mababang langit

You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book. You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character. The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN. And that's it. warren ellis posted the above challenge on his whitechapel forum several days ago, and here a few of the results: i am totally digging stonehenge superman. complete thread here . via

the Great Komiks Comeback sure has its work cut out for it. case in point: i asked the saleslady at national bookstore for the new lapu-lapu graphic novel republished by atlas, and she led me to an obscure corner of the textbook section, where coching's masterwork sat beside the elementary school newsprint editions of ibong adarna, florante at laura, etc. makes sense, yeah? graphic classics in filipino. but placing lapu-lapu in that section may well prove a death sentence, because no one browses those shelves . school curriculi keep balagtas in print, but coching is not similarly blessed by academia. so please, please someone ask national bookstore to display this book where it belongs, in the comics section, beside pugad baboy, kikomachine, underpass and other graphic novels! sigh. pictures: as you can see, atlas' lapu-lapu (6.2"x8.75") is significantly smaller than vibal's el indio (7.75"x11"). the smaller size means it's cheaper (a gr...

so atlas has released a couple of preview images for the lapu-lapu compilation that they don't seem to want people to know about (click to enlarge images): hooray, etc. etc. i hate to play the part of doomsayer but atlas' republishing foray fills me with dread. you can't just plop stuff onto bookshelves and pray for a miracle, you gotta market that shit. let's say times are hard and atlas doesn't have a budget. still, social media sites are free. blogs are free. sending out press releases is free. frickin' deviantart is free. anything, atlas! anything! and what happens if lapu-lapu doesn't sell? we can say goodbye to further reprints. and who loses out then? via

step one: run your comics monopoly to the ground. step two: don't try to revive the company with compelling new ideas. instead, make lame-ass copies of whatever other people are doing at the moment. superheroes are hot? make ATX . w.i.t.c.h. selling like hotcakes? come out with c.h.a.r.m . vibal publishes an el indio compliation? republish lapu-lapu . step three: don't let anybody know about your project. no press releases, book launches, blog posts, nothing. yes, your book must escape even google's all-seeing eye. step four: repeat step three for subsequent compilation releases.

ammathorn makes enigmatic, surreal comics in this scratchy, kinetic style that i can't keep my eyes off of. check out his deviantart here . barrio manifesto #2 is the only title of his i could find in comics stores. at P100 for 21 pages it is the priciest b&w indie out there i think, but man, this stuff looks awesome (click to embiggen): this metaphysical dream-tale unfolds as idiosyncratically as ammathorn's drawing style. it takes some getting used to, but part of the fun is putting the seemingly random bits together into a narrative whole. ammathorn's highly anticipated (by me) next book will feature agent knuckle, his supercool bullet-headed secret agent from heaven, going up against ol' jolly saint nick. he better watch out!

so i've started work on the first issue of my next comic, entitled school run . it's about... well, the three poster drafts below should give you a hint. which design do you think is best? school run will probably span three or four issues. the first issue should be done around december or early 2010.

cartoonist jamie tanner is asking people to plege money to fund his next graphic novel . pledge $50 and you're promised a page of original art. pledge $500 and you get a character named after you, an original page featuring that character, and a special shout-out in the book (at least one donor has done this). so far tanner has raised nearly $7,000. interesting concept there. i've heard of a film critic doing something similar once to help raise money to go to cannes , but it never occurred to me that so many would follow in his footsteps (the kickstarter website already has over 240 projects marked 'successful'). it has to be said, though, that social fundraising websites like these are not risk-free . but still... hm... via

several months ago i joined project rooftop's wolverine costume redesign contest, and sent in this clean-shaven, understated, "comfy" rendition of the berserker x-man: well, the judges liked it enough to give it an honorable mention on the project rooftop blog! THANK YOU PROJECT ROOFTOP! in their own (edited) words: Dean: 7. Ditch the glasses and add some more stubble, and I’m sold. Chris: 6. A very professorial Logan here — one still seemingly able for battle, but a more studied and measured approach to Wolverine. Vito: 5. Those glasses are very left field and out of character. Joel: 5. What’s strapped to his thigh? A gun? What does he keep in those little Liefeld-sized pouches that are strapped over his jacket? Could we lose those? Ron: 4–looks like it’d be John Lennon’s interpretation of a Halloween Wolvie costume. mmm, liefeld pouches... they're onto me. :P check out the rest of the cum laudes here , the winners are here , and my own personal picks are below (clic...

ito yung indie tiangge table nung komikon. haba, no? ang saya nitong pinakahuling komikon. bagamat sariwa pa ang alaala ni ondoy, marami paring dumalo at nagpamalas ng kanilang pagmamahal sa komiks. hitik din sa mga bigating comics release: el indio , 100 years of philippine komiks and cartoons , trese vol.3 , where bold stars go to die , elmer collected edition , 12 , underpass ... whew! parang kabute ang mga "instant classic" nitong komikon. i've never seen anything like it. doon naman sa aming sulok ng indie tiangge, marami akong nakilala at nakausap na mambabasa ng ang maskot at operasyon , at yung iba'y nagpakuha pa ng litrato. it was truly awesome meeting all you guys en gels. kwentuhan ulit tayo sa susunod. talagang namigay ako ng mga tshirt, ha? eto'ng katibayan. sensya na sa mga naubusan. shout outs also to my indie table neighbors, sina bien "as seen on front act with mike & stanley" del rosario at mga kick "kayo nanaman?" ...

"ang maskot" and "operasyon" are now available at bookay-ukay, located at 55 maginhawa st., UP village, diliman, QC. thanks dan! bookay-ukay is here got the photo above from here

my second self-published comic, ' operasyon ', is now available at comic odyssey robinson's galleria. 'operasyon' by macoy black and white 24 pages P30 pesos

"a change of work is as good as rest" --dutch proverb "and a good time was had by all." --ronald reagan thanks to everyone who bought ang maskot and operasyon , and especially those who stopped by to chat. did i mention that there were cosplayers there? samurai spawn experienced some difficulty grasping the narrative flow of operasyon 's dialogue-sparse panels. buti pa si benjo, mababaw ang kaligayahan. now now logan, let bobby read the book too.

i've got a new 23-page indie making its debut at this saturday's metrocon. it's a funny animals story with a dark, slightly political twist. cover: sample pages: promo: again that's the metro comic con at megamall trade hall, saturday and sunday only. i'll be at the indie go! valley table.

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 .

bakit ba ang hirap i-spell ng "odyssey"? buti nalang 'di mahirap hanapin ang "ang maskot", na nasa comic o-d-y-s-s-e-y sa robinson's galleria. ang hirap magpa-consign ng komiks sa comics shop! napapabili ako ng di oras. o wel, at least malapit ko nang makumpleto ang "blame!" ni tsutomu nihei. he he.

"ang maskot" @ sputnik comics, cubao expo you can't miss the store, it's melting. note the store hours: 4-10pm , closed on sundays