2005

2005!!

2004 was quite a year. Lots of things happened...I did lots of comics. I finished inking Superman:Birthright as well as Batman/Danger Girl, wrote Lastikman, wrote drew and published Crest Hut #3, and wrote and drew stories that have yet to be published like "San Pablo, 1978" for Siglo: Passion and "The Furnished Room" for Graphic Classics: O Henry. And yeah, Johnny Balbona! Hopefully, I'll be busier here now in 2005.

Filipinos love firecrackers and come New Years Eve there's no way you're not going to notice it. When I was a kid I loved firecrackers. I'd spend the entire New Year's Eve day making elaborate preparations for the kind of stuff I'll be doing that night. Over the years I just lost interest in them I guess. That and the fear of losing fingers, that is. Firecrackers these days are HUGE and have power enough to blow people's hands away. Videos and pictures of bloody stumps come January 1 have so thoroughly disgusted me out of holding firecrackers in my hands ever again. Specially with the kind of job that I do.

My biggest fear as always, are stray bullets. I posted a picture of a stray bullet here in the the journal that fell on the floor of our kitchen a few years ago, on the same spot I had been cooking ham the night before. For all I know it missed me by a few minutes. I even wrote a comics story about this fear on the pages of Pulp Magazine. I always felt that the story was too short (just a one pager!) and maybe one day I'll do an expanded version. The same story saw print again in my very first writing gig for an American publication, Prophecy Anthology #1, also published in 2004.

I'm probably too numb to talk about the disaster here in Asia. It's just too overwhelming. So many deaths in such a small amount of time. It's just beyond my comprehension at this time. I'll probably write about it eventually. What a way to start the year.