Gerry Alanguilan's Blog, page 27

APRIL FOOLS DAY POST #2: Notice to The Public

Notice is hereby given to the general public that Johnny Danganan and Jonas Diego (Pictured below) are no longer affiliated with the Komikero Artists Group.

The public is warned that the said individuals are no longer authorized to represent the group "Komikero", or Gerry Alanguilan in any manner, shape or form. They are no longer allowed to use the term "Komikero Komiks Anthology" to publish their comic books, although they are allowed to dispose of any remaining copies. They are advised not to attend any more Komikero Meetings, and to stay away from my person for at least 100 meters at all times or risk legal action.

On a personal note, I wish that this issue had not been so public, and I take due responsibility for my own part in the matter, and for that I apologize wholeheartedly. I've known these people for most of my life. It was very difficult to think straight at the time, given the situation. My trust in people has been terribly shaken and I still currently remain incapable of complete and sound judgment.

I understand perfectly well what date it is, and it is unfortunate that I've had to make this announcement at this time. All I can say is I wish I were joking. But it was essential to get this information out to the public as soon as possible to prevent any further complications.

I will not be answering questions and I will be disabling comments to this post.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY POST #1: Work in Progress

Working on ELMER has been a very rewarding experience. It was also very educational for me because I learned a few things about myself. One, I learned that I love drawing chickens, but I also learned that I had an embarrassing weakness drawing people. Perhaps one of the reasons I was successful with Elmer was that I didn't have to draw people so much. Attempting to work on Amazing Doctor Rizal has now made it painfully apparent that it's a weakness that I might never fully overcome.

It's made me seriously consider drawing less humans and more animals in my future work. It is why I've set aside Amazing Doctor Rizal, at least for the moment, to focus on where my strengths lie, and that is drawing chickens. In fact, I've already begun working on what may well be a sequel to Elmer.

It's not a direct sequel by any means. I'd like to think that the Elmer universe is a huge one, and that in volume one I only depicted the lives of one family of chickens. There are millions of chickens in Elmer's world. In fact, even in our real world, chickens outnumber people three to one. That's quite a number. I may well make the sequel a kind of anthology where each story focuses on specific but different sets of chickens across the world and how they deal with living with humans as new human beings themselves.

I'm already enjoying myself very much and I guess that's what's important. I don't have a title yet, but that will most likely come later after I've worked on the stories much further.

More info on this soon.

Work in Progress

Working on ELMER has been a very rewarding experience. It was also very educational for me because I learned a few things about myself. One, I learned that I love drawing chickens, but I also learned that I had an embarrassing weakness drawing people. Perhaps one of the reasons I was successful with Elmer was that I didn't have to draw people so much. Attempting to work on Amazing Doctor Rizal has now made it painfully apparent that it's a weakness that I might never fully overcome.

It's made me seriously consider drawing less humans and more animals in my future work. It is why I've set aside Amazing Doctor Rizal, at least for the moment, to focus on where my strengths lie, and that is drawing chickens. In fact, I've already begun working on what may well be a sequel to Elmer.

It's not a direct sequel by any means. I'd like to think that the Elmer universe is a huge one, and that in volume one I only depicted the lives of one family of chickens. There are millions of chickens in Elmer's world. In fact, even in our real world, chickens outnumber people three to one. That's quite a number. I may well make the sequel a kind of anthology where each story focuses on specific but different sets of chickens across the world and how they deal with living with humans as new human beings themselves.

I'm already enjoying myself very much and I guess that's what's important. I don't have a title yet, but that will most likely come later after I've worked on the stories much further.

More info on this soon.

Elmer #2 Video Diary (Tagalog)

Rummaging through old DVD-roms I stumbled upon a series of video diaries I took way back 2006 where I talked about creating Elmer #2. I had forgotten taking them and was only reminded when I saw the DVDs.

Taking a deep breath to listen to them (I still can't watch myself and my own voice grates on me), I'm surprised by how forthcoming and honest I was about the problems and challenges of releasing the comic book. They're not my usual video diaries that I do on You Tube which is all fluff and show. Here I was seriously trying to record my true emotions as I worked through the book, trying to finish it before that year's Komikon.

Watch on You Tube

It's extremely long and rambling and I do apologize for the lack of English subtitles. It's just too long and I really don't have that much time to spare to put subtitles into it. There are a few minutes with subtitles past the halfway mark, which was taken from a clip that I had already uploaded up at You Tube back in 2006.

Tips for Breaking In

Many people have asked me how do they break into comics, more specifically places like Marvel and DC.

Let me give you an idea of the time frame. The first time I dreamed of working for Marvel Comics was 1986. I finally got the job at Marvel as an inker in 1997. From 1986 to 1997 I studied comics rather intensely, created samples, received rejection letters, created more samples, practiced, practiced some more, and then practiced some more, sent more samples, worked for local comics, created, published, distributed, marketed and sold my own comic books, expanded my network of comic book contacts, worked for independent publishers in the US, then finally, my work became professional enough to be accepted at Marvel. Because of my work at Marvel and the contacts I cultivated there, I was able to get work at DC for the first time in 2003.

I'm not saying that it will take you as long as that. It could be far shorter in your case if you're talented, but these things don't happen overnight.

If you want to work for a company like Marvel or DC, then you have to be very good. You must know all that it takes to draw a professional looking comic book. That means proper anatomy, proper perspective, proper storytelling, good drafting and a professional attitude. You need to communicate properly. None of that abbreviated jejemon bullshit.

I can't teach you all that. You need to learn that on your own. Buy anatomy books, drawing books, art books, or find sources online, whatever you need to do. An enormous amount of study and training is in your immediate future so you better buckle up.

And even when you have all that, it doesn't guarantee a job. Right now there are hundreds of perfectly able artists, good and professional, who aren't able to find work in comics because there are simply not enough jobs around for everybody. You need to stand out. Your work must not only be good enough, it must be exceptional for them to want to hire you.

Check out the submission guidelines for Dark Horse comics to see what is expected of you:

http://www.darkhorse.com/Company/Submissions

One proven way of breaking in to the big companies like Marvel and DC is to find work with smaller publishers first. As a new artist, your work will most likely not be as good as what it can be a few years down the line. Your first attempts will be clumsy, flawed and rough. Would you want to create THAT kind of work with Marvel and DC at the very start of your career? Many artists who began that way quickly burned out when they couldn't handle the pressure of turning in 22 good pages a month. Most of them are never heard of again.

This is why you need to learn the ropes first before tackling the big boys. It's like playing a video game. Why in the world would you want to fight the last big boss as soon as you start the game? Improve your skills first by learning the tricks of the trade, learn from fellow artists, learn how things are done, develop your art, so that by the end you're prepared to tackle the big stuff.

See how you create your own comic book first. Come up with one, photocopy it, and then sell it at any local Komikon. There's one in April and another in May.

Go online and look for "Artist Wanted" at the various comic book community websites. Be careful who you work with though. Not all of them are honest and straight with you. Check their reputation by googling their names online.

Once you have a library of published stuff, you can use the best of that to show to editors at bigger and bigger companies until hopefully, at the very end, you can show them to editors at the big boys like Marvel and DC. But if you have done good work, you don't need to find them, they will find you.

Remember, this will not happen overnight. Nor it will happen in a month. Or maybe even a couple of months. Be realistic and shoot for a year. A few years. Be prepared to invest an enormous amount of time to achieving your goal. Every successful comic book artist today have set aside years of their life in the effort to become good enough to work in comics.

Work hard. Be patient. Never be discouraged.

Good luck!

Ivan Brun Comic Book Signings

Ivan WHO, you say? Ivan is a French dude with an interesting connection with the Philippines. He is a comics writer and illustrator based in France, who visits the Philippines regularly because of family based in Palawan. He feels a close affinity to Filipinos and Philippine culture, and it shows in the comic books that he creates.

From NO COMMENT. 2009

I've met him several times before, and he's actually a bonafide member of the Komikero Artists Group.

Ivan Brun in red.

I've also conducted an video interview with him in January 2009 about his work.

He's currently in the country promoting his new book "War Songs" (which he talks about creating in the video) and "No Comment".

He will have two signings, one at Comic Odyssey in Robinson's Galleria tomorrow, March 26, 2011 from 1-4pm, and another at Sputnik in Cubao on April 2, 2011.

Balloon Tips for the Indies

One trend I've been noticing that many creators in the local independent comics industry are doing is this way they balloon their lettering. They're almost always using perfect ovals. I can only assume that they use the Elliptical Marquee Tool in Photoshop. After asking around a few creators I can confirm that this is the case. An example of this would be below:

Now that's drawn by Arnold Arre and lettered by me. I didn't want to scan an indie and put it up here because I don't want to single anyone out and put them on the spot. Needless to say that's how many indies are lettered. There's nothing too bad with it, but there's a way to make it better.

And there are problems with it in many cases I've seen. It takes too much space for one. And more often than not, the space occupied by the letters does not conform with the shape of the perfect oval, leaving large white areas of balloon either on the top and bottom or left or right of the letters.

Also, these ovals encroach other panels, and if there's one storytelling rule you must never break in comics is to have objects encroaching other panels unless it's a tool used to lead the eye from one panel to the next.

If not done properly (and I see this a lot), it can cause havok with the visual navigation of your page, confusing your reader.

To make more appropriately shaped balloons, you need to warp the selection of your oval. But first, create a duplicate of your artwork and layer it on top of your original layer. On the top (duplicate) layer, use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to create the perfect oval. Click on Edit>Transform>Warp. Use that to warp your balloon selection like below:

The reason you created a duplicate layer is that warping will warp your artwork. If you created the selection on the duplicate, it is this layer that will be warped, leaving your original layer intact.

Once you're happy with the warped selection, create the tail with the Lasso Tool, and then delete your duplicate layer. Finally, remove excess balloon outside of the panel with the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Fill white then stroke with black.

For an example of this in action, check out DARNA LIVES, specially pages 3-6.

This is a process I just came up with through trial and error. Who knows there must be a better way of doing this out there. In the end though, it's the result that counts.

I know this is additional work, but I think the effort is worth it.

Fan Mode

I've been on fan mode lately, buying bargain comics at Comic Odyssey's 20 peso (Buy 5 Take 1) comics sale. It's not an event thing. It's an everyday thing at Comic Odyssey so you can walk in any branch of the store (as well as branches of Planet X) at any time and you will see this sale.

Much of the comics I've seen are 90s comics so they're not exactly classics, but it's a great opportunity to buy all those supposedly "hot" and "collectors item" issues back in the 90′s and check out what was the big deal in the first place. So yeah, I've been getting some Youngblood, Prophet, Brigade, Evil Ernie and other shit like that.

Surprising revelation #1: Prophet is actually a Christian comic book. Who knew? The title is supposed to be a clue, but you really can't tell with 90′s characters. Rob Liefeld created Chapel as well and he's got nothing to do with churches or religion at all. At least I think he doesn't.

There are some cool stuff in there, like say, Shaiana #1, published by Entity comics in 1995.

It's cool because it's drawn by none other than Beethoven Bunagan. Doesn't ring a bell? Well, maybe this will give you a clue:

For non-Filipinos, it's tantamount to someone like say, Jim Carrey deciding to draw a comic book and it looks pretty good. Click here for more info on Mr. Beethoven Bunagan.

FAT IS BEAUTIFUL

As a fan, I love looking at fat inking. And nobody really does it as well as Barry Windsor Smith. The trend in comics is go for thinner and thinner lines, and a lot of comic book readers seem to prefer it. Nobody does fat inking lines. I guess no penciller likes to draw them either. It's probably why there's has really been no comic book artist in recent memory who's work I'm a die hard hardcore fan of since Barry Windsor Smith.

The only other artist whose work comes close to this kind of inking is probably Nestor Redondo, as well as the many other great Filipino artists of long ago. Francisco V. Coching was awesome at this too.

Although I'm not as much of a hardcore fan of theirs, there are also a lot of other artists whose work I like. Like say this guy:

Without looking at the signature, can you guess who that is? I stumbled on to this and I immediately knew who it was. I'm so familiar with it since I've inked him for so many years. This is something he did long before he worked on X-Factor and X-Men.

I also picked up a copy of Predator Vs. Magnus Robot Fighter on the strength of the cover alone. Guess who drew the cover? Well, Barry Windsor Smith of course. Inside, I thought the art was pretty good. It looked like it was drawn by Lee Weeks, channeling Mike Mignola. Turns out, it WAS Lee Weeks. Where is this guy? He's one of the better artists to work in comics. His stuff is solid. If he's working in comics now, let me know and I'll check it out.

I mentioned Shaiana earlier, published by Entity. Also by Entity is ASTER. It's a comic book written and drawn by Filipinos, which started out as a local ashcan back in 1994. To you guys doing comics today, that means an indie. In the very early days of the independent comics industry in the Philippines, the Aster ashcan stood out as one of the most professional looking of the bunch. I remember a lot of us were very impressed by the few pages we saw in the ashcan.

It was quite a surprise when we found out later that they actually got a US publisher for it. It was awesome. We wanted to kill them, but it was quite an achievement. And when it got published, they even got people like Jae Lee, Joe Quesada, and even George Perez to create covers for it. It was INSANE.

My desire to kill them soon faded when I was actually hired by them to ink the second volume of Aster, and a few pages of Harriers, another one of their titles. It was a rather exciting time for me. It was my very first US based pro work.

It was actually quite a bittersweet experience. Wide eyed and naive, I was unaware of stuff like creator's rights, ownership of original artwork and stuff like that. The artwork was never returned to us and I only learned many many years later that the pages were recently sold on Ebay and the buyer contacted me, wanting to confirm if I really did ink those pages. I remember being really pissed when I learned about it. It's something I normally go apeshit over, specially today when I already know what is due me as a comic book creator.

Ok, this book wasn't included in the bargain sale. But I got it anyway. I can't help it. Even after all these years, after all my decades of comic book reading which includes amazing stuff by Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Art Spiegelman, Jeff Smith, Posey Simmonds, Moebius, Ladronn, Herge, David Mazzucchelli, even Barry Windsor Smith, "X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga" still remains as my one greatest comic book. It's in a place in me that just can't be touched by anything, not even by Jean Grey's resurrection (sorry Kurt!) leading the creation of X-Factor, and all other subsequent appearances of Jean Grey.

Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Tom Orzechowski, Glynis Wein (and yeah, let's throw Jim Shooter in there too as he was the one who insisted on this book's tragic turn of events) did something uniquely special. They tapped into a unique part of creativity that hasn't really been repeated since. It's as if a great big hand threw open the doors to this insanely magical place and allowed us a peek for a brief moment, before closing it again.

DARNA LIVES! Fan Fiction

In 1994 I came up with a Darna story, during a time in my life when I was still reeling from having read Alan Moore's Marvelman. Inspired deeply by that story, I wanted to see if I could write a short Darna story aspiring to have that kind of sensibility. I felt back then, as I do now, that Darna as a character needs a shot in the arm to make her fresh again.

Here in the Philippines, Darna is probably our most popular superhero character. She was created by Mars Ravelo in the 1950′s and has endured throughout the decades in comics, film and TV.

As for my story, I was able to draw at least two pages of it. I held on to page 1 and discarded page 2. Then I forgot all about it.

In 2004 Arnold Arre and I worked together on a Lastik-Man revival, published by Mango Comics. Lastik-Man is another character created by Mars Ravelo. I was incredibly impressed by Arnold's work. I was already a fan of his comics through his work on Mythology Class and Trip To Tagaytay. I knew he was good, probably even the best local artist working in comics. But when he turned in those Lastik-Man pages, I was completely blown away by how inventive, creative and dynamic his artwork is. As an artist myself, I imagined how I would draw that story, but Arnold took my ideas and built masterpieces from them.

We were supposed to spin off "Atomika", a character we created in Lastik-Man but unfortunately, it never happened. Arnold and I agreed that we will find a way to work again together in the future.

Fast forward to 2011. I thought about reviving my old Darna story from 1994. I wrote the script for the 8 remaining pages to be drawn (I thought I could use my one page from 1994 as page ONE), and then got in touch with Arnold, fingers crossed that he would agree. And he did!

Within a few days Arnold came back with 8 completed pages, fully colored. Yes, a few days. Arnold is insanely fast and insanely good. Looking at all the pages, tears literally welled up in my eyes. Once again, Arnold took my ideas and created something incredible.

All 9 pages can now be viewed for free in one page in the website below:

DARNA LIVES!

http://darnalives.blogspot.com/

There is a brief afterword after the last page as to our intentions with the story.

Big Saturday!

Lots of stuff happening this Saturday, February 19, 2011! First of all, there's KOMIKSTRIP in Los Baños, the University of the Philippines Los Baños Comics Convention I mentioned earlier.

More info about this event here:

http://komikstrip.jonasdiego.com/

http://komikstrip2010.blogspot.com/

I'll be there to sell whatever ELMER copies I have left, Bold Star, and Hey, Baby T-shirts!

If you're stuck in Manila and can't go to Los Baños, you can check out Steven Segovia's signing at Comic Odyssey at Robinson's Galleria from 1-5pm!

To further complicate matters, UST College of Architecture is going to have a grand reunion on the same day at 4pm at UST. I feel I need to go to this one, having avoided reunions for so many years. I might head over here after spending half the day at Komikstrip. Let's see!