The Carver's House

Some of you may have already seen this illustration over at the Zaturnnah Facebook page . I'm reposting it here, the before and after versions. (Click on image to enlarge) Incidentally, Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Ze Muzikal earned seven nominations from the 2nd Philstage Awards for the Performing Arts. The Tanghalang Pilipino hit musical is vieing for the following awards: OUTSTANDING MUSICAL PRODUCTION OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL OUTSTANDING FEMALE LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL Eula Valdes OUTSTANDING MALE LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL Nar Cabico Joey Paras OUTSTANDING MUSICAL DIRECTION Vincent De Jesus OUTSTANDING MUSICAL COMPOSITION Vincent De Jesus Congratulations to Tanghalang Pilipino! See the complete list of noms at Gibbs Cadiz's blog .

From Yahoo! News: "...a Taiwanese-American strategy consultant who goes by the Web handle "jozjozjoz," thought it was funny that the camera had difficulties figuring out when her family had their eyes open. So she posted a photo of the blink warning on her blog under the title, "Racist Camera! No, I did not blink... I'm just Asian!" " And something simple I cooked up (click image to enlarge). Read the entire news article here.

Shown here are two panels I'm quite proud of (click on the image to enlarge). I took some time thinking about how to compose them and what sort of props would go into them, down to the pattern on Gwyneth's goblet. I also like how cleanly my lines ended up, like Ada's hair and the little basket filled with sewing thingies. I wish all the panels of the book would come out this way. The punchline? These panels are "rejected." They will never see print. Not to say that they're not good enough. It's just that they didn't fit anymore. When I painstakingly reworked the script, a very draining activity, this simple event -- Gwyneth talking to Ada and Dodong in the living room -- didn't happen. Sort of a "Sliding Doors" moment, and the rest of the first two chapters changed for the most part. Hopefully for the better of the whole. There are times when we need to change the way we do things if we intend to move forward. The first way, the most comf...

Click on the image to enlarge. Rough drawing can be found in a previous post.

Click on the image to enlarge. It's still unfinished.

Ooooh-kayyy... here goes. First of all, I know that it's been over 18 months since I released the preview pages, and it's only proper for me to tell you that completion for the Zaturnnah sequel will still take a while. I'm breaking the promise I made to myself. No major comics work from me in 2009. The number of completed pages to date is 34. That's a small jump compared to the original 14 early last year. I'm working on the 35th page. Estimated page count for the entire sequel is a whopping 258--over 100 pages thicker than the first book--with eight chapters and an epilogue. Apart from a few text edits, nothing in the 14 preview pages will change. My mistake #1: Posting preview pages even though I wasn't 100% confident about the plot. At this point, after over a year of daily thinking and rethinking (and overthinking, headaches and nausea included), plus outlining, charting, and tracking the physical and emotional throughlines of the principal characters, the...

I've always wondered how the Zaturnnah story would look in color. Knowing, however, that a color book would be next to impossible (not to mention expensive), I've always drawn my work with a black-and-white mindset. Anyway, two fine souls gave the coloring a shot. The image on the left was colored by TornElf and the one on the right was by samboyy , both of whom are on DeviantArt. Click here and here to get a full page view. (When you get to the DeviantArt page, click on the image to enlarge it.) Thanks to these fine artists for taking the time. Thanks, too, to Joel Chua.

A pose study, with the objective of depicting shape and volume in body forms, particularly the gluteals. Original in pencil. Colored in Photoshop.

I dropped by the Metro Comic-Con last Saturday for a little go-see. Despite the Megatrade Hall being a bit too spacious, the event appeared well-attended, though I didn't stay too long. After so many years of not having any major project to promote, I felt a bit like a fish out of water. In between chatting with Wilson Tortosa, Syeri Baet, Lyndon Gregorio and Johnny Danganan, saying hello to Budjette Tan and Gilbert Monsanto, and taking pics with Gio Paredes and Gener Pedrina, I picked up a few comics here and there. While I do enjoy reading the works of my fellows, there comes the occasional tinge of quiet envy, like I've been lax at this whole comics-making thing while the others religiously keep the pages coming. I do have that six-pager in the first Komikero Komiks anthology, and I'm submitting an eight-pager for its third issue. There's also another Graphic Classics assignment due in a few months... But I neeeeed to get a big, fat book out. It's like a deliciou...

Haven't blogged because my mind has gone sluggish, making it hard to work. Plus I've been feeling quite irritable. I attribute these to the nicotine withdrawal--already on my 22nd day--but I've been pushing to keep myself perky and positive. Anyway, the last movie I saw was Ang Tanging Ina Ninyong Lahat , a flick I expected to enjoy because I adored Ang Tanging Ina . The new Ai-Ai delas Alas starrer was entertaining enough, and its dramatic moments did well to avoid the histrionics. The overall film, however, didn't match the sincerity I felt with the first film. Still worth a watch, though. I'm excited to see Thank You Girls . And has anyone seen Love Me Again ? - - - - - - - - - I went to a feng shui event last Saturday. The coming Chinese New Year is the year of the Earth Ox. Lucky number is nine. Lucky colors are purple and green. Keep the north part of the house quiet and the south part of the house active. Monkeys will have a fanastic year. The publishing indu...

Ohhh-kay... here's the first round of info that has yet to be confirmed about the February 2009 run of the Zaturnnah musical. Again, I'm still awaiting the final confirmation, though these dates are almost good to go. Feb 6, 13 (Fri) 8PM Feb 7, 14 (Sat) 3PM & 8PM Feb 8, 15 (Sun) 3PM & 8PM Mar 6 (Fri) 8PM Mar 7 (Sat) 3PM & 8PM Mar 8 (Sun) 3PM & 8PM That's a total of 15 shows. Ticket prices will be at P500, P600 and P700. (Still pretty reasonable, if you compare them with the ticket prices of other professional theater companies.) More to come as new info rolls in, particularly that important bit about getting tickets.

Had a meeting over the weekend with Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) and, yes, curtains will rise for the 6th run of the "Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal" in February 2009 for 15 shows. Auditions have taken place to fill in slots for the chorus, as well as a new Dodong (again!) to alternate with Arnold Reyes. Eula Valdes will reportedly do all the shows barring any schedule conflicts. Tuxqs Rutaquio, Joey Paras and Kalila Aguilos will reprise their roles as Ada, Didi, and Queen Femina, respectively. Sounds like a great Valentine's date, don'cha think? This latest staging of TP's song-and-dance extravaganza will have the 400+ seater CCP Little Theater as its venue. More details over the next few weeks. (Oh, and forgive the shameless plug, but the book is still available in bookstores... in case you're searching for a last-minute Christmas gift. Heehee) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I'll be signing off from the blog for now unless announcements have to be made. Thank ...

If there was one thing I learned while working for Real Living that I'm applying in comics is the idea of character in setting--that a place has a life of its own. That setting contributes significantly to the story experience by inviting a reader to immerse him or herself into the new world. If I had taken up architecture in UP during my college days, I'd think that my sense for setting would've then been developed. Setting has always been an important element when I make comics, ever since I started with Flashpoint in 1993, but a lot of it has been on the surface. I didn't study it extensively back then--as long as I gave my settings enough detail, it should be fine. But now, I'm more conscious of history, of design, of detail, of styling, of culture, just through my magazine work. Add to that my conversations with friends who were into interior decor and production design, and I consider myself forever changed as a comics creator. Whenever I'd go to Manila ...

Took me a month to get six prologue pages done because of the other things I had to do. Darn. But at least that's a total of twenty pages of the sequel off my back. Now I can continue chapter one.

Yes, I'm moving slowly, but I'm moving nonetheless. Below are three pages from the Prologue, though I opted not to include the word balloons. Let them hold some surprises.

Looks like the Broadway musical adaptation of Spiderman is becoming spectacular even in production cost. News all over the web is pinning the warbling webslinger's stage debut at $30 to $40 million, the highest bank breaker in Broadway so far. Just to give you an idea of how expensive that is, the films Cloverfield , The Sixth Sense , and Chicago had production budgets hovering around that amount. (I couldn't find resources on Broadway musical budgets.) Superman had his try at a stage musical over 40 years ago, when "It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman" debuted on Broadway. The musical was later adapted into a television special. And, yes, Tanghalang Pilipino had already asked me about adapting the Zaturnnah sequel for the stage. I naturally agreed, but I'll have to get the book out first. (shiver)

When I was in my mid-twenties, I applied for a position in a company that published catalogs of Chinese products for industrial clients as well as a business magazine for managers. During the interview, I was asked what my five-year goal was. And I, in want of a decent answer, resorted to the clichéd "setting up a business." The interviewer, an American, then asked what kind of business I wanted to get into, and I said that I wanted to put together a business magazine that catered to young adults in their late-teens to mid-twenties. It was to be the "for dummies" type of magazine that covered the basics of setting up and operating a small business--think Entrepreneur meets Chalk . I had more conviction over that magazine idea, because back then I had already been buying World Executive's Digest on a semi-regular basis (it was my secret guilty pleasure apart from Tagalog melodramas and kungfu flicks), depending on how much money I had at the time. The magazine,...

Limited stocks of the Zaturnnah Muzikal soundtrack are up for sale, according to the mega-talented Vince deJesus. Jump to his Multiply page for more information . :-)