The Carver's House

Yes, it's a development that came as a surprise, even to me. It was enough that my play was able to bag a slot in Virgin Labfest 9, and that audiences seemed to like it. That the play was selected to be restaged in next year's Labfest (June 2014) was a bonus. It was a great learning experience seeing the words on paper translated pitch-perfectly on the theatre stage by Kiki Baento, Skyzx Labastilla, and Hans Eckstein, under the able direction of Chris Martinez. I thought of adapting the play into a comic book, not just for the purposes of cross-media extension, but also because I do know that a lot of plays staged in the Captial Region hardly get a chance to reach the provinces. The comic book cannot replicate the theatre experience, but at least I can share the story outside the capital. Then... bazoom!! When the producers of Maxie: The Musicale (a definite must-see; worth every penny) contacted me with the intention of turning the one-act play into a musical, I was, we...

I wrote and illustrated this comics short in 2004 and decided to post it online since, well, it is that time of year. The story is set during the final months of the Second World War in the island of Palawan. It's about a young man's encounter with a nature spirit, and it's got that gay theme going. It's not a comedy, and I apologize if the captions are a bit difficult to read. Click on each page to enlarge (if the result is still small, click on the image to magnify), and then hit the BACK button to return to this page. page 1   page 2   page 3     page 4     page 5     page 6     page 7     page 8     page 9     page 10     page 11     page 12     page 13     page 14   THE END.

This is what the outside cover spread will look like. Back cover art is by the book's artist Elmer Cantada. You can also find Elmer's artwork in Black Ink Comics' "Vergil: The Warrior Angel," which is available at National Bookstore. I've made a few changes to the script for the comics adaptation, but the text is mostly intact. I'm presently coordinating with super publisher Visprint on the edits and finalization of graphics files for production. This can be a meticulous process; I'm sure those of you who have worked in publishing in one way or another know how much of a necessary evil editing is. If you didn't already know, the play will be restaged in June next year, during the 10th Virgin Labfest at the CCP. Anyway, we're gunning for this November's Komikon to release this baby. I hope it'll make it to the bookstores soon after that, though I don't know if it will be available in stores before Christmas. Here's a...

In the previous blog post , we talked about the one principle that drives most, if not all, marketing efforts for a product. And that's making sure that the perceived value of a product trumps the perceived cost associated with it. Value is relative. What's valuable to you may not be as valuable to your friend. That's why we call it perceived value. If you observe some of the recent shampoo ads shown on television, you'll note how marketers zero in on specific values to make their shampoos stand out: For instance, 1) In an ad for Pantene featuring KC Concepcion, the benefit that was emphasized was "you don't need a comb," aptly named, "The No-Comb Revolution."  2) In an ad for Sunsilk featuring Sarah Geronimo, the benefit that was emphasized was "great hair for 25 hours," which they encapsulized in a "25-Hour Challenge." 3) Meanwhile, Tresemme ads stress the value of "salon quality hair." (This is reinforc...

Over on Facebook, a discussion took place about how Philippine publications can make headway in the crowded book market dominated by mostly American books. Like many other authors, I find it sad to see the big bookstores display foreign titles prominently in their display windows. In the stores themselves, the Filipiniana section is somewhere in the midst of the sea of shelves. In that discussion, the participants were talking about distribution issues, from the lack of distribution channels to the difficulty in convincing the big bookstores to push local books. These concerns are all valid, for sure, and these issues are similarly faced by Filipino comics creators. But is distribution really the main issue? I will argue that if distribution was the main problem, then every product displayed prominently in every mega-chain retail establishment would have no problem getting sold to the satisfaction of their manufacturers. But we all know that's not true. Hundreds of products the...

The news industry is abuzz with reports of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos'purchase of The Washington Post for US$250 million, said to come from the liquidation of his Amazon stocks. As of this writing, that amount translates to Php10.88 billion. (It's actually Php10.885. I just took out the 5.) If you had Php10.88 billion, what would you do? To put things in perspective, I made a few calculations, since I'm wont to doing these things as a mental exercise. The examples below do not take inflation into account. MALLS If you allot Php2 billion to start and operate a modest-sized mall, you can build five malls, and you've got spare change to invest somewhere else. (SM Aura was reported to have cost Php3.5 billion.) CONDOMINIUM If you allot Php1.5 billion to build a 300-unit condominium building (DMCI was reported to have invested Php 1.3 billion in a 560-unit Ohana Residences), you'll have seven such buildings. HOUSING If you allot Php100 million to build and furni...

Backstory is essentially everything that happened before your story starts. Alan Moore recommends building a Backstory as one of the first steps in creating a comics story. By building a substantial background for your character and his world, you'll have a goldmine of sources for story. But maybe you don't have the time, so let's see how we can get the ball rolling quickly. To start a story, we asked you to list a series of Story Events, focusing on your character as he makes his way through his day. In following your character, you may have had him talking to other characters, going to different locations, essentially living his Ordinary Life. You continue listing Story Events until you reach a Disturbance, which launches your character into an adventure. But what if you can't find a Disturbance? The easiest way to identify a Disturbance is to find out what will literally disturb your character enough to leave his Ordinary Life. Here's a question to get yo...