Doing Album Covers and Others

I've just finished illustrating and coloring an album cover for California based heavy metal band Crescent Shield. Click here to listen to some of their music from their upcoming album. I'll post the cover here as soon as I'm able to. I'm just waiting for them to publicly post it themselves.

This is the 3rd album I've done solo so far. The first was for Filipino-American Folk Artist Cholo Paz for his "Balik sa Carriedo" album. I really love that collection of songs, specially "Anting Anting", a song I recorded off the radio and listed to constantly back in the mid 90's during the huge Pinoy band explosion. As soon as the cassette was available, I bought it right away. I was truly honored to be asked to do the cover for the CD version.

This is a write up I did for the album back in 1997, hosted at Cholo's site.

The second one I've done was for San Pablo based band "Mellow Del Prado" for their "V-Necks and Neckties" album.

I had assisted Whilce Portacio in putting together Rivermaya's TRIP album years ago, where I had inked many of the interior "portraits" of the band members. I also remember working with Whilce on another cover for Andrew E, but the artwork was never used.

Working on this heavy metal album cover this time around was an interesting experience. It's a type of music that I actually like, and I listened often to the music in their MySpace account as I was doing it. It's one of the first full color jobs I've done outside of comics, and I see myself doing more of it in the future. Not too much though, as I don't want to take away serious time away from doing my comics.

But it does help that you can do these kinds of things so you diversify a bit, and not be too restricted to comics. As much as I love doing it, there's a danger of boredom if that's all I ever do. It's also the reason I'm experimenting with shooting and putting together videos, doing bits of writing outside of comics, doing logos and caricatures and other things.

More Elmer Art

Dell Barras
http://www.media-blastoff.net/

More Elmer art came in in the last month, this time from Dell Barras! Dell is a good friend, and one of the nicest artists anyone could meet. Although mostly an animator in his later career, Dell has worked on many comic books in the Philippines including Darna. In the US he was able to ink many Marvel comics like New Mutants, Defenders, Champions, Incredible Hulk, Justice Machine, Detective Comics and many more. Thanks Dell!

Here are a couple pieces from an old friend:




Jaime Fornoles

Jaime is one of my oldest friends in comics, having met him right after I decided to make comics my career back in 1991. He's the very first one who showed me my first naked woman on the Internet (It was Abby Viduya). He doesn't know this (but if he reads this now he will), but he is the only friend I talked to in the few days after my ex broke up with me.

I was living near Quiapo back then, and I walked all the way from home to Robinson's Galleria in Ortigas and bought a couple of comic books. I think one of them was Wildcats Trilogy #1 because that cover by Jae Lee was freaking awesome. I then walked back, passing by Jaime's house near New Manila and hung out a bit. I never told him my girlfriend just broke up with me and I was hurting really bad. It was just nice having to talk to someone. And then I walked all the way back home.

Jaime would eventually make me a few pinups for Wasted, one of which saw print in one of the individual issues. Now he's made me another batch or really cool ones for ELMER. Thanks man!!


Andrew Drilon
http://andrewdrilon.livejournal.com/

Here's one from up and coming writer and artist Andrew Drilon, who has so far contributed to both SIGLO books, Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 1, the Philippine Star. I honestly don't know if I've posted this up yet. Thanks Andrew!

Apologies to all these guys, who have submitted these drawings for quite some time now and I was only able to get around uploading them now.

Komikero Video Blog #3

It's time again for a video blog! This time, I feature Komikero Johnny Danganan, who just came back to San Pablo from Mindanao. Johnny is one of the earliest members of Komikero, and he's what is known as an "Installation Artist", a type of artist I've come to know about only in the last couple of years.


Komikero Video Blog #3:
Our Friend Johnny!
I'm really glad to see other Komikeros trying this thing out including Edgar Tadeo and Azrael Coladilla. It's by no means the one and only future of blogging, but I think it's a fun alternative.

My next video blog will be some background stuff on the creation of a "Komiks" Podcast by Jonas Diego, Randy Valiente, and myself. A podcast is nothing more than an audio recording that can be played back on a website. They're usually quite long, and our first attempt would mostly likely be around 45 minutes. We talked about many issues surrounding Philippine Komiks including what a "revival" entails, my thoughts on manga, and various techniques in comics illustration.

For a traditionalist like me who has forsaken cellphones, avoids drawing with a computer and would be caught dead with an iPod, I'm surprised that I'm open to other avenues of technology. It just goes to show that not everything is black and white, and not everyone can be easily categorized.

Mabuhay ang KOMIKS!!

I decided that I would create comics for a living sometime in 1991, some 15 years ago. Before that, I was a licensed architect. I'm still a licensed architect now and I can practice it if I want to, but comics is all I ever really want to do now.

I think that moment of decision happened one afternoon as I was walking along Recto near Legarda. I usually walked home from wherever my work took me. Back then I would have probably have been walking home from a project nearby. I was a construction supervisor/draftsman, and I think I just passed my board exams.

"Supervisor" probably isn't the correct term. I was more like a construction foreman/supervisor. I would receive instructions from my boss in the morning, I'd head out to the project site and instruct each carpenter, mason, plumber, painter, laborer what they would do for the day.

Here's a photo of me during those days:



I'm the second one from the left. I forget what their names are now, except the one on the far right, whose name was Nestor. In this photo, I think we were coming home from a project in West Avenue in Quezon City. I believe it was the birthday of one of the guys and we were going off to have some drinks.

Anyway, of all the workers that worked under me, it was Nestor I became closest to. During breaks he would talk about his dreams and the things he wants in his life. He'd ask me about my own life and I'd be pretty open to talk about it.

But when it was time to work, I had to put my foot down. I learned that the hard way. I naturally want to be friends with everybody, but when you're in a position of authority, you really can't be too nice. It was a hard thing for me to do. One late November day my boss told me to fire Nestor. I couldn't argue because he wasn't performing as he should have. I tried to talk to Nestor about it before. I even covered for him a bit, but the boss was really sharp. Nestor had to go. And it became my task to tell him. "Magpapasko pa naman." was the only thing I still remember he telling me on that day. I gave him his wages and I had to let him go.

Years later when a couple of comic book friends visited me on a construction site, they told me how frightened they suddenly became of me when I'm at work. When I'm with then doing comic book stuff, I was totally different, they tell me. Which I hadn't noticed at all. I guess I learned not to be too nice after all. It's something I make plenty use of today.

But I had been growing disillusioned with the profession. It was great, but I was slowly realizing it wasn't for me. I was 23 and I didn't know what I was going to do with my life.

Ok, back to Recto, corner of Legarda in 1991.

Filbar's had a branch near the San Sebastian campus. I had been collecting the X-men for many years by then, specially after rediscovering them with the Dark Phoenix Saga trade paperback in 1985. I was a fan of the X-men since the 70's but I only had a few issues of the Claremont-Cockrum run.

I had been seeing the name "Whilce Portacio" since the 80's as an inker of various X-men and New Mutants issues. I remember being really impressed by his inks because it seemed so artistic to me.

In that branch of Filbars I saw a photocopy of a letter by Whilce, posted up on the wall. It announced his visit to the Philippines that December, and that he would be looking for artists to hire. I was immediately excited. I, of course, had been sending submissions to Marvel since 1986, but I was doing it only half heartedly, not being fully convinced I could do it. I mean, come on, I was a Filipino, living in the Philippines. To me, the United States was something that existed only on TV and movies. It was like a bright big fantasy land far far away. Well, of course I didn't really believe that, but dreaming of becoming a comic book artist in the US and working on the X-men were things I believed to be completely unreachable to me. I didn't even dare seriously dream it.

But reading further down Whilce's letter, I read something that completely changed my life. Whilce Portacio was a FILIPINO. Somehow "Portacio" being a Filipino name completely got past me. I remember being absolutely stunned. "Fuck! Pilipino si Whilce!" I remember exclaiming rather loudly. When I looked back outside the store to Recto, it seemed to me that everything was different. The color seemed to be different, somewhat brighter, somewhat less dark.

I realized comics had been in my life all along. I've been drawing and painting since I was 4. I drew my first comic strip when I was 6 or 7 . I had been drawing faces, figures and word balloons in the back of my notebooks from grade school to college. I should have realized it. Unlike the many young kids today who can easily "connect" with people of similar interests on the Internet, back in 80's there was no such thing as the world wide web. None of my classmates, from grade school to college, drew comics like me. Nobody read comics like me, except those I had influenced to do so. I felt so completely alone. Now all you kids have your Deviant Arts, Multiplys, Friendsters and Blogs, Toycons, Komikons and Sci fi cons.

We had none of those back then. I was making comics but I had no one to share them with.

Because of Whilce, I started to take creating comics seriously, and I started me meet many like minded folk like me.

Today, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do than comics. I want to do comics abroad, and I want to do comics here in the Philippines. I just want to write and draw, and I just want to share my stores with everybody. I've realized it was something I've always wanted to do with my life.

Friends I've met along the way go off into other jobs doing animation, advertising, call centers, architecture, and even I myself have been offered opportunities to make big money outside of comics. I'm sure I've been called stupid behind my back for staying with comics, and doing comics here in the Philippines. But what can I do?

I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to do what I really want to do. Sometimes people look at me now and they tell me I'm lucky. Some people say they're much more talented than me so why aren't THEY being given the chance? Such bitterness the likes of which I never knew existed make its presence known to me, envious perhaps of how far I've gone, and the kind of attention I'm getting.

I really don't know what to say to these people. They're of a mindsent completely different from me. There are a lot of people out there who are undeniably talented, and yeah, a lot of them are a fucking lot more better than me. The thing is, some of these people feel that just because they're good, jobs will automatically come to them. But really, that's not the way it works. You may be good, but you've got to work to get yourself out there, you know?

I didn't get here by being lucky. I got here because I worked really hard and I treated every setback as as challenge. Walang nakakaalam sa tunay na hirap na dinaanan ko. Pero kahit anong mangyari, kahit ang daming kontra sa akin, ang daming nagsabi sa akin na wala akong mararating, hindi ako nasiraan ng loob. Hinding hindi ako nasiraan ng loob.

I may never think of myself as a really good writer or artist, I may never ever be worthy to stand along with the greats like Francisco Coching or Nestor Redondo, and I'll always think something is wrong with my work and I'll always be thinking I have a lot to learn.

But if there is one thing I can be proud of, is the fact I got here because I worked really damned hard for it. And I'm prouder still of the fact that inspite of those difficulties, I'll never be bitter. I'll always love comics and I'll always love making comics. So unfortunately for many of you, I'm afraid you'll have to endure my stories and my art and my rants for as long as I'm alive.

And I hope it's a damned long time before I die.

Carlo Caparas, Jose Rizal

It's already a widely accepted fact that Dr. Jose Rizal was the very first Filipino to incoporate drawings and text to tell a story, essentially creating the very first Philippine "komiks" in 1889, although the strip itself was created in 1886.



Philippine historian Ambeth Ocampo sheds some further light on Jose Rizal's creation:

"Rizal's English was quite passable, and I presume his text was edited before it was printed. He not only related the familiar story, but he also compared this with a similar Japanese folk tale and even went into some literary and anthropological analysis. We also know that Rizal drew in "komiks" form the same tale in the scrapbook of Paz Pardo de Tavera, the ill-fated wife of Juan Luna. A year ago, Reni Roxas of Tahanan Books had the Rizal drawings scanned (the originals are unlocated, so all we have is a clear copy in Austin Craig's 1913 biography, "Life Lineage and Labors of Jose Rizal") and thendigitally enhanced and colored."

Rizal's Version of a Famous Folk Tale
by Ambeth Ocampo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 19, 2006
Read the Entire Story Here.

Further Reading: Rizal's "Monkey and the Tortoise" Cartoons by komiks historian Dennis Villegas.

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



Former Komiks writer Carlo J. Caparas, creator of many characters including Panday, was recently awarded "Gawad ng Komisyon ng Wika" by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts for his accomplishments in champiniong the Pilipino language in both komiks and film.

Komiks as literature

“Ang alam lang natin ay yung nasa academe. Ang gusto naming ipakita ngayon ay yung pagpapahalaga sa mga ganitong panitikan (We only gave recognition to members of the academe. What we want to do now is to show the importance of these types of literature).

“As far as I know, this is the first time that we have given the award to a figure that is not from the academe,” Nolasco said, referring to Caparas.

Caparas Story Stranger Than Fiction
by Nini Valera
Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 2, 2006
Read the story here.

An interesting bit of news that Caparas himself said was the possibility of his komiks novels being published in English in the United States. If this is true, then I think this is fantastic, but I really hope that his artist collaborators get the proper credit and compensation that is only naturally due to them.

Artists should be considered "co-creators" when they had a part in creating the look of the characters and establishing the look of the universe that the characters exist in. In the Philippines, artists have been historically treated as nothing more than "workers" who get paid a page rate in a komiks heirarchy where the writer reigns supreme.

The form of "COMICS" is the product of the collaboration between the writer and the artist, and no one is more important than the other within that comics creation process.

I don't want to take anything away from the writers. I am only trying to impress upon everyone the importance of the artist in the process of comics creation, and I hope I can impress upon them the colossal unjustness and unfairness that our artists for many decades have had to endure, oblivious that they deserved so much more than they got.

If such working conditions were the norm of decades ago, then that is no longer the case today. Today we should recognize the severe inequality our artists have unknowingly suffered, and take all steps to rectify the situation.

Whatever acclaim and recognition that Carlo Caparas receives, it is undeniable that he deserves them fully, and for this award, I offer my heartiest congratulations. His accomplishment does nothing but uplift the medium and that's something comics really needs.

But I really hope that his collaborators like Hal Santiago, his Panday co-creator Steve Gan, and many more artists are not forgotten, and that they are deserving of such acclaim, recognition and due compensation as well.

And I think it's about damned time.

Komikero Video Blog #2

Oh Crap! just can't stop myself!!


Komikero Video Blog #2
Preview of Upcoming Video Blog Topics
Now with English Subtitles!

Since my spoken English is terrible, I decided to continue in the vernacular, but for the benefit of those who don't speak tagalog, my video blogs will now have English subtitles. Of course, you can't be sure if the subtitles actually translates what I'm really saying. he.he.

It's really fun, but now I've really got to stop myself for a while and continue working. There's a CD cover for a Heavy Metal band I'm going to be finishing up this week, so I'll be off now...

Komikero Video Blog 1

I had the idea of attempting a blog entry in the form of a video. I've been doing these little video things for a few years now, starting with Komikero Scandal #1 from February 2004, but this is the first time I've done it in the form of an actual blog entry, reporting on a specific event, particularly our Komikero meeting from July 30, 2006.

Note: Video Blog is in Tagalog.


Komikero Video Blog Entry #1


Click above or here to see the video.

Apologies if anyone dropped by and wasn't able to hook up with us, specially to ED, who I heard was supposed to come. The all day rain was a real pain and we couldn't find any place to hang out. So we just decided to come back here to the house.

Hopefully, the next meeting won't have weather this bad.

Humanis Rex 16, Uncanny X-Men Omnibus

I spent the last week just drawing and coloring Humanis Rex #16. I'm on the last leg of my run on Fudge Magazine and I really want each installment to surpass the previous one in terms of art. I have plenty of opportunity to do so because from here on in, it's all out war on a completely large scale. Each installment will be a two-page spread that would allow me to have a huge upper panel across two pages.



I usually withdraw a little bit whenever I'm finishing an installment so I can concentrate on doing the work. So apologies to anyone who has been trying to get in touch. I'm usually harder to get in touch with during these times.

For Elmer #1, I withdrew completely from everything (except from my wife and our dog Eugene) and went to our country rest house without electricity, TV, computer, phone, and radio for several days. I expect to do the same when work for Elmer #2 is in full swing. I expect it would be far more difficult to do, not only because of it's additional pages, but because of the subject matter.

I still continue to push Elmer whenever and wherever I can. I did an interview for Newsarama.com not too long ago, not only for Elmer, but also for the Comics Museum. I hope they find it newsworthy enough to upload at their site. I've been stung once before when I had my hopes raised and then dashed when I did an interview with another high profile site and it never came out. I wish I could avoid wasting time by dealing only those who would be straight with me, but you really can't tell, so you entertain them all and then hope for the best.

I have a friend from Eastern Europe, someone I had been corresponding with now via email on and off for like 8 years. He would often ask me what comics I'm reading right now, and he would give me a list of comics he had been reading, and ask for my opinion on such and such story, character or event. I often just scratch my head, not knowing what to say. The truth of it is, I really don't read too many new comics nowadays.

There was once a time, specially during back in my college days in the 80's, that I was a rabid comics reader. I was a huge X-men fan and I would read any comic book that had those characters in it. During class I'd daydream about where I would be going after the bell rings and the kind of comics I would get. More often than not, I'd walk all the way from my class at the University of Sto Tomas in España to Rizal Avenue near Quiapo and browse the many newsstands for their bargain imported comics. I'd buy all the X-men stuff I could find like the regular X-men title (back then there was only one, believe or not). I'd also get New Mutants, X-men tie ins with Spiderman, Thor, Power Pack, Marvel Age, and the various X-men limited series. I'd get stuff like Cloak and Dagger because I just loved the art by Rick Leonardi and Terry Austin. I learned my Manila geography because of comics because I would go to places I haven't been before because I heard there were good comics sources there. I learned to go to Greenhills and Cubao because of comics. There was this really awesome store in Greenhills called Crizareth where you could buy all these X-men back issues.

When I started working in comics in the early 90's my interest in reading comics slowly diminished. My passion for X-men sort of died out when Chris Claremont left, and a new X-men title was born. Change is all well and good, but you know, no matter how your friends change, they're still the same people with the same characteristics, quirks, expressions and mannerisms. When Chris Claremont left, we were treated to some really good stories and some really good art, but the characters no longer seemed like the same characters I had grew up with. It was like they were completely different people. And it sort of bummed me out.

In recent years I hardly read comics anymore at all. This is not any comment on the quality of comics, as I'm sure many of them are still very good, but the interest doesn't seem to be there anymore. Comics is a hard, hard job. Even though I like what I'm doing, the work is often very intense, very difficult and completely exhausting. When I want to take a break, the last thing I want to do is read comics. And when I want to read, the last thing I want to read are comics.

I once vowed I would read anything that Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore would write. But even for them, I just can't work up the proper interest anymore. There were many ABC books I failed to buy and read. I managed to buy one of Frank Miller's Batman and Robin with Jim Lee. Well, I didn't like it anyway. I'm completely missing Gaiman's Eternals altogether.

I'm more willing to try new independent comic books because I'm always looking out for something different and new. I really loved the Bone One Volume Editon, David B.'s Epileptic, and Alex Niño's The Orc's Treasure.

The only thing that completely grips me and has me gurgling like a fan boy nowadays are collections of comics I loved as a kid. I forked out serious bucks to buy an Absolute Watchmen, and read it all again in one sitting. It's still one hell of a fantastic read. When I first saw that Uncanny X-Men Omnibus online, a colossal compilation of the very first Chris Claremont X-men stories with Dave Cockrum and John Byrne, I almost shit in my pants (actually, I think I did). The hardcover book collects Giant Size X-men #1, as well as #94 to 131 of the regular series, as well as Annual #3. The first third of this book is responsible for a large chunk of my childhood memories. I remember being 10 years old in 1978, reading National Book Store reprints of these issues and being completely blown away. Wolverine was a favorite character even back then. I had believed his claws came from his gloves, but when I saw them shooting off his bare hands, I was both repelled and awed. It was a fact that shocked the other X-men as well. "Yer CLAWS, Laddie... Lord above, they're a PART OF YOU-- we...I... didn't KNOW!", stammers Banshee. Completely unforgettable stuff. These issues, including the ones that came after are some of the best superhero stories ever made, in my opinion. I just had to have it.



I didn't have money to buy the Omnibus book, but I had the idea of putting out an offer here on this blog for a trade. An Uncanny X-men Omnibus Volume 1 for 1 page of Wolverine original art. Within a few hours, someone already responded, and it's Sandy Sansolis of Comics Odyssey. So I met with him yesterday, did the trade, and we had a nice long talk about comics. In addition to the Omnibus book, he also gave me a copy of DC Showcase: House of Mystery and 3 copies of a signed Alex Niño print. He really didn't have to, as I felt the Omnibus was enough. I would have gladly paid for the rest but he wanted none of it.

So I'll do my bit for promoting his store. I'm not doing this because he did me a favor, but because I think his store really is cool and it's location may have disadvantaged it to many comics fans from farther parts of Metro Manila like Quezon City. The store has got a very extensive old back issue stock and a very wide selection of new mainstream and indie books.

If you want to go check it out, the store's name is COMIC ODYSSEY, on the 3rd Floor, Pedro Gil Wing of Robinson's Place, along Pedro Gil in Malate. Sandy says he'll be opening a new branch sometime soon in Ortigas. I'll be talking about that when the time comes.

A Note About the Comics Museum.

Apologies to visitors of the Comics Museum. Please don't think I've forgotten about it. Because of the move to a different server, I would have to rework a lot of the links and it will take time to correct. Additionally, because I've retired from inking, I've had to prioritize my transition from inker to a full artist and the process has been difficult and enormously time consuming. I'm still in that process and I'm still not sure if I will succeed or not, but I will give it a hell of a go and I'll be a bloody dismembered and disfigured mess before I quit. And maybe not even then.

Forbidden Planet ELMER Review

Forbidden Planet ELMER Review

"Elmer is the creation of Filipino comics artist Gerry Alanguilan who has worked as a penciller on many strips in his native land and as an inker on many comics projects for Marvel and other US based publishers over pencillers such as Whilce Portacio. The man is a damned fine artist. Now he is also a publisher and the first effort from his company Komikero Publishing is the comic Elmer."

Click here for the rest of the review.

ELMER is also available at all Forbidden Planet stores as well as their online store. Click here for buying information.

I'm still damned overwhelmed that a legendary UK comics store would carry Elmer. I'm doubly overhelmed as it's them who got in touch with me first. Thanks go to Tom at the Comics Reporter because it was his feature on my 1st Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards post that attracted Kenny Penman of Forbidden Planet to check out my comic book.

I'm really speechless. I better just go and finish this month's Humanis Rex!

Thanks once again to Kenny! Check out Forbidden Planet's regularly updated blog here.

ELMER at Forbidden Planet

ELMER in the UK!

Elmer is now available at the legendary UK comics store Forbidden Planet! Click on the link for a direct link to the ELMER page.

It will also be available at all 16 Forbidden Planet branches across the United Kingdom. Click here for a Forbidden Planet store locator.

Thanks to Kenny Penman!