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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...

i had the best, most amazing day of my life as a cartoonist yesterday: watching a bunch of wonderfully talented, extremely hardworking people turn a comic i drew into a movie. that is to say, yesterday was day one of shooting for "ang maskot," a short film being produced for competition in this year's cinemanila film festival. chris costello (of the much-missed sputnik comics) and mihk vergara are directing. i've been sworn to secrecy about many things, but i can tell you they've put together an ace production crew, a stellar cast, found some really great locations to match the scenes in the comic, and commissioned an actual jholeebird jingle that will make your ears bleed . i was graciously allowed to hang around the set, get in the way of the production staff, etc. and ogle the people while they were working. naturally my camera  chose that day to conk out, the pictures it took going from this: to this: to this. and that's jholeebi...

espresso comics magazine is a 40-page, black-and-white, weekly magazine that is given away for free to LRT passengers, ala PDI's libre! the first issue will be coming out on monday, june 21 and will be available at the following stations at around 4pm: Edsa – LRT 1 Cubao – LRT 2 Recto – LRT 2 more free copies will be given out the next day (tuesday) at the ermita and robinson's galleria branches of comic odyssey . the july 12 and july 19 issues will serialize ang maskot in two parts. we're currently working on toning down some of the obscenity for public consumption. :p what really excites me about espresso is that it's completely free. there's no reason for people not to read it and pass it on. the first print run will be 50,000 copies. if that number stays constant it means 100,000 people might get to read my comic. that is a mind-numbing number to me. and i'm getting paid, too! more than i could hope to earn in several years of indie conventions and consign...

so after baking the clay parts and painting the whole thing white ( here ), it's time to start painting in the details. at this point it dawns on me that i have absolutely no idea what i'm doing . i don't know how to mix paint or stroke the brush properly to avoid streaking or anything. i was literally reading the labels on the acrylic paint for instructions. not that being ignorant and unfit for the task has ever stopped me before... i temporarily took over the kids' work table so i could work in front of the TV. watching TV while painting is my official excuse. anyways, after a final coat of matte varnish this is what we have:

previously i cut-and-pasted various parts to and from the munny, and my wrists hurt so bad from rubbing and molding sculpey that i decided to take a day off... which lasted several weeks. and so to continue... next step is baking the clay. but the head doesn't fit inside the toaster oven. so we make do. quote of the day: "is it supposed to smoke?" apparently not. after i die i want to get cremated. just to let you know. sanding the sculpey parts after they've hardened. spraying on some primer. and then a coat of white paint. drying them out. and this is what we have so far. as you can see the lumpy clay parts are still lumpy. sorry sputnik folks. tomorrow we paint in the other colors.

aside from appearing in omeng estanislao's upcoming love story , jholeebird will also have a quick guest spot in gio paredes' kalayaan #9: ...which i think officially makes him the least loyal corporate mascot in the history of komiks. love story and kalayaan 9 will be available at next month's summerkon in UP.

finally got started on that munny i promised to make for sputnik comics ages and ages ago. here are some of the materials i'll be using: first we give the munny a good wash: then we soften the vinyl (by heating it with a hairdryer) and cut out the ears with a hobby knife (got it cheap at saizen). reverse the ears, put them back in and stuff the resulting cavity with aluminum foil. hot-glue everything in place. trim off excess glue with knife. put some pre-kneaded sculpey over the hole and attempt to approximate a round head despite not really knowing what you're doing. i've started on the 'palong' here. i probably won't be able to find the appropriate googly eyes for this project, so, more sculpey. beak (looking more like a bill) and tongue. okay my fingers are raw from hours of rubbing sculpey by now, so let's work on the arms for a while. the munny came with a set of angel wings as accessories; i separated them using scissors and attached one to each arm...

jholeebird will be making a special guest appearance in omeng estanislao's latest comic, love story . watch for it at next month's summerkon at UP!

in which victor pits his character angryman against maskot. check out his deviantart here . salamat victor!

it was an honor and a pleasure to be part of sputnik's autograph signing event last night/early morning at cubao x. everything was perfect, the people were great, the food was great (yes they fed us), and i got to check out the shop's varied and interesting clientele (i'd never seen so much liquor in a comics shop before!). gio paredes was there with fellow bayan knighters levy and renie , and randy valiente dropped by to check things out. josel nicolas impressed an autograph-seeker with a cute little bear's head: awwww sweet. one last photo with paolo and chez before leaving, around 130am. thanks a bunch, guys! and thanks to everyone who dropped by! it was sputnik-tacular! AND ALSO be sure to check out today's sunday inquirer , featuring the "sputnik gang": quick, before the newsstands close!