ATTACK OF THE POP-UPS

DAAAAMMMNNN!!!!

Today I started surfing to find my business being totally interrupted and disrupted by a couple of totally EVIL pop-ups. These things appear, resist being closed and then replicate themselves again and again!! GOD DAMN THESE THINGS!!! One pop-up is from FRICKING BONZI BUDDY, a stupid-looking ape/gorilla thing that is trying to force me to make it my browser buddy. The other crapper is a window wanting me to apply for work in CANADA. It is an advertising pop-up by the CANADIAN NATURALIZATION and IMMIGRATION service and it is FUCKING UP my surfing! I DON'T WANNA GO TO SARS CANADA!!!

MY GOD this isINFURIATING!!! My computer keeps crashing and all kinds of HELL is happening because of these PRICKS!!!!

Can someone tell me what is going ON?!

Evil sequel

The sequel to the game-based survival action movie Resident Evil is still lurching along like a brain-hungry zombie. Milla Jovovich returns (hopefully still naked except for a white lab coat) as Alice, the heroine from the first film. Joining her will be some characters from the actual RE game, in particular original RE femme fatale Jill Valentine. What is surprising is that the 'Master of Unlocking' will be a central character in the story. Just who will play as Miss Valentine is still under wraps; rumor has it that Famke Jansen (Jean Grey from X2) and Allyson Hannigan (Buffy's Willow) are in the running. According to news reports, two more RE game characters will also appear, though details are yet scarce- the names Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker (RE's original game hero and villain, respectively) are being thrown around. Looks like they're really linking both the film and the game this time around.
Anyway with the first movie being a relatively decent adaptation of the game and a pretty good action flick (having a near-naked Milla doesn't hurt either) I am actually excited at the prospect of this follow up. We expect Resident Evil: Apocalypse (formerly Resident Evil: Nemesis) to infect theaters by the end of the year or next year.

Hainaku Cover Art


Alpha and KC: Cover Girls!

Here's the artwork I made that will be seeing print as the cover for the third issue of Hainaku!, a local manga anthology published by Psicom Publishing.
KC Strange, Occult Investigator is written by Nikki Alfar, art by yours truly. In this second outing, spunky KC takes on a baffling case involving lycanthropes, posh society clubs and waking up in compromising situations.
Game Girl stars a beautiful female android/computer program who can transform into any of a hundred and one videogame heroines. She's named Alpha and she's a hundred femme fatales in one. The fun starts when you turn her ON. Game Girl was created and written by yours truly, with art by Honoel Ibardolaza.

Look for these babes on magazine stands, bookstores and your favorite comic shops in the next few weeks.

Winning Streak

During the closing hours of the day, I suddenly had a cool winning streak of nice things. First, an uncomfortable situation at the office has apparently been resolved. Second, an artwork I made has been approved for use in an upcoming comic anthology! And finally, when I checked my bank account, a certain amount that was debitted by mistake was apparently re-credited to me! WOW!
I thought that the good stuff might suddenly end so I decided to call it a day. Wouldn't you know it? My winning streak DID end... the new comics stocks at Comic Quest scheduled for today were delayed till tomorrow. Oh well, you can't win them all... Anyway, I took home several issues of Ultimate Avengers, since the art and action really impressed me. Why didn't I see this before? Hey, my luck's picking up again...

IT'S A RAID!

Yesterday I went over to one of the demilitarized zones where you can get pirated dvds and stuff. I was looking over titles in one stand, seeing with delight several Asian films like the Korean Nowhere to Run, the Japanese Samurai III (with Toshiro Mifune) and the recent Hong Kong release Double Vision. I selected several copies to purchase; The Animatrix, Double Vision and Nowhere to Run. I was in the process of looking at The Returner (an Asian Matrix-ish sci-fi film) when suddenly the sellers began packing up their stuff in a rush. Apparently a raid was imminent, so they were hightailing it out of there. Anyway, instead of taking the discs I had, the seller told me to hang onto them. Not wanting to get caught in some bust, I walked away for a bit, trying not to look too conspicuous with three dvds under my arm without a bag.
When I eventually got back after buying some blank CDRs (both to get a plastic bag and because I really needed CDRs) the sellers were nowhere around. Oh well. Time to go.
For the record, I am fully prepared to pay the sellers when I get back there and they recognize me... I remember Dean telling a similar event that happened to him or a friend of his in Hong Kong. Wow. That stuff really happens. Heh.

X-Play Xposed!

Just when I had resigned myself to going back to the NOW Channel for my TV gaming fixes, Tech TV’s X-Play, the ‘super-charged’ update of the channel's now defunct Extended Play, finally debuted on my cable service. Fortunately, the show retains pretty much all the stuff I loved from before. It’s still all about reviews, news and previews of the hottest games. Resident gaming geek and funny man Adam Sessler is still on board as the host and the ratings still come on a scale of 1 to 5.
The new stuff comes in the form of better production values, though that probably is more for the show’s cast instead of to the viewers. Apparently the show has finally proven it’s worth to deserve a proper set (instead of just shooting segments on location at various arcades) complete with a camera crew. Instead of just appearing in bookend segments, Sessler and his new co-host (the pretty Morgan Webb from another Tech TV show, The Screensavers) show up in between segments with some spiels and ripostes- it’s the first show so the gags fall flat often, but nothing horrible. Heh. There was also a funny segment showing Sessler joining a SWAT Training/war game session with the makers of the Rainbow Six games.
Anyway, it seems that there are fewer game reviews but they are longer and more in-depth; and they don’t seem to hold back much with their comments. Tao Feng for the Xbox got an average score and quite a lot of scathing comments and pretty funny comparisons to Chinese fast food and liquor (all true… I believe the review having the game myself).

With X-Play still ongoing and shows coming everyday, I am back to being happy as a clam with gaming news on TV. It’s about time too… those Extended Play re-runs were really getting on my nerves.

Game Girl by HAI!


Alpha can transform into any female videogame heroine.


Jace Pixel is the lucky gamer geek who becomes her 'controller'.


Crash and D-Lete are Game Girl's baddies. Who are they working for?

The debut of Game Girl will be appearing as part of the next issue of HAINAKU, a local manga anthology from Psicom Publishing. Art by Honoel Ibardolaza, story by yours truly. Look for it in comic shops and bookstores soon!

So that's how it feels...

... to see something you wrote brought to life by a talented artist. I finally experienced this when I saw the finished pages of Game Girl by Homanga artist Honoel Ibardolaza. Honoel's detailed manga art style is funny, cute and entertaining, with wonderful panelling and expressions. I'll be posting samples of Honoel's wonderful rendition of Game Girl as soon as I can upload some images to my server (probably late tonight).
Game Girl is about the adventures of Alpha, a beautiful electronic life form/android who has gained the power of a hundred and one female videogame characters. The fun starts when you turn her ON. Heh.
Like KC Strange: Strange Bedfellows, the first-ever appearance of Alpha AKA Game Girl will be appearing as a 12-page story in the upcoming issue of HAINAKU, from Psicom Publishing. Stay tuned for that. WOOHOO!

This is great. Maybe I should just concentrate on writing and leave the art chores to other people... heh-heh... Nah.

KC Strange: CASE CLOSED


KC Strange: Strange Bedfellows is ready for publication.

It took me the whole day, and despite a thoroughly uncooperative mouse, a persistent funky smell from the ceiling, having to go without airconditioning, a hundred and one tempting DVDs (including a pirate copy of The Animatrix my brother let me borrow), comics and games and an extremely inviting bed, I was able to FINISH finally the KC Strange story. I am pretty happy since I was able to give the thing the whole shading and rendering treatment I gave ISAW At Iba Pa's Sampaguita Girl a year or two ago, which was the last FAST BREAK comic project I embarked on. I guess I still have it. Heh.
Still have a 5-page thing to do for this same publication though, but the main objective has been done. WOOHOO! This calls for a celebration. I'll have lunch somewhere neat later.

KC Strange: Strange Bedfellows is a 12-page story written by Nikki Alfar, art by yours truly. In it, titular heroine and occult investigator KC takes on a case involving shapeshifters, shifty social clubs and waking up in extremely compromising situations. This story is slated to come out in HAINAKU, a manga comics anthology by Psicom Publishing (Textmen). Look for it in the weeks or so to come!