Fred Carrillo
The above is a painting done by Fred Carrillo sent to me by Dell Barras. I don't know where this was from though. The photo below is also sent by Dell.
Fred is the one in the beige jacket sitting beside Romeo Tanghal.
Thanks Dell!
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Inking Portfolio #9
Hazard #2
June 1996
Wildstorm Productions
By this time we had settled in quite well in our Balete Drive studio. It was quite a big house with many rooms, an adjoining kitchen and even more rooms. It was an exciting time to be there. Whilce Portacio was by then starting with Iron Man and he was knocking us dead with the artwork he was creating. To earn extra money to support the studio, part of the big house was being used as practice venue for various entertainment people. We had bands in there like Eraserheads, Rivermaya, and Alamid, and we had the kids from Ang TV practicing their production numbers. It wouldn't be unnautral to see famous people walk in just as you're getting up from bed. Michael V would come once in a while to play Tekken with us. I was in a daze. I would be inking on my table and a few feet from me would be people dancing or perfoming. It was the craziest studio I ever been in.
One time we even had a mini-concert right on the driveway where a lot of bands perfomed, and the whole thing was broadcast on NU 107. I had a deadline though, so I had to escape and go home to San Pablo to ink as I listened to the whole thing on radio.
It was a great time. It wasn't the most conducive place to draw at times, but it was OK because there was lots to see.
Let me just say that I owe Whilce a lot for it was truly him that give me the breaks that led to my career in comics. Such breaks include invaluable training in how comics are done and the right approach to take in making them. Of course, that was "the" Whilce Portacio and it was just such an inspiration being there with him and just listen and watch him talk and draw.
Personally, I think Whilce is a really nice guy, a really great guy. Very humble too. I'd like to think that he'd become a good friend, specially during those early years in the first studio when it was often just him and me working together. Together with his then future wife Joann, they're one of the nicest couples I've met.
At the studio there were other people like Kate, Chris and Francis, not really comics people, but really nice people to hang out with.
That is not to say that there weren't any people there I didn't like. There were. Just so my comic book pals don't get paranoid, I don't mean any of you. Like I mentioned in my last inking portfolio, it was quite a disappointing, difficult time for me as well, and this particular person had a lot to do with it. I really didn't intend to talk about it because, after all, it was 10 long years ago. But I realize that I still carry quite bit of hurt and hard feelings about this person. I still don't fully understand why that person was in the studio, when Alex Manabat and his wife were already there taking care of things. I think this person meant well, but ended up being pretty hurtful, specially with a temper like that.
I was shouted at, as were the other guys, for reasons I think were petty, and for reasons that had NOTHING at all to do with our work. I walked off the studio extremely angry, wondering what the hell I was doing there, what this person was doing there, and entertained thoughts of moving back home and do my work there. I just wanted to be away from that person as much as I can.
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By this time, Roy Allan Martinez and I was already working on Hazard #2, and I remember the above cover very well. I wasn't too happy at how the cover came out in print. I probably didn't erase the pencils as well as I could have. If I had scanned it I might have been able to do something about it.
My work schedule differed quite a lot from the other guys. I was a morning person and I was awake as early as 7am and worked until around 11 or 12 midnight before turning in to sleep. But the other guys don't get up until around lunchtime or well after. And they work all night until the sun comes up. So when I go and turn in at 11pm, the day has just pretty much started for everyone else and they tease me mercilessly for it.
Sometimes I end up staying up with them, nodding off all the time, struggling to stay awake. Me and Roy would play Raiden or Tekken, or I'd watch the Indian channels and watch the song and dance numbers. That entertained me well enough to keep awake.
