FHM Pinoy Horror Death Match

In the October 2011 issue of FHM, they feature a Halloween Death Match that pits several creatures from Philippine myth and folklore against one another. They even matched up characters from Pinoy pop culture and legends against each other.

Below are sample of the creatures that fought to the death! Makes me wish there was a real video that featured all these characters!

Tikbalang vs Sigbin

Undin vs Sirena

Bungisngis vs Nuno sa Punso

Kapre vs Babae sa Balete

TikTik vs Tiyanak

Words by Anton Umali and Gelo Gonzales
Art by Mervin del Mundo (Robot with a Smile)

Neil Gaiman emails about TRESE

I was so happy to find out that TRESE 4 was on National's Bestseller List that I just had to send a Thank You note to Neil Gaiman, one of my big inspirations for Trese. His Sandman stories and his novel America Gods prompted me explore our own myth and folklore; made me also ask, "Where are the old gods of the Philippine islands hiding these days?"  

So, I sent him a message saying how our little comic book, that once sold only 50 copies, is now in the bestseller list of the country's biggest bookstore chain.

This morning, I found this message in my inbox:

So ridiculously proud of you! When I came out all those years ago for the first time, that was what I wanted to see happen... 

I feel like you and all the smart Filipino writers and artists out there are doing something really brave and powerful, making a whole new wave of Filipino art and story.

Well done!

Neil


So far, the week has been great! The year has been great! Feel so blessed and so lucky to have reached this far, to have reached this chapter of my ever-changing graphic novel. We have more stories to tell. I am so excited to tell you all these tales!

p.s.

The last time Neil Gaiman was here, this is what he wrote on my copy of Sandman :-)

Trese on National's Bestseller List

When we sold the very issue of Trese (in all its Xeroxed glory) at the Komikon in 2005, we sold a grand total of 50 copies. I was so happy that we got sold-out two hours before the event ended.

When we sold TRESE:MASS MURDERS in 2009 at the Komikon, we were surprised that we got to sell 300 copies in one day.

So, imagine my surprise when I found, that two weeks after we launched TRESE: LAST SEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT we had already sold 1300 copies.

Barely a month after we launched this fourth book, we've sold nearly 3000 copies and have landed in National Bookstore's Bestseller List for Philippine Publications.

This was definitely a great way to start the week. All of which would not have been possible, if it wasn't for you, our wonderful, magical, diabolical readers. 

Thanks for all your support and your most generous feedback!

Exclusively available at all branches of National Bookstore, Powerbooks, and Bestsellers.

Win an iTresePad for Halloween

TRICK OR TREAT!!! Get the chance to win this one-of-a-kind iPad with orginal TRESE art by Kajo Baldisimo.

Just buy TRESE:LAST SEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT and you'll get a raffle stub so you can enter and get the chance to win the Trese-fied iPad.


Books with raffle stubs are only available in National Bookstore, Powerbooks, and Bestsellers.

Deadline for entries for the TRESE iPad Raffle is on October 31, 2011.

By the way, if you buy a copy of ELMER (The 2nd Edition) from the same bookstores, you can enter the raffle and win this ELMER-fied iPad with original art by Gerry Alanguilan. Deadline for entries is November 15, 2011.

Trese 4 special edition

Watched the video? Ok... let's review... Here's the variant cover / dustjacket:

And here's the regular cover:

The edition with the dustjacket will only be available in branches of National Bookstore, Powerbooks, and Bestsellers. And if you buy from those bookstores, you can to join the raffle and win an original TRESE artwork by Kajo Baldisimo. Here's a sneak peek of Kajo's work. Can you figure out what makes it so special? :-)

 

See you at the book launch!

TRESE: LAST SEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT
October 8, Saturday, 5pm
Bestsellers bookstore
4F Robinsons Galleria, Ortigas

TRESE: LAST SEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT

Foul play. Magic spells. Supernatural criminals. When crime takes a turn for the weird, the police call Alexandra Trese. This graphic novel contains the following cases:
 

CADENA DE AMOR

In a neglected area of Luneta Park, where the grass grows untended, a man is found strangled by vines; which have started to grow outwards, killing anyone that gets in its path.

A PRIVATE COLLECTION 

A manananggal has been found, tortured and murdered. The Manananggal Clan declares war on the Aswang Clan. Trese must find the real murderer before more blood is shed, before Manila gets in the crossfire of a supernatural gang war. 

WANTED: BEDSPACER 

A strange illness has affected the students living along Katipunan Avenue. The doctors are clueless on what’s driving these people mad with despair. Can Trese trace the source of this growing paranormal epidemic? 

FIGHT OF THE YEAR 

Once a year, in General Santos City, the demons and creatures of the underworld converge to watch a most awaited event, where the country’s greatest boxer fights for his very soul. 

TRESE: LAST SEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT

by Budjette Tan and KaJo Baldisimo

Winners of the Philippine National Book Award for Best Graphic Literature 

TRESE Book 4 will be exclusive available in all branches of National Bookstore, Powerbooks,  and Bestsellers until the end of the year. 

BOOK LAUNCH : October 8, 2011, 5pm at Bestsellers, Robinsons Galleria

Visprint WIT 2011

See you this Saturday (September 10) for Visprint's WIT: The 1st Annual Readers Day.

All of the Visprint authors and comic book creators will be there sharing their stories, their secrets, and upcoming projects. This is also your chance to see preview art from Trese Book 4. 

Me and Kajo will be talking about the "13 Things that Possessed us to do Trese". 

Kajo will also give "13 Tips for Lazy Artists Like Kajo" 

Afterwards, we will hang out at the Visprint booth to sign, scribble, and doodle on your copies of Trese. 

Agimat vs Aswang

If you were around during the early years of Alamat Comics, you might have heard about this much-awaited comic book called LAKAN.

The story was set in a post-apocalyptic Philippines, where aswang pillaged the cities and countryside, where Filipinos once again banded together as tribes and fought back the aswang using swords and their agimat.

Here are the preview pages that first appeared in COMICS 101:

I put together those preview pages using my dad’s laser printer and his office’s Xerox machine. (Thanks dad!)

LAKAN must have been the first comic book I wrote as a work-for-hire guy. It was 1994 and my friend Ma-an told me about some friends of her friend that were going to publish a comic book and they needed a writer.

At that time, I didn’t have any published comic book work, so I just printed out a scifi story I wrote and brought it to the meeting with Ian Orendain and Chris Bernardo, the editors of the book.

They read my short story and considered me good enough to be brought on board as the new scriptwriter of the comic book. Ian and Chris explained to me the plot of Lakan and what they wanted changed.

They showed me pages and sketches of LAKAN artwork by guys named Gerry Alanguilan, Oliver Pulumbarit, and John Toledo. Little did I know that, later on, we’d eventually meet and become the founding members of Alamat Comics. I saw Gerry’s fantastic and insanely-detailed pages and asked if we were going to retain those pages. Because all the artists were getting reshuffled to do other scenes, all those original pages would never be used. I actually felt bad that those pages wouldn’t see print.

Here are links to Gerry’s blog where he talks about LAKAN and shows us those pages:

Lakan: Kings and Queens
http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/550

Lakan: Bloodshed and Tears
http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/551

The Hive
http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/2571

From my point of view, LAKAN was the result of our many years of reading X-Men, Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and growing up at the time when Francis M rallied the youth with “Mga Kababayan Ko” while wearing his ethnic-inspired clothes. It felt like the sort of story that would be produce during such a time.

Unfortunately, because of so many reasons, the book was never published.

But, I guess, the idea of “man vs aswang” is something that will forever be told by the Filipino storyteller and it will just take on different forms in the years to come.

PAYASO

(click the pages to enlarge)

PAYASO must be the first horror story I wrote in comic book format. I got my brother Brandie to draw it. As you can see, he was still in his Vertigo phase, when he emulated Dave McKean, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kent Williams.

I was channeling Stephen King when I was writing this story, which was inspired by that evil clown from King's "IT".

I really didn't know where this story was going. All I knew was that there was going to be this clown, who would magically appear, saving children from abusive parents, siblings, neighbors, etc.

This story came out in COMICS 101, the first comic book me and my barkada self-published. We rushed this comic book because I was on my way to the 1994 San Diego Comic Con.

At the comic con, I gave a copy to Dave McKean. I flipped open the comic book to PAYASO and asked him what he thought of the art. He looked at it for a bit and said, "It's good."

When I told Brandie what Mckean said, we joked that when the second issue comes out we'd have a blurb on the cover that says, "It's good!"-Dave McKean

When we started planning the second issue, I turned over the reigns of writing to Mark Gatela because I wanted to focus writing The Flying Phantom. When Mark asked me what's supposed to happen next, I said, "I don't know. Just have the clown kill more child abusers."

So, when Mark and Brandie started to brainstorm about the next issues of PAYASO, Mark decided to focus on the detective who appeared in the last panel of the story. That's Michael Andara. Brandie patterned him after the actor Michael Williams -- pony-tail, five o'clock shadow, and all.

So, instead of putting the spotlight on the evil, magical clown, Mark fleshed out the character of Detective Andara and began to build this whole backstory about the detective getting involved with unsolved crimes with supernatural origins.

Mark's PAYASO scripts made me realize that there was an entire supernatural underworld to be explored, right here in Metro Manila.

Which is why, in one of first drafts of the Trese script, I made Anton Trese a tabloid reporter and he would go to Andara, trying to get the scoop on the latest unusual, unearthly murder in town.

Of course, you already know how I took Trese down a different route.

As for Detective Andara and the mystery of the Payaso, you might still get to see them in the future. Mark's still working on this massive Andara graphic novel when he's not busy being a dad and being snarky on Twitter.

One final note to all writers and storytellers out there: as you can see, from this first story that I wrote, which I thought as a masterful masterpiece, you don't also get it on the first try. Which is the reason why you need to keep writing. Get published. Get rejected. Get great reviews. Get really bad reviews. Write some more. It's the only way you'll get better. 

Blade fights aswang in Manila

In episode 3 (Vampire Hunter) and episode 4 (Juvenile Days) of BLADE the anime, he travels to Manila and encounters a type of aswang that's rarely seen in Philippine literature / pop culture. Keep reading to find out what it is.

Check out the setting and background of the next couple of frames. I liked how they researched and illustrated a very realistic looking Manila.

Blade vs mandurugo
The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim. --Wikipedia

 

Take a look at the mandurugo in human form. Does she look familiar to you? Is that... nahhh... no way... maybe she just goes to the hairstylist?

Screenshots from the episode where Blade fights a manananggal in Siquijor:
http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/2011/08/blade-battles-aswang-in-siquijor.html