Johnny Balbona, SIGLO: PASSION Etc.
Having finished inking Superman: Birthright a while back, I took the time to do a lot of personal projects that allowed me to do other things aside from inking. I'm concurrently writing two comics stories, one of which is a one-shot super hero story for Mango Comics. Ever since Timawa, I've always...ALWAYS had difficulty writing about superheroes. It's probably why I've never really written about them until now. I just didn't know what to say, or how to write these people. When I write, I always draw upon my own experiences upon which I ground my characters. The experience of being someone who has extraordinary abilities is something that's totally beyond me.
But writing this book for Mango has proven to be relatively easy, albeit it's taking me some time to do it. But it's fun, specially when I see finished pages in front of me. The art is being done by no less than multi talented award winning comics artist and writer Arnold Arre. And I tell you guys...Arnold's art here is just terrific. I can't wait to share pages of it here. When I can, I will. I really think this is some of Arnold's best work so far.
What other work for Mango I can talk about is Johnny Balbona, which regularly appears in the bi-monthly homor magazine MWAHAHA!
While writing the one shot superhero book for Mango, I was invited to contribute a strip for Mango's then upcoming magazine Mwahaha. I incidentally got the job writing and drawing for them on the strength of my work for my mini-comics Crest Hut Butt Shop. Doing Johnny Balbona seemed like quite the natural thing to do. I based the look of the character on my friend Johnny Danganan, member of our Komikero Artists Group.
After finishing one installment, I begged off doing more because other committments just didn't allow me to work on Johnny anymore. But Johnny seems to have caught on and I was urged numerous times to continue working on him. It seems he took a life of his own and just refused to die. And here I am about to work on Johnny's 4th installment. :)
It took me quite some time to start, but I've finally got going with my contribution to SIGLO: PASSION, the 2nd annual book on the Siglo series by Nautilus Comics. I had previously contributed "SanDig 1944", a 10-page story for Siglo: Freedom which I both wrote and drew.
This time around, I'm working on a 12-page story entitled "San Pablo, 1978" which I am writing, drawing, lettering and *GULP!* coloring as well. I have done color stuff before, specially PULP and the recent Prophecy Mag, but this is the first time I'm doing the coloring fully in the computer.
All of this I need to take care of this August before I move on to more inking and more stuff for Graphic Classics and a 2-issue pencil and ink job for US indie company with a hot upcoming writer.
Oh Boy....
