The Carver's House

Image from BusinessWorld Online The musical opened last May 7, and the reviews are in. Below are just a few of them--thankfully, looks like people seem to like the show. Thanks to all the kind folks who took the time to write reviews. Also, thanks to those who have watched the show more than once. But first, a featurette from ANC... From Inquirer.net "As for the length, my gay friend Philip hates musicals like a heartbreak but he finished it and told his friends he didn’t even notice it’s three hours long." -- Totel de Jesus From Juice.ph "Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady is so enjoyable because it takes the tight, strong narrative of Carlo Vergara’s comic and adds flourishes of song and dance at just the right moment that you are carried away into this comedic farce that tackles a host of issues and themes — colonialism, hard work versus laziness, gratitude, elitism, celebrity culture, love in the workplace, finding something inside you that is ...

Last 2012, I came up with the idea of a simple story involving a maid of a superhero team. It was supposed to be a one-act play, but I didn't know what I could do with the idea to make it a 45-minute acting piece. "Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady" (How I Became Leading Lady) eventually got penned in early 2013, and was accepted in the 9th Virgin Labfest. Not sure about the story's future, I had a comics adaptation made. The 72-pager was released in late-2013. The play was later chosen to be restaged in 2014, something I'm extremely grateful for. But I thought that was it. But, no. Fast forward to 2015, the one-act play will open as a full-length musical this May. Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady: The Musical is being produced by Dalanghita Productions, and will run from May 7 to June 7 this year. It will take place at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City. Music and lyrics are by Vincent deJesus, Production Design by Tuxqs Rutaquio, Choreo...

It's an irrational fear, or course. But I can only hope that, if ever the Metro Manila subway project pushes through, the government will do a better job maintaining it. You can read a proposal for the Metro Manila subway through this link . Please share if you like this comic. :-)

In the previous blog post , we proposed that comics creators can start building an audience by creating and sharing comics blog posts as an alternative to the usual text posts. The idea is that when a comics creator creates engaging comics blog posts, these posts have a high chance of being shared. The shareability of a blog post is important. When people like something they see on the Web, there's a good chance that they'll share it, which leads to the comics creator's website getting more visits. This is an important step in attracting fans. But what kind of blog posts gets more shares? It boils down to three things: Topic , Format , and Takeaway . Topics for Comics Blog Posts To know what topics are good for comics blog posts, we only have to look at our Facebook news feeds to see what people are sharing. Usually, these are general-interest topics, or topics that a wide audience is interested in: Dating and Romance Career and Making Money Fitness and Health...

This is a continuation of the previous blogpost   about a comics marketing framework that indie comics creators can use. One of the first things mentioned in that post is the use of comics blogposts to attract audiences and build your author brand. A comics blogpost is simply that: a comic that’s 12 panels or less. You can make a comics blogpost about anything. It’s really no different from comics strips, except that you’re not limited to the usual three to four panels. It’s more flexible. Using comics blogposts is a content marketing tactic comics creators can use to build their author brand. The benefits are: 1) The principle of low commitment. This is the biggest advantage. People on the Web are generally looking for quick reads when they’re on social media. If you post 22 pages of a comics story online, there are very few people who will take the time to read them all. With a comics blogpost, a reader can dive right in and get the whole “story” in around a minute or ev...

Click on the image for a larger version. The image gives an overview of the marketing funnel as described in the previous blogpost. It's based on the hundreds of podcast episodes I've listened to over the past year on online entrepreneurship, online marketing, and self-publishing. Because there are very few resources out there that talk about these topics as applied to the comics-making space, I decided to think just a bit too much and come up with something. In a nutshell, it's a proposal for the indie comic book creator on how to attract audiences from both the general public and the comics crowd to visit a comics website and lead interested visitors into sampling/buying long-form comics. (brief explanation after the graphic) Comics Blogposts For the general audience, use comics blogposts, or blogposts that are in comics form. A comics blogpost is a kind of webcomic, but the main difference is that it showcases the author instead of a specific stor...

For the past couple of months, I've been putting together an ebook, "Website Traffic For The Indie Comic Book Creator," which is a method that indie comic book creators can use to generate website traffic and build an audience. I dunno if it's going to work, or if the information is valuable enough. But I've let a few indie creators read the first couple of drafts and so far the response has been positive. I was thinking of putting the ebook up for sale, but I'm still iffy. So I've posted the first ten pages here. Anyone can read through this and tell me if it's interesting enough. I might just post the whole thing online for free reading, and sell the compilation (with bonus material) later on. Note that the pages below don't have much when it comes to illustrations. I want to put some drawings in there for a later draft, just to make it more visually appealing. Plus, you might catch some typos. ...