Off to Congress

In a couple of hours I and my mates will hurry over to the bus station and catch our ride to the cold clime of Baguio for this year's Ad Congress. I'll be there the whole day tomorrow but be back under the Manila sun Saturday morning.
The few waking hours I will have there will probably be spent exploring the newly-opened SM Baguio, buying peanut brittle, ube jam and kulangot ng Igorot for the friends and folks. Don't suppose there's a comic and anime shop there, but I'll keep my eyes out. Hey, maybe I can watch Master and Commander there.... Heh.
Whatever. Signing off then. I should be able to blog if I find a decent internet cafe; heck, I was able to post from freakin' Boracay, so Baguio shouldn't be a problem.

Later!

Extended Epic

Today marks the release of the The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Version DVD Set. This four-disc edition looks to surpass even the DVD Perfection of the Fellowship Extended DVD set, having 43 minutes of additional footage. These scenes contain HUGE additions to the onscreen precedings, giving more character depth and moments which enrich an already robust film. These new scenes include a flashback featuring Gondorian brothers Faramir and Boromir, more Ents and Huorns, and pretty much more of everyone. Add to that over 6 hours of extras and documentaries and 4 feature-length commentaries from the cast, director/writers, production team and more, you've got one HUMONGOUS DVD set and probably the best DVD release this year.

And I'm getting MY COPY next week. Heh-heh... My Preciousss....

Baguio Bound

Tomorrow night I go to the country's summer capital to take what little part I have to play in this year's Ad Congress. The place is bound to be crawling with agency-types, and I will probably see a familiar face or two. I won't actually be there long; I'll be leaving late night Thursday, probably arrive there early morning Friday, sleep till noon, then do the usual rounds of the place till evening. I don't plan on partying till the dawn hours since my bus ride home is at five in the morning on Saturday the next day. GAH! Well, at least I get to go out with the gang this week.
Really, with that kind of a schedule I would have preferred to just stay home or go foraging in Greenhills. Well, it's for the agency, so I guess I have to go... it's been years anyway since I last set foot in Baguio. Should be neat.

Nightmare

Had a pretty freaky and disturbing dream this morning. Dreamt I was in Makati, walking along the sidewalk when a couple of little kids dressed in khaki uniforms and armed with pistols started shooting at me. Instinctively I shielded myself with whatever it was I was lugging (probably a bag), and I ran. There was chaos all around me as I realized an army of these killer kids was all over the place. The weird thing was, there were even kamikaze kids jumping off the buildings down towards the street (WHY eludes me), resulting in some Kill Bill-esque bloody smears. In the middle of it all was a man with shoulder-length white hair in a khaki uniform, wearing shades and a white cowboy hat, and apparently going by the name of 'Liedecker' (which I think may or may not be the name of a character in the TV series Dark Angel).

Hey, I'm just telling it like I saw it. Sounds like an ultraviolent comic dream. WEIRD...

Alyas

Watched an episode of Alias last night on AXN. The Philippines gets a bit of a cameo at the end. I wonder if they really shot that segment here? Probably not, but it's pretty neat. Heh.

Scary Movie

Last night I was watching TV and saw the trailer for the upcoming movie Gothika, starring Halle "Catwoman" Berry, Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz. This ghost story/psychological suspense/thriller is about a psychologist (Berry) who finds herself one night on the wrong side of an asylum's cell door. How she ends up there involves a rainy night's drive, a gruesome murder and a woman who keeps appearing despite supposedly being dead. With some creepy images from the trailer, I was a bit intrigued... shades of The Ring and other recent Asian horror flicks seem to be influencing this one. I'll be sure to take a look at this when it comes out late November.

Coming This Christmas...

Comic-lovers are going to have a field day this December. There's a slew of releases coming out, lovingly fashioned by local writers, artists and creators for their enjoyment. I am glad and not a bit proud to say that I had the good fortune of being able to take part in three upcoming releases.


Angel Ace Next continues the adventures of our favorite high-flying manga-style heroine.

My own personal baby. Angel Ace NEXT is an 80-page one-shot special, continuing the events from the previous Angel Ace Again! series. There's action, adventure, heartwarming comedy, heartbreaking tragedy, drama and more! This issue features guest artists Honoel Ibardolaza, Jon Mallari and Jeremy Arambulo, interpreting the Angel Ace crew their own unique styles.
Also featured are quite a few pages of cool fan art, with a few cool surprises. Aside from continuing the saga, NEXT also has four full-page artworks that recap events from Angel Ace Again, making this a good jump-on issue for new readers who weren't able to catch the previous issues.


Shoujo-style manga is the overall theme in Cherry Blossom High.

The brainchild of Jason Banico, Cherry Blossom High is an anthology of stories set within or about students from the magical and mysterious titular place of education. Cherry Blossom is the manga equivalent of a Hell Mouth, it seems, so something weird and magical is often happening just in the next classroom; be it someone getting whisked off to a magical fantasy world, or the school geek beating up on some demonic invaders. Or maybe it's just the magic of romance?
Despite being shoujo-style (girls' comics), CBH should appeal to any reader who likes a nice story and lovely illustrations.
The four stories are presented by Jason Banico, Elbert Or, Vin Simbulan, Honoel Ibardolaza, Joel Chua, myself and more. Watch for this one!


Ten decades of Philippine life are represented in the graphic collection known as Siglo.

And finally, there's Siglo, aka Project 100. This is the result of a collaboration between a group of individuals motivated by the singular desire to express themselves in an exceptionally rewarding way. The result, this more than 100-page masterpiece. There are simple stories, deep stories, stories with lots of words, stories with few words. There are no big epics, just tiny slice of life tales from people like an aspiring Emperor's wife, little children, a wartime traitor, a bride-to-be, a game geek and more. Not your usual comic fare, but that's what gives Siglo its unique charm.
Siglo features the talents of Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Vin Simbulan, Jason Banico, Honoel Ibardolaza, Elbert Or, Andrew Drilon, Arnold Arre, Gerry Alanguilan, Carlo Vergara and myself.

WHEW! Is that a lot or what? Better start saving, because you're not going to want to miss these releases. Really! Heh.

No Rest for the Wicked

A couple of days ago I had barely finished working on Angel Ace Next (which should be well on its merry way to seeing light, with a million thanks to Carl) when I had to run off early in the morning to an office seminar all the way up in the foggy mountains of Antipolo.
Well, it was almost-two days, with weird exercised, games that involved teamwork and lifting and an irritatingly prickly carpeted room in the otherwise lovely Eugenio Lopez Center. Spent the time with the office staff, sat around listening to lectures and tests and setting up what our future workplace will be. Important stuff, I guess.

Anyway, got back home late in the afternoon; didn't bother to go out anymore since I was feeling pooped. Ended up just playing lots of Gladius on the ol' xbox.

Now that Angel Ace is out of the way, gotta start work on a couple of new titles; the AA spinoff book K.I.A. and the original new series Kunoichi Boy. Heh-heh... I love being busy. In a morbid sort of way. Even so, I think I'll keep resting all into tomorrow.

It is finished.

Angel Ace Next is ready to send out to the printers.

It took all night, along with some last-minute submissions, a whole lot of lettering and organizing art, pages and layouts. When I finally burned the images onto a convenient CDR, sunlight was streaming through my window. Had to spare a couple of hours for token sleep before heading out to the office.

There are just a couple of minor hiccups, which can conceivably be fixed within the day. Tonight I give it out and then it's out of my hands.

My comments; some of the art is gorgeous, some a bit rushed, some manga-ish, some indie, all of it entertaining and fresh. 80 pages chock-full of art, story, a couple of ads and articles and a surprise and a jolt or two.

December's the release date. Whether it be in the upcoming C3Con or simply at Comic Quest, we're going to get the issue out to the readers.

At last.

Cover Girl



Here's the front cover to Angel Ace Next! We're going to print this weekend, and releasing hopefully in time for the C3Con this December. So if there are any violent objections to the cover art, well... tough. Heh. Wait for it!

Last Man Standing

a few left to do, including lettering the whole darn book, but the ending is finally in sight. All that is really left to put it all together is to have all the guest artist pages in, do the front cover and the inside cover pages.

This weekend, we go to the printer. And hopefully, we WILL finally see the latest Angel Ace issue this December at the C3Con.

Just to say, I was surprised at the last minute developments in the pages, including a pretty left-field development that should widen a few eyes... Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing the final book in several weeks' time.

Just a couple more nights to go, and Angel Ace Next will be DONE.

Then it's on to... Kunoichi Boy!!!

The Matrix Redemption (Spoilers Ahead)

Yesterday, the gang (sans Dean and Nikki) trooped over to The Podium to watch the third and final part of the Matrix Trilogy, Matrix Revolutions. After a quickie snack/dinner at Hotshots, we rushed to the cinema in order to catch the trailers. By the seat of our pants we were able to see The Return of the King trailer. After getting a hundred-peso popcorn package with a cool. black Matrix tumbler, we settled down to watch the swan song for Neo, Trinity and the whole Matrix gang.

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, I liked Revolutions. Hell, I'm actually confident enough to say yeah, I really like it.

The finale of The Matrix trilogy sees mankind with their backs to the wall. In Reloaded, Neo learns that their most valuable ally, The Oracle, is not human but a machine herself. More importanly though, he learns that his destiny as The One does not involve stopping the countless killing machines poised above the human city of Zion, much less stopping the whole genocidal war between human and machine. To further complicate things, Neo goes into a coma after displaying powers even in the real world. A seeming accident sabotages the Zion fleet, pretty much annihilating the human's most potent forces before the battle even begins. All this, and 250,000 sentinels are ready to dissect the remaining free humans on the planet.
Perhaps it is the blessing of being the finale, with all the stakes and chips on the board, the characters at their most desperate, the action at the zenith, that makes Revolutions work a lot better than Reloaded. It also helps that we've seen the characters featured onscreen before, and now at the climax you care for them more as a result. In fact, this movie seems to show off more of the supporting characters than the Big Three of Neo, Trinity and Morpheus; Niobe (Morphy's former squeeze/star of the Matrix videogame, played by Jada Pinkett-Smith), The Kid, The crew of The Hammer and The Logos, the Oracle and Seraph and the people of Zion. This broader scop of the events makes the film a lot more epic in scope.
Despite having a slow start in the first half hour or so, Revolutions' psychobabble this time around is more substancial; such as the sentience of machines and the prospect that not all the programs are evil; they are themselves a race that is on the planet to stay. Again, the burdens of choice and sacrifice weigh heavily on Neo, and this time he may have to pay the ultimate price to save humanity.
In terms of action, Revolution revisits the Matrix with Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph revisiting the Merovingian. This is the final real foray into the other world; after this, most of the action is in the real world. The Battle for Zion's Docks is the setpiece of this movie, featuring images of carnage and heavy metal action that simply demands to be seen on a big, frickin' screen. This sequence, over twenty minutes long, is simply breathtaking and is a cool warm up for the large-scale, against-all-odds battle that I hope to see early next year in The Return of the King.

As for the inevitably-controversial ending, Revolutions takes a different road from the usual 'Star Wars' resolution. There are no vulnerable exhaust vents to chuck an all-powerful superweapon or photon torpedo; no easy solution without cost. I have to say that the final farewell between Neo, Morpheus and Trinity- heroes we have followed and grown to care for despite highs and lows- is a moment of quiet poignance that fits strangely well in this testosterone-powered, sci-fi action romp. The ending isn't the easiest to see, but given the wholeness and mood of the entire franchise, it's perfect.

Definitely getting the DVD for this one. Farewell, Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Smith, Zion. It's been swell.

Matrix Revolutions stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett-Smith. Catch it in theaters now.

Elektric Shortage

What IS it with Elektra these days?

I'm referring of course to the Marvel comic title starring probably the most recognizable ninja assassin to wear a leotard and cloth bandages ever in comics. The red-garbed vixen who's about as unpredictable as a cat, and just as slinky. The same anti-heroine whose adventures will eventually see cinematic release with Alias' Jennifer Garner (who is reprising the role from the movie version of Daredevil) next year or so.

A year or so ago, the red ninja was given her own regular series, and I have to say I collected it for a while, singularly to collect the awesome painted covers by artist Greg Horn. The stories, for me, are pretty unspectacular, and the art has never been particularly interesting (perhaps the awesome covers just make looking at the relatively unexceptional inside art boring). Eventually, I got tired of even collecting since the covers seem to have sunken to a 'routine', and it's no longer driving me to get them.

I still peek inside every new issue to see if any of the action intrigues me. Unfortunately, I am just puzzled.

Why, WHY, does a comic with a kick-ass, uber-sexy super ninja babe insist on showing their main draw AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE?

For the past couple of issues (or maybe more), Elektra is hardly ever seen. You see the cannon fodder, the victims, the boring cast of nobodies... but NO ELEKTRA! She usually appears at the very end page, as a shadow.
Maybe it's just me, but an Elektra comic should show her as much as possible, doing her ninja things because DAMN it's all about her doing her kung-fu shit, climbing sheer rock walls with her super strong digits, taking out guards with one of her seven thousand ways to kill, formulating elaborate plans to establish a cover, penetrate a heavily-guarded stronghold and generally look fetching in her skimpy and impractical ninja bathing suit.

BUT NOOOOO.... We get to see the comic equivalents of bit actors get ALL the screentime while our star is reduced to a presence that is 'felt' rather than seen.

BAH!

I know, I know...

"Since you're complaining so much, why don't you make your OWN comic with a scantily-clad, kick-ass assassin babe? NYAAH!"

All right, I WILL. Next year. Kai: KIA. Hehehe. Shameless plug.

Going back to Gladiator School


"Gee, your hair smells terrific!"


"ARE YOU ENTERTAINED??!"

Well, yes I am!

I just got Gladius for the Xbox and I am wasting away a dangerous amount of time that I should be plunking into Angel Ace Next (heh). Anyway, Gladius is a new gladiatorial RPG/Strategy game from Lucas Arts. Set in a world that mixes historical ancient Rome (and the various barbarian tribes in it's provinces) with fantasy elements, it tells of the saga of heroes Valens (a gladiatorial champion's son) and Ursula (a barbarian princess) as they attempt to forge a powerful school of gladiators. In the Gladius world, a terrible war years before had driven the various peoples to turn to the arena and gladiators to settle disputes, and for entertainment. It is in the gladiatorial circuit of various locales and countries that most of the game's action and combat take place.

While you start out with just your main hero(ine) and a single cohort, you eventually start to hire more fighters in your stable. These range from your more generic barbarian or bandit, to the more interesting gunghirs (barbarian spearthrowers/werebears), legionnaires and archers. Or you can go for the more esoteric classes, such as sexy amazons or wild berserkers, mysterious spellcasters and beasts. There are about 100 different kinds of fighters to encounter or recruit in this game, along with an even larger number of weapons, armor and accessories to outfit and arm them with.
And as you build your reputation and fighting prowess, perhaps you'll also be able to take the time to thwart a RESURGENCE OF AN EVIL GOD that seems to be inevitable in the later rounds of this several-hundred hour game. Hmmm.

Gladius' graphics looks great, with detailed characters and battle stages. The animations and sound effects do well to put you into this carnage-filled world. As for the gameplay, the micromanagement of equipment, positioning of troops, and a patented 'swing meter' which you must handle in real time makes this a cross between Final Fantasy Tactics and a teensy-bit of Dance Dance Revolution. It's not really a fast-paced game though; anyone who can't get past a regular FF game or turn-based strategy game will probably not get into Gladius' marathons of battles and somewhat repetitive music (which hopefully will change when I finally move my band to a new country).

Well, I hate Dance-Dance, but I love this game. The story's pretty basic, but it's really all about getting the most bad-ass crew you can and opening a can of Maximus on an enemy's arse. WOOHOO!

Now, back to Angel Ace Next. No, reallly.

Cherry Blossom Pin-Ups

Here are some pin-up artworks destined for the upcoming shoujo manga anthology Cherry Blossom High from Psicom. Take in their full-color goodness since they will be black and white in the published comic. Oh well.


Crystal tries to catch up on some homework in between demonslaying.


The Beach Blossoms take on their rivals, The Sand Angels!

Angel's Back...


A day in the life of the Angel Ace crew, by Joel Chua!

Here's a look at the back cover artwork for Angel Ace Next, as rendered by the talented Joel Chua! We were lucky enough to have Joel on board with the upcoming ish. You can find more of his stuff at his website, JoelChua.com, and in the upcoming Cherry Blossom High anthology from Psicom (he did the front cover).

December's just on the horizon. Soon. SOON!

Oh and by the way... I'm DONE with SIGLO!!! It's Angel Ace and more all the way from now on. WOOHOO!

Comics, Comics, Comics!

Here are some samples and snippets (literally) of stuff coming out very soon from us!


Here's a panel from Nikki Alfar's Siglo story, set in the 1920s. It's about politics, women's empowerment and a guy who would be Emperor of the Philippines!


This is a clip from my Siglo story. Based on a subject close to my heart. It's set in the 90s.


Angel Ace guest artist Jeremy Arambulo gives us Angel flying in the city.


A snippet from 'The Gift', a short story in Angel Ace Next written by me, drawn by Jeremy.


Jeremy gives the Angel Ace characters his own unique, indie-style spin. Coolness.

Siglo and Angel Ace Next should be available to readers this December. Wait for them!

Halloween Party

After closing up the store, the gang (consisting of me, Dean, Gig, Vin, Dino, Jason, Alex, Ralph and Charles) trooped to a nice condo where Carl waited (I imagined while smoking a stogie and wearing a satin red smoking jacket and matching slippers). It was our version of a Halloween party. We didn't have costumes, but we had a nice, compact and comfy room, KFC fried chicken, soft drinks and liquor, frozen chips and peanuts (EH?), Carl-cooked pasta (which brought out the Italian in me... YUMMY, Carl!) and some games to get frisky with. Later in the night, Ralph put together some sinigang na baboy as a midnight snack (EH?).
Anyway, it was a cool night. Dean was feeling under the weather but it didn't keep out team (with Alex) from DOMINATING the night's two rounds of gaming. MAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, there were intermissions as the smokers had their breaks, I watched TV and enjoyed a nice can of Charm balls (which is ironic given that there's this comic named CHARM which left a bad taste in my mouth).

The Halloween party/Jason's birthday celebration lasted into the wee hours of the morning, and I finally tore myself away at 3 AM along with Dean, Gig and Alex. The rest would stay overnight in the luxurious (albeit messy and crowded) condo.

Happy Halloween everyone! Don't let the bogeyman bite... MAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!