It Came From The Cyberzone...

Went around the Cyberzone at Megamall last night. The Nokia 3230 smartphone is already available at the shops for about 22K, which makes it a lot cheaper relatively to phones like the 7610 and 6630 did when they debuted. For that, you get a nice 1.3 Megapixel camera, a big screen, cool multimedia and an FM radio, and more. The form factor's actually a bit odd... it kinda looks like a TV to me, with the scrunched-up keys at the bottom, but it's a cool phone. I winced when I saw displays of the O2 XDA II Mini and the I-mate JAM (which are basically the same)... the smallest PPC phone is already being advertised on TV, and from what I can follow it's pretty popular. Which is GOOD since that will hopefully drive prices down a lot later this year, when I MAY consider upgrading to one. Mmm.

What else... no new games... I am still looking to get a copy of Rise of the Kasai despite some reviews mentioning some faulty AI. I really want this game, so there. Got a copy of EGM, which was pretty cool... but I am reeling from how crappy the DVD of the latest PSM Magazine was. BAH. Well, whatever. I'll try to go to Greenhills this weekend and get me a Clone Wars dvd and a game or two. Oh, how I love my breaktime.

Better Late than Never


Mike Banting and me at Comic Quest.

The first time I met Mike Banting was apparently two years ago, at the C3Con. I do remember him, though I'm horrible with names so I couldn't connect very well faces with names. Anyway, it was during that Con of Cons that I formulated the idea for K.I.A. and started recruiting people like Hai, Wilson Tortosa and Gerry to do stuff for the anthology.
I saw the work of Mike and Chad in their ashcan, and I was particularly struck by an artwork of a martial arts girl they drew. I liked the style and so I e-mailed them, asking them if they would like to join the K.I.A. project. They were very enthusiastic and sent in cool art and pages. All our communications were through e-mail, so it was pretty cool that, almost two years later, with K.I.A. finally a reality, I was able to meet them. Well, at least Mike, since Chad is out of the country. Too bad they missed out on the pizza and chicken and meeting the other Team K.I.A. members, but we'll have another meet and greet someday.

It was really nice to meet such talented and enthusiastic comic people, and to be able to have their talents on board to make stuff like K.I.A. what it is now. Thanks, Mike! Let's all work together again soon.

Old Favorite



Last night, it was just me and Vin, and for dinner we took a drive over to Countryside restaurant over at Katipunan. This place is an institution in the area. No ambience, really- though it does possess a simple, back-to-basics provincial charm- but the barbecue is divine. We ordered our staples- me just simple sticks of pork barbecue, while Vin has his chicken gizzards and pork ears. But the capper for us was the chicken sotanghon soup, which we both loved and first tasted at least a year or two ago. Since that first time we haven’t been able to get an opportunity to order the soup again (it was either not in stock or in one instance, even forgotten), but tonight was a reunion.
The soup had that comforting, strong flavor- may be a bit salty for other people, but we both were getting second and third helpings. Yum. This was something to be savored, since we probably wouldn’t get this meal again anytime soon.

On the television in the common area, we watched the funeral of Pope John Paul II. We talked about stuff both about the Pope and about the world at large. Good things, bad things, weird things. But in the end it was all about that yummy chicken sotanghon soup. If only every problem and argument could be solved or at least forgotten over a meal. Oh well.

Tightening Belts

Though K.I.A.'s out, I am still paying for it. The balance for the printing is due at the end of the month, and so I have to cut down costs when I have to. This past week had me paying bills, and more will come next week. But really, things should go smoothly, so long as I minimize extravagant expenditures. So I just have to...

Minimize my morning taxi rides- which come at about Php200 from home to the office

Resist any bloodletting at the Blood Bank that's not a priority title or book

Avoid going to Comic Alley or anime shops and keep my eyes away from any Gashopon figurine sets

Resist getting any DVD sets or splurging on large numbers of anime VCDs

Just following these four items should help get me through the month comfortably enough. I still see myself getting my bare essential comics every week, and maybe a game or two this weekend at Greenhills. After everything's said and done I can finally think about other stuff and maybe even be a Phone Whore again. HOHO! We'll see.

Battle Stations

This whole week has been a bit of a storm of work. It was so busy, I couldn't afford to not come to the office, though a couple of days I was teetering on the precipice of getting sick. Usually I'd come home and stay up for a while, enjoying replays of primetime series on AXN after midnight... but for this whole week I came home, just watched the news and was in bed by midnight. However, this has its drawbacks too. Going to bed early makes me get up early. I'd suddenly bolt up at about 5:30 AM, take a bathroom stop, have a glass of cold water and flop back into bed. Then I'd wake up from the alarm clock groggy and befuddled as if I'd gone to bed at 3 or 4. BAH.

Anyway, thankfully I didn't get totally sick. Taking vitamins helped, and though I felt like a rotting zombie by Wednesday, a couple of pills and some more rest helped a lot. Ya gotta love drugs. Mahahaha!

So by now, I'm almost normal. Still busy though. And that should carry through for several more weeks. Sigh.

At leat this week's about to end, thank goodness. Looking forward to a pause in the action, even for a little while.

FedExecution

Jeremy posted this COOL K.I.A.-themed strip to celebrate the arrival of his copies. Awesome, Jeremy! So if you haven't gotten your copy of Kai's debut comic yet, take a jaunt down to Comic Quest and grab a copy. Especially since having K.I.A. delivered seems to be pretty dangerous...


K.I.A. Delivery by Jeremy Arambulo.


K.I.A. Vol. 1 - Kai: Indomitable Assassin is now available at Comic Quest, for Php195. Get your copy now!

More Manga



This is a pleasant surprise. The last time I saw Cherry Blossom High was last, last year, during the C3Con. This project, helmed by Jason, got a bunch of us together (including me, Vin, Dean, Elbert, Hai and Joel Chua) to produce a manga anthology for girls (shoujo manga). Yep, this predates Mango JAM, though admittedly we may be at a disadvantage since NONE of us are girls (at least, I think). Well, it's now out so we hope you give it a shot.
The four stories inside range from Buffy-like supernatural action (Crystal) to fantasy (Clockwork), mystery (Beach Blossoms) to teen romance. The art's pretty good, the stories nice (in a girly way) so check it out!



Jason and Armor Troopers' artist Armand Roy Canlas bring you a one-shot about a youth thrown into a war between magical fighting machines and aliens.

Both of these books are priced at Php80 and can be found exclusively at Comic Quest, your indie comic source! Go get 'em! And a copy of K.I.A. in case you haven't gotten one already. Heh.

Tomb Raider Legend


The New Lara Croft.

Despite a thoroughly horrible second movie (which not even uber-babe Angelina Jolie could make interesting) and lackluster games, Lara Croft is still a hot character, and she's just waiting for that big score to strike it rich again. That just may be the next game, Tomb Raider: Legend, which has been officially announced by Eidos. The game will be a 'return to the roots' for the character and the games, and to support this, original Tomb Raider designer Toby Gard has been brought on board in the development. Supposedly, the new game will return to the 'fundamental exploration and solve' experience which made the first games so addictive.

Thankfully, despite a 'back to basics' theme, the next Tomb Raider won't be featuring the original graphics of the first game. As you can see from the image above, Lara will be a LOT more detailed, featuring lots of spry and sexy new animations and moves, and an arsenal of new tomb-raiding stuff.

Tomb Raider: Legend is set for release on PS2, Xbox and PC. We'll see then if Lara still got the goods.

Ding! Nakakabato!


Angel Locsin takes flight as Darna!

It's been hyped to death in full page print ads on the broadsheets, preceded by TV documentary features and even segments on GMA news. This week, the wait ended for Pinoys as the much-anticipated Darna TV series finally went on air. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the 30-minute pilot episode, since the show's at the primetime slot in evenings, at a time when I'm out on the road or having dinner at Megamall. Well, the first episode is THE talk of the town right now at the Alamat mailing list, and it's pretty hilarious. I mean, the mailing list is pretty full of comic book people who are VERY fickle and have high standards. Of course you'd expect them to say if crap is crap.

Well, the word on the first Darna episode is pretty clear. It's the same old, same old. Expecting something fresh and new and groundbreaking that will appeal to both masa and comic-book fan alike?

What the hell were you thinking?

We've got the rich vs. poor angle yet again, perpetuating the fact that this tripe really is just for the masa who love rooting for the underdog. Rich people burn down poor people's houses, harrass and oppress them and generally gives a young Narda the reason to kick their asses once she becomes Darna (of course that won't happen since she's a good guy). BAH.

You've got CRYING, SCREAMING, BAWLING and more CRYING. CRY, CRY, CRY. This is a superhero adventure, not a tearjerker drama, DAMN IT. Get the the action!!! Give us strength, give us faith! Don't give us more reasons to hate rich people!

You've got designs of spaceships ripped from Star Wars. Hmm. Maybe Lucasfilm is using Darna to hype Episode III?

You have cheesy acting and cookie-cutter characters. Well, that was pretty much expected.

Darna doesn't even show up in the first episode! Wow, I guess a lot of Angel Locsin fans were disappointed. Heh.

Even in the office, people are saying that so far the first couple of episodes are slow, slow, slow. And I thought our scriptwriters learned something from all those fast-paced and addictive Korean/Mexican series that are gobbling up ratings? Take two steps back...

Anyway, I still want to see an episode, if only so I can rant more effectively. But then, if this is like Mulawin, I'll probably lose interest if nothing but boring dialogue or flirting happens for five minutes straight. Moving on...

Around the World in 80 Girls

Watched an episode of Oprah which was pretty interesting. It featured segments from all over the world and showed what the life of a 30-year old female was like in countries aside from America. It was pretty fascinating to see and learn stuff like...

Women in Kuwait live like royalty, getting free education, world-class health care and cash gifts from the government. The Kuwaiti woman featured owns her own fleet of luxury cars, has her own home and can shop and buy anything she likes. The only con? She can't vote. Poor baby.

Women in Mexico don't diet or watch their weight since Mexican men love curves. Unfortunately for the tequila-drinking, siesta-taking Mexicanas, infidelity is rampant and the law heavily skewed in favor of the philandering males.

Women in England are very available since there are 4 women for every man.

Women in Australia have to take lots of sun block since Down Under is the Skin Cancer capital of the world...

Women in Brazil work more on their bodies and beauty treatments than much anything else.

As for women in The Philippines, our local lasses are personified on the episode by model Angel Aquino, who talked about how we Pinoys enjoy breaks like merienda, and how we love our coffee (we have 67 Starbucks!).

It's not all sweet and light though; women in Iraq have to contend with the danger of rape, murder and the constant lack of order and basic necessities like electricity and water. Good thing some women can pack an AK-47 to defend themselves.

The climax of the show was the feature of a 30-year old woman in Ghana, where a terrible act of genocide almost massacred an entire race of people. The woman survived and escaped the murderous militia that killed her entire family, and went on to become a mother to her child and two adopted orphans. Oprah finished the show by having the woman on her show and granting her most fervent wish- to attend college.

Wow. I should watch this show more often. Heh.

Local Comic Buzz

Over pizza and chicken during the K.I.A. Meet and Greet, I was able to chat with old and new friends, and learn about stuff that's going to happen in the future. Well, since the people I chatted with are all Komikeros and grafictionists, the range of predictions is limited to this arena. Sorry, no Lottery combinations.

Anyway, Arnold Arre is working on a gaggle of stuff, including a collaboration with Lastikman scribe Gerry Alanguilan for a super spin-off title starring their new heroine Atomika, a remastered edition of his classic Mythology Class complete with all-new scenes, fleshing-out of character and other goodies (think the Star Wars sequels but a LOT better acting and no Jar Jar Binks) and the mysterious Martial Law Babies book.

Dean Alfar has been teased into taking out his first, though as yet incomplete, comic project, The Lost from the back burner and hopefully into the light as a trade paperback/collected release.

Jennyson Rosero showed off his lovely lovely No Man's Land manga from international publisher Seven Seas, and we can probably look forward to at least several more issues of this Witchcraft meets Wild West title. More BABES, Jen! More BABES!!!

Marvin del Mundo and Michael Seludo are still working on Ignition Comix, their cool anthology comic-zine, with issue 3 on the way.

While he was conspicuously absent during the Meet and Greet, Baylans master Jason Banico has secured the release of a couple of Psicom-published local manga comics- the teeny-bopper anthology Cherry Blossom High (which the gang worked on), and the fantasy-mecha adventure Mystic Machine Maharlika.

As for what's next for me? The beginnings of the next volume of K.I.A. is already being worked out in my head. What about Angel Ace? I am trying to work out how to keep both characters running, if not both books. We'll see what comes out... suffice to say, Kai and Angel are forever linked, and you can never really have one without the other... at least not for too long. Flip book? Cross-over? Somehow, someway, I'll make it work. I guess only time will tell. Heh. Yeah, I AM a tease.

The Week After

Ah. It's Monday again.

In the storm of releasing K.I.A. and holding the Meet and Greet, I wasn't able to give much attention to other stuff. Well, that's going to change since the book is out there already and it's all a matter of maintenance from now on. Not as hectic, but I should keep myself on my toes to keep promoting the book and hopefully get word around.

But thankfully, this also means I can get back to my regular scheduled blogging. Heh.

Anyway, of course while I was busy with the comic, the world mourned or rejoiced at the passing of Pope John Paul II. I have never been a really religious person, but the Papa was a good man, a great man, and he was the only Pope I've ever known. I remember reading the comics about his life when I was in elementary school, remembered the times that he visited here, rolling around in the Pope Mobile. I remember that terrifying assassination attempt, and his conciliatory meeting afterwards with his would-be murderer. He was always there, and now he's gone back to God. We'll probably never see another one quite like him.

Oh well. Life goes on.

Meet and Greet


Team K.I.A. at Shakey's.

Today is one of those days that reminds me why I do comics. It's the opportunity to meet and work with great people like the wonderful guys and gals that helped me put together K.I.A. This day wasn't really a Launch for the comic, but just a way for me to thank all these people who gave art and words freely to make the project work. Over pizza, chicken and iced tea at Shakey's Megamall, we chatted the afternoon away and enjoyed each others' company. It was with great pleasure that I passed around everyone's complimentary copies of the book, and had these artists sign one copy for posterity.


The best thing about the K.I.A. cover is that there are lots of space to sign!


Jonas and his new copy of K.I.A.

My only regret was that several members weren't able to make it, but I'm sure they were with us in spirit. Another regret was not taking more videos, since my O2 XDA II takes pretty good clips. Anyway, I took a whole bunch of pics, which I posted at My Phlog. Check them out!

Again, thanks to everyone who came, and a BIG thanks to Camille Portugal who was invaluable to making these last few days happen smoothly. Thank you thank you thank you, Cams!


Cams put the whole day together. Yay!

Let's do it all again sometime! WOOHOO!!!

K-Day


Unstoppable. Implacable. Invincible. AVAILABLE.

All righty, then!

K.I.A. Vol. 1 - Kai: Indomitable Assassin is on sale NOW at Comic Quest Megamall. By next week or so, it should also be in stock in Comic Quest Alabang Town Center and Comic Quest SM North EDSA. The black-and-white, 160-page anthology comic book costs Php195.00. Buyers will get, as a bonus, a FREE copy of Angel Ace NEXT, the latest Angel Ace comic and a prelude to K.I.A. (while supplies last)

K.I.A. has been almost two years in the making- originally meant for release in 2004, things just got extended and we had to push it back time and again. However, everything eventually fell into place and here we are. I am just so lucky to have gotten such a cool bunch of people together to work on the book, and hopefully this will not be the last time such a convergence takes place.

I'll be at Comic Quest in the late afternoon until closing, hanging out and signing any copies. Lucky customers will probably get their copies signed by several members of Team K.I.A who may be around as well.

See you all there!

Gaming Bits

With movies like The Godfather and Scarface coming soon to consoles, the latest crime film to make the jump to videogaming is Goodfellas (the Ray Liotta/Robert De Niro starrer). You'll play the game as real-life ex-gangster Henry Hill, starting off as a snot-nosed kid bashing in car windows with a baseball bat, and working your way up to gangster and later, cocaine dealer. Mini-games will include cooking pasta, getting a wife and dressing her up as the perfect mobster's wife, and disposing of dead bodies. Just don't get whacked!

The lackluster Suikoden IV did little for fans of the franchise, so Konami has announced that the next game, named aptly Suikoden V, will be a return to the roots for the series. Expect loads of familiar faces to return, such as "Blue Lighting Flick", Viktor and the McDohl heir. Better hope you still have that original Suikoden save...

The unthinkable has happened... Streetfighter vs Mortal Kombat will bring together the flagship fighters of the two landmark beat 'em ups in one fiery package. There will be two modes of visual style, which will allow players to choose either hand-drawn sprites for their characters, or digitized graphics using live-actors. Capcom of Japan has denied that they will cut corners and use footage from the old, old Streetfighter the Movie game. It is unknown whether or not Ryu will have a fireball fatality, or if the Mortal Kombat crew will get super combos. The game is slated for an early 2006 release on various consoles.

Sony has announced plans for the PSPDA, a Pocket-PC hybrid with their existing Playstation Portable. In addition to playing UMD games, you can surf the web via WIFI and save games on the device's hard drive. A battery pack, built into a belt accessory, will provide the additional power supply needed to keep the convergent device working.


Oh, and of course...

Happy April Fool's Day!

Old Favorite

Back when I was a college student in UP, one of the MUST places to have a meal was Rodic's. It's a tapsilog place that specialized in this sweet-savoury tapa (cured meat), rice and fried egg meals which just hits the spot everytime. The Rodic's in UP Shopping Center was almost always full of hungry students, and the cramped but cozy interior had lots of character, if not ambience.
Well, it's been years since I've had a Rodic's tapsilog, but that changes today. Amazingly enough, a branch has opened about a discus throw away from the office (and from all accounts, it's doing brisk business), so the office gang decided to get ourselves some tapsilog delivered for lunch. Yummy. This should bring back memories of those university days. Heh.

Getting Ready

It takes more than packing comics in plastic to ensure a good release. I also bought a nice hang-on rack for the book, which fits nicely in front of the CQ comic rack... fellow comics, sorry but we just can't just drop K.I.A. into the rack as is- it's so small, it'll sink and be lost. Aside from the posters and some other little stuff to promote the comic, I'm damn lucky to have Cams in my court as PR Dominatrix. Well, all of us in Alamat have in the past always been helped by Cams whenever we would launch a comic. She's got connections in all the radio stations, knows literally hundreds of people to talk to and get stuff done, and she's all systems go to get the book the hoo-hah factor it needs to sell.

So if you hear K.I.A. being promoted on the radio, or surf to the 99.5RT website and see Kai there, it's thanks to Cams.

The release this weekend will give the comic to readers, but it's really not a big launch. I'll be around, and I'll chat and sign every copy sent my way. If things look great, I'll try to put together a real Launch Event. We'll see.

Things look good though. The local comic community seems expectant of the book (met comic dude Jonas and dudette Jac tonight, which was pretty cool), but the real test will be getting the walk-in customers and casual readers to take a gander at our product. But darn, I feel great. It should be cool and it's really nice to have your efforts pay off. Anything else from now on is gravy. Heh. Optimism is good.

WTP

Last night saw me packing away, inserting things into plastic jackets and seeing things rise. I could have brought in a couple of the household help to help me pack, but I really just had to pack by myself tonight.

Yep, I made myself busy putting copies of K.I.A. into plastic bags, and then organizing everything into neat piles. I packed no less than 75 copies, about two-thirds of which are Comic Quest stocks, while the rest are for the members of Team K.I.A. Generally, I am pretty happy with the stocks... so far, I've seen only five copies which I do not want to sell since they have some damage- a couple had spots on the cover torn away by some adhesive, and a couple had folded parts. Nothing really horrible.
I remember the second original Angel Ace issue had more than HALF the stocks with defective qualities- misregistered cover images, covers missing lamination... it was a nightmare. The horrid thing was that we, neophytes then in this publishing thing, paid the bastard printers in FULL. And they just gave us a half-hearted consuelo de bobo reparation. That was the worst.

Well, about five books later, I'm still a relative neophyte in printing comics, but having a good printer seems to work wonders since K.I.A. looks great, and I am really excited to get the copies out to the store and into readers' hands.

Whew. I'm tired from packing all night (okay, ENOUGH). If I was a smoker, I'd probably be having a drag right now. Instead, I just have a can of Pepsi, a cookie and watch the latest Amazing Race.

Hey, it's tomorrow already. Less than two days to K.I.A. Saturday. Yay!

Smartly-priced Smartphone


A budget smartphone?

The next smartphone to come from Finnish phonemakers Nokia will be the 3230, a well-rounded Series 60 model that thankfully seems free of the queer keyboard syndrome that plagued most of the earlier Nokia models. The phone will come with a 1.3 megapixel camera, a large 176 x 208 color screen, video capture and editing, push-to-talk, Bluetooth and other bells and whistles. The 3230 will supposedly be priced at an affordable range- I'm not sure though how that will translate here in the Philippines though. Anyway, this latest smartphone has all the goods from the later released Nokias such as the 7610 and the 6630, in a pretty and compact frame. So those out there looking for a nice new smartphone need not go for the aging 6600 anymore. The 3230 is set for release later in 2005.

K.I.A. Saturday


She's coming for You this weekend.

This Saturday, April 2, 2005, comic-lovers will be able to grab their own copy of K.I.A. Volume 1- Kai: Indomitable Assassin at Comic Quest Megamall. Soon after, stocks will be available at other CQ branches. The 160-page, b/w comic anthology will have a cover price of Php195.00. Customers who buy K.I.A. will also get a free copy of Angel Ace Next (which is a prologue to the new book).

Spread the word, everyone. Fly, fly, fly.

Cool Wars

As mixed my feelings are for the Star Wars prequel movies, I am a total fan of Genndy Tartarovsky's Clone Wars microseries. The action is great, the Jedi and ARC troopers badass, the villains scary and the acting is a lot better! Darn, cartoon Padme and Anakin are a hotter couple than the live ones. Sigh.
Anyway, I was able to download both seasons 1 and 2 last year, and it bites that I somehow deleted the files along the way. I guess I'll just have to get them on VCD or DVD someday.
In the meantime, while waiting for ROTS, the 3rd season of Clone Wars looks awesome. The longer (at 12 minutes per ep) episodes will bridge the gap to Episode III, and chronicle the Separatists' attack on the Republic's capital at Coruscant, and the battles of the Jedi versus the new and deadlier threat of General Grievous.

Clone Wars will be shown on Cartoon Network locally, though you can view the new episodes NOW from Starwars.com. Check them out!

Nicked


I'd love to have Fairy Godparents to make my every wish come true...

Over the holidays I found myself liking a lot of new things. I bought myself a copy of the New Avengers though I have never liked the government-sponsored superteam. I have also now apparently become a fan of a couple of Nickelodeon cartoon shows, or 'Nicktoons'; My Life as a Teenage Robot and Fairly Odd Parents.

My Life as a Teenage Robot is all about the adventures of XJ9 or simply Jenny, an almost invincible super robot who has to juggle being a teenager and Earth's greatest defender. The character design of Jenny herself is cute, with big eyes and nice ponytails that give her quite a bit of anime flavor. I guess I like the series as well since it reminds me a lot of my own Angel Ace- in another world, Angel's adventures would be like Jenny's, and her character is very much like Angel's.
Fairly Odd Parents is just hilarious- I love the wacky situations and the fast-paced stories, with the many wishes of hero Timmy Turner asked of his fairy-godparents Cosmo and Wanda almost always snowballing into some crazy consequence. The episodes aren't as braindead as the more popular Spongebob Squarepants (which I don't like probably since it's about non-human characters), and there's quite a bit of sophistication in the writing. But I think what really made me like Oddparents is the recently-shown Channel Chasers special/movie, which was quite excellent. The spoofing of every cartoon from The Simpsons to Tom and Jerry to Speed Racer was just so cool. Darn, I wonder if this means I'll be looking for DVDs or VCDs of these Nicktoons... even more stuff to stockpile in The Sanctum again.

Oh well. Broadening Horizons is always good. Right? Sigh.

Lord of the Rings Extended Version

They're showing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on GMA7 right now. It's the extended version. Nope, not the DVD-only cut with an extra hour of additional scenes. This is the theatrical cut with an additional hour of COMMERCIALS. Well, I guess there are still people out there without dvd or vcd players who will still watch this, despite having the cinematic experience broken every now and then by an ad for Max Fried Chicken or whatever. Heh.

Angel Update


Hopefully, Angel won't be sitting idly for too long.

With all this effort I'm throwing into K.I.A., I've been often asked by people if I'm still coming out with Angel Ace. Readily, I say 'yes'. Angel was my first comic, and while I'm still doing comics I'll continue to develop her story until her saga is done. That's a pretty big task to do, honestly, since her story is epic, to say the least. We haven't even reached anywhere near the foothills of the mountains of high drama that Angel's story will reach. That's something that cannot be hurried, I have to say... the need to flesh out a character, to show her many adventures and filler episodes before that final stretch of major plot that will lead to the endgame.
It's going to be hard, and I'm not sure I can do it. But I will give it the good ol' college try. Somehow, someway.

What's next for Angel? A nice stand-alone adventure. It's a matter of deciding what story to do; the long-in-the-making 'Philippines' story or a rematch with The Sorcerer. I'll be able to decide soon after I finish the business with K.I.A.

Happy Easter!

The end of yet another year's Lenten Season. And one fine vacation period, if I may add. It was nice to just kick back and relax, just read and watch and sleep the whole day long. But then again, just sitting around the house, snacking every so often makes me feel the calories just pile up. I'd much rather have a vacation where I can go out and enjoy the town, instead of being cloistered at The Sanctum.
Well, today's one more day to me before work begins yet again for a stretch, until the Christmas vacation. Most probably I'll just stay indoors, do some more writing, reading and watching until the day runs out. Then progress on the impending release of K.I.A. will continue. Which makes the end of the holiday a bittersweet affair. Oh well.

MEAT

Damn, does it taste good. For the past several days we've been having just fish. Dried fish. Fried catfish. Fish fillet. Tuna. I'm actually not too bad with fish- I love fish, especially fried bangus (milkfish), which I dub "fried chicken of the sea". But you know, there's nothing more satisfying than MEAT.

So when we had Sinigang na Baboy and it tasted GREAT. Damn great. I've been sating my cravings with chips all this time... but really, there's no substitute for real meat.

I want to order a pizza tomorrow. A nice, meat-lover's pizza. A great way to celebrate Easter and the end of Lent, don't you think?

Darn, I could go for a steak right now. Heh.

Soul Calibur III

More information just popped up online on the upcoming PS2 exclusive Soul Calibur III. The storyline has something to do with a mysterious individual who revives Nightmare, the demon-possessed knight who wields Soul Edge. From there, carnage and lots of one-on-one fighting is sure to ensue.
Anyway, we've got the lowdown on the new characters!


Setsuka is a woman dressed in a pretty intricate and fancy kimono and platform sandals. She wields a large umbrella with a sword hidden in the handle. She pretty much looks a lot like Fatal Fury's Mai Shiranui in one of the latter's win poses. She is described as 'the Resolute Avenger', so she's probably hot on the trail of someone in for a good slashing. Pretty cool- I wonder if they had an influence on the Tekken creators, who did a similar hidden look for Asuka Kazama in Tekken 5.


Dubbed as 'A Misguided Angel of Death', Tira is a wild-haired girl in green who wields one large bladed hula hoop. It seems that she rips her own costume up quite a bit when she fights. All I can say is that she reminds me of Tanith, one of the Five Seasons from K.I.A. And I did the look for Tanith more than a year ago. Hmmm. I wonder if Namco is looking over my blog. Heh.


Anyway, the third new character is Zasalamel, and the only male in the new batch. He's from Africa, wears a white, hooded robe and wields a nasty-looking scythe. Called "The Evil Enigma", it seems likely that all this hubbub was caused by him.

As mentioned before, Soul Calibur III will include a mode where you can customize and create your own character, deciding stuff such as sex, occupation and some aspects of their appearance. You can then use this created character in some modes in the game. We're hoping that all these promises Namco is making gets pulled off. I am hoping for hidden outfits- if the character edit mode in SC is as good or better than the one in Tekken 5, I'll be pretty happy. While SCIII is firmly behind the big fighters such as Tekken, DOA and VF for me, I still can't wait to see another installment of this long-running series. The game comes out on PS2 later this year.

K.I.A. 2

We haven't even gotten the first book out yet, and I'm already working on the second volume.

Yesterday I started writing the first script of the inevitable K.I.A. Volume 2. While nothing is final of course, I am seeing the 2nd book as having a more focused story or scale than the first. The situation here is that at the beginning of Volume 2, Agent K wants a vacation. She's been working hard, going on deadly missions every week and now she wants a break. But of course, getting time off when you're the most in-demand assassin in the world is NOT easy.
But this is Agent K, of course, and suffice to say she doesn't give up. But little does she know when she gets her little break that a crack KALI unit known as the Deep Cover Girls is aiming to collect Vanya's bounty on her head. And with surprise on their side, they just might succeed in killing the unkillable K!

Still fixing up the concept for this book. Perhaps I can get people to write actual stories that focus on the DCGs' attempts to terminate Kai. Or perhaps there's a bigger thing that Kai and her hunters may get involved in. We'll see. Anyway, if I start it now, chances are we'll see this perhaps... oh... next year. And that's being conservative. Heh. I guess it all depends on how good the first book does. Again, we'll see. In the meantime, gotta keep writing and writing.

The Amazing Race Movie

That's what I've heard some people call National Treasure, the treasure hunting adventure movie starring Nicolas "Stanley Goodspeed" Cage. The treasure in question is a supposedly vast trove containing gold and artifacts from Egypt, Macedonia, Rome and God knows where else, collected by generations of conquerors, found by the Knights Templars who eventually became the Freemasons and then vanishing into the mists of antiquity and legend. Cage is Ben Gates, a treasure enthusiast who has Freemason ancestry in his family tree. His father (played by Jon Voight) thinks that he's wasting his time looking for myths. However, Gates finds support via a slightly geeky sidekick Riley (Justin Bartha) and a somewhat shady financier, Ian Howe (Sean "Boromir" Bean). When Gates and buddies find a major clue that points them to the Declaration of Independence, Ben and Ian have a falling out when Ian reveals his ruthless side. Soon, it's a race with Ben, Riley and a beautiful museum curator (Diane Kruger) named Abigail Chase (Abbie Chase? Danger Girl?) filling in the good guy side, while Ian and his troop of goons wear the black hats. The quest then takes them all over America, seeking a treasure right in the middle of the nation.
This is pretty much like Indiana Jones-lite; There is action of the running and hiding sort- Ben and his friends have to avoid confrontation and use their brains to win, while the baddies have guns. The mystery is mostly obscure historical facts and some dabbling into the arcane history of the Freemasons and the Knights Templars and the revolutionary forefathers... stuff that will probably bore most people.

Anyway, I found myself watching. It's really more of a caper movie than anything else, reminding me quite a bit of Sneakers, one of my favorite films. Just a little bit. Enough to get me to watch it to the end. In all, it's a pretty harmless flick. Good for a watch and nothing more. Unless you hate Nicolas Cage, which a couple of the gang do with a passion. Heh.

The Soul Still Burns!

According to Gamepro, The fighting game gods over at Namco have just announced that Soul Calibur 3 is coming. The third installment of this popular weapon-based fighter will be exclusive to PS2, and will have 25 characters, three of which will be totally new. The most intriguing bit of news though is that there will be a Character Edit mode which will let players create their own fighter. REALLY? A create-your-own-character option from one of the big boys in fighting games? We'll see how this works out. The US version of SC3 is slated for a late 2005 release.

Ends and Beginnings


The New Warriors Return!

Okay, I'm really pissed that the upcoming issue 20 of Fallen Angel is the last one, but there have been quite a few not-so-subtle hints from writer Peter David that the series may continue elsewhere from DC. Crossing fingers. Anyway, got the latest Previews and WOW, there's an ad for a New Warriors limited series! Heeey! I loved this title in the nineties- it was a cool, young action team series which lasted for a good while (the first series lasted into the 70 issue range), but eventually the storyline got muddled and worst of all- they made resident babe Namorita suddenly become allergic to wearing bikinis (Grrr). After that, I didn't even bother looking at the second run of the title, which only lasted 11 issues of so. Bah.

Anyway, the new series looks radically different, art-wise, and the story has the team joining the reality TV-craze. Hmmm... we'll see if this is worth looking into. The limited series starts in June. My only question now is... after all this time... why are they still NEW? Oh well...

Teaser

I put up teaser posters for K.I.A. at Comic Quest yesterday. Nothing on it but the names of the many contributors, a profile of Kai (against black) and the vague date of April 2005.

Once I get the stocks, I'll set the date for the release, and work on a Team K.I.A. meet-and-greet.

I want to try and get the issues out to as many stores as I can. Maybe try Comic Alley and some other places. And try to get it solicited in Previews. We'll see. I really want this comic to succeed. So many great people did great stuff for this, and it just deserves to be seen.

Soon. Very soon.

CSI New York

I am a forensic detectives fan- I love watching the real stuff on the Discovery Channel, and I love CSI. The first is still the best- CSI Las Vegas endears for the cool cast, best of all being the half-geeky, half-invincible character of Gil Grissom (WIlliam Petersen). I also like the glitz and glamor that is often found in the cases. CSI Miami has a slightly different vibe- steamier and sexier, and with a different driving force in the passionate Horatio Caine (David Caruso).
CSI New York seems to take an radically more different stance than it's predecessors- while Miami and Las Vegas don't really show off their characters' lives, New York will supposedly involve the drama of the CSI's lives and how they are affected by the cases they take. I don't think this is the a plus, but we'll see how Gary Sinise and his crew measure up when CSI New York debuts on AXN this April.

Reality TV Check

It finally happened... I now find myself liking, and watching The Amazing Race. Well, now I don't find myself switching to another channel when AXN shows it's gazillionth replay of the week's episode. Anyway, I credit this to the inclusion of Survivor veterans Rob and Amber in the present race. Yep, I'm rooting for them. I hated Rob in his first Survivor, but grew to like him in All-Stars... and Amber was always a crush. Heh. In The Amazing Race, they're smart, cool, competitive and they look like they're having fun. We'll see if they go the distance to win in two top reality tv shows.

On the other hand, I am really not into the new Contender show with Sylvester Stallone. I am sure it's a pretty gripping show, but I never really liked boxing, so this was a natural no. Heck, I love wrestling, but you don't see me watching Tough Enough.

Crappy Throat

For some reason, I suddenly have weird thing in my throat, so I have a weird feeling everytime I swallow. I’ve started gargling and taking vitamin C to keep this from developing into a full-blown sickness. Good think I don’t seem to have a fever or anything in the meantime… It would be really pretty crappy to be sick on a vacation.


NMDA

Took a little siesta, had an awful dream. It pretty much deals with EDSA and traffic, so I call it the NMDA, or Nightmare Development Authority… which is worse than our own MMDA, but not by much.
Anyway, in my dream the area of EDSA suddenly becomes cratered and tiered like the Grand Canyon from the NMDA’s many road projects. Now, to cross between the left and right sides of the main highway, pedestrians must navigate their way past a haphazard network of narrow, rickety bridges and ravine-like drops. My whole dream has me going through this horrid gauntlet before I finally make it to the other side of the highway
to wait for a bus. Along the way, I come to several seemingly impassable obstacles, making me go off on a tirade of anger against the NMDA. Eventually though I figure a way through the hell and make it to the other side of the road. I start waiting for the bus.. and well, it comes… crashing into the maze and bursting into flames. Nightmare, indeed.

Woke up and this nightmare is still fresh in my mind. Makes me think that in comparison, the real MMDA isn’t all that bad.

Nah. What am I saying? The MMDA are pretty horrible. They’re real.

Moving on, moving on…

Agenda

Indie Stuff
My first priority is to make stuff for K.I.A. like posters and mobiles. This should be ready for posting by next week, in preparation of the launch the week after, if things go right.
Still on the comic vein, I’ll probably start working on stories and perhaps even pages for the next K.I.A. release. And maybe think about stuff for some other stuff, like Angel Ace and something totally new.

Comics
Gotta try and make another attempt to take chunks out of my Unread Pile of comics, which is right now an Unread Mountain. It’s really not funny anymore, how I’ve got pretty much whole SERIES and I haven’t touched them at all. Of high priority to read are Runaways, Astonishing X-men, Superman/Batman, Fallen Angel, Street Fighter, Fathom: Dawn of War, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Bite Club, Ultimates, Manhunter, and Exiles. TONS of stuff. I’ll try real hard this time around…

Anime
Wanna watch Last Exile, Scrapped Princess, Samurai Champloo and Read or Die TV. On the anime movie side, should try to watch Wonderful Days and Casshern.

Movies
Thinking of watching Battle Royale II: Requiem, National Treasure, Van Helsing and lots more stuff.

Games
Yeah, DOA Ultimate and Tekken 5 are in the house, but all I seem to want is to dust off my old copy of Final Fantasy Tactics and start warring all over again in Fair Ivalice.

Miscellany
Need to clean up The Sanctum again. Dust off the action figures and displays. Rearrange stuff like DVDs, VCDs, mags, books and other shit. I’m pretty anal when it comes to doing stuff like this. I need… the Fab Five. Heh.

Tonight I should do some shopping- supplies like snacks, both savoury and sweet, at least one cake or pie, new DVDs or VCDs and other stuff I won’t be able to access once the Holy Week closes in. I’m staying home but it really doesn’t feel like it from how I’m so excited to take the break. Vacation is a state of mind, and I'll be diving in by tomorrow. WOOHOO!!! Have a nice holiday, people!

The Real Thing



Tonight, I got my hands on a finished, printed copy of K.I.A. Volume 1. The book turned out quite well- it's smaller than pretty much any other released local comic that I've ever seen... smaller even than the original Wasted compilation. But then, it's also quite thicker than most of the other past local releases. The issue should fit snugly in the pocket for bringing anywhere. I'll be seeing about getting the copies packed in plastic once we get the stocks.
I'm pretty stoked... I still have to see the stocks and crossing fingers, they should be in good, quality condition and ready for release after Holy Week. At least, I'll have something solid to hold onto and look at for the holiday wait. Heh.

Kai’s Interview Appointment

MAD Interviewer (MI): Here we are in an undisclosed, secure location with Kai Mishima, lovely but deadly femme fatale from the Angel Ace comic set to debut in her own title, the upcoming action comic/manga anthology, K.I.A. from writer/creator Marco Dimaano. Hello, Kai. Or should I address you by your new name, Agent K?

Kai: Kai is fine. Hello. I hope the blindfold wasn’t too tight.

MI: I’m fine, thanks for asking. So, we’re on the verge on your debut as a full-fledged comic heroine. How do you feel?

Kai: To tell you the truth, I’m a little anxious. How long has it been… eight years? Eight years and I’ve always been in the role of the support character, best friend and sidekick. And now, suddenly, I’m thrust into the spotlight. Ninja are better in the dark, you know. All this attention really isn’t my style. It's pretty easy to act tough and all when you just have a couple of pages or panels. This time, I'm pretty much in every page and it's hard. They even get me in my bedroom! There's no privacy at all.

MI: Ah, the price of fame. Anyway, many would say that this book has been a long time in coming.

Kai: But, of course. We all know who was the real draw for readers of Angel Ace (laughs). I’m kidding, of course. I love Angel, that silly girl.

MI: So your new book is entitled K.I.A.

Kai: The term K.I.A. is military jargon, an acronym for ‘Killed In Action’. It refers to how many of the missions I go on are so dangerous that I am not expected to make it back alive.

MI: This time around you’re in a new secret organization.

Kai: Yes. I’m no longer part of the SIVA. I’ve been taken into an organization named KALI, or the Killing Arts Learning Institute. It’s similar to the S-IV in that it’s an all-female, clandestine operations group. But while the S-IV is a more ancient, mysterious Sisterhood with arcane, long-term goals, KALI are straightforward mercenaries who are out to make a killing from every hotspot in the planet. At least they have dental, so it’s not all bad.

MI: You gain new powers for this book.

Kai: At the start of the book I find myself without my memories, but also with augmented physical abilities that make me a superhuman killing machine. All that plus I now have the ability to regenerate, so I’m technically immortal. So if I do get ‘K.I.A.’, I don’t stay dead. Which is a pretty nifty power to have. But then, I didn't choose to have these powers given to me...

MI: Regeneration… that means, you can grow back your hand if you get it cut off, right?

Kai: I honestly have never yet had to find out. I have made it a point to not lose any limbs. Please don’t give Marc any ideas…

MI: Or, if you get a finger cut off, won’t it grow into a whole new you?

Kai: Hmm... no comment. Next question, please.

MI: Okay. Aside from your new group and new powers, you also get a new costume.

Kai: Right. Well, it’s a throwback to my old bikini outfit from the original Angel Ace comics. Not the most practical thing to wear, but the thing is, I don’t need to wear clothing for protection since my body’s tougher than most body armor anyway. The less I have on, the easier I can move and fight. That aside, the costume ia actually pretty hi-tech. It’s made of a special fabric that repairs itself and changes properties depending on how it’s handled. The same goes for the cloth wrapped around my legs- they’re pretty much the only weapons I carry. That and a nice little communicator/pocket pc for contacting HQ, and for playing Bejeweled in between missions.

MI: How much has your life and situation changed from Angel Ace to K.I.A?

Kai: In the SIVA I was part of the Elite… had my own groupies and everything. Here, I’m more of an outcast among the other KALI girls. Plus I’m being worked to the bone by my new commander, Vanya, and since I think she ‘saved’ me and I have no memory at all, I work for her selflessly without question or hesitation. At least, at first.

MI: And you do some pretty nasty things as a KALI agent.

Kai: I’m a high-level assassin given all the really dangerous assignments- that means the most heavily-protected or powerful targets. A lot of them aren’t very nice people, but sometimes, yes, there are jobs that make my skin crawl. But I am a soldier with a mission and I have to carry them out… I guess.

MI: Since you’re so strong and deadly now, is there anyone who can actually stand up to you? Give you a challenge?

Kai: A lot. Many missions are simple cake-walks, but I should never get too comfortable or too confident. There are so many dangerous opponents out there, and I’m not just talking about high-level martial arts masters, elite ninja or other augmented super-soldiers… Sometimes all it takes is tenacity and sheer persistence. There was this guy called ‘The Cabbie’ and… well… I’ll save that for another time.

MI: Going into the K.I.A. book as a whole… you’ve got an impressive list of artists and creative people on the roster.

Kai: Yes. It’s incredible how Marc actually got these people to work for him for free. I have to say that it was quite a feeling to see yourself drawn and visualized in so many different styles. The comic fan in me was positively giddy.

MI: Do you have any favorites?

Kai: They’re all pretty awesome, but I have to say my favorite artists are Jen-san (Jennyson Rosero) and Jeremy Arambulo. I am overjoyed, really. Beat that, Angel (smiles). My favorite story is Invitation, by Dean-sama (Dean Alfar). I kick ass a lot in that one. (smiles)

MI: K.I.A. Volume 1, entitled Kai: Indomitable Assassin is due out in early April, at all branches of Comic Quest. The 160-page black-and-white manga/comics anthology will have a cover price of Php195. Do you have any words for the people out there, or anyone you would like to thank?

Kai: I would like to thank the artists and writers of ‘Team K.I.A.’ who believed in me and supported Marc to produce the book. I would also like to thank the cellphone companies for not putting out any good models recently so that Marc FINALLY was able to save enough cash to pay for this whole project. That’s about it.

MI: One last question... will we see you back in the pages of Angel Ace someday?

Kai: If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

MI: Right. Thank you, Kai, and we’ll see you at the launch. Good luck! We know you’ll do great.

Kai: Thank you. And now, the blindfold...

The MAD Interviewer was actually Marc Dimaano in disguise.

28 Days Later


Months and months later, I finally get to watch.

Watched this pseudo-zombie flick last night. I've heard good things about it, particularly the grittiness and the fact that it had at least one alternate ending. It basically tells the story of a plague that gets unleashed in England from a bunch of infected monkeys. The plague, transmuted by blood that gets into your eyes or any open wounds, doesn't really turn you into one of the undead. Instead, you are possessed of a terrible, murderous and permanent state of rage that drives these 'Infected' to bite, tear and rend any normal humans they find to bloody bits. Oh, and your eyes turn red.

Anyway, watched it. This certainly isn't one of the scarier zombie flicks, though the director's use of some odd camera tricks, like filming at lower speeds gives it a more grainy, gritty feel. But along with the scenes of mass carnage, there are some oddly comforting scenes; where survivors Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Selena (Naomie Harris) find temporary refuge with a hearty father and daughter (Brendan Gleeson and Megan Burns) in the middle of Infested-infested London. I was half-expecting the over-hospitable dad, Frank, to be evil or something, but he turned out to be just a nice English chap. In between dodging the red eyes, there are scenes of odd calm- driving through abandoned countrysides, grabbing food and supplies from a grocery, having a picnic in an open field.
However, this is still a horror film, but the real threat eventually comes from an unexpected source at the film's climax.

I found myself liking 28 Days Later. It wasn't scary at all, but it was a good story and I came from it more positive than the more hardcore Dawn of the Dead remake, regardless of which ending you'd subscribe to: SPOILERS AHEAD: The 'happy' theatrical ending where Jim survives and all three survivors make a home in the mountains while waiting for eventual rescue, or the Alternate 'grim' ending, where Jim dies and the girls go off by themselves to somehow survive. SPOILER END.

Again, I probably find myself watching these films in fascination thanks to the weirdness and unnatural feel of a world gone mad. It's a nightmare scenario we hope we will never see. But darn, it would be great to be able to ransack a grocery or two at least once in your life. Heh.

Going Hyper

If I had a marketing budget, I'd follow the suggestion of some of the gang and really work on marketing K.I.A. to the high heavens when it comes out in a couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah, there will be the customary posters and hanging mobiles for Comic Quest, but then I was suggested to do a BIG launch event.

We'd have a venue, and food and waiters and shit, and the biggest thing would be a real-live Agent K, standing right there! We'd get a sexy model, have her hair cut to Kai's style, have her wear the green and black battle bikini and the cloth wraps and have her standing in front of the venue, glaring at people.
Yeah, she'd have to be gorgeous since the darn outfit doesn't allow for anything but a damn perfect bod. Of course, we'd have to have someone standing by and keep any weirdos from getting too close to her or molesting her... or, better yet, we'll get a model who actually knows martial arts so she can beat up anyone who pisses her off, true to the character!

Unfortunately for her, she'd have to stay in character and look slightly angry and hostile all the time (which I imagine would be tiring after a while), not to mention she has to stay half-naked and barefoot in the cold mall environment- and it just won't do to have the unkillable, indomitable super-assassin sneezing or shivering in front of onlookers. Maybe we can have her stand on a nice carpeted area? Or have her wear a trenchcoat, and just show off her bod during key moments of the launch? Well, whatever. These are the things you can think about with reckless abandon since they will probably never come true. Merchandising glitz is waffle, and unless you have the actual comic or product, they're all useless.

Which reminds me of that whole fiasco with Taekwondogs, several years ago. Ask any local comics veteran in Alamat about it, and you'll get rueful smiles. Created by Gil De Palma, a self-described 'surfer dude', the 'comic' was about a bunch of half-dog, half-human heroes who fought evil with their power-barks(!). Their names I think were Yip, Rouf, Brrk and Arf... I forget. Anyway, they fought enemies named WaWeWiWoWanda, King Aeiou, Boom-Sharka-Larka-Lark the Shark-headed Dog and other crazy shit- easily some of the crappiest-sounding characters and concepts I've ever heard- this was, seriously, like some BS you can think up while taking a crap.

The whole thing sounded crazy, but somehow Mr. De Palma SOLD this concept and had a whole bunch of people working on the book. There was merchandising, figurines, a big event at Megamall and lots of hype. But the most this thing ever had was a 200-page sourcebook which was horrendously produced (abysmally bad use of fonts and layouts, and the book practically self-destructed due to crappy binding) and was filled with stupid (if entertainingly stupid) drivel.

By the time the hoopla was over though, the actual comic was nowhere to be seen. Mr. De Palma was gone, leaving a lot of pissed-off artists and people who were never paid for their services, and sellers waiting for product which never arrived. The hype that Taekwondogs generated was a first in it's time, making comics seem like big business... on the downside, that it turned out to be ultimately vaporware ensured that sponsors would be wary of any such venture ever again.

Well, at the very least, I'll have a comic in my hands before I do any marketing or hype. Yeah, I have no budget. Just some cash from the pocket to do a couple of posters and mobiles, and the magic of Internet mailing lists and word-of-mouth to help sell K.I.A. But then, right now I'm happy at having done this thing, to be able to tell a story and bring a character to life... and that's worth the money and effort I've put into this. If it sells well, and I'm able to continue, then I'll consider this a success.

Otherwise, it's just another page in the sordid saga of this storyteller. Moving on then. Heh.

Crashed

First it was Questor. And now, I’ve heard from hearsay that the mega-popular Culture Crash comics/manga-zine has closed down, and that the latest issue (which came out months ago) was the last one. Correct me if I’m wrong, people.
Now THIS is a pity, since I have heard from Vin that issues of CC regularly sell very well. The quality of the art and production has remained pretty much constant throughout, and the story was JUST getting to the meaty parts (which was long in the coming since the series had 15 or so issues already out). But then, the publishing and selling of comics as a business is a very complex and unpredictable road, so no one is really immune to problems. While indie guys like me, or Oliver Pulumbarit and others can release books every now and then, supporting an actual company with regular employees isn't the easiest thing to do. Still, it would be a pity if CC was gone, considering that they would leave their stories and characters drifting.

So far, after 15 issues, the state of the CC stories are as follows…

Pasig
A major confrontation between hero Dante and a group of enemies has been resolved (I think). Nothing developed between him and the female lead. No development on any overall plot. Nothing really revealed of the characters’ feelings for one another, if any. No sign of where this is going.

One Day, Isang Diwa
We are introduced to the guys and gals at a high school where fairies and mystical creatures also wander about. Recently, the Lead guy puts himself in the hot seat after kissing lead female (an event which actually rocked the boat and made this more interesting). This led to a fight between the Lead Guy and Other Lead Guy, which had no real resolution. Nothing has been resolved. The fairy angle has also been downplayed, and no resolution or development on that end.

Cat’s Trail
JUST getting to the meaty part of a big battle between royal guards, the heroes and a sexy ninja chick. Nothing resolved.

Kubori Kikiam
I have no clue what’s going on here…

If I had released 15 issues of Angel Ace, her story would be DONE by then. I’d have moved on to other characters. But CC… after all this time, they are barely getting their characters introduced. I would be incredibly disappointed if they suddenly disappeared (well, they have… question is, will they stay that way?), leaving so much undone. I pretty much know at least some of them are still doing work with Seven Seas Publishing, but aside from that… will CC release another local issue? Well, that’s all up to their Big Boss, James Palabay, who is their producer and driving force. Perhaps when they get their issues straight, we’ll see.

Videogame Night

Tonight the gang's going to converge in The Sanctum for some retro-gaming fun. It's something that Dean and Vin planned a couple of weeks ago, and now we're pushing through. Of course, we won't be playing any of the new stuff- lined up will be classic games like Bushido Blade, Samurai Shodown, Super Street Fighter II and games from the Sega Genesis like Toejam and Earl. I don't exactly know how things will work out, but we'll have chips and softdrinks and hang out till the gang gets a hankering for some singing in the wee hours of the morning. Heh.

Found


Forty castaways. An island. A monster. Whoa.

Finally watched LOST last night. I've been hearing of this popular hit series from Dean for a long time now, but it was only last night that it debuted on AXN.

From J.J. Abrams, the director of Alias, comes this series which seems to be a cross between Survivor, Alive, Gilligan's Island and Jurassic Park. A plane mysteriously crashes on an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere. As the forty or so survivors pick themselves out of the wreckage, they soon have to contend with various issues, and not just mundane stuff like getting food and surviving the elements... they have to contend with the possibility of a murderer in their midst, discover the truth about the crash and the growing fear that they may never get rescued.
All this and there seems to be a MONSTER on the frickin' island. A big, hulking, growling, flesh-rending monster... that seems to be invisible as well, since no one seems to have ever seen it... at least, not seen it and lived.

It's an intriguing premise, and the cast looks likeable and interesting to watch. They even have Dominic Monaghan (Merry from LOTR) in it... I wonder if he lasts long though...

Anyway, LOST is showing every Thursday on AXN. Find it if you can.

Triple X

There has been quite a lot of hubbub around the future of the X-men movie franchise, especially after director Bryan Singer defected to the DC movie Superman, taking with him several actors (notably James "Cyclops" Marsden). Anyway, a new director for X3 has been named- never heard of him though- and there will be new characters joining the X-crew for the third film.
Joining Professor X, Wolverine and the rest will be the furry Beast, Cajun card-flinger Gambit and... get this... a FEMALE Angel. OOOH! Seeing as how a winged femme fatale was so cool in Constantine (a bitchy Gabriel, care of Tilda Swinton), I'm actually excited to see the girl-version of Warren Worthington. Heh.

Well, no word on the story, though judging from movie 2 the Dark Pheonix saga may be the thing that's in for the next one. As long as they still have Rebecca Romjin-Stamos as Mystique, I'm still in for it. Heheh.

Darna

As if in response to my recent interest in the upcoming Darna TV series, I got a reminder of how stinky the franchise can get via probably THE worst movie with the Darna title, the Anjanette Abayari-starrer, Darna: Ang Pagbabalik (I say probably since I am not sure if the one starring Nanette Medved was worse).

This movie just hits everything wrong. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE- from a campy Cherie Gil as Dr. Valentine (original villainess Valentina's daughter) who just goes hammy in her scenes as a demagogue/preacher complete with green-caped dancers and henchmen- to pretty much everyone from guards and passersby or crowds of extras who are just supposed to look up and gawk. The only one who doesn't overact is lead actress Anjanette herself- who UNDERacts. Plus, the portrayal of Darna herself is pretty stupid. She poses, she acts arrogantly and never seems to have any personality aside from smiling and looking sweet when she's being cheered by the masses. In one particular scene, she faces off with a gun-toting pretty boy named Magnum, who pretty much has shot over a dozen people (well, all of his gang). Instead of collaring this killer, Darna just exchanges some banter, then drops the guy in a garbage truck and laughs. Never mind that he gets away. How stupid is that?
Anyway, I've given up on director Peque Gallaga long ago, after crappers like his Magic Temple/Kingdom series, and all of his later Shake, Rattle and Roll films. And well, Anjanette was most probably selected for her ability to fill a bikini, not act (or speak tagalog, I think). Oh well.

Heh. Rant over. For now.

Poisonous Repast

What IS it with the cases of Food Poisoning these days??? First there was that horrible poisoning and death of over 28 students from cassava, and NOW there's this thing about a HUNDRED more people getting downed by party food in Tarlac. What is this... Deadly Food month? I honestly have never seen stuff like this before. Filipinos eat all sorts of crap each day- so why's this fad suddenly up and about?
Darn, just when you thought it was safe to eat some fishballs again...

Fruition

Tonight, I went to Comic Quest to pick up not only the week's new reads, but some page and cover samples of K.I.A. left by my one-man-band print production manager, El. I was kinda worried about how the art- much of it being heavy on black and tones- would look on the paper. Seems like my worries were for naught since the pages look simply excellent. That's what you get with quality printers and production people.
Based on how the pages and the printed covers (on the actual paper stock to be used this time) looked with the samples, the final books should look pretty slick. I just can't stop staring at them. Heh.

Anyway, I've been told that the books may be finished just before the Holy Week proper starts, but of course the first twenty copies I get will be earmarked for the members of Team K.I.A. who made this project possible. I should get down to producing the posters and any other display items I'll need for when we actually get the book on the comic racks in early April or so.

Just a little bit more. Wait for it.

Why are you eyeballing me???

I was just checking out the Angel Ace website, and then the K.I.A. cover art, and then the material for the K.I.A. webpage.
In the Angel Ace site, Kai's eyes are brown. In K.I.A., Agent K's eyes are GREEN.

GYAAAH!!!

Kai has always been an oriental/Asian character, and brown is always the base color. But then, I've always thought of her having green eyes... I love green. It's my favorite color and it's always been the color of Kai's outfits in all her incarnations and designs. I guess deep inside I've always thought that her eyes should be jade or emerald of hue.

Well, this inconsistency can easily be explained. After she was liquidated and sent to the place where she was to be 'changed', her identity was totally erased. Her fingerprints are removed and her eye color changed as well. We could also theorize that perhaps the change in eye color was caused by the process that gave Kai her heightened physical abilities and powers of regeneration. Perhaps... she's now actually part plant! Heh... Hmm. That's actually not a bad idea...

Whatever. Anyway, her peepers are green now. Moving on...

Brutal Fantasy


Rau and Tati are set to bloody your PS2 this April.

I've so far been very happy with my recent gaming acquisitions. Yeah, Champions: Return to Arms was really just more of the same, but Tekken 5 is simply awesome and Street Fighter Anniversary gives me my favorite Streetfighter III: Third Strike on the PS2. The next game I'm looking to own and enjoy is the sharp-looking Rise of the Kasai.
A sequel to The Mark of Kri, ROTK continues the story of Rau, the great Raku warrior-hero who bashed in skulls and impaled enemies with brutal efficiency. Well, he's back... sort of. ROTK is both prequel and sequel to MOK, taking place both ten years before and after the events in the first game. Apparenlty, in the present time, Rau has been mysteriously slain, so now his younger sister Tati, one of several new playable characters, takes up the quest to find out the circumstances around his death- and get some bloody payback while she's at it. Tati was a ten-year old in the first game, but in ROTK she's a hot 20-year old thong-wearing assassin chick who could give my own Agent K a lesson or two in looking mean. Anyway, the story revolves around Tati and the fact that she has been tattooed with a Mark of Kri- an evil spell that gives her great power at the cost of her soul.
Aside from the intriguing story of a whodunit-howdidit murder mystery and the internal/external struggles of the heroes, Rise of the Kasai will impress with it's odd combination of Disney-esque character designs and Conan the Barbarian-class death-dealing. Add to that stealth mechanics and a buddy-system (your character teams up with a CPU-AI controlled ally) and you get a game that mixes action and strategy in one sexy mix.

Rise of the Kasai is set for an early April release on the PS2. I can't wait to cut me some throats. Ooh, crispy!

Overtime

It's the third day of the week, and the third day we're doing overtime at The Salt Mines. It's not really that bad, but you do get positively pooped. I've had the case of the sniffles since Monday, and thankfully regular doses of vitamin C and rest have kept my nose from running completely wild. Anyway, it's great that we're able to accomplish stuff, and hopefully all this work will bear fruit later.
Still, I am DAMN glad that the Holy Week is just around the corner. Looking forward to just turning off my brain and pursuing some of my base desires... Darn, that sounds dirty. And during the Semana Santa too. Heh. Just gonna read comics, watch TV (gotta love cable) and dvds, play games, think about comics and marketing K.I.A. and all that jazz. Oh, and I'm gonna sleep. Sleep as much as I want. Mmm.

Lipad, Darna, LIPAD!


Angel Locsin dons the red bikini for the Darna TV series.

It's been revealed recently that the much-awaited Darna TV series will star actress Angel Locsin in the title role. Alessandra de Rossi as Darna's nemesis, Valentina. The series, to be shown on GMA7, will be directed by Dominic Zapanta. I had the opportunity to interview Direk Dom several months ago, and he seems to have lots of cool ideas... hopefully this will show in this ambitious series.
Darna TV will take on recent shows like the popular Mulawin (a saga of good vs evil birdmen) and perhaps Darna's most direct competition, the superhero series Krystala with Judy Ann Santos. There will be CG effects, flying, and fantastic foes from classic Darna characters to all-new enemies created just for the series.

According to Budjette, Valentina now looks like a female Omega Red, as she has but one snake on her head (instead of a nest of snakes, Medusa-style) and uses two snakes as whips. Another villain is Molekula, a shape-shifting character whom Budj describes as similar to the movie version of X-men's Mystique (is she naked, too? Heh).

I have to admit, I want to see this show, at least at the start. I wanna see if the story, effects and fights are any good.

We'll see if it flies. Heh.

The Darna TV series is set for release next month on GMA 7.

The Best Medicine

Last night I came home tired and feeling positively sick. My nose was all clogged up, My eyes ached and even my lips hurt. After having a shot of Vitamin C, I flopped into bed to get some rest since I couldn't NOT go to work the next day. Just before I nodded off, I turned on the TV and saw America's Funniest Videos on the Disney Channel. Of all the clips of people tripping, falling, slipping and sliding, the one video that had me laughing my eyes out was a really cute and funny clip entitled 'The Quad Squad'. The clip is from the home videos of Steve Mathias of his identical quadruplet baby girls, and has the doting father making faces to make his kids laugh, which they do- with identical laughs in unison. The sight of three identical babies laughing together was so infectious that I was literally laughing myself to tears (the cold helped).

Anyway, apparently the Quad Squad video won the grand prize for that season of America's Funniest Videos, something I am not surprised at. It was a nice image to see going to sleep, and perhaps it helped me recover from my stupor. Laughter really does help. Heh.

Revenge of the Trailer

Just saw the full-length trailer to Revenge of the Sith. FINALLY, the saga will be complete. The circle will be closed on this controversial trilogy. Yeah, it's a paradox. We all know it's got as much lousy acting, boring sequences and ungainly storytelling as it does cool CG effects and lightsaber duels, but we're still ALL going to watch it.
Anyway, the finale to the prequel trilogy looks to be the best, or the least worst, in that we will at last see the answers to the many questions that have been flitting since the fracas began. What will eventually push Anakin (Hayden Christensen) to the Dark Side? How did Palpatine/Sidious/The Emperor hide his presence from the Jedi even though audiences have known since Episode One? What will happen to the long-suffering Amidala (Natalie Portman) before she vanishes into the mists of obscurity into Episode VI and beyond?

ROTS promises lots of carnage- battles aplenty and a reckoning between the Jedi and the Separatist leaders Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and the new enemy, General Grievous. Jedi being hunted down like dogs by their former allies, the Clones. And the evil Sith in action. For the action alone, I'm looking forward to this. Acting? Story? We'll see. Maybe we'll be surprised. Or maybe not.

The Sith take their revenge on May 19 in the US, with the rest of the world following (hopefully) soon after. We'll see then.

Fickle

Last night, some bug seemed to hit my little gadgets, particularly my laptop, memory cards and PC. I usually ferry files between my PC and my Mac using a combination of my communicator (O2 XDA II) and a card reader, with either a Memory Stick or my 1 Gigabyte SD Card. Well, for some reason last night my Mac suddenly started refusing particular kinds of files, and things were hanging here and there. My card reader wouldn't register on the Mac. I had to restart and reboot my computers again and again, and it was infuriating.
Perhaps it was a all caused by the heat- it was damn hot and the laptop was steaming like a toaster. I had wanted to save a bit of electricity and do without the climate control, but you really can't do that when you have computers working.
Well, today everything seems to be working fine again... perhaps, like me, the technology just had a bit of the flu. Nothing a couple of vitamins and a good night's sleep can't handle. I hope.

Mock Up


K.I.A. in my hands... not.

No, the printers aren't finished yet. The K.I.A. issue in my hand is just a mock-up made with a sample print of the cover and the paper stock being used. Anyway, I know what's inside, so having this dummy is almost as good as having the real thing! Heheh... Right. It's just my way of coping with the wait. Gah.

Anticipated Flicks

Here are some of the upcoming movies I'm pretty excited to see...

Sin City
This film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novels about a gritty, crime and corruption-riddled burg and the colorful characters that reside in it looks like it was ripped straight from the page. A unique visual presentation, a cast of big-name actors and lots of sexy ladies makes this a must-see. I actually haven't read the comic yet, but I may soon enough.

Cool Stuff: Seeing Elijah Wood take an evil turn as a twisted psychopath Kevin. Watching deadly ninja babe Miho (Devon Aoki) in action. Seeing a comic book come to life in what director Robert Rodriguez touts as the most faithful adaptation ever. We'll see.

Batman Begins
Shedding off the gaudy silliness that marred the last film in this franchise, this latest caped crusader flick brings the story back to the beginning, focusing on the origin of Batman (Christian Bale) and his development from traumatized billionaire heir to masked, caped vigilante. New cast members fill in old roles- Michael Caine is Alfred, while Gary Oldman is James Gordon. Last Samurai's Ken Watanabe plays the devilish Ra's Al Ghul. Where's Talia though? Oh, and is Liam Neesonacting as a Jedi Master AGAIN?

Cool Stuff: Batman's new ride is more battle-ready than something chicks would dig. And what could be cooler than Batman versus ninja?

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
It's Spy Vs Spy in a domestic setting, but substitute gender for the sides of the struggle. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are a happy but bored couple who are in actuality each high-level assassins but unaware of each other's identities. When they are hired to off their spouse, fireworks ensue.

Cool Stuff: Seeing Achilles take on Lara Croft. It's intriguing to see how they actually handle this story- will it be comedic or dead-serious? And will we actually see either Pitt or Jolie (or both) bite the bullet? Probably not, but it'll be fun to see.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Yeah, I admit it. I want to see this. However, it's more to see whether George Lucas saved the worst or the least worst for last.

Cool Stuff: Seeing Sith in action and kicking those namby-pamby goody-two shoes stoopid Jedis butts. HAH!


On the Other Hand, I'm not too hot about these...

Robots
Boooorrrrriinng. From the makers of Ice Age comes this yarn about a country botkin going to try his luck in the big city. Yawn. Yeah, the animation and design should be interesting... if you're a robot enthusiast. I don't even like robot anime, so this really isn't for me.

Fantastic Four
"Five go into space. One will become BAD. Four will become... FANTASTIC!" Geh.

Madagascar
I don't like robots, and I don't like animals either...

All in all, the future looks good for MAD movies in the next few months. Hopefully I'll have time to visit the theaters when the good ones hit.

Killer Inevitable Anticipation

It never fails. I can tell when I'm close to releasing a comic. I've done it a lot of times and it's always the same thing. Last night, I just stayed in The Sanctum, pacing back and forth, alternating between staring at a mock-up of the final comic, and reading issues of past local indies that I've collected.
Maybe I should bring out the ol' comics more often, and read through them more. It's fun- like going back in time, when enthusiasm for making comics was at an all-time high, when stories and art didn't seem to need to be technically sound, when everything seemed to have to stop at a cliffhanger.
I took a ton of them out from the shelf- oldies like the pioneer comics- Flashpoint, Shadow/Scions, P-Noise/Indigo Valley, TKS: The Killstalker/Age of the Valkyrie, Alamat 101, Memento Mori, Exodus. Then there are the later books- Myth Class, Wasted, Dhampyr, Pantheon, Horus, K2K... all the way to the more recent Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden, Siglo: Freedom, Darna, Lastikman and the latest releases of Ignition Comix, Chips and the latest indies. Looking back at where local indies started from is always important for me, prior to releasing anything new. It's a way for me of gauging I guess how far I have come, how much I have learned or changed, and what I have to do to improve even further.
Gosh. Those were the days.

Anyway, things are so different now. Artists and creators are so much better, with a better command of art and technique. Competition is not as intense as before, since there are fewer releases, but it will always be there. Every release is a challenge to others to do better. And I relish this... I love getting better at what I do. And I love doing comics.

Darn, next week can't come soon enough.

When Worlds Collide


No, it's not a fantasy. It is truth.

First it was Marvel VS Capcom. Then, the unthinkable happened with SNK VS Capcom. And now, we have Namco VS Capcom, putting the two makers of arguably the two most popular fighting game franchises (Street Fighter and Tekken) together in one game.
But unlike previous Capcom Versus games, Namco X Capcom (tentative title) is not a fighting game, but an RPG. We don't know the story yet, but the game will bring together characters from the various titles and franchises of each company's stable. So, expect characters from Streetfighter, Resident Evil, Megaman and more to interact with personages from Tekken, Xenosaga, Tales of Destiny and other Namco games.
No word yet if or when the game will hit a US release, but the popularity of both companies should make this a no-brain release for the world.

Another Crossover Collision coming in the near future- Nemesis, which brings characters from Marvel Comics up against a new wave of characters created by Electronic Arts entertainment. This will result in not just a game but actual comics. Interesting stuff... we'll see if any of them are worth squat when they all come out later this year.


From Right to Left: Ryu from Streetfighter, Jin Kazama from Tekken and Hideo from Rival Schools. And some robot dude.

Fatality

In a bit of tragic videogame-related news, five boys aged 13 to 16 have been arrested in Latvia for the murder of one of their friends. The boys apparently beat the 16-year old victim to death using moves and techniques emulated from Mortal Kombat. Now, the Latvian authorities aren't wholly blaming videogames, citing also violence on TV and movies, and of course the suspects probably had their reasons for the heinous act.
Anyway, I've always heard stories about little kids doing 'Hadokens' and Dragon Punches in play, sometimes getting hurt in the process. It's a parent's responsibility to keep an eye on their kids, not particularly to focus on videogames, but on their kids' behavior and upbringing in general.

Gantz


Pick your weapon.

Last night before going to bed I watched one episode of the controversial anime Gantz. This show was supposedly heavily-edited before it was shown in Japan TV because of the gory violence and stuff, so I was actually kinda pumped to see it. Unfortunately, I don't have the first two episodes, so I had to start with episode three.
Anyway, the show is about a youth named Kei Kurono who gets run over by a train with his pal. While the gory way they get run over is one of the controversial bits, I've read that the real cause for the hubbub is how this show portrays how people act as impassive voyeurs when their fellow men are in danger, treating death as a spectacle and little else. This pretty nihilistic view is questionable in my view, but whatever.
After getting killed, Kei and his friend suddenly find themselves in a small sealed apartment, with some other people (also recently deceased) and a BIG black ball. The ball, known as The Gantz, has various alien weaponry inside it (and also apparently a human body) which it distributes to the 'contestants' for the game. This game is pretty clear- they have to kill or dispatch some hidden aliens. The contestants have a limited time to complete their missions; failure means permanent death. Survival and terminating the aliens means continued play.

Well, my comments on the first episode are mixed. For a Gonzo anime, this show looks pretty BAD. The computer effects aren't too impressive, and the character animation, even little things like how they talk, is awkward and badly done, to the point that I thought this was made at best by less-skilled Korean animators, or at worst an amateur, fan-made feature. I don't know if this was intentional or what, but it just looks BAD. The voice acting is also on the annoying side; the dialogue is irritating with lots of awkward filler and your usual anime cliche speak with the whiny hero, the screechy girl and the shady, amoral practical guy. The talking went a bit like this...

Kei: WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!!!
Other Guy: I don't have to tell you.
Kei: YOU HAVE TO TELL US!!!
Other Guy: Okay, I will.
Kei: I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!!!
Other Guy: You don't have to believe me. You're all hypocrites.
Kei: I'M NOT A HYPOCRITE!!!

Bah.

Maybe it's not fair to judge the show on this one episode (and episode three at that), but really, I wasn't that impressed. However, I'm willing to watch the next couple of episodes to see if it's going anywhere, and if the quality of the visuals and audio improves. Anyway, the third episode didn't blow me away particularly to be controversial or anything... in fact, the most horrifying thing I saw was the substandard visuals and animation given that this is by Gonzo, one of my favorite anime production houses. Well, with them doing a G.I. Joe OAV, a Witchblade anime and probably tons of other stuff, maybe they're spreading themselves a bit too thin.

Cameraphones

Yesterday night, while talking over details about the K.I.A. webpage with my friend Drew, I got a text from El asking 'Aside from MMS, Phlogging and Wallpapers, what can I do with photos taken with my cellphone?'

Hmmm. Well, last night all I could think of was 'reference'. I mean, if you found something you like- a design or a certain artwork or piece of architecture, you could snap a pic and take it back with you. Thinking it through though, here are some other uses for cameraphone pics...

Identifying crooks! If you recognize someone as a shady character featured in the classifieds, snap a pic as proof and show it to the cops. You may even earn a reward!

Be an instant Paparazzi! On those rare occasions that you cross paths with a tinseltown personality, sexy screen siren or other media luminary, you can remember this momentous occasion with a click of the phone. And with the magic of Photoshop you can even show yourself getting intimate with 'em. Heh.

Call for help! If you get lost, you can take a pic of some landmark and send it to your peeps to help them send the cavalry to pick you up.

Ghost Hunting! Find yourself in a creepy building? Make the most of the situation by snapping pics and who knows... you could catch some spectral activity and have your pic featured on 'Wag Kukurap.

PORN. Even better with a videocam feature. Nuff said.

There are probably lots and lots more uses for the nice, low-res but ubiquitous photos you can take with your trusty cameraphone. I still think that iimage capture is still one of the best developments in mobiles, not the least of which is that it turned all of us into voyeurs and released the potential stalkers in all of us. YAY! Isn't technology grand?

Cab Story

On the way to work today, I took a cab and halfway to the office the cabbie talked to me about how gas prices are going to go up again today. The talk eventually led to his situation at work, where in one of his jobs (where he has been working for 17 years) he hasn't been paid his salary for 11 months. Though I was only half-listening at the outset, hearing this made my hackles rise. I can't fathom not getting paid for one month- HOW THE HECK CAN YOU SURVIVE WITHOUT BEING PAID FOR ALMOST A YEAR??? Well, apparently the guy has other works that keeps him and his family (he has four kids) from starving. But sometimes, they fall short and sometimes had to practically beg the company to dole out some cash (the last time being to pay for their kid's medical bills). Of course, their company has assets and their boss supposedly has NINE cars and all the upper management people are well off.
Well, after taking all that shit they finally got together to go to the Department of Labor to help them out. I pretty much told him to keep at it until they nail their frickin' corrupt bosses to cough up what's due. It's just crazy.

Anyway, got down and got to work. Damn, do I feel lucky.

Hell and Back Again


Koff-koff... HAAAHHKK... Guhk...

FINALLY got to watch the movie Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz, and based on the comic Hellblazer. Now, I'm not really a fan of the comic, though I've seen the character in stuff like Books of Magic. Basically, John Constantine is a cigarette-smoking mystic who spends his days exorcising demons and sending evil half-demons back to Hell if they go out of line and break the truce between Heaven and Earth. The reason for this is hardly altruistic on John's part- because of a sin he committed years ago, he's condemned to damnation when he dies (which is SOON, since he's just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer), so now he's trying to 'buy' his way back to Heaven. However, according to the Angel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton), he's got about as much chance as an ice cube in an inferno.
But when a police detective (Rachel Weisz) comes to him asking to look into the supposed suicide of her twin sister, he finds himself in a race to stop a plot to unleash Hell on Earth.

Perhaps it helped that I'm not a fan of the comic book, or perhaps it's just that I really don't have any biases against Keanu Reeves' movies... but I really just liked this movie. The story's not bad, the effects are pretty slick, and the action, suspense and atmosphere make this a particularly hellish experience to watch- which in this case is not a bad thing. Anyway, for a two-hour movie it went by quite quickly without any real slow or boring parts. I'm quite glad I was able to watch it in the theaters, instead of at home on DVD.

Anyway, watched it at Cubao's Gateway Mall- and I have to say that the central Cubao area looks pretty awesome, with lots of nice restos and bright lights. The Gateway Mall theaters are also quite nice. I'd probably go and watch more movies there again when I can.

Book For Barter


Hai's and Jason DeAngelis' Blade for Barter.

I woke up today with a pleasant surprise- a package arrived from ol' Hai. I opened it to find a brand-spankin' new copy of Blade for Barter, one of the first wave of new manga from Seven Seas Publishing.
The book is about the adventures of Ryunosuke Washington, a samurai-for-hire living in New Edo, a city which appears to be a mix of New York and Ancient Japan. We follow Ryu as he tries to walk the straight-and-narrow path in a world gone crazy, clashing with baddies like the corrupt Samurai Union, the Mafuza (Mafia-Yakuza?) and a Mad Overlord named Lord Hoseki. The series is written by Jason DeAngelis with art by Hai.

The book looks like a load of fun, with Hai's clean lines resulting in pages that are light and cartoony, but at times maddeningly detailed and full like something you'd see from Larry Alcala's Slice of Life cartoons. It kinda gives me the impression of how Sergio Aragones' Groo would look done in manga. Cool stuff.

It's a really slick first-release from Seven Seas, and it shows how this new publisher has their act together. They're ready to take on the biggie Tokyo Pop. I'm pretty excited to see what they come up with next. Good work, Hai!

Copycats

I find it pretty funny how local TV is aping the current popular trends on cable and foreign channels. The demand for horror started by Asian movies like Ringu resulted in Nginiig: The Hidden FIles and rival Walang Kukurap. The reality-TV craze spawned things like Extra Challenge and other star-making vehicles. I find particularly funny is one show about dancing that is imitating American Idol, with a panel of judges who make comments and throw barbs or challlenges at the contestants. The crappy thing is, WHO are these judges? Do they have a right to even judge these contestants?
Another pretty apish new local show is Kamao, a reality-TV boxing show which is an obvious imitation of the about-to-be-shown The Contender with Sylvester Stallone. Wow, that was fast.

Well, whatever works and sells, I guess. The local channels really need to make money.

I suppose it could be worse. In another world, we might have Alyas, a drama-action series about a female deep-cover NBI agent posing as a courier in a crime syndicate who likes to wear red wigs... or maybe Ligaw, which has an ensemble cast of characters stuck on a deserted island with bloodthirsty aswang... or maybe CSI Manila, with local techniques like torture substituting for forensics and technology. Hey, these things actually don't sound that bad. Heh.