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editor, writer, blogger, and world fantasy award nominee charles tan recently had some nice things to say about my comics: "Snappy and upbeat,  Ang Maskot  captures an element of the Filipino zeitgeist and weaves an adult narrative around it without falling into the temptation of cynicism. While it doesn't have as much depth as School Run  (and appropriately so since this is a self-contained story), it highlights many of the strengths of Macoy's comics. There's a lot to love about Macoy's  School Run . The art alone is an interesting juxtaposition between the bleak setting and iconic characters. But don't let the simplicity fool you: over the course of each issue, Macoy packs depth into his characters, at the same time imagining a setting that organically resonates with Philippine pop culture, such as the parallelism between the zombie outbreak and typhoons ( "Signal #1 Laaang? Sayang!" ). Or something as simple as naming a cat as Catniss....

the "ang maskot" short film just got featured on yahoo! philippines, including a curse-free version of the trailer (the middle fingers stayed in, though) and some chitchat with the directors: "I wanted to make this movie the second Mihk [Vergara] showed it to me,” says [Chris] Costello. “It was a great story that was full of great funny moments, and was full of heart. It was also already structured like a movie—it was so visually appealing." The 20-minute film required a grueling, nonetheless fun, three-day shoot. Vergara explains, “All our friends and family who helped out really came through for Chris and me.  It's less tiring if you're surrounded by people who really, really get you.” Costello also has a bigger vision for their short film. “My dream is to get a producer interested in further producing it as a full-length film.” UPDATE: front page, baby!

" [Macoy's] drawing style comes closer to the cartoonish/no nonsense side. Medyo simple pero why complicate things when you have some seriously funny and down to earth boy-meets-girl story to help you out. Don't try too hard to resist his works when you see them." thanks for the kind words , dennis!

had a chat the other day with norby ela over at flipgeeks. we talked about the maskot movie, school run, and ricky lo. LOKAL GRIND: Macoy – Komiks & ‘Ang Maskot’ in Film

in its october 2012 isssue, glossy lifestyle mag preview acknowledged indie comics as one of 2012's noteworthy publishing trends. they also included  rob cham , the QBCCC crew , rommel estanislao , noel pascual , a.j. bernardo , and myself in their "creative it list" for 2012, "the who's who of up-and-coming talent in the culture scene"! says the blurb: click to zoom "We don't really have a proper comics industry anymore. The days of Darna and Captain Barbell are long gone, and it doesn't look like the economy is willing to support a return any time soon. But the comics fan looking for local flavor won't suffer a shortage of things to check out: The new breed of Filipino Komiks resembles the 'zines of the '90's, with crude black-and-white printing and stapled binding, But the content is great--most notable of the new creators is Macoy, whose books Ang Maskot, Operasyon , and School Run employ simple, cart...

this is the january 2012 issue of FHM philippines, and i am totally in it. now there's a sentence i never expected to type out, ever. and the best part is, the other side of the page i am on is totally safe-for-work and i can show it to my parents after i tear it off! many, many thanks to jed gregorio and frantz salvador! (right-click on the image below and select "save as..." to download the hi-res image) right-click and "save as" to download hi-resolution image

i was this month's guest on hub pacheco and teddy pavon's WIPforIT podcast , the one and only podcast show covering the local pinoy indie komiks scene. we talked about the creation of ang maskot , indie komiks' 'growing pains', manga in malaysia, and my chinese descent (?). also we read out a few of the more entertaining answers to a komiks survey i did several months back (which i haven't properly tabulated yet). check out the podcast here , and the award-winning webcomic for which it is named here !

sez the author of girl trouble and dumot : Ang Maskot  was crisp and clean. A man uses his own frustrations to bring happiness to others, which eventually sets himself free from his own problems. Also: the parts without dialogue are quite magical. Operasyon  was my favorite. The creator makes the statement “mga hayop tayong lahat” very clear in my opinion: a fable to take to heart during these media-saturated and “I-was-left-with-no-other-choice” kinds of times. his full list of fave komikon 2011 reads is here . check it out!

flipgeeks.com  ran a komiks readers' poll as a mock  komikon awards  for this year, and i was chosen among the grassroots award winners ! joy! i'll take a mock award over genuine obscurity any day :D thanks to flipgeeks and everyone who voted!

...because clickthecity.com 's resident film critic phil dy wrote a glowing review of my all four of my comics, which was posted as a note on sputnik comics' facebook page . and so for the benefit of anyone not on facebook,  i am shamelessly reposting the whole thing here. delicadeza was never one of my strong points. REVIEW: Komiks ni Macoy Philbert Dy on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 11:42pm OPERASYON, ANG MASKOT, TAAL VOLCANO MONSTER, SCHOOL RUN Macoy is incredible. There’s just no getting around it. His ashcan comics are essential reading, each work exhibiting a profound understanding of the form mixed with a strikingly Filipino sensibility. His stuff is deceptively simple, the art laid out in clear black lines, his figures cartoony but economical. The stories aren’t long, but each of them is filled with little details that form a world much larger than one would expect. But it’s really the versatility that astounds the casua...

komiks veteran, magazine editor and self-described heartthrob kc cordero posted some nice things on his blog about operasyon: Malikot ang mga anggulo ni Macoy at malinis ang mga execution ng bawat frame. Maging ang characterization ay akma sa mga hayop na ginamit niya sa kuwento gaya ng bihag na si Boy Hito (hito) na nagpakita ng tensyon sa posibleng pagsa-salvage sa kanya, at ang astig na si D’ Boss (kalabaw) na maging ang mga dialogue ay barako ang pagkakabitaw. Wala rin akong masabi sa mga teknikal na aspeto gaya ng balloons at sound effects na ginamit niya sa mga frames na nakatulong nang malaki sa storytelling. It’s a good read . read the full review here .

on taal volcano monster vs. evil space paru-paro: At a modest twenty pages, Taal Volcano Monster isn't so much a story as an extended gag strip. A   Mothra   stand-in shows-up for no good reason other than that's what happens in the movies. And the requisite knock-down drag-out battle takes place. Both monsters are drawn to look like cuddly plush toys, while the humans are mostly just tiny stick figures. Mass destruction rarely looked so cute. on school run #1:   They may be kids, but if the comic follows the formula, the cast will get whittled down to just a few of the more resourceful and stronger characters... The first issue isn't particularly graphic by the genre's standards, although the possibility of baby-faced munchkins dying horribly one by one might disturb some readers... The departure from the usual horror movie casting is what's intriguing about the comic. So as perverse as this sounds, I'll be disappointed if no blood is spilled in the...

1.) stanley chi and the front act crew were at last month's PICCA fest doing their thing that they do, which means i can now claim to have officially been on TV... for like three seconds (beware crappy vid quality): the PICCA bit starts at 4:36, and i make my appearance at around 6:42. there's also a second part with more komikon bites at 6:24 and 12:00, but i'm not in it so w/e. 2.) game! magazine's october issue also acknowledged that i exist... ...in the most economical way possible. 3.) astig TV did a series of interviews featuring us sulyap komiks people, but the video's not embeddable so you'll have to go here to see how awkward and weird and fidgety i am in person. 4.) finally and most recently, poc.net's paolo chikiamco caught the tail-end of our panel interview at komikon last weekend, and posted some video to accompany his excellent komikon asessment . EDIT: the latest issue of wow! pinas magazine did a feature on ko...

mark rosario of planetmarkus.com posted a review of ang maskot on flipgeeks.com : very witty, hysterical and unexpectedly heartwarming all at the same time. It’s really not surprising why this title has received (and continues to receive) so much positive feedback from both comic fans and creators alike. The story itself is well-crafted plus the artwork is just pure eye candy. *earclaps* full article

My goddaughter took my copy of Taal Volcano monster vs Evil Space Paru Paro bec my dad read it to her like it was a bedtime story. And the artwork was extremely engaging & child friendly :) via

metakritiko 's resident pop culture critic and all-around really smart guy adam david has been writing a series of articles on pinoy cartoonists, including manix abrera, josel nicolas and myself: Macoy’s is a world populated by people stuck in ruts of their own making, living less than exciting lives, either deeply unhappy or regretlessly resigned to their stations in life. The keys to their salvation are mundanely everywhere – birds, soiled clothing, a driverless bus – if only they’d pick up on it, if only they have the desire – the will, the ability – to change both themselves and their lives. And that is what’s important in Macoy’s stories, especially in Ang Maskot : the story stems from decisions the characters actively make, whether for good or for bad... they make their own decisions, they glean their own meanings. It is a thoroughly humanist agnostic worldview rendered as shapes on paper. in a word: whoooooaaaaa. full article here .

paolo chikiamco , the man behind sci-fi magazine rocket kapre and editor of the metakritiko section of philippine online chronicles , just posted a review of ang maskot : The story itself is both funny and, surprisingly, heart warming. I’d initially thought that the komik would use the idea of “angry man in a bird costume” to make an ultra-violent black comedy, but that’s not the case here—a good thing, to my mind. Not everyone who has a bad day goes on a murderous rampage, nor becomes blind to the fact that other people may have bigger problems. read the full article here .

I like how the story is told where words don’t overwhelm the drawings and just let the story be told in a pleasing mixture of words and pictures. Macoy has the makings of a great cartoonist, and by that I mean a comic book creator who can tell a story very well through both his writing and drawing. read the whole thing here .

It is great to see a local creator do a “pop comic” like this. A “pop comic”, as Warren Ellis defined it, is a finite story, a done-in-one, a wakasan-story, that even a non-comic book reader can appreciate. We need more stories like this, to get more people reading comics and to get more people reading locally produced comics. read the whole thing here .