mababang langit

gerry alanguilan and budjette tan recently posted their thoughts on an agence france-presse piece by mynardo macaraig about the undying topic of the dying pinoy komiks industry. such is the tone of the aforementioned article, entitled "Once-great Philippine comic industry fights for survival": Philippine comic books have nurtured talent for international TV and animation blockbusters, but the once-mighty industry is fighting to survive as it comes up against the Internet and other new media. Comic books that dominated the Philippine publishing industry just a couple of decades ago are now largely relegated to photocopied titles sold in a few specialty stores and at conventions. tan's reaction tends toward the hopeful: It's just a bit sad that the report didn't even mention the multiple comic book events that have been happening for the past couple of years. I just hope the article also gets the attention of potential publishers, entrepreneurs maybe, pe...

remember those? "The downfall of the old movie theatres also brought the end of companies making hand painted movie billboards. BM Sagmit which is located in Tondo is to my knowledge the only remaining company still making hand painted movie billboards." Nowadays most billboards are electronically printed on tarpaulin but the old cinemas can hardly afford them. They continue to ask for small hand painted billboards on canvas that are cheaper as after each use a new billboard is painted upon the old one." more here and here .

after reading about the history of penguin paperbacks (or, "How the Paperback Novel Changed Popular Literature" ) i've been suffering from an extreme case of paperback envy. the idea behind penguin was this: to sell quality books for the price of a pack of cigarettes . that's a step in the evolution of literature that we in the philippines seem to have skipped over, for various reasons. but basically, it's a chicken-or-egg scenario out there right now: publishers claim a dearth of readers, while readers can't find any affordable local novels. we have pinoy romance and horror, but what else? where are the celebrity biographies, crappy potboilers, psycho thrillers, sex-soaked shoot-em-ups? they don't even have to be good. penguins were in part a reaction to dime novels--trashy, poorly-printed books that until then had been the norm. we could start with that. no one would mind. just make them accessible. people want to read. i don't care what anybody says...

BEFORE seated from left to right: Jose Rizal, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera, and Juan Luna. The man behind Luna is possibly their waiter. AFTER Pardo de Tavera is on the floor unconscious, the waiter has joined the group, and Rizal is about to hurl an apple on the hapless Trinidad. taken from ambeth ocampo's facebook page , which i heartily recommend. in it he says that these pictures will likely never be published, because the men do not appear "heroic" enough. i would argue quite the opposite. on a side note, these images also further demonstrate the power of the internet. even if you're a national hero and dead a hundred years, your drunken photos will still get posted on facebook.

the good people at UP sorsoguenos will be hosting a talk on thursday about "comics writing as an art form and reflection of contemporary philippine society", and they were looking for a speaker who really knows his stuff. since that person was unavailable, they asked me instead. i'll be joining 'kikomachine' cartoonist manix abrera and (i think) a few other artists on the panel. UP alternative class learning experience program, "comics writing as an art form and reflection of contemporary philippine society" 1:00 - 4:00 pm, 20 aug 09 rm 206, palma hall UP diliman