mababang langit

flipgeeks.com  ran a komiks readers' poll as a mock  komikon awards  for this year, and i was chosen among the grassroots award winners ! joy! i'll take a mock award over genuine obscurity any day :D thanks to flipgeeks and everyone who voted!

by ryan pequin

it's the usual story. you hear a lot about a certain series ("greatest thing since tolkien!" "HBO's making a series about it!"), you download the first audiobook, like it (roy dotrice voiced the definitive tyrion lannister, as far as i'm concerned), you buy the paper version at booksale (see above), despair of finding the next three paperbacks, buy them at full price (well, NBS cut-price sale price), exclaim "i've never bought a brand-new hardback in my life and i don't plan on starting now!", download the fifth book in audio again. --get pissed off that dotrice changed a couple of major characters' voices in the fifth audiobook. get pissed that you'll have to wait a couple of years to find out whether x really died or not, or died and come back to life, or whatever. you try out the HBO series. you love the casting and the script but feel shortchanged by the breakneck pacing. well, it can't be avoided i guess. you...

fanfilm by fight choreography group thousand pounds , based on naruto shipuuden, yadda yadda... for me it's all about the rock!

cover for school run #4, currently in the works. not very subtle, is it?

it's me again. here's a teaser for my submission to the second volume of the quarterly bathroom companion comics compendium, coming out in november: it's my first autobiographical comic, and in the spirit of experimentation that is the essence of QBCCC i tried out a bunch of cartooning techniques i'd never used before. it was a fun little experiment. i hope you guys like it.

...because clickthecity.com 's resident film critic phil dy wrote a glowing review of my all four of my comics, which was posted as a note on sputnik comics' facebook page . and so for the benefit of anyone not on facebook,  i am shamelessly reposting the whole thing here. delicadeza was never one of my strong points. REVIEW: Komiks ni Macoy Philbert Dy on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 11:42pm OPERASYON, ANG MASKOT, TAAL VOLCANO MONSTER, SCHOOL RUN Macoy is incredible. There’s just no getting around it. His ashcan comics are essential reading, each work exhibiting a profound understanding of the form mixed with a strikingly Filipino sensibility. His stuff is deceptively simple, the art laid out in clear black lines, his figures cartoony but economical. The stories aren’t long, but each of them is filled with little details that form a world much larger than one would expect. But it’s really the versatility that astounds the casua...

thank you for redwall, mr. jacques.

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG!!!!!!!!  I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!! OHMYGOOOOOOOOD

ej fiestan's crazy metro is a funny, lushly-illustrated manga webcomic about a bunch of hunky roomies. it also occasionally spins off into crazy mashups, like, say, evangelion vs. taal volcano monster. it's the best cameo "eva"!

komiks veteran, magazine editor and self-described heartthrob kc cordero posted some nice things on his blog about operasyon: Malikot ang mga anggulo ni Macoy at malinis ang mga execution ng bawat frame. Maging ang characterization ay akma sa mga hayop na ginamit niya sa kuwento gaya ng bihag na si Boy Hito (hito) na nagpakita ng tensyon sa posibleng pagsa-salvage sa kanya, at ang astig na si D’ Boss (kalabaw) na maging ang mga dialogue ay barako ang pagkakabitaw. Wala rin akong masabi sa mga teknikal na aspeto gaya ng balloons at sound effects na ginamit niya sa mga frames na nakatulong nang malaki sa storytelling. It’s a good read . read the full review here .

via

the pinoy superheroes universe blog marked FPJ's sixth death anniversary by featuring the character many of us associate with him the most: ang panday. among the tidbits and video clips presented by aris panganiban is a link to the first two chapters of the 70's komiks series. here's page one: in these first two chapters, flavio is really just a small-town do-gooder rather than a fantasy world messiah. all he does is beat up a trio of local thugs and tie them to a tree for the constabulary to find. no magic swords, no manananggal nor sand ninjas, no max alvarado. his weapon or choice is a sledgehammer and his catchphrase is "tinutuwid ang matitigas na bakal!" fourteen chapters later , he's recovering from some mishap at some mansion. still no sword n' sorcery to be seen, but he does engage in some alarmingly freudian tag-team tree-chopping with a man who knows his "secret".

one thing about having fellow comics-makers as friends: brutally honest criticism is hard to come by. people generally let me know when my comics get it right, but what i did wrong is a little harder to find out. it's the same with my readers: the only comments that have reached me so far are the positive ones. critical remarks, ones that may hurt my feelings but i might also learn from, go unsaid. so i'm trying out this little experiment: i've set up a formspring account and i want people to post their negative feedback there anonymously. what did you not like about my comics? what can i do better? please let me know. i can take it. really. here's the link . on a side note, during the better living through xeroxography event last weekend, someone gave me her e-mail address to add to my newsletter mailing list. i didn't have a mailing list, so now i've started one. you can subscribe to it on the sidebar. i won't sell you viagra or ask for help claiming...

i'll be there this saturday tagging along with some komikon folks, polluting the minds of the youth selling comics. they have a d&d event there too. i might check it out... if the kids are willing to let an old fart join.

tabletop gaming, specifically D&D-type rpgs, is one of those things i've always wanted to try but never got the chance. my college roommate was a DM but for some reason or other i never did get to sit in on any of his gaming sessions. so, i just played my final fantasy or online mmorpgs or whatever, learning to be content with these electronic, graphical crutches for the imagination. and then i see this vid on youtube: and i am deeply, deeply inggit . what fun!

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

“SENIOR YEAR” is a refreshing and welcome departure from both the cotton candy romcoms churned out by mainstream cinema regularly as well as from the depressing poverty porn sometimes offered by the indies. “The film is simple and honest. Like the graduation speech of the valedictorian, the film is not pretentious, nor over-reaching but just sincere in its quiet little space and in its intention and execution." “Credit goes to Director Jerrold Tarog who also wrote and edited the film. His direction is superb as he has great mastery of his subject with effortless handling of his actors.” “The script is well structured with praiseworthy attention to characters. Dialogue and characters are very natural.” “The film captures the essence and vagaries of high school life and gives a taste of what may happen 12 – 14 years later. The screenplay captures the spirit and fun of the senior year as well as the uncertainty and fears that are up ahead in college." looks promising. ...