Gerry Alanguilan's Blog, page 21

Kulawo: Proudly San Pablo Made

I've been talking about Kulawo on Twitter for quite some time now. When I was younger, I didn't appreciate this exotic dish which my mom used to make a lot. Only later when I got older and my taste for food had gotten more evolved did I appreciate it. I also learned only recently that the Kulawo most likely originated right here in San Pablo City (as far as I know), and it is still very much largely unknown as a dish outside of Laguna.

Today, I decided to cook it myself.

Kulawo has been generally cooked using either of the two main ingredients: Puso ng Saging (banana heart) or Eggplant. I decided to go with eggplant. If you would like to try to cook it yourself, these are the ingredients that you will need:

4-6 large eggplants

coconut gratings from 2 coconuts

coconut shell charcoal

1 cup vinegar

4 medium sized onions

1 tsp salt

dash of pepper

First, I grilled four large eggplants in a charcoal grill. You can also grill it over a stove if you like:

Yes I grilled some Bangus as well. Don't mind it. hehe. Recipe later.

When they're all done grilling, they would look like this:

Set them aside for a while to let them cool. In the meantime, place the coconut gratings in a metal pan.

Place live coconut shell coals right on top of the coconut gratings. Keep fanning to keep the coal alive. Occasionally move the coal and sift the coconut to cook as much of it as you can. It's inevitable that you will burn parts of it, but that's all right. That's what we want.

After the charcoal has died out, carefully remove the burnt charcoal with tongs. If they had completely gone out, you can do this by hand. Make sure you sift the gratings to evenly distribute the cooked and burnt areas.

Pour the vinegar on top of the gratings and set aside for a while.

Chop the onions:

By this time the eggplants have cooled enough for you to handle them with your hands. Carefully remove the blackened skin, slice, then lay them over a pan like this:

Go back to your gratings and then squeeze the milk out of them. Add the onions to the milk, then place it all in a cooking pan. Add the salt.

Slowly cook the coconut milk on medium heat. It is generally a rule to not stir any stew with vinegar in it to allow it to cook, but to prevent the milk from curdling, you do need to stir once in a while. Let it boil for around 5 minutes until the milk and onions are cooked. Remove from heat, then pour the mixture over the eggplants.

You can eat this already if you're really hungry, but we generally refrigerate it for a while, probably an hour just to let everything settle and blend together. And here it is with the grilled bangus:

How to do the grilled Bangus? Here's a quick recipe.

Get a large Bangus from your local market. You can usually request that they clean it and cut it for you, "daing" style.

In a medium sized bowl, mix 1 large chopped onion (or 2 medium sized ones), 1 large chopped tomato (or 2 medium sized ones), 1/3 cup oyster sauce, thumb sized ginger: grated, dash of pepper. Mix well. Place inside the fish cavity and then close it. Wrap fish inside aluminum foil and then grill, arond 12-18 minutes each side, depending on the size of the fish.

All right! there you have it! You have your San Pablo City style lunch, wherever you may be. Serve with hot rice!

Laughable.

When your objective arguments are countered by personal, fact deficient and anonymous attacks, it only indicates how laughably mentally deficient and pathetic these people are. They cannot argue logically or even rationally. So they attack. LAUGHABLE. I win.

Hahaha! This is me. Laughing at YOU.

Facts and 50 Komiks Serials

Because many in Philippine media seem to be struggling keeping up with the FACTS, let me remind them that Carlo J. Caparas is NOT A NATIONAL ARTIST. At the very least not yet. The supreme court decision to hold that title from CJC is still IN EFFECT. I fail to understand why the opposite continues to be reported day in and day out. Is there something more going on here than just plain ignorance? Why are these people even working in media if they can't get their freakin' facts straight? Or perhaps it is BECAUSE they are in media? Oh right, I get it now. And they say BLOGGERS are unreliable. Give me a break.

Regardless whether you are of the opinion that CJC should be a National Artist or Not, IT IS A FACT that CJC is not a National Artist yet. That's not an opinion. That's a FACT.

That said, I do welcome the news that 50 Komiks Serials are going to be adapted into TV by VIVA. That only reiterates how comics as an art form still strongly reverberates in this industry. What I don't welcome is the certainty that the ARTISTS, the co-creators of these komiks will again be the forgotten end of the stick, uncredited and uncompensated. Wasn't CJC himself who said komiks was a collaborative effort? Well, what about the artists who "Collaborated" with him in creating these stories? Where is Steve Gan who co-created Pieta? Will he get anything out of this? How about the family of Mar Santana, who co-created Bakekang? Will they get anything out of it? How about the many other artists who worked on the 40 others? Will they get anything at all?

THEY SHOULD. After all this time of being forgotten, THEY SHOULD.

Lolcat

This post has nothing to do with comics. This is just me thinking about things, as I would often do when my mind wanders. When I'm having lunch there's this cat that hangs outside our backdoor wall, waiting to be fed. He's not our cat. I don't think he's anyone's cat. I've seen him around all over the place, looking for other cats among the chickens. Outside, this cat doesn't know who I am and doesn't even respond to me. In fact, he even runs away from me. But when he's at the backdoor, he's my best friend, as he eyes the fish in my hand. He meows demandingly, as if I owe him this fish. I've taken to calling this cat Lolcat. So when he's here, he's kind of my cat, but most of the time, he's not.

Once in a while Lolcat would appear at the wall with a large bloody gash on his side. Sometimes he would appear with a swollen paw, unable to jump. Sometimes he would appear, mouth open full of saliva. Turns out he would sometimes get some fish with a large bone somewhere and it gets stuck in his mouth or throat. I would try to help him if I could, but then he would disappear for days. I thought he would be dead. But he would turn up sometime later, perfectly all right, once again demanding food. I swear this cat has more than nine lives. He ought to have been dead several times over. I've seen him get injuries that would have killed other cats. But not this one. This one is a survivor.

It got me thinking, you know, Elmer style, what if this cat was human? It's got to be a really lonely life. He has no friends, no family. He's all alone. He doesn't know where he's going to get his food tomorrow and how he's going to survive. And if gets sick or critically injured there is no one there to help him, no one there to keep him company or hold his hand and tell them everything is going to be all right. It's terrifying. If Lolcat was human he would have gone insane from loneliness and despair.

So perhaps this is an argument for animals not really having the intelligence and consciousness like ours. Because it they thought and felt like us, animals like Lolcat and other animals under similar circumstances would just go insane. This is perhaps why animals can survive on their own like this. They don't have any silly psychological and emotional problems to think about. It's all instinct.

I don't want to be like that though. I like having friends. I like having people I can count on and depend on. I like having someone hold my hand when I dearly need it.

Wipe Out

Guys… apologies for the lack of updates. The trip to San Diego had been extraordinarily exhausting and it's taken me at the very least two weeks to almost fully recover. There were days back there that I literally couldn't stand up. But I'll be back posting regularly soon, and once again begin posting my "100 Days of Komiks" updates.

I count myself to have been extremely lucky to be invited to the San Diego Convention, to have the opportunity to experience it and be involved in it as much as I have. All the while I was there, I was wishing I could take everyone I knew there to experience it as well, the Komikeros, my friends, the numerous comic book people creating indie comics here… I wish I had a TARDIS to bring them all there and experience it. I think that would have been great.

I am so looking forward to November 19, 2011, and the 7th annual Komikon. But I am sorry to say that due to numerous reasons, I will be unable to deliver "The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Doctor Rizal" at the event. I've had too many things going on physically, emotionally and psychologically, not to mention my regular "job", to devote any meaningful time to create the book to the quality that made me happy. In the end, I'm primarily concerned with coming up with a book that I truly did my best on, and not fret about it later on. That said, I will no longer be able to tell when it's going to be out. I guess the best answer I can give is "When it's done."

Whatever the case, updates will continue later this week, and see you all at Komikon in November!

My San Diego Comic-con Experience, 2011

Going to San Diego, California for the Comic-con this year was probably the last thing on my mind last April. I did somewhat feel in 2010 that I ought to go in 2011, but looking seriously at my finances, I knew it wouldn't be possible. It became more obvious when I browsed for plane tickets and they had gotten a whole lot expensive compared to a few years ago. I still nevertheless asked my SLG Publisher Dan Vado if I he could provide me with a letter of invitation just in case I would need to renew my US Visa. He replied with some insanely good news. He said that Elmer had been nominated for an Eisner Award, and later, he returned with more great news. Comic-con would be inviting me as a guest, all expenses paid, including hotel and travel. After picking up myself from being unconscious on the floor, I realized I was actually going. A blizzard of paperwork followed, specially with regard to renewing my US Visa, but it was all worth it. On July 20, 2011, after 12 long years, I would finally be back to San Diego for the Comic-con!

I arrived at San Diego at 11:30 in the evening on Wednesday, July 20. Curiously enough, I left the Philippines also on Wednesday night, at 8:30pm. It might seem my journey took only three hours, but because of big balls of timey-wimey stuff, the journey actually took thirty five hours from my home here in San Pablo to my hotel in San Diego. Oh, I have to talk about this. The plane I took from Manila to the US was Philippine Air Lines, which was actually pretty nice. It would have to be for business class tickets (bwahaha! Thanks Comic-con!). But it would only go so far as Los Angeles, which is my point of entry to the United States. I would then take a connecting flight to San Diego via American Eagle. It all seemed fine, but then, AE misplaced my luggage. I had nothing on me but the clothes on my back, and all my important papers in my little shoulder bag. But everything else was in my luggage. They apologized but then assured me that my bag would be delivered to my hotel the following morning.

I was met at the hotel by Pam, a friendly Comic-con staff (who seemed to be up really late waiting for guests to arrive), who gave me my first Comic-con swag bag including my badge. The bag contained an awesome hardcover book on the history of Comic-con, as well as convention guides.

I really couldn't sleep that night, so by 4am the following day, Thursday, I went out for a walk in front of the convention center. I was amazed to see people already lining up for panels. I heard the Twilight line had already formed before I even left the Philippines.

I went on a further walk through the Gaslamp District and I saw a few people walking around, including a few media people with cameras and hosts interviewing passers by. I was also on the lookout for a 24 hour grocery or convenience store where I could buy some toiletries that were still with my luggage…. somewhere. Surfing the Internet back home, Ilyn told me about Ralph's Grocery just a short walk from my hotel, which I became a regular of during my stay. It's here where I got to buy my snacks, supplies, and other stuff. Walking on the way back to the hotel, I saw the first awesome thing of the day:

Excited, I went to the convention center as early as 9:00am. The doors finally opened at 9:30.

Hey Raipo! This one's for you, man!

Walked a bit and found myself on artist alley where I met….

Art Adams!

With Alex Niño and Whilce Portacio.

I met Alex in person for the first time. It was great finally meeting this man whose work I have admired for many years. And of course, there's Whilce. I literally wouldn't be in comics without Whilce. I owe this guy a lot for teaching me what the comics business is like, and for helping me reach a professional standard in my work.

I started to head to the SLG booth beside DC's large area. The Artists' Alley is a LOOONG way to where SLG is, and that's only halfway the length of the convention center. This early in the convention, you can still afford to take a leisurely hassle free walk. That photo there is probably the last sane moment I had at the con before everything just went turbo.

That's the view from the SLG Booth, where I did my first signing from 10am to 11:30am. I met my publisher Dan Vado in person for the first time. I also met other SLG guys like Van Jensen, creator of Pinocchio Vampire Slayer, MD Penman, creator of Peabody and D'Gorath, and SLG staffers Dustin, Bryan, Dillon, Jennifer De Guzman, etc.

Van Jensen at the SLG Booth. And Hey, Baby!

After my signing, I went back to the hotel for a bit of rest and lunch. The view is breathtaking from the balcony!

At the bottom right is a South Park Theme Park!

My luggage arrived as well, so finally after a couple of days I could have a proper change of clothes.

After lunch I went back to the convention and met Jeff Moss of The Watchtower Podcast. Pretty cool guy! He gave me an unDexter-ified badge lace. Dexter being the sponsor of the badge laces meant you saw Dexter everywhere. As much as I love Dexter, I think it didn't need me anymore to further sell it. I then went exploring on the 2nd floor where the huge "Autograph Area" was. The area is called the "Sails Pavillion" because the ceiling looks like a huge translucent sail, allowing massive light from the sky shine down below. I had an autograph signing between 2pm and 4:30pm. I was put in a spot surrounded by mostly actors. They're not really A-list actors, but genre actors who had their own cult followings. The people here were actors and actresses like Erin Gray (Buck Rogers), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca in Star Wars), Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica), Lee Meriwether (Batman), and so forth.

Well, immediately to my right was this fella by the name of Vernon Wells. Now I knew this guy from the movies. I've seen him lots of times. He's a pretty popular guy. He looked at me menacingly, telling me my table belonged to someone else. But then he said he was kidding. ha! ha! I said, "I know you! I've seen you a lot! I'm a big fan!" I was about to say it was so awesome to see Emilio Estevez blow him away in Young Guns when it suddenly occurred to me I was actually thinking about Jack Palance.

Vernon Wells.

So OK, no sweat. I looked at his photos and realized I saw him in Commando, Road Warrior and MacGyver. We talked a bit, and I was actually planning on buying his photo and get his autograph but then in the distance I saw another autograph booth being set up. This time a much bigger one. And then the posters went up… holy crap! It was… HIM! The guy who played Duncan McLeod for six seasons on TV, the Highlander! I was a huge fan of the TV series, and even have all seasons on DVD. Lots of people were lined up for him. You had to pay for an autographed photo, and if you wanted a photo with him, you had to pay for it as well. But I thought holy crap, this is all worth it. Ilyn and I are huge fans, and Ilyn is a huge fan of the man himself. I thought it would be great if I could have an autograph of him, personalized to the both of us. I thought Ilyn would really love that. And I would hold off telling her about it until I got back. That would be a surprise! So after my signing, I got on the Adrian Paul line and before I knew it, BAM!

I had promised Mico Suayan that I would pass by Marvel in the afternoon of the first day to see how he's doing. He was pretty busy signing so I thought I'd just leave him to it.

John Romita Jr., Mico and Joe Kelley at the Marvel booth.

I explored the floor a bit more, although I must admit it was difficult looking for something specific if you wanted something specific. Personally, I was looking for Volume 2 of the X-Men Companion book Fantagraphis published in the 80′s. You know what? NOT as easy as it seemed. There's just so much stuff and so many people. You get engrossed and distracted by things that you forget what you were looking for. For instance, I heard a strange wheezing sound somewhere. It seemed familiar, and then a thud, like something materializing out of nowhere.

I wonder what that was. Strange. Before I left the convention floor I found myself in front of the Hip Flask Booth, and there he was, Richard Starkings. I knew of Richard in the beginning as the letterer to things like Marvels (Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross). Since then, Richard grew to being an all around creator and publisher. He published the popular Elephantman, illustrated by the amazing Ladronn. I had corresponded with Richard a couple of times before. I had sent him Elmer, and he sent back copies of Elephantman. I finally met him for the first time. It always gets me when I meet someone for the first time after talking with them for years online. I gave him a copy of "Bold Star" and Budjette Tan's "Trese" and he gave me an Elephantman trade. We promised to stay in touch. In this booth I also met an editor for Dark Horse, and I also gave him a copy of "Bold Star". I'm hoping it could lead to things!

Anyway… that was it for Day 1. The thing about San Diego is that by 7pm, the sun is actually still up. Which was weird because I'm not used to it being so bright at that hour. I went back to my hotel room, got a bite to eat, went to bed for a rest not really intending to sleep yet, but I ended up falling asleep anyway. It was deep, and dreamless. And then just like that, it was Friday.

DAY 2

I woke up early and nervous, knowing I would be moderating Tony De Zuniga's panel first thing today, followed by my own panel, moderated by Dan Vado. Dan gave me sensible advice on how to moderate a a panel, which I dutifully followed.

With Tony De Zuniga

Tony was caught by surprise when he was awarded the Inkpot Award, a very prestigious, Comic-con only award given to people of great accomplishment in the field of comics. It was a big deal, and I was extraordinarily happy for Tony when he received it.

I had my own panel afterwards, which was not as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be. The people who attended looked genuinely interested and Dan made the exchange between us easygoing and light. I have no pictures of this, unfortunately. I had the chance to talk about not only Elmer but also of Wasted. In fact, I talked about Wasted a lot.

With little time for lunch, I grabbed a cookie and a coke and headed to my 2nd day at the Autograph Signing Area on the 2nd floor.

I met a lot of nice people during my 2 days at the Sails Pavillion, among them Mary Ann Romero, frequent Twitter buddy who came up with this pretty cool Comic-con video.

As I wrapped up my signing at my spot, a familiar figure walked by. I knew he was coming, but I didn't know he would be roaming the area like a fan, toting a huge convention bag. I just had to ambush him and asked him if I could have a photo with him. An extraordinarily nice guy, Aaron Goodwin of the Ghost Adventures Crew even took the picture himself. Thanks man!

I'm actually a huge Ghost Adventures fan. The ghost evidence they capture are somewhat light to moderate, but I really watch the show for the three hosts, Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron. They're absolutely hysterical. They can do a cooking show or a straight travel show and I'd still watch them. It's their chemistry together that makes the show work for me.

After browsing the convention floor a bit, I decided to do something about my phone situation. As it turned out, the phone I brought with me where I had roaming enabled through Globe wasn't working all that well. I could send texts to Ilyn, but I couldn't call her or text anyone else, including the Twitter provider back home. Since I had no laptop or any gadgets of the sort to go online, I was pretty much offline for the duration of my stay. I was just counting on being able to send Tweets that would post both at my Twitter account and my Facebook page which I had set up to interconnect.

I was given a tip to buy a cheap prepaid phone there in San Diego. I could call and send texts to Ilyn using this phone, but she has to respond to me through my old phone which would be inexpensive for her. I got a TracFone from CVS Pharmacy which was like only 7 bucks, plus 20 bucks for load which would give me 60 minutes talking and texting time. Each text (sent and received) would cost me .30 minutes, which wasn't so bad.

Turns out, you can't call the Philippines with a TracFone, which was a complete bummer. You can communicate with people from 150 different countries but the Philippines wasn't included. CRAP. So I devised a way of sending messages to Ilyn anyway though Twitter. I can send her DMs (direct messages) to her Twitter Account. Ilyn was always online back home so she would immediately get it. She can then respond to me through my other phone. I was happy enough to be able to send Ilyn messages, and finally post to Twitter and Facebook as well. So I was all set.

I went back to the hotel for a rest, and get ready for the big night. Eisner Awards night! And since I was both nominated, and will be presenting awards as well, I thought I'd dress for the occasion.

Yeah! Just so you guys know, I didn't wear my chucks to this one. I was going traditional through and through.

However, the walk to the Eisner Awards venue was a pretty long one. From my hotel I would walk through the entire length of the convention center to the other side, where the Hilton, Bayfront was located. And I tell you, this was a LONG walk. Young Filipinos I came across on the way there didn't bat an eye, but older Filipinos did a double take when they saw what I was wearing.

Hilton on the Bayfront.

Upon arriving at the Indigo Ballroom, I met Tony, the official Eisner Awards photographer (who was Filipino). He introduced me to Tom Ware, who instructed me how to do the presentation. When I came to the table I was assigned to, I immediately thought they made a mistake. Because at that table was Lance Henricksen. I looked at the table number on both the table and my little note. They both indicated the same table. So yes, I was supposed to be there. I sheepishly took a seat. The guy to my right began talking to me. I recognized him from MadTV. It was Phil Lamarr, who would be one of the hosts that night. And then Lance Henricksen looked at me. He said, "Hi, I'm Lance." All I could do was say, "Hello! I'm Gerry!" when all I wanted to say was, "Holy shit it's you! Of course I know you! You're the Millenium guy! HOLY CRAP!!!"

Now guys, I hope you forgive me for not having photos or videos of this. Fanboying over them quietly is one thing, but to be so openly starstruck, asking to have pictures taken with them didn't seem right, on that occasion at least. Perhaps afterwards, but it didn't feel right at the time.

Thomas Lennon on the gigantic HD screen.

So there I was still quietly hysterical I was on the same table with these guys, I saw another guy roaming the room. I recognized him right away as Thomas Lennon, another one of the hosts of the show. I knew him from a recent episode of Jason Lee's Memphis Beat. He was absolutely funny there. I also read earlier he was the screenwriter of such things like Balls of Fury and Night at the Museum. I looked at him, trying to figure out if it was really him.

And then he looked at ME. And he looked at me for a long time. And then he walked towards me! Holy shit! He said,

"I know you! I've seen your VIDEO! Oh man, when I first saw that, I got MAD! I thought, this guy is funnier than me!!"

He then asked me how to pronounce my name, as he would be introducing me later in the night. I told him to think of it as two words. "Allan" and "Gillan" and then say both words together quickly. That's all it was. He thanked me, reiterated how much he liked my video, and was off to start the show.

I presented three awards. Best Lettering, Best Coloring and Best Digital Comic. I didn't feel nervous when I came on because from the stage, you don't really see the audience. They also showed my video when I walked on so it was quite the icebreaker. I said it's something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. It was true, but I didn't really mind it. I went through reading the names without much problems. After all, I had been practicing for a while. I even emailed some of the people whose names would pose problems for me to ask the how to properly pronounce them.

The category Elmer was nominated for, Best Graphic Album, was the last award to be given that night. Jonathan Ross and Dave Gibbons were the presenters.

I had my fingers crossed and I almost had a heart attack when Dave said it was a "tie". The first award went to Daniel Clowes' Wilson. One more award was left to be given. I managed to spy behind Dave and Jonathan, and I noticed that two trophies were left. It was then I knew I wasn't going to get it. They couldn't have one trophy left over, right? So the last award would go to a nominee that had two creators.

I must admit that I that I was disappointed, but it was a feeling that quite honestly quickly passed. By the time they read the names of those who won, I had already accepted it. The winners were after all, amazing creators and they created amazing books. I truly am happy to have gotten that far, a notion that I wouldn't have believed could come true only a few months before. I met Karen Green, one of the judges, who came up to me to ask me to sign her copy of Elmer. I also met Heidi McDonald of The Beat, and thanked her for writing about Elmer on her popular comics blog. I looked for Dave, Jonathan and few other people there who I wanted to take photos with, but they all seemed to have disappeared. I also didn't spot a few of my friends from back home, who said they'd be attending the event. Spotting no one, I decided to just go ahead and go back to the hotel, bracing for the long walk back.

Day 3

I woke up around 6am, had breakfast, and fell asleep again. I was more tired than I realized because I woke up just a few minutes before 10am. And at 10am I had to be at the SLG table for my signing! I rushed through my bath and off to the convention center. An hour or so in I started to feel terrible. Like I wanted to throw up. But I had to keep a game face for those who came up to have their books signed. I must have looked terrible. I must apologize to all those who came and I didn't seem as accommodating as I could have been. I immediately fled back to my hotel after my signing to recover.

After lunch I felt a lot better, and I spent a few minutes on stalker mode up at the Sails Pavillion, right beside the Ghost Adventures Crew signing.

I wanted to meet them, but the line was just too long. And I didn't have much time. I had to go back down for my afternoon signing at SLG. After that, I went around looking at all the cool stuff.

A personal surprise of mine was seeing Bobbie Chase at the DC booth. I've known her work for many years over at Marvel in the 80′s. I've never met her until that day and I introduced myself. She said she had been out of comics for the last 10 years and was now back at it with DC. It was such a pleasure to finally meet her at last.

Rob Liefeld and Erik Larsen at the Image Booth.

Gigantic He-Man

Manananggal Hulk at the Marvel Booth.

Immortals mask used in the 300 movie.

Invaluable reference for artists.

I started to head back to the artists alley at the farthest end of the convention center as day 3 started to wind down. I found Scott Dunbier at Mike Mignola's table and introduced myself. I've known Scott for years and like most encounters at this con, I was meeting him in person for the first time. He then introduced me to Mike Mignola. Just behind their booth I found Mico all by himself:

I then headed to Whilce's table to ask about our "date" that night. We ended up having crab at a Crabshack behind the Convention center.

Whilce and I spent the entire night, up to around 1am in fact, at a nearby cafe just talking. It's amazing how far Whilce and I go back together. I first saw him, well a photo of him at least, at a branch of Filbar's near San Sebastian's College along Recto around 1991. Filbar's had announced a tour of one of Marvel Comics' most popular artists in the Philippines. And it was this guy named Whilce. It's a name that's familiar to be because he had inked Longshot and Uncanny X-men few other titles back in the 80′s. I loved his inking. He seemed to have become popular as a penciller, drawing stuff like Punisher and X-Factor.

I didn't realize he was Filipino until I saw that photo in Filbar's. I freaked out. Up until then I didn't realize it could be possible for a Pinoy to work on books like that in the US. But it was. It was a huge kick in the butt, and a huge slap in the face. It was one of those moments that I felt my life change literally from one second to the next. All of a sudden, a career in comics was possible. All I had to do is want it bad. And I wanted it bad. I eventually met Whilce during that tour and he gave me my first pointers. I met him again many years later, and he thought I had gotten good enough to work at the studio he was setting up in the Philippines. I was one of the first to be recruited, along with Roy Allan Martinez, Edgar Tadeo, Leinil Francis Yu and Gilbert Monsanto.

And as I sat there in that cafe talking with Whilce, all that came flashing through my mind and I realized what an amazing journey it had been.

Day 4

I woke up very early again, at around 5:00am. I puttered around, writing in my journal, twittering, texting Ilyn, then watching some TV. AT 7am I went down for breakfast. I haven't had meat yet during my time in San Diego, but I thought I'd give Sunday a break considering where I needed to go that night (more on that later). So I had some bacon. And oh my God, it was horrible. Sorry Marriott, but your bacon is horrible. And greasy. I just had a bunch of fruits and bread instead. I can still taste it. Jeez.

Stan Lee suddenly walked in and it seemed like sunshine just suddenly came into the room. I thought I'd ambush him at the buffet table, and just say hi, but he never went to the buffet table. After breakfast, I waited by the elevator bay and I planned on saying hi to him as he got on. I waited and I waited. And then before I knew it, he walked past the elevator bay and headed to the other elevator bay in the lobby of another tower. And man he walked FAST. Amazingly fast for a man his age. To be honest, I couldn't keep up with him. He turned a corner, and when I followed to turn in that corner, he was suddenly far away. How amazing.

At 10am I went to the SLG booth.

With MD Penman, Des Taylor and Dan Vado at the SLG Booth

Dan related to me the story of how he found Elmer in the submissions box. He said that most submissions he received were crap and was already tired looking at that box. He asked his assistant Bryan to pick out something he liked. And he saw Elmer. He was about to put it back when Dan grabbed it and read it. He seemed genuinely sincere when he said it was quite privilege for him to have published Elmer. For my part, I was extremely thankful that he took the risk on it. I still am very thankful.

I had an hour to kill between my SLG signing and the Filipino Invasion panel at 12 noon. I went around, taking photos:

Roaming the floor I chanced upon one of my biggest inspirations, Eric Shanower. I absolutely love this man's work. His lines are clean, his figures well drawn, and his comics are generally an absolute wonder to behold and read.

He gave me some great advice on getting inking jobs while doing your own thing. It was advice that helped me a lot while doing Elmer. In fact, he remembered me sending him a copy of the book and it was so great just chatting with him.

I then went upstairs for the Filipino Invasion panel with Tony De Zuniga, Alex Niño, Ernie Chan and moderator Mark Waid.

(Thanks to Karen Kunawicz for taking photos!)

The panel went extremely well. The room was absolutely packed with people! It was so amazing to see genuine interest in Filipinos in comics, and for Comic-con to invite us and make it a huge year for us is something I'm very grateful for. One hour simply wasn't enough. I felt it was too short. I felt we had a lot more things to discuss but we just didn't have the time. It was here I met Mark Waid for the very first time. I had worked with Mark previously on Superman: Birthright. I told Mark that it remained as my absolute favorite inking job ever. And it was the truth. I really feel that way. I love that book. And it's always a privilege whenever someone asks me to sign their copy of it. Mark and I promised to stay in touch.

After the panel I was accosted by something mean.

I only had thirty minutes for a quick break and lunch before I had to go back to SLG for my last scheduled signing. Amazingly, a line had already formed before I got there!

Dan said it was typical for people to wait until the last day to get their stuff signed. Apparently, many people had the same idea. After I finished, I decided I wanted to spend the last couple of hours of Comic-con just buying stuff I wanted to buy since Day 1. And I had to do it quickly because the convention center was so huge that it takes a full thirty minutes to walk from end to end through the crowd. And before I knew it, the place would close. I ended up not buying too much because I simply couldn't find the stuff I wanted, but I was at least able to hand Mike Mignola a copy of Elmer, buy Art Adam's sketchbook, a copy of Tintin in the Congo, Jack Kirby's The Losers, Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby, and the amazing looking Pinocchio by Winshluss.

The day had one last surprise for me. I was looking around for stuff to buy when I suddenly found this guy signing books in front of me.

Meeting Jonathan Ross was an absolute Joy. I met him when he actually emailed me years ago in response to my posting his documentary on Spiderman and Steve Ditko on my website. It turns out, he was a huge fan of the classic Filipino style of art. I promised him I'd send him a copy of John Lent's The First 100 Years of Philippine Comics, and he gave me a copy of "TURF", a comic book he wrote and Tommy Lee Edwards illustrated.

Last awesome sight before I left the convention floor:

I went back to my hotel and prepared for what would be a big night, well for me at least. I had a date. Yes I did! I had a date with myself and a piece of MEAT. Oh yeah! As I had mentioned earlier, I had been avoiding eating meat, mostly for health reasons ( I would gobble them up otherwise). But I would make an exception during my last two days in San Diego. A couple of months ago I browsed the Internet for the best steaks found in San Diego and I found Donovan's. I set up a reservation for Sunday, 7:00pm, and they accepted. Donovan's is a bit of a high end restaurant, requiring patrons to wear collared shirts and not wear jeans or sneakers at the very least. Now this was probably the only time in my entire life I would eat at a place like this, but I wanted to experience it. Just once.

And so there I was, in clothes you would never see me wear. Ready to eat some steak. With a little bit of sightseeing along the way.

This Filet Mignon is absolutely the softest steak I have ever tasted. It felt like soft fluffy cotton in my mouth. It's amazing. What about the taste? Well, I must say the service at Donovan's is excellent. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. But to be honest, apart from this being the softest piece of meat I ever tasted, I actually tasted something better back home. Was it worth it? Sure it was. At least I can say that it was something I had experienced, although it's something I probably wouldn't be able to do again.

And with one last look at the convention center, I went back to my hotel to rest, and to prepare for my trip back home. The following morning as I looked down from the balcony, I didn't hear the usual busy buzz of the convention, or the teeming mass of people milling around below. It felt sad that the convention was over, knowing just a few days ago how busy and bursting with life everything was. And now the signs were being taken down, everything was quiet and everyone seems to have gone home. As much as I wanted it to go on and on, I couldn't stay and see how still everything was. All of a sudden, there was nothing more that I wanted than go go home.

It wasn't over yet though.

Whilce and Joanne Portacio graciously offered to take me around on Monday before I left. Before I left the hotel, I saw Tony and Tina De Zuniga, and ever game, Tony signed and sketched for a young fan who happened to be passing by.

Whilce and Jo helped to find places where I could make some last minute shopping and shipping and we ended up having lunch this place. YEAH!

Ok, now I can say I've finally tried the much hyped In-N-Out Burger. What can I say? Well I can say that I've finally tried it. To be honest, I actually had better burgers back home. Dayrit's was better, Tropical Hut's was better, even Jollibee's CHAMP sandwich is better. But it was nice its own way. Nevertheless, I had a great time and I want to thank Whilce and Jo for treating me out and for the company. You guys are awesome!

And then finally, I left San Diego on the evening of Monday, July 25. And because of another big ball of timey wimey stuff, I arrived in the Philippines on the morning of Wednesday, July 27. I was back here in our house by 8 in the morning.

All in all, an astoundingly amazing experience. It was a far better experience than I had the last time I was there, in 1999. It can become addicting, going to conventions. I feel like I want to go every year, if not for the expense and the mind numbing travel time. I'm afraid I won't be able to return to San Diego for quite a while. It would be nice to again though. Just as long as it doesn't take another 12 years.

100 Araw ng Komiks: NOT Keeping It Real

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about Not Keeping It Real.

Being idealistic is something I readily admit to when it comes to creating comics. I'm glad to say that I've been pretty much stayed that way ever since I began making them. Of course, many things have happened over the years that made me pessimistic about certain things, some things left me jaded and kind of cynical, but I think I've never created anything where I had to compromise the integrity of my work. Whenever I would enter a situation where I was too uncomfortable, where I felt like I was giving too much of my freedom and control over my work away, I just get the hell out of there.

I must admit that doing things that way have kept me from reaching a wider audience and kept me from making a bit more business. But having all that is not worth it if I felt bad about myself and about my work. So I make sure I don't put myself in that position.

An advantage of being idealistic is that I'm not bound by existing boundaries. Countless times in my life I've been told, "It's not possible to do that.", "You can't do that.", "Let's just be realistic." Keeping it real is sensible advice perhaps for other certain professions, where certainty is the priority, and where certainty is where everything should revolve around. As an artist, I cannot allow myself to revolve around certainties. I can't allow myself to be limited by boundaries. In fact, as an artist, it is my job, no, it's my responsibility to push the boundaries, to grab new territories of possibilities, create *new* realities.

If I had "kept it real", then I would have never had the imagination or even the inclination to do ELMER, and do it the way I did. I'm happy that Elmer is getting a bit of attention and recognition, not really for myself, but I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that it would be something that would inspire other creators to push their own boundaries. It really is truly possible to strike out and do your own thing, pushing your imagination and creativity as far as it could go, and then some more.

There's plenty of amazing, brilliant creators doing comics in the Philippines now who have not yet reached their potential, or even realize the potential they can achieve. But once they tap into that, I'm absolutely confident that they would be creating work that would push the medium much farther and much higher than I ever could.

100 Araw ng Komiks: What's All This 100 ng Araw ng Komiks Thing?

100 Araw ng Komiks (100 Days of Comics) is an online event organized for the purpose of spreading awareness of Philippine Komiks through Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, blogs and other online venues. Click here for the event page on Facebook. The Komikero Comics Journal will be posting everyday for the month of July news, opinions and commentary on aspects of the Philippine comics industry. Today, I will talk about 100 Araw ng Komiks.

It really all began during one of the original fan conventions in the Philippines, the Toycon. I used to attend this event a lot, specially before the first comics-specific convention was held back in 2005. I stopped attending when I started to get a lot of people roaming the aisles, eagerly approaching our table, and then seeing what we had on it and say, "Ay… KOMIKS" with slight disgust, and then back away as of we had the plague. Business wasn't that good, considering how much the table space costs. Plus, it's just too noisy for me. It's really toys that people go to Toycon for. Toys, and cosplaying. Nothing wrong with that. Perhaps it's just not my crowd.

But there are a lot of dedicated komiks people who still brave the Toycon every year, specially the Komikon group. That takes passion. Incredible passion. One such cartoonist is Joanah Tinio-Calingo, creator and publisher of the long running Cresci Prophecies. She relates an incident which happened during the last Toycon, which gave her the idea for "100 Araw ng Komiks". She relates:

Saddest Moment in TOYCON

We attended TOYCON 2011 this weekend, and stayed in Komikon's booth most of the time (Thanks to KOMIKON for accommodating us!), and had a little fun while we're there.

During the event, the Komikon peeps were holding a 1 php raffle, where you get a prize, depending on what you pick (or what's written on the paper).

Sometimes you get a candy, other times you have to do a task before getting a prize…

One time, there was an old man and his two teen sons who tried their luck. They picked 5…

Among the 5 picked, there was a question they need to answer to be able to get a poster:

So Lyndon asked," Give one local comic artist and his work."

The teen went blank…he seemed to recall nobody….

After a few minutes, his father offered Carlo J. Caparas…

"Okay," said Lyndon, "Carlo J. Caparas…Give one work that he did…

I was thinking. "c'mon…Panday…Panday…!"

The teen was still clueless. And can't think of an answer…not even a wrong one…. So no prize.

That I think was the saddest moment I've seen in the con.

Allow her to continue her story, including her reasons for "100 Days" at her own site, which you can find here.

It was really sad, even for me. But it wasn't something that was completely unexpected. As much as we in little niche we call "Philippine Independent Komiks" are aware of many things that has to do with Philippine comics, the same can't be said for the general populace. Komiks really isn't as huge as it once was, when popular characters from its pages would be known to one and all.

When the old industry faded away, many were left wondering what had happened. Worse still, many of us who cared were left with the realization that much of our komiks history has gone undocumented and unpreserved. Except for one book, and a few scattered articles in magazines and newspapers, there were hardly anything out there, at least as late as 2008, that Filipinos can easily buy off the shelves that will teach them our history of komiks. There was no place where you could actually read the entire first DARNA story, written by Mars Ravelo and illustrated by Nestor Redondo. It was never compiled or preserved. There was no place you could buy the entire first story of Lastikman of Zuma or Captain Barbell. You can find bits and pieces of story here and there, through vintage komiks being sold on Ebay for $10-$100 a piece.

Isn't THAT sad?

There were concerned collectors who photocopied and sold compilations of a few classics, which was great on one hand, but sort of falls in a grey area for me, on the other hand. As a creator myself, I'm always concerned that the artist should always benefit from the work he has made. And if such collections were done with the approval of the artists or rights holders, then it would be something I'd be completely happy with.

Anyway, the point is, there was no way for the regular average Pedro could know about Pinoy Komiks stuff, except for the odd info here and there, probably from TV adaptations or various places online.

It is for this reason that I'm amazingly happy for efforts like Joanah's, which seek to promote awareness of Philippine made comics. Like the Independent Komiks movement, this awareness campaign is completely independent, completely out of their own self reliance, without "government assistance", without financial backing from some company, without sponsors, and completely without agenda save for the LOVE of comics.

And that isn't sad at all.

The First Baguio City Comics Convention (UPDATED!)

Re-posting for the benefit of those who might still be expecting me to go, and for the websites that still keep announcing that I will "probably" be there.

Are you a komiks fan? Are you living in Baguio City, frustrated that you can't come to Manila to attend the comic book events held there? Then this ought to be good news! The first comic book convention in Baguio City is TODAY, July 16, 2011 at the Baguio City National High School Gymnasium from 10am to 8pm. More info on this event here: http://greepocomicgroup.blogspot.com/2011/05/first-comic-convention-in-baguio-city.html

I usually support events like this by attending, as I did the Cebu Comics Convention last year, out of my own pocket. It's my way of being part of spreading the awareness of locally made comics to a new generation of Filipinos largely unaware of our existence. When the organizers of the Baguio convention began talking about organizing such an event, I said I would attend. I had assumed it wouldn't happen for several months, perhaps up to 6 months, which would give me enough time to schedule my activities, as I did the Cebu Comics Convention. For that event, I was informed around 8 months in advance. That gave me time to adjust my work schedule, set aside some money, just so I could be prepared and ready.

So it was quite a surprise that the Baguio convention was to be held around a month and a half after I was informed about it. I wondered how they could pull off organizing an event in so short a time. Even we in the Komikero group took three months to organize the first San Pablo Comics Festival and it was harrowing. But it's possible, I'm sure. But unfortunately, it was not enough time for me to prepare, specially since I would leave for San Diego a few days before the event. I fully expect to be dealing with inking deadlines before leaving for San Diego, and to have a trip so far away immediately before that would physically wear me out. Travelling by bus to Baguio from San Pablo and back so quickly is no joke. They did offer to change the date of the event just so I could attend, but I would still be out of the country by then. So I just said not to move it on my account. If their event has to happen in July, then it has to happen in July.

It's such a shame that I couldn't be there. I'm pretty sure it's going to be an awesome event. I'm such a fan of the people going there. Sometimes I wish I could be like Dr. Manhattan where I could be at two places at once. I'm just writing this down because they might still be holding out some hope that I could attend, but as I explained, such a trip would be physically difficult for me. Perhaps on their second year, I could go, of course, as long as I have enough time to prepare.

Why Comics Matter

The following video playlist was uploaded by SequartTV. It features a really interesting lecture on why comics matter by Dr. Julian Darius, delivered 5 January 2006 at Glen Carbon Centennial Library (Glen Carbon, Illinois).