mababang langit

underappreciated musician seeks greener pastures abroad, boo hoo what a tragedy. our teachers doctors scientists artists are underappreciated and seeking greener pastures abroad. you know who never do? politicians showbiz folk now you can weep.

i find it pretty pathetic that almost all my blog content these days is inspired by stuff i read on facebook.

...in-game, the year is about 4,000 AD. Only three remaining super powers remain, each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands. The polar ice caps have melted 20 times due to nuclear wars and all of the big cities have crumbled. Roughly 90% of the worlds population (at its peak 2000 years ago) has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm "I was forced to do away with democracy roughly a thousand years ago because it was endangering my empire. But of course the people hate me now and every few years since then, there are massive guerrilla uprisings in the heart of my empire that I have to deal with which saps resources from the war effort." The military stalemate is so tight and balanced that no other action is possible except the construction of more tanks. This also me...

"Finally I have gotten around to reading one of the word-of-mouth sensations of the recent Komikons. First of all this must be said: listen to the hype, because it is deserved. Do NOT let the simplistic cover illustrations deceive you (as I was initially deceived).   Zombies roaming the Philippines? No problem. Live around it, as we always do. Thus Pinoys have learned to establish surge warnings, put up barriers, create tough buildings, make anti-zombie pills, etc. However everyone also reaches a level of complacency about the drawn-out problem, and people start making mistakes." read the full review here . thank you for the compliments EK! i will take your closing words to heart: " Find this series, follow it, finish it!"  especially that last part, heh heh

kwentillion is summit publishing's attempt to kick-start a nonexistent local YA readers' market by offering a mix of comics, short fiction, and articles aimed at young readers. that's a heck of a daunting task that editors paolo chikiamco and budjette tan have set themselves to, but then these two know what it's like to build readerships where no one believed one could exist before. tan was instrumental in the 90's indie komiks movement, later parlaying that popularity into the crossover success that is trese, and chikiamco has championed pinoy sci-fi through his rocket kapre imprint. going back to the first issue: it is excellent. the comics alone are worth the cover price, and seeing them for the first time in full-size print is a joy. there are four stories in all: the last datu 's short-haired, dagger-wielding, aswang-fighting heroine (alexandra trese precursor, anyone? ) is out to assassinate the head of the aswang tribe that massacred her people. s...

photo by GeekMatic! comics superstar mark millar , writer of wanted, kick-ass , and the ultimates , was a surprise guest at this year's summer komikon, and he had the crowd guffawing with his opening quip, spoken in filipino: "How are you guys. I am Dingdong Dantes. Only a few know this, but I'm Filipino. I color my hair blonde to look caucasian. This is our secret!" (it should be explained that he was preceded onstage by local actor dingdong dantes, who has quite the female following.) millar went on to talk about how national bookstore won a personal appearance from him by ordering a truckload (or two) of his latest title  supercrooks, on which he collaborated with local comics heroes gerry alanguilan and leinil yu. thanks to carlo pagulayan for posting the video! EDIT: geekmatic!  posted another vid on youtube, it's got better audio. also, here's a link to mark millar's amusing manila journal . he seemed quite surpr...

1.) corona's conviction may not have been strictly a legal victory, but it was certainly a moral one. people in positions of power hardly ever get their comeuppance--i'll take what i can get. 2.) it remains true that powerful people can only be removed if they tee off enough powerful people of lesser influence, or one person of much greater influence.

ok, so let me bite the bullet and get this over with. school run #5 will not be available at tomorrow's komikon. i am sorry. i put off starting for too long, incorrigible crammer that i am. and by the time i started in earnest, dayjob-related stuff magically began to pile up. so i missed my self-appointed deadline for SR #5, i missed 24-hour book day, i chickened out of flipread's 24-hour komixathon, i chickened out of my contribution to the melon pinup anthology, i failed to do my unofficial komikon indies preview... aagh. my apologies to adam and benj and to everyone waiting to see what will happen to maki and the gang. SO, as i type this i am hurrying to finish yet another long-delayed project so i won't be completely empty-handed tomorrow (if i can find a photocopy shop that opens early, that is). it's a collaboration with a pair of young, very young, up-and-coming creators. still 7 or so pages to go!

knot? or knife ? well, ok, the knife guy didn't actually die. but the audience did applaud the realistic "special effects." i wonder if they were cheering for the hanging guy while he kicked and pissed his life away too.

just read a post over at boingboing about what would happen if all the cavendishes (the standard western banana, which are apparently genetically identical) in the world get wiped out, just as their predecessors, the gros michaels, did. the heir apparent? this little guy: isn't that a senorita?

from xkcd : i have never understood the attraction of tumblr. it's like a blog, only you can't comment?

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.

best nat geo headline ever.

i mean the book. spoilers. i was expecting to read about a heroine plunged against her will into a deadly game of combat and survival. but what i got instead is some kind of bizaare prom queen story. plain jane is selected! she is given a nice dress and is the center of everyone's attention! which hunk will she choose? will she become prom queen despite the odds? i did not like how katniss went from kitten-drowning outlaw to rose-kissing, dress-twirling, camera-conscious media darling literally overnight. can we please stop with the titles? "the boy who lived." "the girl who was on fire." howsabout "the reader who rolled his eyes"? i did not like how the other tributes had no personality at all. the strongest, funniest, most interesting character in the book was actually peeta. but with a name like that who cares. i did not like how the actual games' narrative was driven neither by the human interaction/tension amongst the tributes no...

if you grew up watching M.A.S.K. like me, you probably wanted one of these: (it's called condor, by the way) well, soon we may be seeing these things in commercial production: as close as it's going to get, i think.

discrimination against senior citizens? check. discrimination against the physically handicapped? check. way to keep it classy, PDI.

by andrael . her "team stannis" cartoons are full of win.

HOW TO CHASE A PAVEMENT 1.) Lie down on pavement. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE CAUGHT A PAVEMENT