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. :)

It's 8:00 am, I just got back home from voting. The first thing I did this morning, even before breakfast. I felt good about each and every person I voted. Whoever gets elected eventually, they're no less than what the Filipino people deserve.

Elections are on Monday next week. And you can bet your ass I'm going to vote. I'm more aware of what's going on and I'm going to make sure I vote the right people this time. Gad, I can't believe I voted for that Miriam 'OUT OF HER MIND" Santiago for president oh so long ago. I think losing that election wasn't the only thing she lost back there.

What I don't get is the endorsements given to candidates by religious groups like El Shaddai and the INK. With the way everyone is reacting, it seems that whoever these groups endorse, their membership will vote for that candidate en masse. What does this say about their membership? Are they mindless automatons who can't think on their own that they need someone else to tell them what to do? Don't they have their own minds? Can't they stand up for themselves? If anyone of you is reading this, don't think of this as an attack on you. All I am is generally curious. Why would you follow what they ask you to vote and not vote on your own conscience?

The Hidden Fortress directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring the great Toshiro Mifune is about to be released in DVD, by Criterion, no less! Though not as familiar to the ear as Seven Samurai or Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress has a distinction that no other Kurosawa film has. It's been widely accepted, and admitted by George Lucas himself, that The Hidden Fortress was what inspired Star Wars. In fact, the DVD will contain an exclusive interview with George Lucas as he talks about the film. I got my order with Amazon all set up and I can't wait to finally see it.

Mallrats rocks! You mean it BOMBED when it first came out? That's unbelievable! How can it NOT be a success? It's probably one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. This Jason Lee fella is gonna go places.

I've got a little thing that came out in the 2Bu! section of today's Inquirer (May 9). He.he.

Check out this drawing!
http://www.laguna.net/~timawa/batmazz.jpg
This is a sample art by my #1 favorite comics artist, David Mazzucchelli. I think this guy's stuff is terrific. I never imagined how dirty and correction ridden his originals were until I saw this piece of art. It made me loosen up a little bit with how I approach my own art.

Just got back from Leinil's place where I got some Xmen pages. COOOL! These are some of the best pages I've seen him do so far and I'm gonna ink it. He lent me a couple more DVDs, this time Clerks and Mallrats. I'm gonna listen to the commentaries while I work.

To the people concerned, please don't worry. Inspite my yakking over the schedule of my work, I feel very confident that I will be able to fulfill the commitments that I have committed to this year.

Tomorrow, I'll be meeting up with Leinil to pick up Xmen pages. This should be exciting. Xmen! 22 or so years ago I was lying down here where our old house used to be reading local reprints of Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum Xmen, around issues 96 to 101. I was very impressed at how those comics were drawn, never thinking I'd be working on these characters myself. However, I did get to work on the Xmen already with Xmen 113, 6 pages of it. Unfortunately, they spelled my name wrong. Damn! My first Xmen book credit, and my name's all wrong. Jeez. I'll make sure they get my name right this time.

I'll make sure Ochlocrat gets table time during the week as well. As much as I'm excited about the Xmen gig, I'm very excited about this one too, probably even more. That's because I get to draw everything. I'm not just inking this book, I'm pencilling it as well. And Doug Miers has created a really far out character, and has written a really fun twisted story in the tradition of Taxman and Operator 99, both comics I enjoyed tremendously. I'm honored to be working on this book.

As one can decipher from my quarter brain blabbering the past couple of weeks, I've just recently seen American Movie, a documentary about indie filmmaker Mark Borchardt, and his quest to reach his dream of making movies. What can I say but absolutely hilarious, poignant, and moving. It's all the more remarkable because every single word, line and scene is absolutely true. Rent it on DVD if it's out, but I suggest you buy one, if you're into DVDs, that is. This one's a keeper. This makes my very short list of movies I can see over and over.

Yesterday I was able to buy the Superman The Movie Special Edition DVD. I've been waiting for this for a long time. Amazing how DVD has been here for many years now and yet this is the first time Superman has been put into this format. But it was well worth the wait. The quality of extra features are extraordinary. Specially amusing are the screen tests of various actors and actresses testing to play the parts of Clark, Lois and Ursa. At some point, you get the impression that they were so desperate to find an actor to play Superman that they would just put anybody there to test, even the dentist of the producer's wife. You ought to see this guy. I was laughing so hard I nearly shat in my pants. There were also some 8 minutes of unseen footage reinserted into the film, like Superman talking with his father Jor-El about his role on earth. Very interesting scene. It explains why he has to have a secret identity and why he doesn't try to save every person in peril all the time.

There are also 3 very informative documentaries which was very interesting because you learn that Supermans 1 and 2 were almost shot simultaneously by the same director Richard Donner, but through a very complicated turn of events, Donner was fired after Superman 1 became a success, and they got a different director to finish #2, which was nearly 70% shot. And yet, Donner's name is nowhere to be found in the credits of #2. Donner, along with creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz (who actually wrote the screenplay but was also never credited), talk about this more at length in a very interesting, and sometimes funny commentary.

And lastly, don't insult me. If you want to call me a moron, fine, but I expect you to back it up with intelligent reasoning. But if you just want to insult me for the thrill of it, don't expect me to take it lying down. I'm not one of those people who go, "oh I won't stoop to your level" bullshit. If you want to talk gutter with me, I'll damn well talk gutter with you and you better be prepared to take the same shit you like dish out. If you talk shit, you're not worthy to receive a mature treatment from me. That's reserved for intelligent people, not for stupid dumbass cowards. If you've noticed, I've treated everyone in my message board with courtesy and respect. If you don't get the same from me, that only means you're scum. That's all there is to it.

I nearly forgot. After Wasted finishes serializing in PULP Magazine, the publisher has agreed to publish Wasted as a whole book. That's cool. I'm looking forward to that. For a long time I had reservations about it being read by a lot of people, but right now I just really don't care. If someone wants to publish it then shit, I'll not be standing in their way. Barbie Almalbis of Barbie's Cradle and Karen Kunawicz are doing intros for it!

So in a couple of months you'll see the last of me in Pulp. That should make this fucker Aaron Palileo happy. Dude, you've kicked me around month after month in the Pulp lettercol like I'm your personal wet rag punching bag. Two words, man. FUCK YOU.

I just finished inking 6 pages of Fantastic Four over Leinil Yu's pencils and Jeph Loeb's story. That was just so cool! Can't wait to start on Xmen with Leinil next week. In the meantime, I gotta start on my own personal projects, and Ocholocrat for Comics Conspiracy. Inking is cool, and the money that comes with it is cool. But if inking is all I do, my other drawing skills would rot and I can't let that happen.

The editor at PULP Magazine got in touch with me asking what I had in mind because the serialization of Wasted is nearly done. With all the stuff I need to do, I feel I won't be able to continue doing stories for them, as much as I want to. I've already got stories lined up, but I simply don't have the time to spare to draw them. It's too bad because here's a perfect venue where I can some other skills I want to develop like pencilling and writing. And thinking about it, it's what I want to do.

Good thing I have other things like Ochlocrat, where I can really go nuts with my pencilling (and inking), and Timawa for Alamat which I'm both writing and drawing. I've already written the Timawa story, and I already have the Ocholocrat story written by Doug Miers, and I'm raring to do them. But then there's the inking gig, which literally feeds me and pays for the bills and stuff. I gotta do them and give priority to them first and foremost. But I also have a contract with Comics Conspiracy on Ochlocrat which I'm also going to honor. I'll do it and on the time given to me. I also have a September deadline on Timawa which I'm also going to honor. At this point I don't like to think about how the heck I'm going to do all that in the time I have, but all I know is that I will do it, by God, I will.