crosshatching

It’s so good looking my pocket’s already hurting.

Damn you Hot Toys!

Jon Favreau really knows how to please Marvel geeks.  I guess it’s true what they say, it takes one to know one.  In a sense that should be the way all Comic Book movies should be made; by them fans.  They don’t try to make their own version and they definitely have faith in the resource material and respect it.  It has worked pretty well with Sin City, Spider-man 1 and 2, 300, and personal fave, The Watchmen.

I can’t say the same for Spidey 3, Wolverine, Fantastic 4 franchise, and partially the X-men franchise (but definitely hated part 3).

Can’t wait to see Iron Man 2.  I hope it will also be shown in 3d hehe

Toy geeks salivate…

This looks so cool and the only thing missing is the actual ability to fly.  The engineering in this build makes it a feasible start for a remote control toy.  Shoot, I may be willing to burn a hole in my pocket if that comes to reality

Below is a sampler of artworks within Renaissance: Ang Muling Pagsilang

The book contains 60 contributions from the country’s acclaimed illustrators in popular culture, local and abroad, who have come together to generate funds for last years typhoon victims, still struggling even months after. And to raise awareness to the resurgence of Filipino creativity in the field of entertainment and mass media.

There will be a book tour for a chance to meet some of the artists involved in the book.  So if you haven’t purchased Renaissance yet, grab one now at any National Bookstore branch

Nope it’s not about female characters appearing in the funny books, rather those who work on books.

During the last couple of Cons we’ve attended and on the radio interview, people asked why the Comics industry is dominated by males.  It wasn’t the first time I had been asked that; the first time was  from a female friend who had then aspired to be a colorist.  She didn’t feel at all positive or at least motivated to enter the business because of the male-female ratio.

I told her that it’s probably more on personal interest.  I’ve observed more guys are interested in drawing. And we all know a lot are also interested in comics.  And since the more famous genre happens to be superheroes, adventure, and sci-fi rather than romance and drama and fantasy, guys are easily drawn in.  Males tend to relate to adventure stuff and sometimes daydream or fantasize about being the hero.  I guess that’s why they say females are more mature than us hehe.  (I remember being chastised back in college by a a friends Highschool girlfriend of  being childish, because I loved to draw hero stuff)

If the market was saturated with romance comics it would be safe to say there’d be a lot of female creators.  Girls love novels, IMO novels aren’t really that much different from comics.  That’s probably why more girls turn up as writers.

Another factor maybe was Read the rest of this entry »

Left-Right: Max-c Cubacub, Ruben Nacion, DJ Angel Rivero, Heubert Khan Michael, and DJ Ramon Bautista – 25-Feb-2010

Went out of town along with other Renaissance Artists for an interview on the radio show Brewrats of UFM 92.3.  It was fun meeting the trio most of us got to know as the crew of Strangebrew, a tv show that once aired in UNTV.

Tado, Angel Rivero, and Ramon Bautista had carried over their weird yet amusing humor, and the interview was generally fun.  The Picture on the left (left -right) is Max-c Cubacub, Ruben Nacion, host Angel Rivero, Heubert Khan Michael, and host Ramon Bautista.

More pictures can be seen at my Multiply page… and hehe you’ll see we never wasted the chance to get in a photo with models / DJs Sarah Meiers and Vicky Herrera; sister of Project Runway Philippines host  Teresa Herrera.  And they were undeniably striking.

I can’t really remember if the interview went well, because Tado and Ramon were always cracking us up.  And coincidentally we were the show’s last guest before they move to a new building.

Wishing you more power guys and good luck on your new home

Tado and ReNAYsans

Tado and ReNAYsans – 25-Feb-2010

Angel "Erning" Rivero

Angel "Erning" Rivero – 25-Feb-2010

Ramon Bautista loves the book

Ramon Bautista loves the book – 25-Feb-2010

Me, along with Ruben Nacion, Ernest Hernandez, And Heubert Khan Michaell

Me, along with Ruben Nacion, Ernest Hernandez, And Heubert Khan Michaell – 25-Feb-2010

– 25-Feb-2010

– 21-Feb-2010

On the left is from February 21’s Comic Convention for a Cause; Renaissance. That’s us with Actor Comedian Michael V, who some of you may not realize is an awesome artist and once started off as a comic book penciller.  More pictures can be found here

An event put together by HobbyLink Productions and Anvil Publishing to help fellow Filipinos still struggling even long after the Calamities that struck us late last year.  It is also the official book’s namesake, that was launched on the same day, featuring a collection of artwork from Filipino creators including myself.

The book was initially envisioned by Superstars Philip Tan and Whilce Portacio, and the roster quickly grew to 60 creators each more than willing to give their time and effort to provide art for the book.  The title was chosen as an emphasis to the re-emerging passion for Filipino Komiks, and it does have some semblance for the purpose of giving new beginnings for those affected by the typhoons.  All artworks by the way will be auctioned off and the funds generated will go to the cause.   Aside from raising funds for the benefit of the Ondoy and Peping victims, the event hopes to jumpstart a foundation that would aid Filipino Creators in their time of need.

And in that spirit, the money collected from sketch requests and “internal” sales from Leinil Yu’s sketchbook were given to the late Arlan Esmeña’s family.  An amazing artist, Arlan left us last February 18 at an age too young.   I have only met Arlan twice, thrice if you include the first time he was introduced and I was absent minded to remember.

So big thanks to those who participated and supported the event, ‘ika nga nakakataba ng puso

I suddenly had the urge to do a long overdue update of this site and from time to time it may change, and could become irritating.  So right now I apologize for future inconveniences.

Anyway, so what have I been up to? If you have noticed I’m not in recent books these past few months.

Since July 2009 I’ve been having some pretty nasty headaches, and was initially diagnosed with Cluster headache.  SO I took a leave, if you will, last November to try to get a breather. I was a bit worried about the diagnosis and took a second opinion which found me suffering from tension headaches.  A comforting result compared to Cluster headaches since it has no clear remedy. Medications have since then diminished the attacks and reduced the pain.

And for the past couple of months I’ve been resting and catching up with my missing social life, have done some new uncommissioned artworks digital and traditional, upgraded my PC, discovered new creative outputs, (hopefully I can upload them soon) and this; updating the blog.

I’m now prepping my self to really get back on the job and hopefully it will be fruitful.

Wish me luck

Before we were interviewed by Rated K yesterday(plugging bwehehehe) Harvey Tolibao showed me the 5 Comics that was recently produced by Sterling and Carlo J. Caparas… Suffice to say, having a large company backing up comic book production, I was expecting a P10 (0.22 USD) comic book to be of satisfactory quality. Printed on newsprint, and in BW, is probably the only thing one can do at that cover price… but… meh

Back in college, our course has been rearing us to be obsessed with perfection. To us, perfection is something quantifiable and attainable, but of course we would never know it until we get it. When I broke into comics I thought whatever I learned back then was flushed down the drain. But turns out, college or no college, those same principles are actually useful. Artists are never happy with anything they create. Anything we produce is most probably half of what we have gloriously imagined in our heads. Knowing our own limitations, we are motivated to do better the next time— Continuous Improvement or some of you may know it better as “Kaizen” (Japanese for “Change for the Better” ). A quality strategy I think first developed by Toyota… college life is all hazy now hehe… Dissatisfaction is a key to perfection.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK

A year ago I signed up anonymously at the GMA boards. I decided to go by the name tangangbarbel. Anonymously because i don’t want to be branded with “porke’t ganito, akala mo na kung sinong magaling”. I’ve seen those remarks too often against those that gave criticisms locally… and besides everybody else was anonymous.

The conversations on that board were really heated but at some point hilarious… Dun galing yung mga Captain Barbell quotables post ko. The thread was long ago deleted but I managed to save a few of those pages.

Here is one of my conversations, that I think sums what I had wanted to convince them with. i change the name of the other poster, pero kung kasama kayo sa usapan na yun dati, malamang kilala niyo na rin sya. there was an artist there who posted a digi painting of Superman holding a battered CB by the neck with the words “you’re nothing but a second CAT trying RATE CopyHARD” :rofl:

anyway, here’s to the last day of CB hehehhe:

CB
hmmm sounds u know abt graphics etc…can u share something instead of judging their works.

me
Oooooh, No way. and besides do I really need to show My works to prove that I have an eye for detail and to know that perfection takes time? How about I’m comparing the whole production turnaround to Production from the states?

CB
U did’nt get my point…u r comparing ur knowledge abt it without realizing a lot of factors like…technology, budget, experienced etc. If u can’t accept the fact that we are behind the technology world and we still trying to prove something then I guess u really don’t understand. Philippines po ito hindi States and that’s the difference.

me
2nd, Hire the right people!, what is Zapata still doing there??? he has already ruined Darna, and now Barbell? Galit ba sya ka Mars Ravelo?

CB
I guess if he indeed ruined Darna executives from gma do u think will still trust him? C’mon business ang teledrama kung tanga ang executives kukunin nila ang director or staff na nagpalubog sa show para walang advertisement (bcoz of the ratings) then walang pera…pero common sense naman kung alam mo ang patakaran ng business hindi ka gagawa ng isang bagay na ikalulugi mo…Ang tanong…bakit madaming advertisement ang Darna…kasi nga po nag ra-rate..maraming viewers..maraming may gusto..period!

ruined what?? hehehe I guess ur not aware of the ratings pity of you.

me
Ruined Darna… the whole concept… yung ibang characters ginaya pa sa X-men movies. the only thing(s) that let it stay on air could be mamaries. Sorry couldn’t help it. But seriously It was not a good show. Special Effects wise and story. And Crap who cares about the ratings kung ganito rin lang… nakakatanga ng palabas ang nagbibigay ng ratings sa mga fanasy na palabas ng GMA or ABS.

CB
now u make sense at last u included abs….again, walang perfect ang labanan lang dito ay kung sino at ano ang tatangkilikin ng viewers it’s just happened to be shows from gma. Pilipinas po ito ni re-remind ko lang hehehe
(honestly I couldn’t remember what my idea was in my last statement. I can’t even understand what I wrote there, but she says that I made sense… go figure. I think I was trying to point that if people praise you too much, you end up a spoiled brat)

me
I guess YOU didn’t get my point, I wasn’t talking about technology, I was talking about TURNAROUND; that’s only one factor I mentioned. So far with technology WE FILIPINOS CAN, we already have all CG apps we need. I was POINTING OUT that perfection takes time. FX shows in the states have a production turnaround of more than a week per episode, and seasons only last half a year each in total; roughly 26 episodes a year.

Have you seen local commercials lately? They have Special FX a lot better than Philippine Fantaseryes. Why?, because they sure didn’t make those effects in one day. There are 3d or Composite Artists that are Filipinos and have been even hired by ILM and their partner PIXAR. I am sure GMA has maybe equivalent talents, but they can’t do their full potential with a one day Turnaround. Same with writers, do you think they’ll come up with something very original with a one week sched and not copy Smallville? You have so much faith with your beloved station so I figure you’ll answer “yes”.

Did you know that Sega has a partner company here who does 3d graphics for games? And we all know how good graphics quality and standards have increased. Hell processing power has exponentially increased. So technology is no longer a factor, unless your doing a movie equivalent of LOTR. Do you see my point?

Budget? GMA made a press release they could shell out $50,000 for a costume. Nearly as much as the current superman costume and the spiderman costume and take note; that price tag is FOR A MOVIE!
http://www.comics2film.com/FanFrame.php?f_id=19408 << superman discussion>>

excerpt:
Question: How much does a suit like this cost?

Bronson: Well, we don’t really have the exact figure, but every time the stunt department wants to cut into one, I say it’s like putting a Carrera right off of a cliff.

Question: The Spider-Man suits cost like $50,000 or $80,000 each

Bronson: Oh yeah, we’re there.

If GMA could spend that much, how could budget be a factor in local production quality? That’s why I left that out because, granting without accepting, GMA said they spent that much for the costume

Dominic Zapata helming the project could be because GMA is still honoring a contract they all signed. Or maybe what the others here have speculated, albeit negatively, are true. You’re right who knows. But the Fact remains, he plagiarized a show… some of your Kapuso brethren are even in agreement.

I am not saying any of this because I hate GMA and taking sides. I am saying we could do SO MUCH better and, to boot, not loosing respect for the original material. I am saying that GMA, if not Zapata and writers, is risking a Legal Battle with the Largest Media Conglomerate in the world; TIME WARNER. I am saying I have faith with us Filipinos, And yes I am a Filipino, Pinoy na pinoy po and that’s why I’m so concerned about quality para matanggal na ang tag sa atin na manggagaya. Tuamatangkilik ako ng sariling atin na alam ko orihinal at walang pinanggayahan. at nakatayo sa paniniwalang Hindi pwede ang “pwede na yan mentality”

and quoting “another critic in the boards”:
Does it make you Proud to be Filipino now that the Writer of Captain barbell has once again proven what the world already knows-

That you guys locally are the World’s Greatest Imitators and Pirates.

CB
I’ll be waiting for that lawsuit..if that will happen I will bow down to you but if not I guess learn to accept failures and learn to love ur own…

me
So you admit the show’s a failure then. Point taken.