Gerry Alanguilan's Blog, page 6

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My classamtes with a photobombing waiter. Photo by Ariel Porca.

The homecoming at my old university UST went surprisingly well. That’s probably because we had a big bunch of my classmates there and it was really nice seeing a lot of these faces again after so long. Granted, I’ve seen most of them on Facebook, but it’s different when you see them face to face.

At the start of the day Ilyn and I passed by Robinson’s Galleria first for a visit to Comic Odyssey, where I picked up “Marvel Firsts: The 80s Vol 1″. I’ve been collecting these Marvel Firsts books beginning with their 60s volume and I’m really loving them. Sure they only feature first issues (which is the novelty of it), but as you read the stories you realize a lot of these stories are left hanging because they continue on to 2nd issues (which of course aren’t included in these books). I really like them nonetheless.

We had lunch somewhere and I made a mistake of ordering a shake. In the picture in the menu it didn’t look like a shake. It looked like tea with juice or something. But it was a shake. As soon as I drank it I realized my mistake. Why is it a mistake? I’m lactose intolerant. And you know what that means. I can’t afford to have a bad stomach, not with so many activities. We still had homecoming that night! I didn’t finish the shake anymore and just asked for water.

After lunch I then dropped off Ilyn at UP Diliman for her symposium and while she did that I went to Trinoma to meet a friend. That’s when I started to feel disturbing rumblings in my stomach. And I’m like HOLY SHIT. It wasn’t so bad though. It’s just that my intestines were producing so much air it was just annoying. To me and people around me I guess. But I’m not admitting anything.

At 5pm I picked Ilyn up at UP and we went off to UST. Thankfully, my brother lives just beside UST so I managed to get a much welcome bathroom break. I was able to go to the homecoming stress free.

There were lots of prizes up for raffle including almost TEN flat screen TVs. I was hoping to get one because I don’t have a TV here at home. But I was just unlucky. Oh well. Nevertheless, it was great meeting up with old classmates and reminisce. One classmate set me aside and told me she knew of another really talented guy who draws comics. She’s a neighbor of his and they often get to talk when they meet at gym. Apparently, she was talking about Leinil Yu.

Speaking of Leinil Yu, the two page spreads that arrived for an Avengers issue we’re doing are just spectacular and I’ll be spending the whole day today just working on them. So yeah, until next time!

Homecoming

Traffic. I hate it. I stay at home in San Pablo most of the time, not wanting to ever go back to Manila because I just hate traffic. But look at me today… I’m going to Manila on what is probably the worst time to go. Because of the INC and their Metro walk, I expect traffic to be hell today. You know, fund raising for Yolanda is a fantastic thing. We did it last year, raising almost 1 million pesos just staying in ONE ROOM and not bothering anybody and causing any traffic and inconvenience people. INC wants to raise funds (which is admirable), but closing roads inconveniencing thousands and thousands of people at the same time is just inconsiderate.

I have to go to Manila today because I’ll be accompanying Ilyn to UP Diliman and then later in the day go to UST for a homecoming. Our Architecture batch 89 is the host so we have to be there. And that’s another thing. Homecomings. I don’t mind batch reunions. In fact, I like going to those. But these homecomings include batches from other college departments and other years and these people are just complete strangers to me. I have nothing at all in common with them aside from the fact that we went to UST at some point in our lives. Why am I getting together with them? What do I have to share with them? Nothing. Nothing at all. I don’t know them. I don’t care about them, and I’m sure they don’t care about me.

However, I am looking forward to seeing my classmates. Since we’re the hosts, we have a large group attending, which was at last count was almost 50. So that’s practically a batch reunion right there. I had to go to SM yesterday and buy something yellow to wear. I had to go and buy something because I absolutely have nothing yellow in my closet. Yellow is just not my color. I don’t wear it. But for this homecoming I had to buy a yellow shirt. I found one that was actually quite nice. I just might wear it to Summer Komikon.

Diary

Back in the old days before the Internet, I had a diary. In addition to that, I was sending letters to a lot of people both locally and abroad. I was spending a lot of time just writing on paper. When the Internet came all that changed. Unfortunately. I could not deny that the instant communication offered by the Internet was incredibly appealing. However, I have come to miss the thrill of receiving hand written letters from friends in the mail. Somehow, receiving an email isn’t as thrilling.

Transporting the diary online though, became kind of tricky. Diaries were supposed to be private. Bringing it online where people (and strangers) can read it was kind of weird. Certainly you couldn’t write an online diary as honestly as a private diary. But I did it anyway. I began writing online diaries long before there were things like blogger. I did it all on html and uploaded each page myself via FTP. I was more forthcoming with personal things back then. There came a time when it became less personal, and more like well… PROMOTION. I recognized the fact that people do read my online journal and I took advantage of that to sell them stuff. Being in comics with stories to tell, it’s an opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up.

So I will continue to do it, but hopefully not at the expense of more personal posts. I see myself doing more of that soon. You have probably noticed that I haven’t been posting a lot in this blog. That’s probably because I’ve been struggling about what to write. I’ve been concerned about you know, perpetuating the idea that this is a comics blog and that it should be a place where information about comics can be read. Maybe I should just get back to why I started writing this online journal in the first place. It was supposed to be a place where I can just share my thoughts and what I’m doing.

I guess I’ve been doing that a lot on Twitter instead. But you know Twitter, you can only say so much. And I’m a verbose kind of guy. So I will be writing a lot more stuff here. If you’re the TLDR kind, then sucks to be you then. And if you’re the kind of person that doesn’t really read and in the end asks questions that’s plainly answered by the post ONLY IF YOU READ IT, then I just won’t answer you. Again, sucks to be you.

Rodski Patotski: Ang Dalagang Baby

After almost a year, I finally finished the script to my next book, “Rodski Patotski: Ang Dalagang Baby”! Like a lot of my projects I felt good about, the writing of the story took a long time to do. After a lot of stops and starts, I’ve finally come to the point that I’m very happy with what I’ve written, and I feel good about handing it to the artist, which by extreme luck is none other than superstar artist Arnold Arre.

Arnold is drawing the book as well as coloring it. I’ve written it, and I’ll take care of lettering and laying out the book. Reading it through and looking at the art that Arnold has done so far, not only do I feel good about it, I feel very good about it. Arnold is such an extraordinarily amazing artist. He was able to elevate my story into something very special.

What is “Rodski Patotski??”

It really began when I discovered an old komiks story called “Linda Maligna” illustrated by my father in law, Rudy Florese. Linda is, amusingly enough, the name of his wife, my wife’s mother and my mother in law. I thought it cute that my father in law worked on a story named after his wife. I thought I’d continue the tradition and name my next story after my own wife.

“Rodsky” is a name my wife is known for in school by her classmates and friends, which is short for “Roddielyn”. So I named my character Roddelyn, or “Rodski” for short.

And now what idea or concept do I wrap around that name? I thought I’d make it a tribute to all the classic Pinoy komiks characters. I decided to call it “Rodski Patotski: Ang Dalagang Baby”. As to why she’s called that, I guess I won’t spoil it for you. You would just have to pick up the book when it comes out.

The book is written in a combination of English and Tagalog. It was an experiment I wanted to try out. I wanted to see if I could write it that way, but still make it understandable to a non-Tagalog reader. Hopefully I pulled it off. HOPEFULLY!

A lot of people may be asking…. “What happened to DARNA LIVES?”

That’s a good question. Arnold and I enjoyed creating that short Darna story, but I’m afraid that’s only as far as it would go. I just wanted to show a different direction that such a long standing character can taken and still make it work. A lot of these classic characters come with stories that seem to be afraid to push the boundaries of the character and of the genre. Arnold and I demonstrated that it can be done and still be well received. Hopefully, future Darna writers would pick up on that.

When writing my own stories, I now prefer to just create my own characters and create my own legacy, instead of perpetuating the legacy of other people.

So is “Rodski” any good? I really don’t know. But I feel good about it. Hopefully, people do get to enjoy reading it. It’s written with “all ages” in mind so it can be read by young children and grandparents alike. It’s pretty much a first for me, having written so many “For Mature Readers Only” material.

I can’t wait for this book to be finished and printed and in your hands! We’re targeting Summer Komikon for it, so fingers crossed! The book will have 100 pages and square proportions. It will be square bound, and in full color. Yep! FULL COLOR! Lord knows where I’ll get the money to pay for printing this, but I’ll find a way!

2013

When I sat down a few days ago to write a long retrospective of my 2013, I just got tired thinking about it. So I didn’t do it. Not because I was tired thinking of the many things that happened and many things I did all throughout that year, but because I was just feeling lazy writing on this blog. What could this possibly mean? There was a time I wrote here in this blog almost every day. I think on average, I wrote something like several blog posts a week. But lately it’s become less and less. I just wrote here things that were of extraordinary significance.

I briefly entertained the idea of having a New Year’s resolution asserting that I would write more on this blog. But in the end, I think it’s kind of stupid. I mean, stupid thinking I could change things with a New Year’s resolution. Hardly anyone follows through on resolutions, am I right? Look back last year on all your resolutions and you just might embarrass yourself.

No, if changes are needed in my life, I don’t need a man-made date to make me decide to do it. I just have to do it, right?

So OK, 2013. There have been THREE major things that made 2013 memorable for me.

The first is the re-release of WASTED at Summer Komikon. I had announced the release of the reprint in April 1, which everyone thought was a joke. But the real joke was that it was, in fact, true. I really had fun with that.

The second memorable thing of 2013 was our trip to ALGERIA. It was a trip filled with uncertainty because we didn’t have visas. We were entering a country we knew nothing about. We didn’t speak the language, and we knew it was a culture that was radically different from ours.

But the amazing thing is, it turned out to be quite an experience. I loved our Algeria trip. I loved attending a comics festival there and meeting all these awesome cartoonists from all over the world. I now count them as some of my friends.

The third memorable thing is our trip to PARIS. If Algeria was my first experience with Africa, Paris was my first experience with Europe. For many years Paris was simply an impossible dream. We often dream about going there and having coffee, looking up the Eiffel Tower and eat snails. Those were fun dreams. But they were simply that. Dreams. As late as two weeks before the trip I was still skeptical we would actually be going there. It wasn’t until we did set foot in Paris that we realized it was true.

And it was amazing. I loved Paris. I loved the cold weather. I loved the Architecture. I loved the art, the culture, it’s unique character.

My knee had been giving me trouble in a walking city like Paris, but I didn’t let it stop me. I walked slow, but it made me all the more appreciate of what was around me.

Ilyn and I freaked when we thought we saw Peter Capaldi emerge from one of the Metro stations. At least I thought it was Peter Capaldi. From a distance it looked like him. Ilyn was initially skeptical, but as we looked further, we began to realize it may really well have been him. I wanted to call out to him, but he walked a little too fast for us. And before we knew it, he was gone. Was it really Peter? We’ll never know.

My 2013 was great. I understand that it may well have been a really bad year for other people, but I guess let’s all just wish that 2014 will be a far better year for all of us.

Chickens, Commissions and Yolanda

“Gallus Rex“, Pen and Ink on 11″x17″ Comic Book Art Board

Cick for Larger Image

The above image is up for silent auction this Saturday at Comic Odyssey in Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street in Taguig, in conjunction with the “Art with Heart” fund raising for Yolanda victims. All proceeds from this auction will go to the fund. If you wish to bid, please get in touch with Sandy Sansolis of Comic Odyssey at his FB profile. Starting bid is P1000.

For more info on “Art With Heart“, please go to the official Facebook event page here.

Click for Larger Image

Because I’m usually busy with my comics work, I haven’t been accepting sketch covers/commissions. I made the exception during Komikon, as well as “Art with Heart” specially because funds earned from these drawings would all go to the Red Cross for Yolanda victims. I thought I could finish these kinds of drawings easily and proceeded to accept FIVE pieces during Komikon. I knew I drew very slow, but I thought I could do the five drawings in the entire day I was at Komikon. Counting from 9am to 7am that would be TEN hours. I could do one drawing every 2 hours. I thought it would be a breeze.

Ha! ha! It wasn’t. By 2pm I was still working on my FIRST drawing. Not only was I slow, I had to stop often to sign books, which was a lot. Apparently, I had grossly overestimated myself. In the end, I was able to do only THREE drawings. But since the remaining two had already paid, I agreed to do these other two drawings at home.

For “Art With Heart”, I’m being very conservative about what I can draw so I accepted only TWO slots. Which were quickly filled. One was willing to pay 1K, and another was willing to pay 2K. I thought wow. All the better!

So after finishing that GALLUS REX drawing above, I’m doing my two leftover drawings from Komikon and just do the two new commissions on the day itself. That means I won’t be able to accept any more after that.

Someone asked me if I would accept sketch commissions during my signing at National Book Store here in SM San Pablo on November 30. Unfortunately not. I only have 3 or so hours for the signing so I will be signing only. If I accepted sketches, the way I draw, I will not finish one single sketch and I will end up not signing anything, which kind of defeats the purpose of the thing.

After “Art With Heart”, I’m afraid I will no longer be able to accept commissions for the time being. It really does take a lot of time, and I have a lot of comics to write and draw. A publisher has practically commissioned me to create a whole book so that will pretty much take over all my free time outside of my Marvel work. Sorry guys!

More Fund Raising Efforts!

There will be another fundraising event this coming Saturday, November 23, 2013 at Comic Odyssey on the fourth floor of Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street in Taguig. This time, all proceeds will be donated exclusively for the benefit of typhoon Yolanda victims.

It will be a sketching event where more than FIFTY artists are confirmed to participate! Event starts at 10am. Confirmed guests include:

AARON FELIZMENIO

AMOS VILLAR

ARIEL ATIENZA

BUTCH MAPA

CARLO PAGULAYAN

CARLO VERGARA

CHUCKY PENERO

DENNIS CRISOSTOMO

DINO AGOR

ED TADEO

ERNEST CARITATIVO

FREELY ABRIGO

GENER PEDRINA

GERRY ALANGUILAN

GILBERT MONSANTO

HEUBERT KHAN MICHAEL

IAN STA MARIA

JEFFREY BENITEZ

JIMBO SALGADO

JON ZAMAR

JONAS DIEGO

JULIUS ABRERA

JULIUS VILLANUEVA

KAI CASTILLO

KAJO BALDISIMO

KIM JACINTO

LEINIL YU

LOWE BELTRAN

LUI ANTONIO

LYNDON GREGORIO

MACOY

MANIX ABRERA

MARK TORRES

MEL CASIPIT

MICHAEL IGNACIO

MICO SUAYAN

MIKE BANTING

NORBY ELA

PAOLO FABREGAS

RIAN GONZALES

RH QUILANTANG

ROD ESPINOSA

ROMMEL ESTANISLAO

ROMULO FAJARDO

RYAN PASIBE

TEPAI PASCUAL

STEPHEN SEGOVIA

WAN MAÑANITA

More info on this Facebook events page below:

https://www.facebook.com/events/669966749693055/

I will be offering another ELMER illustration for auction. I’ll be posting the page here and update this post when I finish it.

Fund Raising at Komikon

Click for Larger Image

The Komikero Artists group would like to make an announcement with regards to fundraising efforts through auctions at this Saturday’s Komikon. We planned these fundraising event a few months ago, initially to benefit our fellow Komikero in need, Vergil Espinosa for his medical needs. Then the earthquake in Bohol happened, and Lui Antonio contacted our group if we could help raise funds for that calamity as well. We agreed.

We will continue with our fund raising efforts for Bohol Earthquake victims as well as for Vergil at this coming Komikon.

We are fully aware of the great and unimaginable tragedy that has befallen our country within the last week due to Typhoon Yolanda. We understand that many of you would wish to help those victims as well. Please do not worry as we will have plenty of opportunity to do so. For this Saturday, we do wish to go ahead and raise funds for our original recipients: Bohol and Vergil, as this is what we have already promised to do.

There are now plans to have another fund raising specifically for Typhoon Yolanda victims. Since it is still currently being organized, we cannot share more info about it, but rest assured it is being put together will all due haste as we understand that the need is great and immediate.

Thank you for your understanding.

*The above ELMER illustration is one I will donate to benefit Vergil Espinosa specifically. It’s pen and ink on 11″x17″ art board.

Please check out this Facebook gallery to see what artworks are available for bidding.

https://www.facebook.com/johnnydanganan/media_set?set=a.751925151491241.1073741837.100000212889335&type=3

If you wish to bid right now, please send a PM to the gallery owner, Johnny Danganan. This will be a silent online auction, which will continue at Komikon until 5:30pm. Please contact Johnny for details.

Manager’s Choice

Before anything else, let me just say this is not intended as an ad for Shakey’s Pizza, although people are free to believe that it is. But it’s simply not my intent. I just want to talk about Manager’s Choice, because well, it’s my favorite pizza and it’s got a bit of a sentimental value to me.

Anyway, let me just say that the first time I ate pizza… I don’t remember when this was (I was probably 8)…. I HATED it. It seemed too sour for my taste. It just didn’t really agree with me. But by the late 70′s and early 80′s we started seeing Shakey’s Pizza ads on TV and marveled at how the cheese would stretch out like rubber bands. We were living in San Pablo City, but we decided that the next time we go on one of our monthly supply trips to Manila, we’d eat at Shakey’s. We just had to know what that pizza tasted like!

The time came to go to Manila and I remember being very excited. Not just about the pizza but any trip to Manila is something to be excited about. To be honest, I was more excited about looking for new toys and new comics at National Book Store. There was a branch of Shakey’s at what is now Greenbelt. It was a freestanding building back then. In fact, the place was designed to look like a big house.

Dad ordered the “Manager’s Choice” pizza because well, at the time he was a branch manager of the Bank of the Philippine Islands so of course he just had to order the Manager’s Choice. It was kind of a really small inside joke.

As was usual with restaurants like this, drinks are usually served first, long before the pizza arrived. I think it’s a gimmick of course, because by the time the pizza does arrive, your drinks will be gone and you just HAVE to order another round. I would usually order root beer because well, it had “beer” in it and the child in me was feeling a little rebellious. Another small inside joke. Very small. So of course my root beer would be all out by the time I bite into my first slice. But my dad would refuse another round of soda so we had to settle for water. I remember being very frustrated.

As it turned out, I loved the pizza. I loved it so much I wanted to eat more of it. But since we were four people (my dad, mom, my brother and me) dividing one pizza, I think I had only 2 slices at the most. I wanted more but well, we couldn’t order another one, so once again, I was frustrated. In Tagalog there is a term that one uses: BITIN. I couldn’t wait for another trip to Manila so we can have pizza again, although it wasn’t a guarantee that we’d have pizza even if we do return.

So for years, it was kind of a point of frustration for me. But I did enjoy the many times we did go to Shakey’s. I was just BITIN every single time.

Fast forward to 1993. I had a job at an Architectural firm. My girlfriend had just broken up with me. So I was feeling really down. On the way home along Recto Avenue in Manila there’s this branch of Booksale and I scoured their stocks for cheap comics. I bought a few including an issue of Marvel Age with this awesome Jim Lee Punisher drawing. I remember being very awed by that drawing. I then went to a Shakey’s nearby, ordered a large Manager’s Choice and a pitcher of draft beer, and started drowning my sorrows in pizza, beer and comics. It never even occurred to me I wasn’t BITIN anymore because I could have as much pizza as I liked, and I could drink as much beer as I liked. I went home drunk, but trying very hard not to look like I was drunk. I did this solo binge at Shakey’s several times over the next year or so.

Fast forward to 2013. I’m married now and I’ve got a job in comics. The other week I took my parents for dinner at a Shakey’s branch here in San Pablo. Of course we had the Manager’s Choice as usual, plus a Vegetarian one because you know, at our age we have to cut down on meat. Shakey’s no longer serves draft beer but I don’t miss it. I just ordered water. Of course, this time around I pay for it.

Nobody is BITIN this time around.

I Don’t Like Traveling

But I do like BEING in faraway places. I like it a lot. It’s just that the travel itself to those places that really gets to me. I don’t like the hassle of lining up for a visa, and all the suspicion and the condescension that come with applying for it. I really don’t like riding planes. I really do hate flying. Not just because of the fear of crashing, but the weird way life transforms while on a very long plane ride. While you’re there it’s like a half-life. You feel like you’re half conscious and not fully there. It’s like walking underwater. There is a loud din that seem to press on you from all sides. It’s almost like being in a dream.

When I get home from a trip that involves a plane ride, I almost always get sick. Coming home from Singapore last year I fell sick for two weeks. Thankfully enough, I didn’t get sick from this last trip, but I did feel extraordinarily weird and out of sorts for a long time. In fact, it’s been almost a couple of weeks since I’ve been back and I still feel weird. Only now have my sleeping patters have seemed to normalize. I still don’t feel completely myself.

But you know what, it’s completely worth it. Being in those faraway places, experiencing something new, meeting new people and making new friends… they’re all worth it. Right at this moment I can’t think of wanting to leave again, but I know for sure not too long from now I’ll get the travel bug again and would want to get packing once more.