when crimes takes a turn for the absurd...

Lydon Gregorio originally uploaded this story at:
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my FHM interview

Q&A with comic writer Budjette Tan
INTERVIEW BY: GELO GONZALES
October 18, 2009
http://www.fhm.com.ph/entertainment/interviews/article/1797/

Ever had a comic book to movie adaptation offer?
Trese has had an offer or two, but we’ve been holding them off because we wanted to finish book three. So maybe now it’s a good time to start talking to those guys again.

We’ve told people we made Trese episodic, so it might be good to adapt it to TV. The thing I’m worried about though is the production quality of our TV shows. A producer asked me once: “Wala bang love interest si Trese? Baka pwede naman natin siya bigyan ng boyfriend.” I told them I’d think about it. (Laughs)

Would you really compromise?
As long as it doesn’t involve giving our characters a talking cat or dog just because it’s cute, sure.

After Underpass, what’s next for you?
We’re hoping Underpass does really really well that readers will ask for more. Definitely, there’s more to the dark side of Manila and the Philippines to explore. So more of Underpass, we hope. And definitely more of Trese.

I would love to do a superhero book, given the chance to try again because I’ve been a big fan of the Avengers and the Justice League since I was little. It’s something I never really got to do. I’ve never been able to write specifically about guys in tight outfits hitting each other. It would be great to do a superhero comic book in the future.

If you could be any comic book superhero, who would you be?
Bruce Wayne, for his money and his great looks. (Laughs) But my high school answer would have been Martian Manhunter from the Justice League because he can turn invisible, read minds, change shape, is invulnerable, has laser vision, and heat vision. So he’s like Superman and Professor X combined. From Marvel, Wolverine is another favorite character, because he gets to say the stuff you can’t. He can get into trouble, and it doesn’t really matter because he can heal quickly. From any other book, Sandman comes to mind, but I don’t exactly want to be him, or someone from the Dreaming.

You can be Desire.
No! (laughs) I look more like Despair. So yeah, no. (Laughs)

How about a supervillain?
Good question, I’ve never though of that. I’m not too sure if I want to be Magneto or Doctor Doom because they’re like full of themselves. They really think that “I know the answer to life, and I will rule you…” That sort of thing.

I’d choose The Kingpin I think, because he was so powerful he’d just order villains around, and he was fat too. So I said, hey I could be this guy, I don’t have to learn karate, and I can just sit around and just order people around. He’s shrewd. He’s cunning, and the last thing he would do is get his hands dirty. He has everything set up around him.

READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW AT:
http://www.fhm.com.ph/entertainment/interviews/article/1797/
http://komix101.blogspot.com/2009/11/fhm-interview-budjette-tan.html

TRESE: nominated for the Madrigal-Gonzalez Award

UP ICW ANNOUNCES BEST FIRST BOOK NOMINEES FOR 2009
by Arvin Abejo Mangohig

The UP Institute of Creative Writing and the Madrigal-Gonzalez family are pleased to announce the nominees for the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award for 2009. The nominees are: The Proxy Eros by Mookie Katigbak, Stories From Another Time by Benjamin Bautista, Antisipasyon by Victor Dennis T. Nierva , The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David , Girl Trouble by Alan Navarra, Trese: Murder on Balete Drive by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, I Hate My Mother by Perpilili Vivienne Tiongson and Playing It Safe by Gerry T. Los Baños.

This year's selection mirrors the changing landscape of Philippine literature as it includes the bestselling graphic novel Trese, a collaboration between Tan and Baldisimo—a possibly controversial inclusion among purist circles.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT:

http://panitikan.com.ph/newsarchive/monthly/november2009.htm#bestfirst

far away, so close

The 2008 National Book Awards was held last Saturday night at the Ayala Museum.
TRESE: UNREPORTED MURDERS was the only nominee in its category.

We did not win.

We did not get the unanimous vote of the judges.

We did get to bring home some nifty certificates of recognition that say TRESE is the Finalist for the Best Book in Graphic Literature category.



Below: Kajo, my partner-in-crime; Nida, our publisher and willing accomplice; and me



We keep on writing.

We keep on drawing.

We try again next year.



thanks to Wella for the pictures and for being there

TRESE in Karavan

I got this in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It still feels great to receive snail mail; to see a package on your desk with stamps from far away countries, to wonder what might be inside the envelope and hope it's not a bomb or an ancient curse passed on to you.

KARAVAN is literary magazine published in Sweden. One of their writers thought of doing a short review about Trese and here it is:



Many thanks to Anna Gustafsson Chen, who originally reviewed TRESE in her blog:
http://baodaobooks.blogspot.com/2009/08/trese-gothic-horror-fast-fran.html



KARAVAN http://www.karavan.se/
a literary magazine that travels between cultures