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

via his blog , gio paredes unearthed this short maskarado cartoon by reno maniquis : i totally dig the bruce timm look. why couldn't we have this instead of super inggo and b.i.d.a .?!

gio paredes recently blogged about finishing talks with a US-based publisher for overseas distibution of his superhero title kalayaan . it's great news for indie komiks in general, but also especially heartening for creators like me, because gio's deal with the publisher allows him to keep all rights to his work, and he gets paid royalties. paredes's success is also a great example for aspiring komiks creators. gio may have his weaknesses as a draftsman (a fact he talks about openly in a recent interview for uno magazine ), but his passion and discipline more than make up for it. not only did he single-handedly write and illustrate all nine issues of his comic, but he also finds the time and energy to market and deliver copies to the eight different stores that carry it. he's a tireless worker. in naruto terms, a "genius of hard work".