mababang langit

my partner-in-crime ardie aquino (with better half dione ) is currently being "very busy" around frankfurt as part of our national book development board's delegation to this year's  frankfurter buchmesse . i presume he is also promoting our book, school run.   have a great time, ardie! (don't come back without a book deal ❤️❤️❤️)

  the NCCA very kindly invited me to roxas city in capiz to give a comics-making workshop as part of its yearly creative nation summit.   the creative nation summit includes a very cool alternative class program where kids take a day off to learn arty things like theater acting, songwriting, jewelry making, painting, and so much more. i would've loved it as a kid. i wish this sort of thing could be done in as many schools as possible, all over the country.     the night before the workshop, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit cebu. although it only registered a 1.0 in roxas, several schools cancelled face-to-face classes the next day to make time for structural inspections. about half of our students didn't show up, but all the workshops pushed through as planned. the evening's culminating show and fireworks display went on as well.        i was tasked with making a bunch of mostly "arki" students care about komiks enough to make one good page of it. a...

    bambi eloriaga-amago and i gave a comics writing and pitching workshop at de la costa hall, where the english department used to be during my time. it was pretty nostalgic, seeing how the ol' campus had changed. bambi also noted how the "sweat corn" vendors outside no longer sold corn quite as "sweat" as they were in the 90's.   this workshop was a pretty big deal for me, being the first time i got paid to talk about comics. who would've thought it was possible?   special shoutout to  st. bernadette college of valenzuela for sending over a bunch of curious senior high schoolers to listen to us!

since i was doing my MA in creative writing at UP anyway, i thought why not try and see if some of the stuff i'd written for class could get me into one of the most prestigious writing workshops in the country? only problem was, i got in.       our venue was the baden-powell international makiling , a short drive up into the mountains from UP los banos. it's the boy scout national headquarters, i think. during out stay there was always some sort of camping activity going on in the adjacent field just to the right of the above photo.  to an uninitiated fellow ("fellow" is what  they call the people whose work is being read. personally i don't consider myself a fellow, i'm more of a dude) like me, the workshop felt like a rigorous weeklong training camp for the criticism part of your brain. i spent all night reading and all day trying to think up something helpful and/or clever to say about what i'd read the night before. it didn't always work. there wer...

and here it is!

 ardie aquino's really pulled out all the stops on these box sets, releasing a fourth set of variant covers, with arguably some of the best ones yet: i can't believe that's maki and catniss illustrated by the roni santiago, man...

 for school run the graphic novel. here's ardie and me in all our gory glory:  and here's the production team at studio a and ideascape MNL (and family), including the great nelz yumul , after wrap: note how i'm trying to put on a brave face after all that green makeup wouldn't quite wash off.   let's just say there was some explaining (and a lot of scrubbing) involved when i got home. *a further note on the makeup: i knew things were going well when sir prince was doing his job putting the stuff on me, and at first the comments were all jovial and laughing, but as the work progressed they went from, "haha cute," to "oh..." to "dude that's disgusting." but it was worth it, certainly a hell of an experience. i'd do it again in a heartbeat.

  ASWANG HIGH skillfully weaves horror, humor, and the pains of growing up into its fabric, presenting a unique twist on the high school experience... it's a journey of friendship, identity, and courage in the face of the utterly unknown.   thanks so much to Hot Tropiks - Culture Bookstore for bringing aswang high over to the states!

  thanks pam pastor, inquirer, and paolo herras for including aswang high in this list! you can read the full article here .

story time!   yesterday at Comic Odyssey 's #FreeComicBookDay2024 event, a couple of guys walk by ardie and i's table and one of them goes, "hey, school run!" and points at our comic.   he then enthusiastically summarizes the plot of the comic to his friend, from memory, based on the few issues he'd bought years ago. the friend, intrigued, buys our first issue.   a small thing. but as a writer there's not much more i could ask for.    

 check out these premium, limited edition, six-sided dollops of zombie-themed eye candy:  now check out these gorgeous alternate covers made by a stellar collection of pinoy artsts: that's an art exhibit in a box, folks. more info about the specific artists and how this all came to be in this press release. (we got a press release!)

 so grateful that aswang high is selling well on hot tropiks!  

 thank you again to juno reyes and rappler for including aswang high in this list!

...It’s clear that Macoy’s writing and Cyril’s art style had the right synergy to produce the magic behind Aswang High .      thank you juno reyes and rappler for spreading the word!

   that's mel casipit, toto madayag, myself, and the legend pol medina jr., coming together to form team komikero, playing to win some money for komiket inc. you can watch the full episode here .   i wish i could say we gave a good account of ourselves, but in terms of entertainment value, there wasn't much we could do against four drag queens. we could've sketched up some scathing caricatures maybe, but the tv format just wouldn't allow for it. furthermore, the survey answers just weren't there for us that night.  i will never eat grilled tuna again.  

  i was invited by komiket to read an excerpt from aswang high at this year's MIBF, only the biggest publishing event in the land... jay ignacio was also there to read from his award-winning book, alandal , as was bambi amago, who read from her multi-award-winning doobiedoo asks . well, what i lacked in awards i made up for in animated slides!

for the past few weeks, i've been working with the immensely talented tristan yuvienco and the generous, awesome folks at SIKAP to develop a feature-length animated pitch for tristan's brainchild, "the flying tricycle." it's being pitched at this year's AYO Cebu as we speak and then again later this year at the annecy animation festival in france! *fingers crossed*