K.I.A. from the U.S.A.

Here's a sneak peek at the first four pages of Victors and Victims, a 22-page story in K.I.A. written by yours truly and drawn by the incomparable Jeremy Arambulo. Jeremy's unique art style is cool with crisp, clean lines and bold, solid blacks. It's really refreshing to see and if you think these pages look good, wait till you see the rest, all in hi-res when K.I.A. comes out, later this year. WOOHOO! Great work, Jeremy!


We risked life and limb to sneak a hidden camera into K's dressing room...


'Agent K joins the WWE' was the original brief for this story. Eventually though, the tournament became a mixed martial arts thing instead of just a wrestling league.


Of course, no fighting tournament would be complete without the oddball pair of commentators.


K does a move she first used in Angel Ace Again # 3...

OT Antics

I'm STILL at the office. Working overtime to finish stuff for a big presentation that will happen in... oh, a few hours. Heh.
We've been at work all day, the labor only broken by a couple of meals of Kariman (a meat-filled bun) and Crispy Wonton. A while ago, me and my officemate Derrick bought some microwave lasagna. Imagine our surprise to learn later that the office microwave had been taken out of the premises.
YIPE! So, being the two smarties that we were, we tried to remedy our situation. Derrick had the bright idea to place his lasagna into the rice cooker. I, being the impatient one, used the oven toaster. In the end, we both got our instant pasta ready and heated through our individual odd ways. Ah, the skills of the male human. Amazing.

On the bright side, by now everything's pretty much done. I'm just blogging around, snapping random shots with the ol' cameraphone to hopefully catch a cool ghost photo of the mischievous spirits said to be playing around the office at these late (or early) hours. No luck yet, sadly enough.

Anyway, after we finish up here we'll limp off home to get some rest. Hopefully the stuff we worked on won't be in vain and we finally get all this overtime business behind us.

On the fun side, my FIRST eBay order arrived at my house during the day. I'm really not a newbie to online purchasing, but this is my first order in a long time (I usually buy stuff in waves), so I'm kinda excited to see the old comics I ordered. I'll probably stay up for a while to enjoy my purchases before flopping into bed.

Oh well. Today is a new day... Wah.

NOW


The latest invader from Korea arrives.

First it was Lee Myoung-Jin's Ragnarok that introduced me to the term 'manhwa' (Korean comics/manga). Now another manhwa about kung-fu, mysticism, fantasy and cute super-powered kung-fu girls has caught my eye.

That book is Now by Sung-Woo Park. Set in the time of the Three Kingdoms era of ancient Korea, this tale centers on the battles fought over a powerful fighting style known as Sashinmu. A mysterious force is after the secrets, and it is up to a small company of heroes to either protect Sanshinmu or master it's powers for the good of the land.
The heroes are a mixed bunch; there's Bi Ryu (pictured above), a 16-year old who has mastered Sashinmu to an extreme degree. Young, spritely lass Rin Yhun may look like a harmless, barefooted pixie, but she's the daughter of a powerful fighter and is superhumanly strong. Then there's Cho Ryung, a fierce and speedy cat girl who's Bi Ryu's apparent pet. Finally, there's Yu Se Ha, a young bookworm and the last surviving member of the fighters charged with protecting Sashinmu.

The art is pretty clean and eye-catching, though not as complex as Ragnarok's later volumes- I am hoping that Mr. Sung Woo improves as much as Myoung Jin-Lee did. The character designs are quite nice and have a unique feel from your usual manga. Like Ragnarok, it's not that far in look from Japanese art, but you can tell the difference if you've seen other manhwa titles.

As for the story, the premise brings to mind those old 'Buddha Magic Palm' kung fu epics where warrior clans and heroes fought tooth and nail over powerful martial arts secrets. I'll be sure to collect this series and see where it goes. Good stuff.

Agent K Anime?


So far the damn COOLEST pic of Agent K yet, by Jennyson Rosero.

Here's some more of Questor artist Jennyson Rosero's art for K.I.A. The uncolored Shikaze artwork is actually lifted from pages of Intercept, the 8-page story he's drawing. The colored Agent K art is something I asked him to draw separately, and DAMN isn't it so COOL? I am thinking COVER ART. WOOHOOO!!!! Darn awesome stuff. Every new page and pinup being submitted amazes me to no end. I really can't wait to see them all come together, in a few months.


Is this the man who can tame the deadlysexy K?

Animax Report: GTO


Would you trust this man as a high school teacher?

It's been almost three weeks since Animax, the 24 hour anime channel, debuted on Philippine cable TV. The channel is available to major distributors Sky and Home cable.
So far, I've found the current lineup sparse, but watchable. Foremost among the series is GTO, or Great Teacher Onizuka, which could be described as 'Dangerous Minds' in Japan. Instead of Michelle Pfeiffer's former marine-turned teacher though, we get Ekichi Onizuka, a 22 year old former biker and gang member (I even think he's actually a former Yakuza) who now is determined to become the greatest high school teacher in Japan. Onizuka is pretty odd; sometimes he can be incredibly dense, but can come through with surprising results. While course and rough, he is also apparently very astute to human nature, being able to see through facades and walls people build around themselves and take an unconventional way of reaching hardened hearts.
This is pretty vital since Onizuka has to face one super-delinquent after another in his road to becoming a Great Teacher. While warriors battle dragons, or sentai superteams battle Biomonsters, Onizuka has to face misguided geniuses, shy popstars-in-the-making, classroom terrorists and other rogues in the school. Not helping any is the fact that most of the other faculty members either dislike him or hate him like the plague- the most dangerous being the Vice Principal, a thoroughly unsympathetic lout who cares more for his own rep or his new car (which is wrecked on a regular basis through circumstances that often involve Onizuka) than his students.
But somehow though, Onizuka pulls through with great strength, a hard head, often physical and freaky tactics, a LOUD voice, martial arts know-how, a gang of biker friends and a genuine willingness to lay down his life for his students. Imperfect he may be (old gangster habits die hard), but he's a pretty engaging character.

This series can have some slow moments, though episodes with really irritating delinquent are interesting enough for you to wonder at how Onizuka will manage to get past the latest challenge. The animation isn't anything to crow about, but the design of the main hero himself is pretty cool, and the goofy facial expressions Onizuka often has throughout the show are hilarious. As for content, there are some pretty risque moments, though the most violent being Onizuka dishing out punishment to some thugs, to some villainous girls getting spanked in their underwear (really).

GTO is one of the more popular titles in Japan, comprising of a manga, the anime, a live-action series and more. Well, I can understand why. It's a pretty fun show.

Well, that's one reason not to miss class- er, Animax, every weeknight. Heh.

K.I.A. Art Intecepted!


Agent K in ACTION!

Here's a sample page from 'Intercept', a K.I.A. story written by Elbert Or, drawn by the extremely talented artist Jennyson Rosero. Jennyson has done tons of pages and art for Questor magazine in the past. We're hoping to work with him even more in the future. DAMN doesn't this page rock? I can't wait to see the whole story. WOOHOO!!!

Grudge: Part Deux



I've watched the theatrical version of Ju-on. Shot with a bigger budget, it's also a lot more pronounced in using music and a tad more shock tactics to elicit scares. Creepy but I actually found the video version slightly creepier. Again, it's all about a very haunted house and how it's disturbed spirits reach out to ensnare and KILL those unfortunate enough to wander too close to it's shadowy interiors. A sequel is also available, but it's really just more of the same, albeit revealing a bit more of the story that seemed cryptic with earlier chapters. Worth checking out if you enjoyed the frights of other Asian horrors such as Ringu.