mababang langit

sputnik comics shop recently released its top 5 indie sales lists for all the months of 2010 but december, and i am happy to report that each of my comics made it to at least one of those lists. the overall champ was louie cordero's nardong tae #1, which topped the charts for four out of eleven months. if this and alamat ng panget didn't keep running out of stock there wouldn't be any other titles at the #1 spot at all. as it is, alamat and my school run each hit #1 thrice. luckily for me, the ranking was based on number of units sold rather than peso sales, because, well, my stuff is cheap. major props to chez santander and the rest of the sputnik gang for compiling and releasing these lists, on top of all the other ways they've supported indie comics through the years. mabuhay kayo! sputnik on facebook

you know that scene in rocky 2 where rocky's swimming all these laps and apollo creed says to adrien, "he's using muscles he never thought he had"? apol sta. maria's ang alamat ng panget & many other does the same thing, only to your brain. specifically, that part of your brain that processes weird . the panget reading experience is equal parts laughing, recoiling in horror, and scratching your head in utter confusion. often you find yourself doing all three things at once. i loved it. one of the best comics of 2009, as far as i'm concerned. of course, the best parts of the book aren't fit to be posted on this blog. sta. maria finds that "absurd" button and mashes down on it so hard and so often it's not even funny (but it almost always is). i was blown away by the sheer manic inventiveness of his situations and characters, and the ruthless, morbid eye he casts on the human race--source of all stupidity. part of wh...