Ilang tulog nalang...Philippine Komiks revival

Philippine Komiks Revival

Ive been browsing and reading to other blogsites from comic books artist and writers here in the Philippines, most notably Sir Alanguilan's site (which I'm linking here, check it out), news regarding the revival of the Philippine Komiks which will hopefully be this coming September (albeit the first week) and I'm really looking forward to buying an issue and from what I've gathered, the cover will be done by Lan Medina, his drawings are mindblowingly good and the stories will be written by Caparas and others noted in the field. I'm really excited. Viva la Comics.

For all you death Heads

This video is pretty hilarious, I respect and listen to death metal all my life and Cannibal Corpse is a great band to bleed your ears at and this guy quite actually pulled it off in making a rendition of "Hammer Smashed Face" in Lounge music style with the original lyrics intact. Creepy things is, the song is starting to grow on me, maybe I'm just a jaded Death Metal fan.

Nazi Punks Fuck Off

Hello nothingness…

I commute regularly to and from work. The scene is always the same. Full of the typical pasajeros : the perpetual student or two, the late blue collar slave, the senior citizen, a brute and a babe. But today there was one in particular that shook me up a bit. Some idiot kid who thinks he’s cool enough and was wearing a shirt which he probably unknowingly advertises for and promote on. An imprint of the German Nazi Flag.

Many times I fell witness to such stupidity, shirt prints nowadays are more outrageous, provoking and down right offensive sometimes, mass produced by idiots themselves, who don’t know any better. Like wearing a shirt that says Metallica in the front but on the back it has a picture of The Cure performing, geez, its just downright hilarious. Or a Slayer logo slapped in some pink polo shirt with flower embroideries, now, if Tom Araya was there seeing what I saw, he would kill the guy for wearing it and not feel guilty about it. Or wearing a Che Guevarra shirt without even knowing a little bit of the man’s idealogy or history. But the aforementioned German Nazi Flag imprint (its getting numerous nowadays from shirts to rings to accessories and its starting to bug me) its just not stupid or hilarious, its just pure shit. Better stick with shirts without prints or stuff to be safe.

Well, I haven’t had the guts to ask the guy if he knows even a fraction of what he’s actually wearing, on the ideals that that shirt pronounces for, he’s just too damn stupid and innocent looking (to a point, I even think he looks gay somehow) to shove it to him too early in the day. I’m just the type who minds my own business to some degree, as long as me and the ones closest to me are not physically harmed in some way or form, they just can rot in hell for all I care.

People should at least, when buying a seemingly harmless shirt or accessory, know something of what he or she is wearing, the print might say something offensive and or it could make you stupid. Well, like I said, rot in hell for all I care, glad I don’t know you. Coz if by chance you disrespect me, I’ll shove some makeshift nazi symbol up your worn out ass!!! Nuff said.

Ngohiong times

Awhile ago, right after I bought something at SM, on my way home via the ever reliable jeepney commute I passed by Manalili St. (if I'm not mistaken, my geography is whacked out) and the sudden aroma all too familiar with me during those tried and formative times at USC hits me. Ala hollywood flashback, memories of eating the humble Ngohiong came flooding. Me and my friends/collegemates would gobble them up during our lunch hours, snack time or so when the need arises. Day after school day, it was our saviour. I had a meager allowance then and I had some vices (cigarettes and the proverbial beer or two) that need tending which calls for a tight budgeting till the week ends. The ngohiong was cheap and delicious enough to hold on to our stomachs for the hours to pass. Anyways, I suddenly had the unstoppable urge to taste it again. The moment I came home I urged my girlfriend to have a dinner out and suggested (demanded) that we eat at the Chinese Ngohiong nearest us which coincidentally is the same branch (I think it’s the main branch) that we frequented, collegemates and I from way back, the one near USC campus. We then took off and hiked our way down to it. The place is quite expanded now to accommodate the loyal patrons and there’s still a lot of customers waiting in line to order and eat, the place is still packed and from the looks of things business is in full swing. As what I have observed of late, they have quite a couple of branches sprouting about town. Ngohiong is almost a Cebuano delicacy, one can even mistook it as a Cebuano dish although the origins of which are Chinese. It is an undying pop food in this side of the Philippines. I have lived in Cagayan de Oro and I witnessed a ngohiong eatery there closed up shop for only a couple of months operation, the Cagayanons didn’t like the taste of it I guess and somehow I felt that I was the only customer there. Here, one can always see eateries serving ngohiong next to the popular siomai or fried chicken, but the best ngohiongs produced, for me, is still the ones near USC and always will be. And in closing, I humbly invite you to indulge and grab a bite and taste one, it never ceases to satisfy me.

Beggars Can't be Choosers

Hello nothingness...

Its been awhile since i updated and put something in here. Been busy of late, a lot of changes at work, reassignments and reshuffling of sort, and its taking its toll on me personally (especially my surf time..hmmm). Work sucks, I know, but I gotta make a living somehow, make ends meet, even if i don't necessarily like the job I'm in, makes me wonder if I made a wrong turn somewhere, somehow. I was never the type to uphold the dream of working for something that I really enjoy doing. I never had the patience and agony to wait and strive for it, that's why. As close friends of my mine know, I'm more of an artistically and musically inclined kind of guy but through some twist of fate (and because I badly needed work) I end up with what I'm in now,crunching out numbers and figures and drowning in futile paperwork which I feel doesn't make an impact to the current situation I'm in. As they say, "beggars can't be choosers". Well, enough of my rants and dismays of work, it only adds to the futility I'm in to.

Now back to the updates or so. I recently got the urge to draw and sketch again. Since now I decided to make a sabbatical on my band thingee (I still have an assignment project with a friend of mine to do vocal duties for a deathmetal song he wrote and played all the instruments on, hope he still wants me to do it though). Judging from my old drawings and doodles, my recent tries are next to horrible and I can't seem to get my mojo running, not that I was good at it in the first place. It's somewhat of a hobby of mine, right there with me being in a death metal band playing the bass or reading a good book. Still, I'm optimistic about doing it again, maybe I can post something in the future here in this blog, a comic book or comic strip or two. All I need now is time and a story to start the drawing ball rolling so to speak. And then again, my urge to procrastinate things is creeping back in and I think I need a good scheme to fend it off with.

From the past comes the storm (part III)

Hello nothingness...

This drawing inspired me from the Ghostrider series, she is my take on Lilith, Hells Mistress, one bad mother.

I'm feeling recharged and ready to draw again for fun now that I've decided halfheartedly to put on hold the band and do this more often (not much of a hassle than a band because drawing and sketching is a lonely thing, you only get to blame yourself for your inability and the best thing is that the possibilities are endless). And my futility ever goes on.

From the past comes the storm (part II)

Hello nothingness...

Well, heres yet another drawing I did way back, I'm planning on scanning more of them in the future post to come, after I learn the basics of Photoshop to make these images look more publishable unlike this which is basically scan and load. :)

I called this one Loadrunner, not to say that he has the powers to load you up with free GSM credits with his mind, hmmm, that would be one cool power don't you think..hehehe...

I've recently been planning to go back to drawing again and hopefully make some kinda storyline going, hopefully again (I do have a day job still which takes up most of my time). The futility goes on and on....

From the past comes the storm (part I)

Hello nothingness...

It was 1999, I had lots of spare time. A bum for almost a year after graduation. I occasionally draw for fun and cook up ideas in my mind most of of the time with a friend of mine back then amidst the usual beer in hand, I was constantly egging myself to do something productive and this was one of the results, I have lots of sketches on file but this and some few others were the only ones I have scanned. So, what the heck, I better post it in here, maybe some good will come out of it.

This one I called Captain Courageous, the reason of which eludes me now. He looks courageous enough don't you think.

The Music Died...yet again

Hello nothingness...

Its August 5, and from my recent post, I publicized that me and my band AGNAS were to take part on COMATOSE's 2nd EP launching gig in ZZubu Rockbar and for the fourth time (if my memory serves) we weren't able to play last night and like the last, the reason took the same shape and form, our drummer wasn't available for us to at least rehearse maybe a couple of times before the event for us not to look like idiots on stage and add more chaos to our chaotic brand of music, which for the uninitiated ear would sound like a cross between a battlefield and a dog of hell barking for all eternity at the audience, that is Death Metal people!, if its too loud, your too old kind of thing. I can't blame him, being part of a Death Metal outfit has limited or no monetary gains whatsoever (No hard feelings dude) and coz he's got a family of 3 going, some job at a local call center that mostly takes up his productive time, which leaves me and the rest of the crew at a steering halt most often and one can't help but see them signs. As a futile gesture of apology to the organizers and crew of C.E.M.P. and to the other bands who participated especially to Comatose (kudos to you dudes, your the finest Cebu has to offer), I humbly implore on your good graces for a heartfelt apology. I never had the chance yet to update on the outcome of the event, Jerry (our guitarist) informed me via text half-heartedly that it was jam packed and full to the brim with the usually extreme metal music hordes. Cebu is still thriving in the metal music scene and i'm proud to be somehow part of it for the last 15 years or so and it is with heavy (black) heart that i've to take yet another sabbatical to the scene (the first was 5 years ago when i was still assigned in Cagayan de Oro and got back here in Cebu to resurrected the band) and decide to focus on more pressing personal and official matters. Bear in mind, i'm not closing this chapter yet and my futility goes on and on.

Part 2 : A Collection of Image Comics 1st

Hello nothingness, its me again.

Relative to my previous post, heres a collection of my Image Comics first issues, i have more Image titles collected than Marvel's way back when I was still collecting comicbooks as a hobby because Image was still starting out, like a defiance to Marvel and DC at that time, making a dent on the industry somehow, i wonder how theyre faring right now....

Above is the first issue of one of my very favorite anti-hero (am I right in saying this?) the Maxx, Wolverine being the first and Jack Hawksmoore in third. If you want weird and quirky story lines, Sam Kieth's the man...

Image Comics answer to the XMen... Jim Lee's WildCATs, top notch superhero art team, even now i can't shake off Jim Lee's drawing style, my drawings tend to copy his, while struggling to have a style of my own, to the point that i stopped drawing, i wanted it to be more on Sam Kieth but still to no avail...sigh...

This comicbook inspired me and a friend of mine to cook up our own super heroes and hopefully get noticed, one of those futile moments in our lives, i've read Whilce Portacio's work on XMen and never realized until this one came out that he's a Filipino (i don't buy Wizard, thus, ill-informed), which is why in one of the Uncanny Xmen issues he did i noticed a panel wherein Colossus was wearing a leather jacket bearing a logo at the back resembling vaguely of our flag.

This is one of Jim Lee's coolest creations (in my opinion), he changed his drawing style here to fit the story, somewhat dark and gloomy and serious as hell, lots of shadows and lighting techniques and its one of them reasons why i really admire Jim Lee, he can change abruptly to a different technique and its even better. reminds me of Frank Miller's Sin City and Daredevil work. On the flip side to this first Deathblow issue is Nick Manabat's Cybernary which is cooler still, because he was a Filipino (he died of cancer at 23 at the height of his career) like Whilce. He drew one of the coolest stuffs, very unique and refreshing. Pity he died too soon, he would have been one of the greats by now (internationally), here he is a legend in pinoy comicdom.

Well, thats about it for Image Comics, I have a couple of their titles but not there first issues though, like my favorite Stormwatch. Anyone interested to know more about these stuffs, you can always email me and im more than willing to accomodate. Nuff said.