Preview Art for TRESE BOOK 6

For SUMMER KOMIKON, we are releasing a special preview book which contains the first chapter of TRESE BOOK 6.

It will also contain THE CHOIR (from the STORIES FROM THE DIABOLICAL blog) with new artwork from Kajo.

Editor At Large

It’s been a week since Summer Komikon 2012 and I haven’t had the chance to talk about the comic books that we launched.

Me and Kajo had this grand plan to release the new Trese book last week, but several things kept me busy and we were only able to release “Maverick Rider”, the first case from what will be Trese Book 5.

Aside from my wonderful dayjob, my nights were filled with editing the following comic book projects:

TIKTIK: THE ASWANG CHRONICLES

Story and character creation by Erik Matti and Dondon Monteverde.

Script by Erik Matti. Addiiotnal scenes and diaglogues by Michiko Yamamoto and Jade Castro. 

Art by DIGITAL ART CHEFS.

Edited by Budjette Tan.

Published by Reality Entertainment. Inc.  and Agosto Dos Pictures, Inc.

Last September 2011, I got a call to meet up with movie producer Dondon Monteverde and director Erik Matti. They showed me the initial edit to their new movie TIKTIK: THE ASWANG CHRONICLES starring Dingdong Dantes, Lovi Poe, Ramon Bautista, Joey Marquez, and Janice de Belen.

What makes this movie different from the usual Pinoy horror movie is that they shot the entire film in a studio and everything was shot against a green screen. Similar to the process done in “300” and “Sin City”, TIKTIK’s world will be completely computer generated. Of course, all the aswang will also CG’d! Since it would take them a year to do all those SFX, they still wanted a way to get people excited about the movie months before the actual screening.

So, they thought of releasing a comic book adaptation and asked me to help them put it together.

Working with Direk Erik, I adapted and edited down the two hour movie into a 60-page comic book.

We then brought in James Palabay, Melvin “Taga-Ilog” Calingo, Jon “Codename: Bathala” Zamar and the rest of the Digital Art Chefs to bring the comic book to page.

And just like many action-suspense movies, the copies of TIKTIK arrived in the nick of time, with James crashing through the gates of the Komikon with copies at hand. (Okay, he didn’t really crash into anything.)

Later in the afternoon, the crowd was surprised by the arrival of Dingdong Dantes and Lovi Poe, who came to talk to about the comic book and the movie.

Dave Yu, the SFX director of the movie, also went up on stage and talked about the process of creating the world of TIKTIK and bringing aswang to life.

I can only hope and wish that TIKTIK the comic book and the movie much success. If all goes well, then they plan to make more ASWANG CHRONICLES movies and in between all those movies, they might just make more comics.

Can you imagine the possibilities?!

For the first time, a movie company is investing in the comic book medium to promote and push the world of their story forward.

If all goes well, then, knowing the “gaya-gaya” mentality of the Pinoy, maybe the movie producers of the Metro Manila Film Fest will also want to have comic book adaptations of their movies. They might even want to do spin-offs or sequels or prequels.

If all goes well, then it will put the spotlight on the need for more comic book creators.

SKYWORLD : Volume 1 and Volume 2

Story by Mervin Ignacio

Art by Ian Sta. Maria

Edited by Budjette Tan

Published by National Bookstore

Ten years ago, Mervin and Ian met for the first time and it was love at first sight. (Okay, I’m making that up!) Mervin and Ian met because a sideline project and while having a smoke, their small talk lead to their love for comic books and how they wished someone would make a comic book that really delved into Philippine myth and folklore.

Cut-to: a decade later and they have finally taken that glimmer of an idea and made it into a 300-page epic.

The funny thing is, when the guys were putting together the first book, they asked me to look at it, I gave my comments, and when they comic book was printed, I was suddenly labeled editor. And thus, I became SKYWORLD’s editor. But with the combined power of me, Mervin, and Ian, a typo always seems to escape our attention. (For example, if you have the first printing of Skyworld Book 1, you will notice, in the fine print, that it was “Copywrite (C)2007”)

Aside from finally bringing this centuries-spanning fantasy to a close, I’m also happy that National Bookstore agreed to publish this two volume graphic novel.

After ELMER, I was wondering if they would venture into doing more comic books and I’m just glad they picked SKYWORLD to be their next title.

So, aside from movie companies exploring the comic book medium, we now have the country’s largest bookstore publishing comic books. What else can go right?

Edited by Paolo Chikiamco and Budjette Tan

Published by Summit Media

I remember having a discussion with some friends (or did it all happen online somewhere?) about the viability of the comic book medium in the Philippines. At that time, we were saying, your best bet is to produce a graphic novel that can be distributed in bookstores. Rather than try and publish a monthly comic book, to try and scrabble to meet that monthly deadline, to try and scrounge for enough funds to print it on a monthly basis, it would be better to just finish a 80 to 100 page graphic novel (which is, roughly, the length of a 4 to 5 issue mini-series) and release it in one go. And if you’re lucky, if you can find a publisher who likes it, then you don’t have to spend for printing and promoting it.

But, the thought of a monthly (or bi-monthly) comic book publication still lingered at the back of my head. I knew that attempting to do a monthly title (like Marvel and DC) would prove difficult unless you had a dedicated team working on it, which means you’ll need to pay this team on a monthly basis. In the past, there have been many attempts to release a monthly comic book. Even though they lasted a couple of years, they were not able to release it on a regular basis.

Which lead me to believe that the one-shot graphic novel was still the best route.

And yet, every Komikon, I take look at the pile of photocopied comics I bought, and for the ones that like, I always wish there was a way to get them into the hands of more readers. I also wished that more people got to know our local comic book writers and artists.

So, what if, instead of trying to release one title about one character, written and drawn by one creative team, there was a way to “crowd source” a comic book anthology. The stories would be made up of one-shot stories (so, we don’t need to worry about serial stories whose ending might never see the light of day or take ten years to finish)

For years, I have been pitching comic book ideas to Summit Media, hoping the country’s largest magazine company would produce local graphic novels.

In 2009, Summit took a chance with my idea for a comic book anthology of horror stories. We launched UNDERPASS during the Komikon, where it was well-received. But when it was distributed in the bookstores, it only sold a couple of thousand copies and didn’t merit a second issue. I talked to people about it, got their thoughts and ideas about why it didn’t work and what would make it better. With my list of mistakes, I had a checklist of “what not to do”.

If “horror” wasn’t something that would work for the local magazine scene, then what should the content of the anthology be?

And maybe it shouldn’t be a “comics anthology”. Maybe it should be a “comics magazine” or a comic book disguised as magazine, so that it’ll be easier to pitch to advertisers.

Maybe “fantasy” was the way to go. “Fantasy” would cover majority of the comic book stories being locally produced. It would easy to pitch to sponsors that the magazine is like a “fantaserye in comic book form”.

The more I thought about what I wanted to put in the magazine, the more I realized that it was already being done by Paolo Chikiamco in his website: www.rocketkapre.com. His site already reviewed and did interviews with fantasy creators. He also published/uploaded fantasy ebooks. The only thing he didn’t have in his site, were comic book stories.

In December 2010, I sent an email to Paolo, pitching to him the idea of a magazine version of RocketKapre. Turns out he had a better idea. He realized there was a gap in the market: no one was talking to the young-adult (YA) reader. We have all these kids (ok, they’re not all “kids”) who love reading Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, Twilight, Vampire Dairies --  but what happens after they’re done with those books? Was it possible to offer them something else, something that was uniquely Pinoy, stories that had a touch of Philippine myth, folklore, and history?

We wanted the magazine to have comic book stories, prose stories, interviews and reviews, as well as a “how to” section. We envisioned the magazine to be entertaining enough for reader to want to collect it, but informative enough so that schools would want to subscribe to it and have it available in their libraries. 

With those guidelines in place, we put together a sample issue, pitched it to Summit, and thank God, they said to publishing this “pilot issue”.

Much like the “pilot episode” of a TV show, the chances of Kwentillion becoming a “regular series” is in the hands of the viewer (or in this case, the reader).  Because if and when KWENTILLION becomes a regular monthly (or bi-monthly) comics magazine, then it will become a venue for new comic book characters to be told, a chance to meet and get to know more Filipino authors and artists, and more importantly, an opportunity to share and tell a million new stories.

As of this writing, KWENTILLION has been spotted in several branches of National Bookstore, Powerbooks, and BestSellers. We hope it will be found in a branch near you.

I’ll give an update as to when SKYWORLD Volume 1 and 2, and TIKTIK: THE ASWANG CHRONICLES will be sent out to the stores.

I hope that these comic books signal a start in the Philippine comic book scene. I hope that it will be the beginning of many opportunities for comic book writers and artists to share their craft and their stories. Of course, for these comic books to succeed, it is important that it gets the support of as many readers as possible. So, if you like any of these books then LIKE their pages on Facebook and hit the SHARE button to tell all your friends about them.

https://www.facebook.com/SkyworldComics

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tiktik-The-Aswang-Chronicles/419246321442146

https://www.facebook.com/Kwentillion

Now that these projects are all done, I hope you don’t mind if I go back to writing Trese. See you at the October KOMIKON!

Thank You 2011

the sun has set on 2011

we are a week into 2012

we take a cautious look at what we’ve left behind

to make sure there’s no one following us

to see the mysteries that have baffled us and we have solved

to check on the mysteries still left unsolved

to review the clues that we have and hope to figure it all out in the next twelve months

and where we give thanks to the people who helped us along the way

Thanks to the Komikon Krew who never fail to invite us to their great events

Thanks to the National Bookstore Super Team for organizing the best Trese launch ever!

Special thanks to Mike Carey, Paul Levitz, and Neil Gaiman for taking the time to email and give feedback about the book.

Thanks to Nida and Visprint, who remain to be our willing accomplice

Thanks to the diabolical denizens of the Trese Facebook page! LIKE! I am amazed and amused at how active our readers can be in this page. They never stop asking questions about Trese, they've deciphered our plans for the Trese covers, and they never stop asking for more Trese stories, which just pressures us (in a good way) to keep on writing and keep on drawing.

Thanks to the bloggers, news reporters, and book reviewers who helped promote Trese.

Thanks to all my fellow comic book creators -- your work continues to inspire me and urges me to improve my work and tell better stories

And to all our readers who made this possible

Trese wins in 2011 Komikon Awards

Thank you very much for everyone who voted for us! Thank you very much to all our readers, to everyone's who's every drawn Trese-fan art and shared it with the world, to everyone's who's ever written a review about Trese, tweeted about us, or clicked LIKE on the Trese Facebook page. Thank you for all the support and love and magic!

Best Comic Creators Award : BUDJETTE TAN and KAJO BALDISIMO

Best Cover Award : TRESE: MASS MURDERS 

Team TRESE at Summer Komikon

Thanks to every one who came by to visit us at the Alamat / Visprint table!

Thanks to every one who got copies of Trese, Precinto 13, the Trese Night Gallery Prints, as well as Paolo Fabregas' THE FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE!

And thanks to the Komikon crew from picking such a great venue and organizing such a great comic con! What a great way to start to the summer!

How I looked like at the start of the Komikon...

... and this is how I looked 5 hours later (trying to hide the pain)

Team TRESE: Wella, Kajo, and me

Fujipic courtesy of Hub Pacheco

This is the first time anyone's asked me to sign their shirt!

Paolo with his brand new baby!

And this should give you a good idea of how fun it was...

Art by Omeng Estanislao

Thanks to Hub and Kitty and all the other people who took our pix and I just swiped them from your Facebook page! Hehehe! Thank you!

Summer Komikon 2010

SUMMER KOMIKON 2010
U.P. Bahay ng Alumni
April 17,2010 / 10am to 8pm
P50 entrance fee




This Saturday at the Summer Komikon, Mervin and Ian will be launching a 12-page preview book of SKYWORLD: PRODIGAL.




The first two SKYWORLD books will be available at the Alamat table along with the preview book.

See more Skyworld art at:

http://iantoy.deviantart.com/

http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/2009/10/down-other-dark-corridor-skyworld-book2.html

Also at the Alamat booth will be Paolo Fabregas, who will be selling copies of THE FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE

And now for some not-so-good news...
Me and Kajo were really hoping to launch a new story this Komikon, but work got the better of us and we were not able to finish it on time. So sorry about that.

I won't be able to attend the Komikon this Saturday.

Hope to see you all in the next comic book event.

Anyway...
Click on the links below to get a list of other comic book titles you should check out when you go to the Summer Komikon:

http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/2558

http://mcoy.blogspot.com/2010/04/komikon-indies-updated.html

TRESE at the 2009 KOMIKON

During the 2005 Komikon, we launched the very first issue of TRESE. We sold that Xeroxed edition of TRESE: AT THE INTERSECTION OF BALETE AND 13TH STREET for P30.

Six hours after the gates of the Komikon had opened, we had already sold out all the copies of TRESE.

I excitedly texted family and friends that my comic book was sold out.

Great! Wonderful! Congrats! How many copies did you sell?, they all asked.

I replied : 50 copies!

In the recently concluded 2009 Komikon, we launched TRESE: MASS MURDERS.

Two hours after the gates had opened, we had already sold all the copies. I leaned over to Ella of Visprint to ask how many copies did they bring.

180 copies, she replied. That did not even include all the copies of TRESE Book1 & 2 that were sold.

So, if my 2009-version traveled back to talk to my 2005-version and told him we’d sell almost 1,000 copies in a single day, I would’ve probably told him he was insane!

Which would not have been surprising considering this whole TRESE experience started with an insane proposal from Kajo to do a monthly comic book.

I’m just more than happy that I was crazy enough to accept that challenge.

Another insane thing we experienced during the recent Komikon was soon after people bought the book, they started to text us about it. In just a couple of hours we were already getting reviews about the book. It was a strange, weird, and wonderful feeling to get such great feedback so quickly. People were already asking us when the fourth book is going to come out.

Actually, Kajo’s already bugging me to give me the script for Case #14. So, worry not, gentle reader, it might just all happen sooner than you think.

Before we get into all of that, we must say thanks to fantastic Team KOMIKON for putting together another successful event. (And thank God you finally decided to hold it in an airconditioned venue! Thank you very much!) Thanks to Nida and the Visprint crew for patiently waiting for us to finish the third TRESE book. Thanks to everyone who prepaid for the book and to everyone who bought the book (and multiple copies of it) at the event. We apologize to the ones whose names we misspelled (and forgot) as we signed your copies of the book.

Thank you very much! And let me just repeat what I said in the afterword of the book: that Book3 is definitely NOT the last Trese book. Believe me, we’ve got MORE stories to tell.

TRESE: MASS MURDERS should be in most Manila bookstores & comic book stores by first week of November and it should be in most stores nationwide by the end of November.

As always, if you can’t find copies of TRESE in your local bookstore, then just go to the Customer Service Desk and tell them to order you a copy. Give them the following info, so they can easily find the title in their system :

TRESE: MASS MURDERS
Published by Visprint
Authors: Budjette Tan & KaJo Baldisimo
ISBN: 971-94569-0-6

160-pages, black-and-white, P200

More about the other highlights of the Komikon in the coming days!

KOMIKON AWARDS 2009 (And the nominees are...)

You can vote by going to:
http://www.komikon.org/

If you're a member of DeviantArt, you can vote at:
http://komikon.deviantart.com/

Or you can do it the old fashion way and fill up VOTING BALLOTS at:

Comic Odyssey
•Robinson’s Place, Level 3 Ermita,Manila
•Robinson’s Galleria, Level 3 Expansion Mall,Edsa cor. Ortigas
Comic Quest
•Lower Ground Floor Bldg. A, SM Megamall
•2nd Floor Main Bldg., SM City North Edsa

TRESE at the Summer Fiesta Komikon

Thanks to everyone who dropped by the Visprint table and the Alamat table!
(Got a text from Paolo that his preview books for FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE got sold out before 6pm)

Very sorry we got there late.

As usual, I forgot to bring an electric fan for the booth, and thanks to my polar bear body, I was sweating buckets the minute I sat down. So, I must apologize to all the people who asked me to sign their books and I just ended up sweating on the pages.

I must also apologize to everyone that I already and forgot that already met them. (You have to help me out! I'm on old man!)

Many thanks to Melvin Arciaga for the TRESE caps that he created and designed for me and Kajo. You can check out Melvin's other creations at: http://vinarci.deviantart.com/





To the lucky ones, we hope you liked your exclusive sneak preview for Case #9.

As you can see, we're working as fast as we can to finish TRESE: BOOK 3.



And, of course, thank you and congratulations to TEAM:KOMIKON for another successful and very musical event!

Here's Gerry's vlog about the event:

must be read in that baritone movie trailer voice-over voice

THIS SUMMER...
... SEE TRESE
...LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HER BEFORE


... AT THE U.P. BAHAY NG ALUMNI


THE FLOOR PLAN : FIND US AT THE VISPRINT AND ALAMAT BOOTH


THE MAP: JUST IN CASE YOU STILL DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET THERE


KOMIKON SUMMER FIESTA 2009
UP Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman
May 16, 2009, 10am-8pm, Saturday
Entrance Fee: Php 50.00
http://komikon.blogspot.com/

TRESE at Komikon 2008

The great thing about having insomnia the day before a big event is that at least you’re awake to get to the event on time. With only two hours sleep, I actually got to the UP Bahay ng Alumni at 9am. (Kajo didn’t sleep at all and arrived a couple of minutes after I got there.)

Before we set up at the Visprint table, I asked Syeri if we could give away some Alamat comic books (as a way to commemorate 14 years of Alamat Comics). She said yes and I brought down four boxes (14 years worth of unsold Alamat Comics) and said they could give it away to everyone who came to the Komikon. (Well, it wasn’t really 14 years of unsold comics, more like 4 years worth. We gave away copies of Batch72, Indigo Valley, Tattooed, TKS:The Kill Stalker, 3 copies of ARCHON, 2 copies of EXODUS, and a partridge in a pair tree.)

An hour or so later, we were set-up at the Visprint table and Team Skyworld (with Ian, Mervin, and Shali) was set-up at the Alamat table. They were joined by Paolo Fabregas, who has a sneak preview to his upcoming comic book FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE. Paolo introduces us to the government sponsored Pinoy super team that is now not sponsored by the government.

Ian & Mervin had a sneak preview of their next book SKYWORLD: TESTAMENT. The unlettered pages can be seen at: http://iantoy.deviantart.com/gallery/

We had free Trese posters for all the people who bought copies earlier in the day.

By the end of the day, we were surprised that we already sold all 100 copies of TRESE. (We apologize to the last two guys who came to the table wanting to buy a set. Hope you were able to find a copy of Trese 2.)

THANKS TO EVERYONE! We do hope you can give us feedback on Trese, Skyworld, The Last Datu, Kadiliman, and The Filipino Heroes League.

Another surprise we got was Mica, who cosplayed Trese and we got to pose with our creation.
Mica and Wilson “Wolverine” Tortosa shot a Trese mystery at the Komikon and can be viewed at:
http://batangbatugan.multiply.com/photos/album/10/A_Summoning_At_Komikon_2008#

And at:
http://delurianne.deviantart.com/



Quote of the day:
“I hate you! I read Trese (Our Secret Constellation) and it made me cry!”—Oscar

You’re welcome.

It was great to meet finally meet the people who you've only talked to online, the artists who've contributed to Exhibit 13, the bloggers who've reviewed the book, the readers who collected the original/photocopies editions of Trese. Thank you for all coming over. Very happy that we finally got to meet.

In between the signing and the selling (and the sweating), it was also great that I got to talk to some of the guys (usually while standing in front of the giant aircon unit or by the doorway, trying to catch some fresh air). It was chance to catch up, talk about comics, about future projects, the projects that got delayed, and crazy ideas for next year.

Special thanks to the EK-gang for coming to the Komikon. Hope you like the titles that you got!

More pictures swiped from the blogs people we met that day.


Greco M, creator of Aha Hule Komiks
http://ahahulekomiks.blogspot.com/


Azrael, http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/



Andrew Villar, creator of Ambush
http://ambush007.multiply.com/

Also got to meet the Philippines’ first puppet rock star GORGORO!!!
He was distributing his comic book, which contained his not-so-secret origin.
Must watch Gorgoro’s next gig!

http://animalismydad.blogspot.com

TRESE in Friendster

Check it out! It's the TRESE-Friendster Fan Page put together by the wonderful KOMIKON crew and the friendly people at FRIENDSTER.

So, if you want to also hang out at Alexandra Trese's Diabolical club and become the ka-Friendster of the Kambal and Hank the Bartender, then just click on:
http://profiles.friendster.com/85588277

See you at...
KOMIKON 2008
http://komikon.blogspot.com/
Ika-4 Filipino Komiks Convention
November 22, 2008 (10 a.m. to 8 p.m.)
UP Bahay ng Alumni, Diliman Quezon City
Entrance Fee: Php 50