a lot of time from me, time I should have used making more comics.

So I just decided not to bring back the comments section after all. Anybody who still wishes to comment on what I said, or just ask me a question, there's nothing more direct than emailing me personally, and you getting a personal reply from me. I'm always reachable by email and most of the time, I do respond. There are times when I don't though, circumstances being as listed in the contact page. Sometimes I forget (I'm forgetful), sometimes I'm just too busy, or maybe your message put me off for some reason. But I read them all, and more often than not, I do respond.

If you wish to discuss matters of comics with other people, there's always the two message boards I maintain, the Philippine Komiks Message Board or the PKMB, and the Komikero Comics Message Board, both of which I visit and post regularly.

Komiks Meet

I was handed this photo by komiks illustrator Abe Ocampo for posting on this site. It's amazing how a young Orvy Jundis looks a lot like Pol Medina! For a larger image click here.

Front Row Seated (left to right)

Gerry Talaoc, Rico Rival, Abe Ocampo, Tony Caravana, Filimond, Victor, E.R. Cruz

Second Row Seated

Nestor Leonidez, Manuel Carrillo, Teny Henson, Leandro Martinez, Jess Jodloman, Nestor Redondo, J.M. Perez, Fred Carrillo, Orvy Jundis

Standing

Joey Matucenio, Dionisio Roque, Ernie Guanlao, Ernie Patricio

I was invited today by a group of veteran komiks illustrators to a meeting at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife in Quezon City to discuss a possible komiks project. Good thing I brought along my nifty digicam. It's always cool to hang out with artists who have been around for a long time because they have a lot of great stories, and they're quite uninhibited, animated and unrelentingly frank.

Abe Ocampo

Jun Lofamia

Jun Lofamia and Danny Acuña

Orvy Jundis

Rico Rival and Abe Ocampo

Me, Jun, Rico, Danny, Abe and Orvy

Below is a video of Abe Ocampo talking animatedly about his early career, with some interesting insight on the workings of komiks during that time.

For slower connections, click PLAY. Then click PAUSE and let the video load completely before clicking PLAY again. For Opera browser users, click here.

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Today, it's my dad's turn to featured in the newspapers! Dad won a weekly contest conducted by the Philippine Star. Congrats dad!

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Something I got via email from good pals at Guhit Pinoy.

Gerry's Chicken Supreme/ Plague of Ghosts

There's a review of ELMER #1 at today's (June 10, 2006) issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Ruel S. De Vera:

Gerry's Chicken Supreme
By Ruel S. De Vera
Philippine Daily Inquirer

WHEN Gerry Alanguilan decides he’s going to pull something you’ve never seen before, he does it. Though he’s a top-shelf comic creator whose provided inks for characters like Wolverine and Superman, it’s his personal projects that really push the limits of the panel. When he decided to write and draw a comic book series about a spurned lover’s homicidal rampage through Metro Manila, he churned out the ultra-violent tale of catharsis and carnage called "Wasted," that rare story where readers find themselves cheering for the gun-toting madman.

Now, Alanguilan’s got a chicken for you. Not just any chicken, but the ultimate chicken. Hot on the racks is Elmer Book 1, the first part of a four-issue series from Alanguilan’s newly conjured Komikero Publishing. In it, Alanguilan explores a parallel Philippines, almost exactly like our own, except that, somehow, the chickens have developed human intellect and the ability to speak, becoming a part of Filipino society. "Despite the apparent humor in the overall concept, that of a world of talking chickens, it really is one of the most serious stories I’ve ever attempted to write and draw," he explains. "It’s an idea and a story that I feel very strongly about and I didn’t want to compromise it by removing some of its edge."

For the rest of the review click here. Thanks RUEY!

I'll put up the complete review up at the site in a couple of days.

Here's another review, this time for "Plague of Ghosts", the story I adapted for Graphic Classics: Rafael Sabatini.

Graphic Classics: Rafael Sabatini
by Eureka Productions and found here/141 pp./ $11.95/
various artists and writers/

Once a celebrated author, Rafael Sabatini is virtually unknown today. Even his tales of the pirate Captain Blood, 'immortalized' in motion pictures by actor Errol Flynn, are slipping into obscurity. This would suggest that Sabatini is positive proof that fame is fleeting.

But, the 13th volume in the Graphic Classics series of literature adapted into comics suggests that Sabatini's fame shouldn't be fleeting. He wrote tales of high adventure and the supernatural in comics as well as tales in other genre, including novels, short stories, and poetry. They are deserving of praise.

My favorite art in this collection is by Gerry Alanguilan. The best story is every story; Sabatini was talented, and these terse adaptations of his work are entertaining and worth your attention.
The entire Graphic Classics series is strongly recommended.

Original review link.

For more information about this particular volume click here.

No Chicken Stories

No Chicken Stories Please!

This is something I forgot to mention before. I'm open to receiving artwork for inclusion in ELMER, but please don't send me any story ideas, or your own chicken stories for me to read. I won't be able to read them, and it should be so, for both our sakes. I made the mistake of reading one story sent to me recently, but thankfully enough, aside from the fact that there's a talking chicken (an idea that's been used so often before), none of his story elements resembled mine. The danger lies in being accused of using an idea that someone else came up with.

I'm proud of the fact that this is something completely out of my imagination, informed by a couple of years of off and on research on chicken history, mythology, anatomy, poultry production, etc. I completely avoided watching anything with talking chickens in it like Chicken Run or Chicken Little and I felt paranoid whenever I saw other talking chickens in recent comics, comic strips or editorials. One Dutch guy sent me an editorial cartoon of talking chickens by a South African cartoonist. I thought... OH MAN. Once again, I'm relieved that inspite of the fact that there's talking chickens, the idea was completely different. Manix Abrera has a mutant chicken in a recent newspaper strip which I found hilarious. But thank goodness I don't have any mutant chickens in my story.

That said, I have to reiterate that I won't be reading any story ideas with chickens in it for reasons I've said. Most likely I'll just delete the message unread, for my protection and yours. Thanks for understanding!

Why English?

I've had some interesting feedback, not only about Elmer, but about my work in general, about why I chose to write in English as opposed to Tagalog. It's something I had been thinking of writing about for a long time. In fact, I remember writing about it years ago, but it's a pain going through the archives, specially upon realizing I've been doing this online journal thing since 1997.

Those familiar with me know that I normally converse in Tagalog, and in fact I have difficulty speaking English fluently. I can write it well enough though, and it's cause for some interesting reactions when I meet people for the first time after I had been corresponding with them via letters and emails beforehand. One such person actually couldn't help but comment and said something like, "Why is it when you write you seem so smart, but when you talk...". Probably realizing where his statement was going, he stopped himself, smiled and offered me coffee. I also get my pronunciations corrected once in a while, but that's OK, except this one time when this guy corrected every wrong pronunciation I made rather condescendingly and it really got my goat.

I try not to speak English if I can help it, except when I talk to a non-Filipino. In that case, I would have no choice.

But when I write and create stories, I do it in English. To me, language is simply a form of communication. As a storyteller, it's only natural that I would want to share my stories with as many people as I can. To use a language that only a certain section of a potential audience can understand would be unproductive, and would defeat my wish to propagate my story widely. As a small time publisher, I cannot afford to publish different translations of my work. I can afford to publish only one version, so I decide on publishing in the language that I know that most people would understand, both here and abroad.

In the Philippines, that would be English, and not Tagalog, unfortunately. The decision to write in Tagalog for the sake of nationality or patriotism is somewhat misguided. Because not all Filipinos speak Tagalog. Reading through a Cebu-based message board, I saw some posters bewail the fact that a local graphic novel was written in Tagalog because they would not be able to understand it. Remember, these are Filipinos. I remember going to Bohol a couple of years ago, trying to buy something in a local mall. My questions in Tagalog were greeted with confusion and shakes of the head, but when I spoke in English, they immediately knew what I was talking about.

Comparisons to Japan is inevitable, but one must also remember that nearly all Japanese people speak one language, unlike in the Philippines where people speak more than a hundred different dialects, and not all of them can understand each other. If you release a comic book in Japanese in Japan, everybody there would understand it. Not so when you release a Tagalog comic book in the Philippines.

Japan has a gargantuan comics industry, probably the largest in the world. It would only be natural for western publishers take note of it and wonder what makes their comics tick. Once they do, they would go and do English translations. But what of the Philippines? The local comics industry is all but dead, with only Liwayway as the remaining solitary remnant of a once great industry. There are few small companies and self publishers and although this audience is growing, the readership is still very limited. I'm not about to sit and wait until an American company gets interested in my Tagalog comic book with a few hundred print run for them to translate into English. I don't presume that they would be of an opinion that my comic book is good enough for them to translate anyway. It's very unlikely for that to happen. Not right now. Probably in the future perhaps, if and when our industry grows and more notable comics are made and our industry gets some international attention. But like I said, I'm not going to sit around and wait for that to happen. I'm not that young anymore and I've only got a relatively small amount of time to do all the work I want to do.

Language is only a tool by which our stories are understood. It's all about communication. Communication, if it is to be efficient, clear and concise, should be beyond such things as nationality and patriotism, no matter how noble those things may be. If a Filipino writer feels the need to bring something "Filipino" to his story, then let it be in the story itself, and not in the language it is written. Let's see it in the art, in the subject matter, in how people are portrayed, in the story's very substance. It's the Filipino writer's option to do so.

But further, a Filipino shouldn't be limited by that as well. He can write about many things, and not all of them could be Filipino-themed. Not all American writers write about being American, and not all British writers write about being British. And we can do that too. And to me that would be just allright, as long as we bring something original to the table, and not something derivative of the work of others.

That said, Elmer does not strive to be an overtly "Filipino"-themed comic book. If I can go so far as to say, Elmer is almost generic. I try not to be specific about where all this is happening, if it's happening in the Philippines at all. Humanis Rex!, Timawa and the Lake Legends are all very specific in terms of place, and as such I can really consider them as my attempts at overtly Filipino-themed comics.

I do none of that with Elmer because I hope to make it a story that's universal and not specific to any particular culture. I slip here and there of course, with some names, and with some designs, but I do try and make Elmer as generic as I can make it.

Elmer Review. Meyo de Jesus

Elmer #1 gets its first review from writer Dean Alfar in his blog:

Easily the best comic book I've read this year (including both local and imported comic books), "Elmer" is something you must read.

For the rest of review, visit Dean's blog here.

Thanks Dean!! Kain tayo sa KFC. Treat ko. he.he.

For people in the US who want to read it, I'll currently arranging to make it available through Mile High Comics and Cold Cut. Stay tuned for details.

Caricature by
Meyo de Jesus

Something I got in the mail from one of Guhit Pinoy's most talented crew. ha! ha! I wish my hair were really THAT plentiful. Maraming salamat, pare!

That's me, Ilyn and Komikera Zara Macandili resting at SM Mall of Asia last Friday while we were delivering ELMER in Manila stores. Zara is one of three semi-regular people who assists me in my comics works and Ilyn in her crafts works.

Congrats To Noel Tuazon

Congrats to Filipino comics illustrator Noel Tuazon for his nomination as Best Artist for the Harvey Awards 2006 for his work on ELK's RUN.

Noel Tuazon's art has been featured on this site recently for his ELMER art. Congrats, pare!! I hope you win it!

http://www.harveyawards.org/

Elmer Delivery 2

Finally delivered copies to both Comics Odyssey in Robinson's Place Malate, and Druid's Keep in Magallanes.

Thanks to JP and Mike Simbulan of Comicquest, Sandy Sansolis of Comics Odyssey and Felix Cua of Druid's Keep for their support. Mabuhay kayo!

Sandy also informed me that he will also be bringing copies to another store in Fairview. I'll get more info on that later. Thanks Sandy, specially for the Superyor Komiks issue. Ang ganda!

If anyone wishes to get in touch with me, please try not using my Komikero.com and PLDTDSL address for the meantime. If you sent me messages there from Wednesday onwards, I would appreciate it a lot if you could send them again to my Yahoo address. Since I don't have Internet access at home, my Yahoomail address is the only one I'm able to check. Using the email contact form (http://www.alanguilan.com/sanpablo/contact/) will forward all messages there. Thanks!

PS.

There may be an article on ELMER at next Saturday's Philippine Daily Inquirer.

:)

Elmer Delivery

As of right now, ELMER is available at ComicQuest, Megamall. We're going around Metro Manila seeing some new sights as we deliver the comic books to different stores. I'm hanging out at an Internet cafe at the SM Mall of Asia and there's only one thing I can say. "A-A! Kainaman! Ang laki namang tindahan nire!! Walastik!"

We'll be delivering copies to Comics Odyssey at Robinson's Place and Druid's Keep at Magallanes much later today after we've been sufficiently awed senseless at the enormity of this mall. I remember an old strip at an old MAD book. I think it was something drawn by Wally Wood, about a mall so huge that the place had different time zones. I thought it it was ridiculous. Now I'm not so sure.

Anyway, I still don't have phone/Internet at home. Arh!

Elmer, No Internet

Yesterday was exciting, but rather just a little bit frustrating as well. The printers promised the delivery of ELMER at the house in the morning, by noon at the most. That was ok because I had been waking up later and later recently because of the long nights I've been spending working (and Red Dwarfing). I planned on getting up at 9 to go to town to get my payment ready, and be back before they arrived.

Me and Ilyn woke up at 8 in the morning, startled that the printer's truck is already outside the house, honking. Oh man! I quickly but groggily opened the door to let them in. Oh my God! The comics look very nice! I just sat there looking over the thing over and over and oh shit, I think I spotted at least three typos. Crap! But that's ok. I was just over the moon.

I had to go back with the truck to town to pick up the payment, but on our way out, we hit some wires and with a snap and a shwing, the wire snapped and zoomed into a far post. Oh man! I thought, quickly! Let's go! I thought I'd sort it all out later when I got back, whoever and whatever that line belongs to. It looked like a Cable TV wire so I thought it wasn't life threatening or anything. Besides, the electrical wires are bigger and much more higher up.

I got back home after thirty minutes. I opened the TV. We had cable. Whew! I opened the computer to check my mail and email the printers, but before I could log on, the power went out. Shit. I picked up the phone to call my folks to ask if they too had no power. No dial tone. Oh Double SHIT!

And then I realized. Oh crap! It was OUR phone line that got hit. Normally, it wouldn't bother mo TOO badly if I had no Internet, but I had an auction ending at Ebay and I needed to attend to it. I had to get in touch with people with regards to the delivery of Elmer at the stores. I went immediately to PLDT to report the problem (and pay my overdue bill. he.he.). Hopefully, it will all get sorted out this week. I'm not about to count my chickens and expect it to be one in just a couple of days.

For the meantime, I'm at a cafe in town. Logging into Ebay was a great surprise. The Wasted copy I was auctioning off sold for 355 pesos! Oh man!! I wish I had more of those! he.he. But unfortunately, I hardly have any copies left myself. I wanted to sell that one copy just to see how it would do. I'll be selling other stuff once my phone and Internet comes back.