Gerry Alanguilan's Blog, page 29

Pablo S. Gomez, January 25, 1931-December 26, 2010

It's sad to wake up to news that one of my komiks heroes, Pablo S. Gomez has passed away. Contrary to what others may claim, Pablo Gomez was to me, unarguably, the most prolific komiks writer in the history of Philippine komiks. Imagine this: he started writing stories in 1949, and he continued writing until his death in December of 2010. That's a little over 50 years of working professionally in komiks, in a career that is unparalleled by no one else, living or dead.

That's one of the earliest works of Pablo Gomez in my komiks collection, taken from Tagalog Klasiks #61, from November 3, 1951. Here, his story is illustrated by some early work by another personal favorite, Petronilo Marcelo or "P.Z Marcelo". Click it for a larger image.

Pablo's talent was apparent quite early. His first komiks stories earned him a spot as proofreader for Ace Publications, the largest komiks company at the time. Very soon, he was writing his own stories, and sooner than that, he wrote his first komiks novel "Apat Na Taga", whcih proved so popular that Sampaguita Pictures adapted it into a motion picture in 1953.

Pablo's early hits included Gilda, Kandilang Bakal, Kurdapya, Petrang Kabayo, MN, Recuerdo and Suanang Daldal.

Kurdapya, Tagalog Klasiks #117, illustrated by Nestor Redondo. Click for larger image.

Not content to write his own stories, Pablo decided to put up his own publishing company in 1963, and named it after himself. P.S.G. Publishing House published komiks titles like United Komiks, Universal Komiks, Kidlat Komiks, Continental Komiks and Planet Komiks.

It is with P.S.G. Publishing that Alex Niño, mistrusted and misunderstood by other editors at other Publishing houses, finally found a home where he was allowed to let his imagination run wild.

Due to an unhealthy economy in the Philippines, Pablo was forced to close down his publishing house in the 1970′s. He continued to work for other komiks publishers, even entering another field working as a movie producer and TV writer.

His last komiks work was still being serialized on the pages of Liwayway Magazine in December 2010 when he passed away.

Pablo S. Gomez, Komiks Writer

by Dennis Villegas

http://pilipinokomiks.blogspot.com/2005/12/pablo-s-gomez-komiks-writer.html

Pablo S. Gomez, Wiki Pilipinas

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Pablo_S._Gomez

Pablo S. Gomez, Komiklopedia

http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/pablo-s-gomez/

Pablo S. Gomez at Video 48

by Simon Santos

http://video48.blogspot.com/2009/10/pablo-s-gomez-mn-komiks-serial-and.html

http://video48.blogspot.com/2010/02/pablo-s-gomez-lupa-sa-lupa-1959-60.html

http://video48.blogspot.com/2010/01/pablo-s-gomez-busabos-1956-57-komiks.html

Pablo S. Gomez at the Film Academy of the Philippines

http://filmacademyphil.org/?page_id=830

Pablo S. Gomez: Kampanerang Kuba

http://alanguilan.com/sanpablo/2005/07/kampanerang-kuba.html

Pablo Gomez RIP

by Randy Valiente

http://usapang-komiks.blogspot.com/2010/12/pablo-gomez-rip.html

An Epic Dream to End All Epic Dreams

Woke up at 5 in the morning and decided to continue my reading of Russell T. Davies' "A Writer's Tale". I'm up to the chapter where he writes the finale to Doctor Who's 4th Series and how he had to cut the origin of Davros, the creator of the Daleks. I found myself falling asleep again and right into a dream.

The dreams I get after waking up early in the morning and falling asleep again are usually quite memorable. I've had plenty of epic dreams before. Catastrophes, earthquakes, tornadoes, epic space battles. But the dream I had today would flatten them all.

It began quite boringly at a mall. There was an arts and crafts trade convention at a large function area where… well, I'll just abbreviate this part because it's rather dull. Needless to say, the floor of the mall kept flooding and I went to investigate. I fell into a deep pit and found myself lost. It took overnight for me to get out and find myself in a familiar place, which turned out to be Canossa College here in San Pablo. Back home, they raised the alarm because I was gone for so long. They were happy to see me back alive and in one piece.

I then went away on a trip to go somewhere. I don't remember now where, but I was far from home and I was far from where I'm supposed to go. I was in a large field with ankle high grass. It was a cloudy day. All of a sudden the sunlight was reflecting off a distant mountain. The light reflecting from it was blinding. I wondered what kind of material was on the mountain for it to reflect the sunlight so brightly. And then I realized it was cloudy and there was no sunlight to reflect. It was a strange sight. The side of a distant mountainside lit up like a halogen lamp turning on right in front of my eyes.

I scanned the horizon and it suddenly got dark. My traveling companion wondered about it as well. And just then sunlight hit the distant clouds behind the mountain, making it look like a huge explosion cloud. But it was expanding, and expanding fast. It was no cloud, and there was no sunlight. It had to be an explosion. The explosion cloud grew immense and formed a mushroom. I stood there rooted to the spot. Then another explosion cloud beside it sprang up, forming another mushroom, lighting up the sky. All across the horizon massive mushroom clouds of intense light shot up hundreds of miles into the atmosphere. I started to walk off the path, dazed, right across the field to a kind shed a hundred meters into the grass. There were people there, milling about.

We all looked towards the distant horizon, wondering what had happened. We all knew they were nuclear explosions, but nobody wanted to utter the "n" word. Because if we did, we knew it was over for us all. That many bombs, nobody could survive. We knew we wouldn't survive long in that grassy field. Me and my traveling companion decided to leave the shed and go over a nearby hill to see what was happening beyond. It was a long silent walk. Once we got over the hill a few hours later, we could see the trees in the far distance sway violently and get uprooted, like in a tornado. The ground suddenly heaved up and the wind picked up. It was an explosion starting, right there in front of us, not 5 kilometers away. This near there was no way we could survive, even if we run. My traveling companion and I held hands and waited to die. Things were falling all around us and any minute something would hit us. Then all went black.

I woke up, back in the shed, alive again for some reason. It was like I was given another chance to live, but it simply allowed me to see the devastation from another location. I saw the explosion that killed me over the hill and it was far enough from the shed that it didn't affect us directly. Some 5 kilometers on the other side, there was a building that suddenly lit up. Was it hit? Was it going to explode? We waited, and then we saw something spectacular. Fireworks. The building was going up in fireworks. The people inside were lighting them up, in defiance of whoever it was bombing us. An elderly man, apparently a scientist who was with us in the shed suddenly said: "The fools! They're just painting a target on themselves!" Sure enough we saw a light through the clouds move swiftly from the horizon, up into the sky and then fall down, hitting the building on the side. It was nuclear. We knew we were dead. The building was pulverized and the shockwave lifted cubic kilometers of earth up into the sky and right into us. Then all went black.

I was alive again, in a city center. People were panicking. There were people with me. Dying from another location? What is it this time, explosion right above me? I looked up and sure enough, a nuclear bomb exploded in the sky right above me. I only had to wait a few seconds and everything was black again.

I woke up in a hospital. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening. Nobody was panicking and as far as I could tell. No explosions at all, anywhere in the world. Was it a dream? The man standing next to my bed got curious. Did I dream of nuclear war? I said yes. All of a sudden a dream expert was standing in front of my bed in white frocks. He looked like Peter Ustinov when he was young. He told me that they were studying the dreams of people who were dreaming of nuclear war because they had a theory that taken collectively, all the dreams actually gave clues as to when real nuclear war would happen, and how it will happen. Peter Ustinov asked me to relate the dream to him in detail, right from the beginning.

So that's what I did. I began with the mall and went through my dream again careful not to miss any detail.

And before I finished telling my story, dogs were barking and I looked at the time and saw it was 8 in the morning. I took a piss, opened the computer and wrote this blog entry.

Yes, Merry Christmas! Plus some Old Drawings.

Hey everybody! Merry Christmas! Yes, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Because that's what it is, isn't it? Yes, it's a happy holiday, but WHAT happy holiday? Valentines? New Year? Hanukkah? No, it's CHRISTMAS! Why deny it? Why hide it?

I continue to be flabbergasted that the evil claws of political correctness would have me reduce Christmas into something generic. All because of what? Other people don't celebrate Christmas? Other don't people don't believe in Christmas? Other people are offended when they're greeted by a holiday that they don't believe in? I'm sorry, but if you're offended, then to me then you're nothing but a selfish self centered baby. Oh yeah. Intolerant. I'm sorry, but YOU ARE.

How? Well, here's how. Do you even know what's happening when someone greets you a Merry Christmas? What do you think is going on? Do you think that when I greet you a Merry Christmas, I'm forcing you to swallow my beliefs? That I'm forcing you to celebrate Christmas? That I'm trying to convert you and belittle your own personal beliefs?

You know what? That's just absolutely STUPID.

It's nothing more than a gesture of goodwill from one human being (me) to another human being (you). I'm not asking you to celebrate Christmas. I'm not asking you to believe Christmas. All I'm asking is you kindly accept a simple gesture given to you with no other intention than to wish you happiness at this particular time. Is that so fucking bad?

Americans greet me "Happy Thanksgiving!" all the time. Do I ever say, "Oh no, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving! I'm offended! Go away! There ought to be a LAW banning people from ever mentioning Happy Thanksgiving in public!" I never do. Because if I do that, it's like slapping the other guy in the face, when all he wants is to share a little happiness on that particular day.

This is tolerance. This is respect for other people's beliefs, no matter what your beliefs are whether you have any or not. It's simple kindness between human beings.

So the next time someone greets you a Merry Christmas, don't slap that guy in the face with your intolerance, just say THANK YOU. I promise you, it won't KILL you.

**************

All right, now that's out of the way. I want to share something from one of my old notebooks from 1985. Click for larger images.

That's page 1 and page 10 of a comics story I was working on during a time I wasn't particularly a comics fan. Let me explain. You see, this was 1984. You can see this on the pages because I marked on the side the exact date I worked on that specific panel. In 1984 I was a freshman in college, taking up Architecture at the University of Sto. Tomas. We moved to Manila around 1978 and there I finished my grade school and High School at San Beda College along Mendiola.

When I left San Pablo for the big city, I left all my comics behind. I thought I had gotten too old for them and it was time for me to move on to more "adult" stuff. NO more kids stuff! I pretty much gave all my comics away.

What's strange was I continued writing and drawing comics even though I wasn't reading them anymore. I remember doing one complete Star Wars inspired story in High School, which I seem to have lost. I did a lot of silly strips in my notebooks and the pages above were part of a third story I was trying to complete. It's untitled. I don't have a title for it even now. But it did involve time travel in a huge huge way.

The cross in the second page was supposed to have been my timey-wimey paradox thing, the same way Christopher Reeves' pocket watch was timey-wimey paradox thing in "Somewhere in Time". If I had completed it, the story would have been completely and hopelessly romantic.

Basically, the idea there was that Mars was once an earth like planet whose inhabitants destroyed themselves in a nuclear war. That's why Mars is RED you see. It's all dried blood and radiation. Some were able to get out in time, rocket to earth and repopulate.

As I worked on page 11, my brother brought home a copy of "Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga". This was my first exposure to comics since I chucked them all out of my life in 1978. The last time I saw the X-men they were fighting Black Tom and Juggernaut in a castle and Storm was freaking out from her claustrophobia. I never heard of the X-men again until I read Dark Phoenix. That moment was a life changer. My life literally changed from one moment to the next.

One moment I'm this perfunctory comic book maker doing comics when I'm bored, and the next moment, I'm a hardcore comic book fan once again. Living, breathing, reading comics every chance I could get.

I could no longer continue this story I was drawing because when I looked back on it, I cringe at how utterly silly it is. How crap and stupid it is. I couldn't even look at it for a long time.

However, the notebook is still with me today. It's been with me for 26 years. Not only does it include this comics story, it also includes school notes on Theology, Psychology, and Building Materials, various comics strips, character lists for New Mutants and X-men, a list of comics I had collected at the time, sketches, story ideas and lyrics to "Eve of Destruction".

I find the notebook so fascinating today. It's practically a time machine. What if it had been a computer I placed all this on? They would all be gone now. All the stuff I wrote in my brother's computer in 1989 are now gone, but all the stuff I wrote in this notebook in 1985-1987 are still all here, clear as day.

Looking at this notebook, it reinforces my faith in things hand written on paper. It's why I still keep paper notebooks today, refusing to trust any of my sensitive information like passwords, contact numbers, story ideas, sketches, scribbles, drawings, to any electronic/digital "gadget".

Old School Stuff and a Comics Convention

Friends will be coming over today. I'll be cooking a chicken dish called "Adobong Manok sa Gata". I just recently learned how to do it, after getting over my confusion about the fact that there's an adobo dish that doesn't use soy sauce, just vinegar and coconut milk. My dad says it's adobo so who am I to argue? I love the dish. Absolutely love it. I don't know if my friends will like it but what the hell. If there's any kind of food that's quintessentially provincial, then this is it.

Tomorrow is the 20th of December, and a comics convention will be held at Bicol. I wanted to go, but it's too close to Christmas and it's pretty hectic at home and at work. Anyway, here's a poster:

And the cover to the anthology the organizers are releasing:

I've wanted to go back to Bicol for quite some time. The first and last time I was there was in 1983 for the National Boy Scout's Jamboree. I was assistant Scout Master of the San Beda College contingent. Oh yeah, I was a Boy Scout from grade school up until high school. It was probably the only extra curricular activity I had. Looking back on it, it wasn't bad, but I wonder why I had stuck to it for so long. I guess I just love collecting the badges. If I tie you up to a tree with my knots, I assure you, you won't escape.

I love buying notebooks. Have you seen the new kinds of notebooks coming out now? Great thick creamy paper, hardbound with beautiful covers. I have a Moleskine that was given to be by a friend, but I love the much cheaper counterpart from Scribe, which looks and feels like a Moleskine notebook. I use the Scribe a lot for scribbles, sketches, story ideas, passwords, accounting, addresses and contact numbers. It's pretty handy because it fits right in the pocket. I always teach any aspiring artist to carry with them small notebooks like this to carry around all the time so they can sketch at every opportunity.

But the bigger notebooks, I love buying them. I just got a really nice one for myself for Christmas. Actually, I remember buying one last year.

(Interrupted by smiling garbage men carrying an envelope. Sigh. Christmas!)

Anyway, I remember buying this really beautiful notebook last year, resolving to write stuff in it. Actually, I never did. I remember buying another notebook the previous year. I got so far as writing in a few pages. Pathetic! This new notebook I got so far as write the date. I think that's an accomplishment! I want to write stuff in there… but what? I could write story ideas (well, that's what my Scribe is for already), or maybe diary entries. I used to have an actual diary long before I had this blog. I must admit, I've become less personal when doing diaries online, so I guess that's something I can come back to. There at least I can say everything I want to say about people and they won't know about it. ahaha!

One definite New Year's resolution of mine is to start writing letters again. I resolve to hand write at least one letter a week and send it, post office style. I also plan on getting a turntable. Vinyl seems to be making a comeback. I miss the scratchy sound they make before the music starts playing. I still have all my old vinyl records. I pretty much took good care of them and I'm quite sure they're still in pretty good condition. My favorite musicians are actually releasing new music on vinyl, along with CDs and downloads. I want to get them not only because I love vinyl, but because I also get to see huge album covers. I miss those covers.

Sigh. I just found out that the unripe papaya that I needed to cook the adobo sa gata is already RIPE! I can't use that! I guess this dish would have to go papaya less. Sorry guys!

End of the Year Bearing Down

I'm currently inking Ultimate Comics Avengers Vol 4 #1, in between Superior #4 and 5. Taking more inking jobs is insane, but I don't mind. I don't get to ink all the pages because Leinil's pencils are absolutely intense with details, but it seems they got pretty good inkers to help out. Now all this is great and I welcome the jobs, but I'm just raring to get some extra time to continue work on Rizal. I really want the thing to go out next year for Rizal's 150th birthday. It can't NOT go out next year so I'm going to have to create some time, somehow. Less sleep maybe? But no, I have to have enough sleep every night. Every morning it seems like. My body clock has drastically changed the last couple of years. Time was I could wake up at 5 or 6 am no problem, but now it seems my peak hours of working are late at night and early in the morning. So I end up sleeping more and more the morning. Which I hate because I love to experience mornings. I like how the early morning sunlight looks.

I get less and less time for everything. Less time for videos. Less time for going out. Less time for meeting people. I wake up. Email. Blog maybe once or twice a week. Maybe even less lately. Work. Lunch. Quick nap. Work. Play with dogs and cat. Work. Dinner. Work. Read a book. Sleep.

Yes, read a book. I need to keep up some culture somehow. Right now I'm reading Russell T. Davies' "A Writer's Tale", which chronicles the writing of Doctor Who. I love it. It's terribly deeply inspiring. Brilliant. Reading it has been very educational. Illuminating. It's caused me to think about rewriting bits, maybe large bits of The Amazing Doctor Rizal. How to inject more character into the characters. How to make them more believable. How to make readers care for the characters. Reading through my first draft made me realize how much more work it needs. That right now it's kinda crap. It needs something MORE.

I have to work in a couple of pages of Rizal before the year is out at the very least. But with an early January deadline for the Marvel stuff, I don't see how that's possible. I might end up sacrificing a bit of sleep. Let's see.

The Mad, Funny, Wonderful Little Komiks of Rommel Estanislao

Over the last few years more and more new and promising Filipino comic book creators are appearing in the local scene. Even as indie creators multiply like mushrooms with every passing comics convention, one can now easily discern those few who create comics with extraordinary quality.

One of these is Rommel "Omeng" Estanislao.

I've been hearing of Rommel's work for a while, but it was only this year did I really got to sit down and read his work. I find him to be an extremely talented cartoonist who can convey his stories and ideas well into the comics form.

He also seems to be quite prolific, with new releases every time I encounter him at one of the many local conventions.

In my opinion, his best work so far is "Love Story", released this year during Summer Komikon. It's funny, sad, happy, heartbreaking and full of insight into the quirky and unpredictable nature of love and human relationships.

It's one of the best stories I've read in the local independent komiks scene in 2010.

Aside from being a talented cartoonist, Omeng is also an sculptor of amazing little miniatures.

To get in touch with Omeng (to inquire where you can buy his comics) and to see a gallery of his artwork and sculptures, you can visit his DeviantArt page here.

Omeng at Metro Comic-Con, August 21, 2010

Omeng will have a signing, along with Kubori Kikiam's Michael David tomorrow, December 11, at Sputnik, Cubao X.

Flipgeeks Interview with Rommel Estanislao

HOPE: The Hero Initiative

Early in 2009 I finished an eight-page superhero story called "Last Hope". It was kind of a breakthrough for me because it was the first superhero story I wrote that worked to my satisfaction. For years I didn't know how to write superheroes and it showed as I struggled to do Timawa during the last few years.

"Last Hope" was created for "Hope: Hero Initiative", a 180 page full color anthology published by Ronin Studios. Proceeds from the sales of this book will go to benefit Hero Initiative, an organization which provides a financial safety net for comic creators who many need emergency medical aid, financial support for life's necessities, and an avenue back to paying work. It can now be ordered through PREVIEWS, Diamond Distributor's comics catalogue For this December. The book comes out in February.

The Philippines can sure need something like this. The good thing is, such efforts began by necessity last year, when Typhoon Ondoy devastated the lives of many comic book creators. The comic book community then came together to help those in need. I'm glad that it had been continued through the efforts of Whilce Portacio, Philip Tan, Ernest Leo Hernadez and many more with Renaissance.

Renaissance is a pinup book of many of the world's best Filipino comic book artists including Whilce, Philip, Leinil Francis Yu, Tony De Zuniga, Rod Espinosa, Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan, Rafael Kayanan, Lan Medina, Francis Manapul, Carlo Pagulayan, Rico Rival, Mico Suayan, Harvey Tolibao, and many many more!

Proceeds from the sales of this book similarly goes to Filipino creators in need. Available at all major bookstores locally.

Last Minute Christmas Comics Events!

Comics Bazaar 2010!

Saturday, December 4 · 1:00pm – 5:00pm

2nd Floor, UP ISSI

E. Virata Hall, E. Jacinto St., UP Campus, Diliman,

Quezon City, Philippines

Comics and more comics! If you are looking for a gift for your loved ones and friends this Christmas, look no further! Check out the photos section for some of the comics for sale, together with a map to UP ISSI.

Silent Sanctum Manga

Kickbackers

Meganon Comics

Wall Push Productions

Macoy

Joanah Calingo

Alejandro Edoria

Omi Remalante Jr

Akda

Ravencage Studios/Paperdoor

Polyhedron Comics

Mysterium Philippines

Richard Cadiz

Komikon

2nd Bikol Komiks Convention

December 20, 2010

Mudbugs Sports bar,

Penafrancia Avenue Naga City

There are a couple more signings at SPUTNIK for which I'll be posting about separately.

Unfortunately, we've had to postpone the San Pablo Comics Festival to another year.

Komiks Art from Mike Zeck

Rudy Nebres

American comics illustrator Mike Zeck (Batman, Punisher, Secret Wars, GI Joe) kindly sent over scans of some nice vintage Filipino komiks art from Rudy Nebres, Alfredo Alcala and Alex Niño. I don't know which komiks titles these were published in but maybe a few of those who visit this site may give us a clue.

Alfredo Alcala

Alex Niño

Alfredo Alcala

Thanks Mike!

Sputnik Comic Book Signings

Sputnik in Cubao X in Cubao continues to be one of the hot spots of Philippine Independent comics with more signings with some of the most popular indie komiks creators. This time two signing events are scheduled.

First up is "Sputoniku No Koibito!!!" The Book Signing thing with Adam David, Carlo Joe Javier and Josel Nicolas on November 27, 9pm.

Next up is another signing with the deranged creators of the incendiary Funny Komiks spoof Punnx Komix, namely JP Cuison and Dennis Nierra. Oh yes, the great Manix Abrera will be there as well.

Roughly translated: "Please let the people still notice us and our Punnx komix at our comic signing event at Sputnik on Dec. 3, 8pm even though superstar Manix Abrera will be there. Amen".

Punnx Komix Blog

http://punnxkomix.blogspot.com/

Punnx Video Trailer

Sputnik in Cubao X, Cubao

http://www.clickthecity.com/metro/?p=2433