This is a drawing I did which came out in Graphic Classics' H.P. Lovecraft book which came out late last year. The drawing in the book is black and white but I just played around with it in Photoshop and posted it here. It's an illustration from verses 17 and 18 of Lovecraft's poem Fungi From Yuggoth.

I've been hearing a lot about Lovecraft for a long time, specially in connection with Alan Moore, but I've never actually read any of his works until I received the poem, parts of which I was tasked to illustrate. I read some more when I got this book and read everything else the other contributors made. I thought Lovecraft himself was a fascinating subject and his work, truly magnificently grotesque.

It was a delight to see Richard Corben, Rick Geary, J.B. Bonivert and Mark A. Nelson adapt and illustrate what turns out to be one of Lovecraft's more popular creations, Herbert West: Re-Animator, which I saw years ago starring Jeffrey Combs. As part of the payment for the drawing, the publisher sent me the Millennium Edition of the DVD!! Thanks! It was fascinating to read the original version of Re-Animator, and as always, Richard Corben rocks!

This is the first illustration I did for Graphic Classics, and I'm glad to say that this isn't the last. I just finished another piece illustrating a scene from "Modern Duelling", a short story by Jack London, for a book spotlighting his life and works. I'm also currently researching for my 17 page adaption of The Judge's House, a short story by Bram Stoker. The Jack London book comes out in a few months, while the Bram Stoker book probably towards the end of the year.

I'm really glad I'm getting more and more pencilling and inking (and to an extent, writing) jobs as I'm ready to show more of my stuff aside from inking. I hope to do more and more of these as time goes on.

Get your copies here! :)
GRAPHIC CLASSICS: H.P. Lovecraft

I just read the New X-Men Hardcover and oh my GOD! The X-Men Rock! Grant Morrison RULZ!! Really! You know, I actually have the first TPB which collects half of this hardcover. I read it and for some reason it didn't go over too well with me. That was probably because I just had a LOT on my mind. The wedding, work, etc. Now I read issues 114 to 126 and man, these are some of the most fun, exciting X-men stories I've read in a long time. And I've been a fan since 1978 or thereabouts. I was supposed to be inking yesterday, but I spent most of the day in bed reading with Ilyn on back to go and ink. She was washing clothes and to trick me to probably drop the book was to tell me that she needs to wash the clothes I was wearing so I better go take a bath. Well, that didn't work with me. I took my clothes off and continued to read. ha! It was *that* good. he.he.

Well, the book did include the annual I had inked, but for some reason, I still can't bring myself to read it. I dunno. I guess I'm just too close to the material. I inked the lines I see on the page and it sorta ruins the magic and believability of it. Everytime I read it, I get distracted by the drawings, remembering how I inked them and what I was doing while inking them. I see all the errors I've made and its just too uncomfortable to look at. I don't know if any other artist feels this way, but I do and it's damn strange. I know the story must be good because the rest of the book is, but I really can't tell.

Wedding Pics, X-MEN!!

I've uploaded a new section of the site which includes 3 pages of pics from the wedding. Check it out at this address:

http://www.komikero.com/wedding


Marvel sent over a kick ass oversized hardcover of New Xmen which compiles the first dozen or so issues of New X-Men under writer Grant Morrison. It also includes the X-Men Annual 2001 that he wrote which Leinil Francis Yu pencilled and I inked. When I got the package, I knew what it was without opening it. I hadn't been doing any work for Marvel for a year or so now, and the last thing I did was that annual. So the thing in the huge package couldn't be anything else BUT this hard cover. I saw it at Comicquest and I KNEW I wanted it. I wanted it BAD. But being currently broke, I just stand there and gibber and drool. But now I have it! he.he. Thanks Marvel!

BROKE

Well, that says it all. My High Roads money took care of everything I needed the past few months including the wedding, the bills for the house, getting a new apartment and fixing it up. I thought I'd have quite a bit left over before checks for the next project started coming in, but I was wrong. My next check won't be around till probably March and until then I only have exactly $600 to tide me and Ilyn over. Aw man. OLD WOMEN made sure I spent my last penny on the wedding and it's my resistance to OLD WOMEN that made me spend much more.

For those of you who just recently visited, "Old Women" is my term for tradition, mostly oral tradition handed down by grandmothers to their children and so on. Most of it is NONSENSE in my opinion. Tradition like not traveling long distances immediately before the wedding because something "might" happen. Idiotic. Anything can happen ANYTIME. I believe that if it's your time to die, then you WILL DIE, wherever you may be, whatever you may be doing. Be it in a plane, or in a car, or on a mountain, or sleeping in your bed, huddling in the corner of your basement afraid of doomsday. Whatever. YOU WILL DIE. And when you do and your mind is finally filled with the truths of the universe your puny human mind cannot comprehend while you were alive, then you will feel stupid you've been stupid most of your life for following OLD WOMEN.

Old Women demanded I had a wedding as big as it was, although Ilyn and I tried really hard to make it as intimate as we could make it. I can't really complain on this part because everything went really well and it was terrific seeing all my friends there.

Old women is hinting I stay at home with my parents WITH MY WIFE, take my old room and make it our room as I save up to build our own house. BULLSHIT. Other people may find nothing wrong with this and others may find it even practical. I got no beef with that. Live your life the way you want to. But don't force ME to do it they way you do. I love my parents of course, but now that I'm married, I gotta build my OWN family on MY OWN two feet. How can you propose to take care of your own family when you can't even leave your own parents house? It will be tough, but so what, it's part of life. So I won't buy much comics (except League of Extraordinary Gentlemen he.he.), so I won't buy DVDs or eat at nice places or buy nice gadgets for the time being. I can live with that. I can live on noodles for a week or even a month if need be. It's tough, but at least I'm standing on my own. I may be broke now but so what, I'm not lazy. I'm working and working hard. We'll get through this in time. And when I do I'll be the happiest person in the world because I know it was because I did myself (and with Ilyn of course), without leaning on anybody. Old women kiss my ass!

Some pics from the big day!



In there somewhere: Gilbert and Glenda Monsanto, Jim Jimenez, Ryan Orosco, Augy De Lara, Budjette and Brandie Tan, Leinil Yu, Ed Tadeo, Mang Alex Manabat and family, Jonas Diego, Jac Ting Lim, college classmates and architect buddies.



From Left: Brandie Tan, Jim Jimenez, Ed Tadeo, Budjette Tan, Francis, Karen Kunawicz, Jac Ting Lim, Glenda and Gilbert Monsanto, Augy De Lara, Ryan Orosco.


Hopefully more pics soon. Very busy with deadlines and fixing up the house. Honeymoon postponed but we'll get there eventually....:)

Hey, so this is how it is like to be married? It's really cool. Ilyn and I fixed the house up really nice and now it seems like such a great place to live in. When I first saw it, it was all dark dirty, but it did look promising. With a little paint, a little carpentry here and there, a little floor tiling on the rooms, a lot of cleaning, and arranging all our stuff including all the gifts our friends and relatives gave us, makes for a really nice home. It feels great having a place of your own. It's not all perfect yet as the phone has not yet been transferred from my old house to the new one so my computer is still here at the old house, dependent on the phone for Internet. PLDT is on strike so if that goes on, I just may have Digitel installed at the house. They've got fast dial up (56K) and they've got DSL (although a little too expensive for me at this point). The pic on the left was taken by Ilyn's dress designer at her house the night of the wedding. We won't be getting the photos back from our professional photographer for a week so I won't be able to post those till much later.

As for being married itself, it's not as jarring as I had expected it to be. I seem to have slipped into the role of husband quite easily. It's really great being married to Ilyn because we complement each other so well. We're both artists and thankfully enough, we have similar sensibilities when it comes to art so we don't creatively clash too often. And when we do, I often just give way because there's nothing more gratifying to me than to see Ilyn happy.

The wedding itself went great. I felt like I was gonna die a couple of times when things threatened to screw up, but things worked out fine in the end. Thanks to all who came and those who helped out. The wedding won't have gone through as fine without all you guys and gals. I was happy to see the FLIM at the wedding, but I was mortified when he suddenly smiled mischievously and whipped out THE CAMERA and started shooting like a madman all over the little church like he was shooting WASTED. I can't believe how he whirled around and swayed back and forth just inches away from the head of the priest, the commentators, my dad, ME. Oh man. It was so ridiculous looking just I just can't help but laugh to myself. Can't stop him though. He does what he does. Still I'm grateful he did shoot some footage after telling me shooting a wedding was beneath his undeniably considerable prowess and luminous talents as a director.

In the middle of all this I had an end of the year deadline for one page illustration for a Jack London book for Graphic Classics. After Ilyn and I had fixed up the house and settled down a bit, I went straight to Ilyn's drawing table ( as mine here at the old house is simply too big to fit through the door of our new house) and started drawing this one page illustration depicting a scene from Jack London's "Modern Duelling". This is just a small detail from the drawing as I can't show all of it yet. I finished it a couple of hours after New Years Eve here in the Philippines, scanned it and sent it, hopefully making the deadline. Now it's back to Superman, and I think we'll throw in the honeymoon in there somewhere. :)

Allright, the BIG DAY is just a couple of days away and hopefully, all will be set by then. Because now, it still ISN'T! Arrggh! I just finalized a CD of music that will be played on the ceremony itself. We decided to ditch the choir because we can't deal with that added detail now and plus, we've been slowly taking out expenses that we really don't really need. I'm STILL doing the souvenir which will hopefully be a surprise to those who will be attending. Everybody says its a nice idea so I'm really excited about being done with it and having people see it.

Really, I'm not nervous at all about being married to Ilyn. If I can marry her right now, I would, it's not what worries me. What makes me nervous is the thought that something might screw up during the ceremony or the reception, brought about by some minor detail we missed and overlooked. I'm really trying hard to see it doesn't happen. See the kind of thing one has to put up with because society demands certain things from you? People are already pissed for some reason or another and my thoughts on this is this: It's about ME and ILYN. It's the day WE get married. It's OUR occasion, OUR happening, baby. Certain formalities and societal conventions tend to blur this fact and make it more about OTHER PEOPLE than what this is all about: ME and ILYN.

It's the "OLD WOMEN" syndrome once again. Just because old women say so, we gotta do it. And that just sucks. Me and Ilyn don't want a conventional wedding, but traditionalists have been beating us down. Everyone from the photographer, to the barong fabric seller, to the tailor, etc, they have been telling us how things SHOULD be instead of how WE want it to be. I can't believe how narrowminded people can be in times like this, but its something one has to put up with for being a "member" of society.

Me and Ilyn have made the best of it though. Everything is still traditional, as much as we would wish otherwise, but its all right. Ganun e. We're creating our own photo album, our own guest book, our own unique souvenirs and our own unique hand made invitations. We really work well together personally and creatively. I really think this is the start, or rather, a continuation and an affirmation of a beautiful relationship. I think 2003 will be a great year. And I'm sure it will get better each year after that. :):):)

Last night was Gilbert Monsanto's wedding. I had inked him in HELLCOP for Avalon Studios and he's helped me filling the inks on many of the books I worked on. I lived with the guy for at least a couple of years at Whilce's studio. For some reason, he made me best man, which I find really flattering. Thanks man. I didn't realize you considered me in that way. It's a real honor.

It went great, there was a setback or two, but nothing serious. For the most part, it all went smoothly. My mind drifted to my own wedding a few days from now. Although mine won't be as grand as this one, I just hope nothing goes wrong. I have a lot of things to work out this week like make the map, talk to the photographer, make the souvenir, talk to the music people, print out misalettes and my God I wish I have enough ink, send one last invite, talk to the people coordinating the venue of the reception. Arrrgh.

I'm not pushing the panic button yet, but I'm just about to.

The PHILIPPINE COMIC ARTISTS PORTFOLIO

Comics have flourished over the years in large part due to the variety of styles and interpretations put forth by an international cast of artists. The Philippines became a recruiting ground for the larger publishing houses when DC Comics discovered the amazing work being done there by men like Nestor Redondo and Alex Niño.

This shows the work of 10 men, who from the 1950s through the end of the century have found work for DC, Marvel and Warren, as well as Disney and various production companies as storyboard and inspirational artists. The works presented here range from comic covers to stand-alone art pieces, depicting barbarians, monsters, fantasy women and men and Tarzan.

Includes works by Nestor Malgapo, Steve Gan, Gerry Talaoc, Nestor Infante, Arturo Geroche and Dante Berreno, Jr. The back cover contains biographical information on each artist. Printed on heavy stock. Most of this appeared only in the Philippines and is collected here for the first time. Excellent, top-notch artwork beautifully reproduced in large size. Pyramid Publishing. 18 plates, 12x15, b&w.Text from Bud Plant's Site. It is available there for sale at this page:
http://www.budplant.com/prod.itml/icOid/10559

NOTE!

You all in the Philippines will be pleased to know that this portfolio is available at Filbar's for only 300 pesos. I was in Megamall yesterday and bumped into Johnny, one of the denizens of the message board and he told me about it. Thanks man! Filbars says they've got only 10 copies so hurry!

But I wouldn't worry though since I think this is published locally and just distributed abroad. Pyramid Publishing is I think owned by none other than STEVE GAN who himself has works in the portfolio and has done remarkable work for Panday and Mekanizmo. For sample of art, check out the OFFICIAL SITE of the portfolio:


THE PHILIPPINE COMIC ARTISTS PORTFOLIO
http://pyramid.topcities.com

For those of you who are interested in discovering or rediscovering or is just plain interested in the best Filipino Komiks artists have to offer, its worth checking out this collection of art.

DECEMBER!!

Wow, busiest month so far. I've been slowly moving house the past couple of weeks. I'm moving to my own apartment and I'm having the place fixed. I bought furniture and had it delivered. Believe it or not, my sala set and bed cost me 2,800 pesos delivery included! And that's all brand new. Amazing huh? Now I'm having the place painted. Every wall, every ceiling, every cabinet, the gate, everything. I'm also having the floor vinyl tiles replaced, have the garden done and have a canal dug to prevent possible flooding. I gotta admit the place needs a lot of work but I can see the potential and I think I'm going to really like living there, and for several years, I'd gladly call it home.

If I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm getting married at the end of this month. I've been busy with the preparations, taking care of the reception place, flowers, the church, the cake, wedding car, the photographers (no video coverage for me because those people tend to intrude on the proceedings rather than staying inconspicuously in the background as they should). No stupid cables everywhere and bright hot lights shining on people's eyes, carried by horrendously dressed people in what is supposedly a formal occasion.

My fiancee Ilyn is handmaking each and every invitation. Which is really amazing. She's quite an artist. We've been busy distributing them. Some of them I'm handing directly, some I have to courier. I still have half of them with me so I really have to get them out there. The invitation thing has been a big pain to be honest. I'd love to invite everyone, but Ilyn and I can invite only 100 people between the two of us (and that already includes ourselves and our immediate family). So deciding who to invite is really tough. You're bound not to invite people who would really feel bad at being left out. If you're reading this and you didn't get an invitation, then you gotta know that I would have loved to have you there if not for my own limited resources. Hope you guys (and gals) understand.

In the middle of all this, I'm inking Superman: Birthright. I'm trying really hard to work on the pages every day but I'm moving not as fast I normally would, which is understandable I guess, under the circumstances.