Ochlocrat comes out this week!! So go and pester your friendly (or not so friendly) neighborhood comic book store owner to reserve you a copy! It comes out in the US this Wednesday, January 30, while it should be hitting Comic Quest here in the Philippines by the weekend. I have no idea if Filbars or Cats ordered copies. But if you can't get copies, get in touch with me and maybe we can work something out....

Just in case you haven't seen our Ochlocrat Diary yet, please do.

Check out the Sunday Inquirer Magazine on Sunday (Feb. 3) ...big surprise!!

I'm currently inking High Roads #2 for Cliffhanger. While I do that, I'm also slowly progressing on The Yellow Shawl. For the first time, I'm doing this on 8"X13" bond paper instead of my usual 11"X17" vellum. This is because Corona bond paper has texture that is most receptive to the kind of drawing I want to do, which I can't do on vellum. I'm currently doing thumbnails on it, and again, this is probably the first time I'm doing thumbnails for all pages. I had done some thumbnails on Ochlocrat, but not on the scale I'm doing it for Shawl. I wish I did because it really does make approaching, composing and solving page layouts easier. The Yellow Shawl is written by National Artist Francisco Arecellana, and is adapted into comics script by writer Emil Flores. The script is rather tight, with very specific instructions from figure compositions to size of panels. I must admit I'm not this used to drawing from scripts this tight, but as I drew it, I find that I'm really enjoying it. Primarily because Emil has a very good sense for visual storytelling which is really amazing to realize while I'm drawing it. Just looking at the thumbnails I can tell that this will be a very good comic book from a story standpoint. I can't wait to finish it and see it in print!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

They New Year is finally here! I'm still alive and I've still got all my fingers! Thank God!

Star Movies cable channel will be showing X-Men: The Movie this month. To promote it, Star TV will be holding a comic book art exhibit, with special emphasis on X-Men, starting January 5, Saturday at Robinson's Galleria, Ortigas. The exhibit will run for more than a week. Leinil Yu, Edgar Tadeo, myself and Alamat Comics will be there on Saturday to open the exhibit. Alamat will be giving talks later in the day. I'll be there as early as Friday evening with Budjette Tan to bring artwork and help set up the exhibit.

Moulin Rouge rocks! I've had the DVD ever since before Christmas and it's all I've watched for the past couple of weeks. An absolutely stunning movie and even more stunning DVD. Some people hate this movie, but I just love it.