mababang langit

1- overnight success takes a long time the first issue of trese the comic came out in 2005, SIXTEEN YEARS ago. it was indie as indie gets: a photocopied comic put out by two guys at a comics convention. no publisher, no facebook page, nothing. basicallly all these guys started out with were talent, an idea, and photocopying money. then the indie sold well enough to attract a publisher, and with that came something completely unquantifiable yet immeasurably important: mainstream respectability. and after THAT came acknowledgement from the local establishment in the form of awards, news features, merch. it's important to note that throughout all of this, tan and baldisimo kept churning out content with consistency and quality. over a thousand pages, on time, for over a decade. and then they found a producer. who shipped the IP around for years before finally landing the netflix deal. so that, to my understanding, was trese 's road to netflix, each step only made possible by the ...

aside from costello and vergara's  ang maskot short film, there's also a group of DLSU students turning the first issue of trese, murder on balete drive , into a short film . and then there's that mysterious letter gerry alanguilan received from peter jackson's wingnut films...

brought to you by the la salle students behind panelmag , an online magazine about pinoy comics. i especially enjoyed his comparison of a long-term comics writer-artist relationship to marriage.

THIS VIDEO IS JUST SO AWESOME BECAUSE IT BEGINS WITH three words you  never hear the mainstream media say about the pinoy komiks industry: "buhay na buhay." one thing i don't understand about the video, though, is why the voiceover person sounds like a 12-year old girl and calls everyone "kuya". do they mean to imply that this stuff is for kids? another thing is why as of writing the video only has 124 views. spread it! spread it for the love of komiks!

huge news for pinoy komiks. but don't take my word for it, here's what the 2009 national book awards committee had to say : In Trese, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo has [sic] crafted a testament to the limitless capacity of the Filipino imagination, as well as one of the best Filipino comic books of all time. yeesss looks like the lit establishment has finally started taking notice. budjette reacts with a graceful, ovation-worthy acceptance speech , which impressed me so much i'm reposting it in full: To the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle, thank you very much for recognizing our work and giving us this award. To Ruey de Vera, who has shown support to local comics since 1995, writing reviews and interviewing local comic book creators, introducing them to Pinoys through his newspaper articles. Thanks to Bow, Taps, Arnold, and Mark --the skeleton crew who conjured The World of the Unknown, a radio show about ghosts, aswang, and wit...