tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60318747951600899412024-03-08T13:05:01.729+08:00Komiks Advocatea blog that promotes komiks.plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-28824677634111152902011-03-12T11:23:00.000+08:002011-03-12T11:23:00.672+08:00The Komiks Advocate is Closing DownI apologize for the long lack of updates, without even letting anyone know why. I developed an addiction with going online, and had to go cold turkey for my own sake.<br />
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Aside from that, however, I had been struggling to find work, and decided that the time spent managing this blog and my social networks was getting in the way of that. I finally have found work, but don't have time to maintain this blog anymore. Rather than have people hang on and wait for me to come back, I've decided to close this blog.<br />
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It took careful deliberation to make this decision. This blog was really just a project for a blogging short course, however I realized this was an opportunity to help out the komiks community, even in a small way. What the blog accomplished, even with all the limitations, exceeded all my expectations. My experience with the online komiks tribe has been mostly positive and interesting. People are very accomodating and easy to talk to, and eager to help each other as much as themselves.<br />
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However, many of my core assumptions about the community had been proven wrong, and this subsequently invalidated the point of the blog. I also want to apologize to everyone who invited me to a komiks event here and there. Well, now you know why I couldn't go.<br />
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I have to say, I think this blog has been misunderstood. It was always intended to be treated like an advocacy, to figure out what things the community needed help with, whether they be newbies or even heavyweight veterans. I have strong personal opinions, and I'm not afraid to express them in my networks. However, the blog was meant to be separate from my social network persona, and I did not do enough to differentiate between the two.<br />
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I apologize to any readers who may have come to rely on this blog. Other circumstances have prompted me to make this decision. I'm proud of it, but it's only a drop in the water in the komiks blogosphere. There are so many great komiks blogs out there who can easily take its place, such as:<br />
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<a href="http://gerry.alanguilan.com/">Komikero</a>, <a href="http://jonasdiego.com/">Jonas Diego</a>, <a href="http://babblingpoint.blogspot.com/">Budjette Tan</a> - the big three, major komiks creators who've invested in making great blogs.<br />
Paolo Chikiamco does informed komiks coverage for the<a href="http://www.thepoc.net/component/search/Paolo%2BChikiamco.html?ordering=&searchphrase=all"> POC</a>, as well on his own blog <a href="http://www.rocketkapre.com/">Rocketkapre</a>.<br />
<a href="http://flipgeeks.com/">Flipgeeks</a> has made komiks promotion their advocacy.<br />
I would like to single out <a href="http://www.usapang-komiks.blogspot.com/">Randy Valiente</a>, who may not be as well-known as other creators, but has an excellent blog, in Tagalog to boot.<br />
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There are so many more that I just couldn't catch up to all of them. My apologies if yours wasn't mentioned.<br />
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This blog will remain online, as well as the Facebook Fan Page, but for the most part this is over. If I do come back to komiks advocacy, it probably will be in a different form. There are also some unused ideas, which will be shared in a future post, for other komiks bloggers to write about if they want, or for komiks people to explore on their own.<br />
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For those of you who found all of the above TLDR, I don't have the time to blog anymore.<br />
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I'd like to thank my readers and everyone who helped on this blog.<br />
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That's it :)plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-6869245985903448082011-02-04T07:39:00.002+08:002011-02-05T09:18:10.790+08:00Justice in the Philippines: What's the right thing to do?<i>NB: This is a cross post of Janette Toral's post which can also be found in her blog <a href="http://www.influentialblogger.net/2011/02/justice-in-philippines-whats-right.html">here</a>. Thanks Janette!</i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">6WPG4EMHG4PE</span></b></span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">My exposure to the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.influentialblogger.net/2010/11/preparing-to-meet-and-interview-hubert.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">Hubert Webb case</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">last November was a major eye opener. After meeting him in person, thinking about Hubert's situation got me scared, unexplainable tears, and was already set with the decision that if he doesn't get acquitted, will push for my family's migration to another country.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">Worried thoughts have calm down after I eventually blogged about it. My perspective on justice has change ever since even though Hubert was already acquitted and free today.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">When news about crime and arrested suspect(s) gets reported, I can't help but wonder if the ones mentioned are the real culprits or not.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><b><a href="http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-komiks" style="border-bottom-color: red; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: purple; text-decoration: none;">Katarungan sa Pilipinas komiks contest</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">One of my blog entrepreneur students, Ryan of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://komiksadvocate.blogspot.com/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">Komiks Advocate</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">, organized a contest where the winning artist will develop an illustration based on the "justice for the innocent" theme.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://andoyman.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d37uofc" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">Andoyman</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">was chosen for the task.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUs59CKY5DI/AAAAAAAAAJw/z9FhRYeSSrY/s1600/why_is_this_happening_to_me_by_andoyman-d37uofc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUs59CKY5DI/AAAAAAAAAJw/z9FhRYeSSrY/s320/why_is_this_happening_to_me_by_andoyman-d37uofc.png" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">The artwork depicts a common cry of the innocent spending time in jail - crying for justice. As the present government administration wants to steer us all to a straight path, I just hope that progress can also be attained in dispensing justice. Not only swift but also fair and accurate.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">While I was updating my<a href="http://www.influentialblogger.net/2010/11/preparing-to-meet-and-interview-hubert.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">blog post on Hubert Webb</a>, a letter arrived from the U.S. Embassy where I got invited to attend the<a href="http://exchanges.state.gov/ivlp/ivlp.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">International Visitor Leadership Program</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">Was browsing the <a href="http://www.innocenceproject.org/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">Innocence Project</a> at that time contemplating if the same can be done in the country. Hope to learn more about them including efforts to ensure fair dispensing of justice.<br />
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I am also interested to learn more about efforts in recognizing bloggers' freedom to blog about court cases without fear of being threatened of subjudice.<br />
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As a justice neophyte, have much to learn about it and hope this video series will enlighten me further to start with.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kBdfcR-8hEY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">Will definitely use my upcoming U.S. visit to learn more about justice, energy, security, technology, art, science, among others. Be inspired and do something productive when I get back.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">Here's another comic strip illustration from</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://andoyman.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35u99o" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">Andoyman on justice</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">. Funny but true.</span><br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fjustice-in-philippines-whats-right.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" style="border: none; height: 80px; overflow: hidden; width: 450px;"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-33913588404835396842011-02-02T07:30:00.002+08:002011-02-05T09:18:54.690+08:00Katarungan sa Pilipinas/Justice in The Philippines art contestI made a komiks illustration making contest December last year as part of the <a href="http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=26&aid=8832">Blog Entrepeneurship</a> course from DigitalFilipino and ADMU. I wanted to make a project that would immediately and clearly benefit komiks people.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">6WPG4EMHG4PE</span></b></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUf757LeQTI/AAAAAAAAAJk/02truaZQN_M/s1600/why_is_this_happening_to_me_by_andoyman-d37uofc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUf757LeQTI/AAAAAAAAAJk/02truaZQN_M/s320/why_is_this_happening_to_me_by_andoyman-d37uofc.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">the final winning image by Andoyman Komikero</div><br />
Unfortunately, time constraints did not allow me to properly promote the contest. I did not give sufficient time for people to prepare and submit entries as well. As a result, few people were able to participate, so I consider it fortuitous that we were able to push through with it.<br />
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The contest launch and initial rules can be found <a href="http://komiksadvocate.blogspot.com/2010/12/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-flash-komiks.html">here</a>. Basically, I gave komiks people free rein to make whatever komiks they wanted. Before the end of the 1st week, I had received no entries, and asked around to find out the contest was launched just when everyone was rushing work to end the year.<br />
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I changed the rules to a spot illustration contest, with specific instructions to illustrate thus: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">You will be illustrating a man in a small </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><span class="yiv1611231355yshortcuts" id="yiv1611231355lw_1292239949_3" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1296558591_2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">dark prison cell</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">. The man is looking upward at a far away window, where a bird is coming in. The prisoner's face will be covered in shadow, but you will be labeling him 'Justice.' You can write Justice on his shirt, or have a floating ribbon with words Justice around him. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Below the illustration, we will include a quote from Hubert Webb, when asked how he had felt, given events of ten years ago and today - "Why is this happening to me?" If you can letter this in yourself, it will be a huge bonus!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">I came to regret naming Hubert Webb, although personally I felt he was wrongly jailed and continue to do so. The contest was ongoing when<a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/node/292752/web-acquitted"> Hubert and his co-accused were acquitted</a>, and so I immediately received inquiries if the contest was politically motivated. I did want to take risks when choosing my topic, but it had the unintended consequence of alienating some prospective contestants. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">As noted in the actual blog post I did write, <a href="http://komiksadvocate.blogspot.com/2011/01/katarungan-sa-pilipinasjustice-in.html">we continue to look for justice in the Philippines</a>, but I feel that case is illustrative of what we do in search for it. Ultimately, I haven't been put off from entering controversial topics, but do want to set up more inclusive activities for this blog and the komiks people in the future.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">Now, let's get to the illustrations:</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUfpiMzd9yI/AAAAAAAAAJU/OQrWV8Pr7qs/s1600/JUSTICEjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUfpiMzd9yI/AAAAAAAAAJU/OQrWV8Pr7qs/s400/JUSTICEjpg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">This illustration by Bob Melendres, who isn't active making komiks now, but is a friend of a friend.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUfphC50xLI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/dOGldjgOLtU/s1600/fiestan+draft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUfphC50xLI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/dOGldjgOLtU/s400/fiestan+draft.jpg" width="355" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">This illustration is by Ernest John Daryll Fiestan of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_903505475">Crazy </a></span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_903505475"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 15px;">Metro</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"> </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://www.smackjeeves.com/comicprofile.php?id=82734">Comics</a>. He has recently said he plans to publish some actual komiks to him soon! More power, Ernest :)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUfp6MD3KhI/AAAAAAAAAJc/nuaHb_BFq-s/s1600/andoyman-justice-bw.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUfp6MD3KhI/AAAAAAAAAJc/nuaHb_BFq-s/s320/andoyman-justice-bw.png" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">Finally, the winner is Andoyman of<a href="http://andoyman.i.ph/blogs/andoyman/"> Andoyman Komikero</a>! Digital Filipino head and project sponsor Janette Toral met Andoyman last week. This is a black and white version of the image I used last blog post. Original sketch is below.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUf6a_Z1OmI/AAAAAAAAAJg/VSprdVVrHCQ/s1600/katarungan-contest-entry.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUf6a_Z1OmI/AAAAAAAAAJg/VSprdVVrHCQ/s320/katarungan-contest-entry.png" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;">Thanks to Janette Toral for all the support, Jonas Diego for helping with judging, all the contestants for joining and again, congratulations to Andoyman! I hope to setup a more open, more reasonably run contest soon. No politics for the next one, I promise!</span></span><br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fkatarungan-sa-pilipinasjustice-in.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" style="border: none; height: 80px; overflow: hidden; width: 450px;"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-61160101170053425892011-01-31T07:30:00.005+08:002011-02-05T09:19:19.090+08:00Katarungan sa Pilipinas/Justice in The PhilippinesThe Philippines seems to not yet have fully recovered from the hostage bombing late last year as successive tragedies continue to attack our collective psyche. It seems every other week something happens that will make your blood boil, if not overwhelm you with despair. Just to recap quickly, recent events that have shocked the country include:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">6WPG4EMHG4PE</span></b></span><br />
<div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_hostage_crisis">the August 23, 2010 hostage crisis</a></div><div><br />
<a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/01/01/11/baywalk-bodies-member-shot-dead">The disappearance and discovery of Rejoice Rivera</a><br />
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</div><div>The recent carjackings of <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20110119-315344/Chef-Margarita-Foress-SUV-carjacked-in-Makati">Margarita Fores</a>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=649168">Emerson Lozano</a>, driver <a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/01/22/11/slain-companied-emerson-lozano-laid-rest">Ernane Sensil</a> and <a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/18/11/police-confirm-burned-body-missing-car-dealer">Venson Evangelista</a>, the latter three of which led to their deaths</span></span></div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110126-316610/EDSA-bus-bombing-4-dead">The recent bus bombing</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>If you look at the reactions by Pinoys online, it would seem that this is the worst situation that this country could be in. As bad as things seem now, we need to put things in perspective and not be swayed by hyperbole or divisive rhetoric. We have yet to experience a truly failed state, as have the people of Afghanistan, Somalia, Timor-Leste or Haiti. In spite of everything, we still have a lot to be thankful for.<br />
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But if these events do not yet make us a failed state, what are we to make of these recent spates of violence? Are some of these part of destabilization plots against the government, as is often claimed? Are these all just a matter of successive coincidences? Are these the indications of a failed judicial system, or the consequences of one?<br />
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The Philippines' <a href="http://globalnation.inquirer.net/viewpoints/viewpoints/view/20091210-241183/The-Philippine-culture-of-impunity">culture of impunity</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrajudicial_killings_and_forced_disappearances_in_the_Philippines">history of extrajudicial killings</a> have been cited before as indications of the lack of justice in the country. However, this seems to me to define specific situations, and is inadequate at rationalizing others. Let me share my thoughts on two particular cases that continue to perplex me.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/node/292752/web-acquitted">The acquittal of Hubert Webb and five other</a>s in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizconde_massacre">murders of the Vizcondes</a> divided the country. For a long time, most of us were convinced that they were able to punish the perpetrators of the crime, but a review of the case would show that the investigation had been handled poorly from the start, and now those end results have been put into question. As <a href="http://www.influentialblogger.net/2010/11/preparing-to-meet-and-interview-hubert.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ReflectiveThinking-TakingThe8thHabitChallenge+(Influential+Blogger)">Janette Toral notes</a>, we can be conditioned into taking sides in issues like this, not due to an elaborate coverup, but simply because of <a href="http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/23/confirmation-bias/">confirmation bias</a> and social reinforcement.<br />
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Likewise, <a href="http://www.spot.ph/the-feed/46272/sister-of-slain-carjacker-ivan-padilla-refutes-police-report-police-say-facebook-led-to-arrest-of-padilla-gang">Ivan Padilla's death</a> remains debatable. Did the police deliberately withdraw aid that could have saved his life when he was caught?<a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/06/10/padilla-may-have-been-strangled-death-expert"> Forensic reports</a> indicate he may have even been strangled. I worry that the public did not express the appropriate amount of outrage towards this. Did it seem to many that he deserved to die? As much as we complain about our judicial system, I still believe in its function. Shouldn't Ivan have been allowed to have his day in court?<br />
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In both cases, as well as numerous others, unanswered questions linger. Investigations aren't thorough enough to cover all the sides of the story. Instead, we're left with fragments of stories, and in some cases we're not even sure if these fragments are wholly true. And we're supposed to accept these fragments as the entire thing, and our lives go on.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUf8biwnk3I/AAAAAAAAAJo/Clzquy-ACFY/s1600/why_is_this_happening_to_me_by_andoyman-d37uofc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUf8biwnk3I/AAAAAAAAAJo/Clzquy-ACFY/s400/why_is_this_happening_to_me_by_andoyman-d37uofc.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">art by <a href="http://andoyman.i.ph/">Andoyman Komikero</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It's like justice itself has been gilded in a cage, hidden deep in the darkness, not to be seen.<br />
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UPDATED: I wanted to share this link to Maria Ressa's article <a href="http://www.mariaressa.com/how-good-people-turn-evil-corruption-in-the-philippines/">How Good People Turn Evil</a> Her reflections of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo#Early_years">Philip Zimardo</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_study">Stanford prison study</a> fit in with what I've been talking about.<br />
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</div></div><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fkatarungan-sa-pilipinasjustice-in.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" style="border: none; height: 80px; overflow: hidden; width: 450px;"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-45010774121801401692011-01-29T07:30:00.003+08:002011-01-29T07:47:16.359+08:00Make your komiks a wiki...for fun!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thus far, there are only two sites that count as komiks wikis: <a href="http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com/">Komiklopedia</a> (which funnily enough, was made around Wordpress) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUIzBYtfVhI/AAAAAAAAAJA/HtaXd-HAJKA/s1600/komiklopedia.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUIzBYtfVhI/AAAAAAAAAJA/HtaXd-HAJKA/s320/komiklopedia.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">and the <a href="http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=The_Philippine_Komiks_Encyclopedia">Philippine Komiks Encyclopedia</a> portal at WikiPilipinas. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUIzB6iqocI/AAAAAAAAAJE/N9BSU6O3-JE/s1600/PKE+Portal.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUIzB6iqocI/AAAAAAAAAJE/N9BSU6O3-JE/s320/PKE+Portal.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For the most part, they are good wikis. You can look up information on different komiks artists, publishers, events, etc. They make good resources for anyone looking to find out more about the komiks industry.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">But is that all wikis are good for? We may have taken the tagline "Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia" too seriously. As explained in <a href="http://meredith.wolfwater.com/cil06/">Wikis: A Beginner's Look</a> by Meredith Goldwater, wikis can be utilized in any number of ways, such as a content management system, private collaboration too or even just a personal notebook.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://meredith.wolfwater.com/cil06/"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TUIze5B7E5I/AAAAAAAAAJI/ZMTKmPec28E/s320/wikis.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">click to go to presentation</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Of particular interest to komiks makers would be Wikia, a popular wikifarm/community that has been utilized to make wikis in a variety of topics. In particular, they've been used by fans to make wikis surrounding particular fictional universes.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">But you guys probably already know that and use Wikia all the time already, to visit the <a href="http://marvel.wikia.com/Main_Page">Marvel </a>Wikia for example. Or <a href="http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">Lost</a>, <a href="http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Doctor_Who_Wiki">Doctor Who,</a>, <a href="http://gijoe.wikia.com/wiki/Joepedia_-_The_G.I._Joe_Wiki">GI Joe</a>, <a href="http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">Dragonball</a>, <a href="http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">One Piece</a> and what have you. I personally love the <a href="http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Mystery_Science_Theater_3000_Wiki">MST3K </a> Wiki. For those curious, the largest and most actively edited Wikia is for <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft">World of Warcraft</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So these wikis are a way for fans to find out more about the franchises and the fictional universes they inhabit. To a certain degree, they also make new fans out of people who want to know more about them. They do not supersede or replace other reference materials online or offline. To this end, they will contain spoilers and even story summaries, but rather than seeing this as a bad thing, I think it's a greater incentive to invest people in your universe and want to buy comics, movies, video games, merchandise, etc. In many cases, they are a labor of love for the fans to share their knowledge, in an accessible, entertaining manner.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So why not make wikis of komiks universes? If there's a wikipedia page of <a href="http://ilo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Ravelo">Mars Ravelo in Ilonggo</a>, certainly there's enough fandom out there to make a Ravelo universe wiki. More contemporary komiks makers like Budjette Tan, Carlo Vergara, Melvin & Joanah-Tinio Calingo, etc. could certainly make wikis about them and their works. (I would especially relish the subwikis that would come out of exploring Arnold Arre's graphic novels XD).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">For the even newer and younger komiks people, this is the perfect medium to self-promote! Looking for a way to drum up interest in all 50+ characters in Bayan Knights? A wiki would give them equitable space. Does the QBCCC need a place to explain their publishing philosophy to be more accessible? Their wiki can feature articles on individual creators and stories, published and planned issues, and influences. Do you have an idea for a komiks universe, but looking for an writer/artist/both to help flesh it out? You can lay out your ideas in a private wiki, and then open access to people to see and give their own feedback.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">If you want to give it a try now, you can try making a free wiki at <a href="http://www.wikia.com/Wikia">Wikia</a>, or <a href="http://pbworks.com/">PBWorks</a>. PBWorks is private, so you can try that out if you're feeling shy. Use Wikia if you're looking for immediate collaboration, and want your wiki to resemble Wikipedia with all the bells and whistles (and ads). Next week, I'll try making a wiki myself to make a short guide, as well discuss the different issues, opportunities, pros & cons of making wikis, etc.</div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Ad: If you haven't heard yet, TV5 is crowdsourcing for a few positions. I can't vouch if they're still available, but job openings include:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Graphic Artist (for web... needs to know flash also)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Programmer (better if has knowledge on Facebook/Twitter API's and has web dev history)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Online Advertising Associate (background in online ad sales)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Email your applications to csople@tv5.com.ph. If you have no prior experience, just send a resume with cover letter. Tell them plsburydoughboy sent ya! </span><br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fmake-your-komiks-wikifor-fun.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" style="border: none; height: 80px; overflow: hidden; width: 450px;"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-78413713011253116202011-01-22T07:30:00.009+08:002011-01-22T07:47:41.733+08:00What komiks people need to knowFirst, my apologies for a late blog post. I attribute this to negligence, but also partly to just having so much to deal with IRL. If you guys follow me on Twitter on FB, I committed to one blog post a week until I'm back on track, and although I remain very much busy, I'm sticking to making that weekly blog post.<br />
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I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Jonas Diego last week about his feedback on my blog. I felt a need to verify if the assumptions I made in setting up the blog corresponded to things as they are, and I wanted to see what effect it had made upon blog makers thus far.<br />
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What struck me most about our conversation was so obvious that I would have definitely missed it. At a certain point, Jonas got to talking about SSS requirements, and I got to asking, "what does that have to do with komiks?" "Kasi, yung mga gumagawa ng komiks, freelancers. Kelangan nilang maintindihan ang pangangailangan nilang magkaroon ng SSS."<br />
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So komiks people were freelancers? I kind of took it for granted that most of them have day jobs, but this refreshed my memory as well to my prior interactions with komiks people and learning that quite a few of them do this for a living. <br />
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After the talk, I was also reminded of Adam David lamenting that one of his prior employers had failed to pay his income taxes for his work. This is not so much Adam's mistake as it is his employer's (grossly negligent IMHO), but still a serious mistake that could have been avoided.<br />
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So, for komiks people who do freelance work, it's just as important that we understand everything there is to know about freelance work as much as it is to know everything about working in komiks. This does not just mean we have to be competitive in the freelance marketplace. It also means we have to understand our rights, make sure we pay our taxes, etc. Going freelance means sacrificing a lot of things people with 9-to-5 jobs take for granted. You can't afford to take them for granted either, not if you want to make sure you and your family has a good life in the years ahead.<br />
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I may write some freelance articles targeted to komiks makers in the future, including SSS, TIN, business registration and all that. For the moment, I'd like to recommend everyone follow Fleire Castro. Fleire is a classmate of mine in the Ateneo/DigitalFilipino course on Blogging Entrepenurship. Mother, blogger, and homeschooler, her personal blog always has a helpful article to people beginning and active in the world of social media. Even greater than that, she always shares articles on these same topics by others on her Twitter.<br />
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In fact, the first thing I'd have you read that I discovered from her is the <a href="http://www.brazencareerist.com/2010/08/30/the-sex-and-cash-theory-keep-your-day-job">Sex and Cash Theory</a>. From Hugh Macleod's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Everybody-Other-Keys-Creativity/dp/159184259X"> Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity</a>, it describes a practical action plan for people who want to follow their dreams (as komiks people are wont to do).<br />
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Fleire's blog is <a href="http://www.fleirecastro.com/">here</a>. You can also follow Fleire on Twitter @<a href="http://www.twitter.com/likke">likke</a>. <br />
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Having gleaned all this from my conversation with Jonas, I'd like to bring this question to you guys, my readers: what do you komiks people need to know? Anything about making komiks or working freelance that needs to be demystified and cleared up? Any particular needs for artist, writers, komiks people with websites, that remain unaddressed? What would you need to learn now,whether it's available elsewhere or unexplored before, that you feel would help you, not just in making komiks, but on personal and professional levels as well? I will help you guys find resources to help you out on these and other endeavors? I can't promise to find everything out, but we can get the ball rolling somewhere.<br />
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For those of you who have these aspects handled, I ask for your patience. I had learned that many komiks people, even the prolific ones, are new to freelancing and need help in these areas. If anything, I might come up with things that might be helpful to you as well.<br />
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<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fwhat-komiks-people-need-to-know.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-2224019665669811432011-01-15T15:55:00.006+08:002011-01-15T16:36:37.661+08:00Video Game Awards 2010: A Small ReviewLike Azrael, I was fortunate enough to have been invited to watch the Video Game Awards 2010 a week before its premier on Animax (Azrael's blog entry <a href="http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/2011/01/video-game-awards-vga-2010-premieres-on.html"><b>here</b></a>). For those who want to read spoilers, it's all in the Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Video_Game_Awards#2010_Awards"><b>entry</b></a>. What follows is a small review, and several observations randomly strewn about.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TTFJNIsfDOI/AAAAAAAAAI0/H5UMSpbSR-4/s1600/vga.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="333" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TTFJNIsfDOI/AAAAAAAAAI0/H5UMSpbSR-4/s400/vga.gif" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Video Game Awards property of Viacom, Animax property of Sony Entertainment</div><br />
The Video Game Awards is not actually produced by Animax, but by Spike, an American media entity that has a viral website and an American cable channel. They cater to a predominantly young male audience, so don't expect this show to resemble other Animax programming. The VGAs have also often been criticized for their bias, but as<a href="http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Nick+Chester/on-being-a-spike-vgas-judge-bonus-my-nominees--187947.phtml"><b> this Destructoid blog entry </b></a>explains, they actually did get help from the online video game community in choosing their winners and nominees.<br />
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This year, the host was Neil Patrick Harris, and fellow presenters included Olivia Munn, Dominic Monaghan, Benicio Del Toro, Dane Cook, etc. I think the highlight of this year's show, however, was not the star power, but their use of augmented reality to change the way the show looked to the TV audience.<br />
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The show went by briskly for an hour and a half. We basically saw nominations, awardings, exclusive previews and announcements in quick succession. Some of the awards were not shown on TV, but presumably given offscreen.<br />
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Out of all the previews, I was most impressed by Batman: Arkham City. Even if it wasn't a Batman property, the quality of the animated cutscenes, with convincing motion capture and a well executed short narrative were enough to wow me. On a personal level, I also liked the trailers for Thor: God of Asgard and Mortal Kombat.<br />
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Check out that trailer here! Watch it lag-free on Animax next week XD<br />
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<div style="width: 240px;"><embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="autoPlay=false" height="391" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:moses:video:gametrailers.com:708342" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640"></embed><br />
<div style="background-color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; height: 32px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: center; width: 640px;"><div><a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/" style="color: white;" title="GameTrailers.com">Video Games</a> | <a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/game/batman-arkham-city/12467" style="color: white;" title="Batman: Arkham City">Batman: Arkham City</a> | <a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-batman-arkham/708342" style="color: white;" title="VGA 10: Exclusive Hugo Strange Reveal Trailer HD">VGA 10: Exclusive Hugo Strange Reveal Trailer HD</a></div><div style="padding-top: 3px;"><a href="http://xbox360.gametrailers.com/" style="color: white;" title="Xbox 360">Xbox 360</a> | <a href="http://ps3.gametrailers.com/" style="color: white;" title="PS3">PlayStation 3</a> | <a href="http://wii.gametrailers.com/" style="color: white;" title="Wii">Nintendo Wii</a> | <a href="http://pc.gametrailers.com/" style="color: white;" title="PC Games">PC Games</a> </div></div></div>Video from GameTrailers. Batman: Arkham City Warner Bros. Entertainment & Rocksteady Studios. Batman & Hugo Strange property of DC Comics<br />
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I think gamers and non-gamers alike will be happy with the trailers and previews alone, but there's some entertaining segments in between as well. NPH himself was inconsistent, but was very funny at times. (Watch out for his short swipe at NBA Elite 11.) I'm afraid some of the presenters didn't feel like a good fit for the show, and some segments felt awkward, but don't let these dissuade you from watching what is otherwise an entertaining show. They even have a funny self-aware skit between Olivia & Neil Patrick Love-Hewitt.<br />
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These, I feel, were the honest VGA highlights:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>Director Guillermo Del Toro swiping the film industry again for treating video games as an ancillary product.</blockquote><blockquote>Limbo creator thanking fans for receiving the Independent Video Game Award.</blockquote><blockquote>The trailers for Batman: Arkham City and Thor: God Of Asgard, and to a lesser degree, X-Men Destiny. These will wow film & comic book fans alike.</blockquote><blockquote>Bethesda's announcement & trailer for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I've never played this series, but appreciate its role and legacy in video game history.</blockquote><blockquote>Jose Gonzales' performance of Red Dead Redemption title track Far Away. There are few opportunities to use indie folk in video games, so just seeing this song performed was a treat. I thought MCR's performance was OK, btw.</blockquote><blockquote>Comedy from TMZ, the cast of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (they had Danny Devito!) and Rachel Bilson. </blockquote><blockquote>The trailer for Portal 2. Compared to the other featured game trailers, still a breath of fresh air. </blockquote>And that's how I saw the VGAs. I wouldn't call it a must watch, but it's certainly entertaining enough for a Sunday evening. You can catch it January 23, Sunday, starting 7:10 PM, to be simulcast on Animax, AXN, AXN Beyond and Sony Entertainment Television. NOTE: Contains mature language, video game depictions of sexuality and violence.<br />
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As a bonus, here's a live performance of Jose Gonzales' Far Away in Rockstar Australia<br />
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Video from YouTube. Far Away property of Rockstar Games<br />
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KOMIKS PLUGS: A lot of upcoming komiks events soon as well! Check if you can catch any of these:<br />
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Sulyap book signings at Powerbooks, Greenbelt 3 1/22/11, 4-9 PM<br />
and Powerbooks MOA 1/29/11, 4-9 PM<br />
Hey Baby! Gerry Alanguilan book signing at Sputnik, Cubao X 1/29/11 9 PM to 2 AM<br />
Leinil Yu book signing for Death of Spider-Man/Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates at Comic Odyssey, Robinson's Galleria 2/12/11 1-4 PM<br />
Komikstrip 2011 CAS Annex 2 UP Los Baños 02/19/11 10 AM-7 PMplsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-33173470558496970982011-01-14T07:30:00.002+08:002011-01-14T08:31:01.389+08:00Komiks industry vs. community: a question of semanticsI think semantics is important. You might have only heard of semantics when having arguments with overly intellectual friends, ie; they'll use that worn out phrase; "we're only arguing semantics." Unfortunately, using this word exclusively in this context really devalues what it is.<br />
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Under linguistics, semantics refers to the way language conveys meaning. Irregardless if you subscribe to Barthes', Chomsky's or ideas on semantics, the important thing is to understand the importance of using particular words when describing a certain person or thing.<br />
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So I want to urge everyone in komiks, whether retired, active or merely aspiring, to stop referring to the existing collective of active komiks makers as an industry and to use different words instead. The alternative I use is komiks community.<br />
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The word industry comes loaded with certain expectations that komiks makers may not necessarily meet, and may not necessarily be beneficial to them. You take a simple definition, like production of a commercial or economic good, and realize that it assumes the makers of the given good produce a steady output of said product for commercial consumption.<br />
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So I ask you, how many of you guys have been making, publishing and distributing your komiks on a monthly basis? Are you making enough money, not just to sustain production of future issues, not just to sustain a livelihood, but to safely say that you are making a substantial profit, enough to make a substantial dent in your local economy? And I don't just mean in a span of a few months, but consistently publishing and profiting from since you started until right now?<br />
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And of course, this can hurt the active komiks makers when outsiders come in and say; 'But you guys don't publish consistently!' or 'You don't make as much money here as you do for Marvel' or 'You guys are just amateurs.' Some of these unfair comments and perceptions come from unrealistic expectations, which stem from that one word.<br />
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Now, I like using the word community because it is associated with two ideas; one, that of people sharing a common interest, but also the idea that these people live in a particular area. The first idea describes the active komiks makers perfectly. However, I've been hypothesizing that the second idea has been starting to become true as well; that komiks are becoming local and komiks makers probably live near their target audience. Whether this hypothesis will be proven true remains to be seen, but in any case, this is certainly a more accurate description of the komiks makers now.<br />
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So, as of this moment, komiks is not being made by an economically driven industry. It's being made by a dedicated and closely knit community.<br />
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<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fkomiks-industry-vs-community-question.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-54102763650079133552011-01-12T07:30:00.002+08:002011-01-12T09:15:22.973+08:00My experience with comics diversityI didn't grew up the big Marvel or DC fan like other kids my generation did. Of course, we all had the huge cartoons, like TMNT and Ghostbusters, and then there was Voltes V and Bioman, but me, I got into a whole lot more. I wanted to see as many different kinds of cartoons as I could, so I scoured TV channels to see what they had on offer. I was fortunate to have appreciated and enjoyed the Ub Iwerks and Merrie Melodies and Betty Boops.<br />
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When I was older, this line of thinking extended to the comics I read. I believe the first of these that I read were definitely Archies, and by extension I saw the Tintins and Asterixes in bookstores. It was at school that I got to see my first Batmans and X-Mens among classmates, but then my batchmates were pretty discreet about showing & sharing them back then, so it would be much later before I even got to read them.<br />
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But then, in the back of my mind I would remember even more comics I wanted to experience. There were the Hong Kong comics hiding under the huge pile of Mandarin language magazines, back when Robinson's Galleria was first new. There were the gorgeous Heavy Metal covers, hiding under the Playboys and Hustlers. There were the Mad and Cracked magazines, which may as well have been comics format. And then there were the komiks.<br />
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I think our neighborhood had a pretty good deal when it came to komiks compared to others. No, we didn't get Kick Fighter or Bata Batuta circulated here, but we had Pilipino Funny Komiks For Kids, and our distributor was also the local newspaper man. He made the deal to bring Funny Komiks to our houses every Tuesday or Thursday afternoon, and it would be paid for along with out newspaper subscription.<br />
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Needless to say, it was a pretty sweet deal.<br />
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Around my high school years, the comics scene went through an explosion. Everyone was talking X-Men and Image, but at around the same time, Evangelion was poised to make anime a worldwide phenomenon.<br />
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So here I am, surrounded by classmates talking all Wolverine this and Gundam that, and frankly I was getting bored. In our tiny classroom conversations, they would make grudging acknowledgements that, yes, an Archie is good for a rainy afternoon, and Tintin is really old and artsy, and somebody's parents wouldn't let him but a Heavy Metal, but mostly encountered closed minds who could not fathom why I had as much enthusiasm for these comics as I did for the latest Samurai X. I was the special, outsider kid, who was just really into comics.<br />
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Such bollocks.<br />
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So, unsatisfied with following the pack, I set out to look for comics on my own. Any kind of comics, comics that wouldn't neatly fit any categories. I did it with a wistful naivete and lack of money too, so it wasn't like I was reading Maus early on. I never even heard about Watchmen until college, that was how out of the loop I really was. <br />
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But even with the limitations afforded me, among bargain bins and shady characters, I found different comics. The Valiants and AD 2000s, who no one else I knew cared about. Elfquest. Manga Vizion. Ms. Tree. newsstrip reprints of Dick Tracy and Garth.<br />
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A lot of them were segments of longer stories too, but even just reading parts of them were fruitful. I liked anthologies like Negative Burn and Critters. I found pieces of Xenozoic Tales and A Distant Soil. And of course, there was an even bigger list of books I wanted but couldn't even get my hands on.<br />
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Through the years, I accumulated and lost comics. I constantly had a problem with not having enough space for them. Some were lost, some were never returned, and some were disposed of by either me or my family. I often lamented, but grew to accept that my parents didn't have the culture of taking care of books that I wanted to nurture.<br />
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But of course, as I got older, I got more of my way, and like to think I currently have an interesting, if unimpressive collection. Like many people, though, I stopped collecting when the internet became a viable resource to find comics. As of today, I still don't have the shelf space I'd want for serious collecting.<br />
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So, how did you guys discover comics?plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-11119846532480127432011-01-10T08:02:00.001+08:002011-01-10T08:04:35.349+08:00Comics and Komiks diversityComics diversity is a great thing. The differentiation in terms of art style, format, target markets, etc. is an indication of the health of the medium. A market where only superhero comics existed, or only shonen manga existed, no matter how brilliant those works could become, would be dead creatively. Much like biodiversity, comics diversity is an indication of how much creativity is fostered in a particular comics making community.<br />
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Here's a short list that should give you an idea how diverse comics actually are:<br />
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<blockquote>mah jongg manga - entire comics stories revolving around people competing to be the best at manga, often using fictitious moves and abilities that are simply impossible in mah jongg in real life. One recent manga, The Legend of Koizumi, became infamous for portraying world leaders like George W. Bush, Kim Jong-Il and Vladimir Putin play mah jongg against each other. This genre was unknown outside Japan until Akagi, which was turned into an anime in 2005.</blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpGNFomd3I/AAAAAAAAAIk/w3mXAR949Es/s1600/akagi2_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpGNFomd3I/AAAAAAAAAIk/w3mXAR949Es/s320/akagi2_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">source: Akagi still from Madhouse</div></blockquote><blockquote>photo comics/look books - a comic genre that crossed boundaries from Europe, to South America and Africa. Instead of drawings, photographs were laid in sequence with text and word balloons filled in. Many photo comics were adaptations of films and TV shows using captured stills, while others actually featured original characters. On a side note, I remember getting reprinted photocomics of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots and National Velvet, which probably date back to the 50s, as a kid.</blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpJLfkMI9I/AAAAAAAAAIo/5KzHOX0wI-k/s1600/foto_novela_clasica_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpJLfkMI9I/AAAAAAAAAIo/5KzHOX0wI-k/s400/foto_novela_clasica_1.jpg" width="288" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">source: Matias-TV magazine</div></blockquote><blockquote>war journal comics - Don Lomax and Joe Sacco blur the lines between journalist, autobiographer and war comics creators with their work. They distinguish themselves from other war comics biographers like Harvey Pekar, Gary Trudeau and Art Spiegelman by documenting their own actual war experience in comics form. For Lomax, it was as a Vietnam veteran, for Sacco, it was as a journalist in the Gulf War and Bosnian War.</blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpJveXpanI/AAAAAAAAAIs/-mPJF0CUHEE/s1600/lomax_don_1991_highshinin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpJveXpanI/AAAAAAAAAIs/-mPJF0CUHEE/s320/lomax_don_1991_highshinin.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">source: High Shining Brass, Don Lomax, Apple Comics</div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpKs4KxTnI/AAAAAAAAAIw/BwDrAa79STQ/s1600/complacency.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSpKs4KxTnI/AAAAAAAAAIw/BwDrAa79STQ/s400/complacency.png" width="312" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> source: Complacency Kills, Joe Sacco, The Guardian</div><blockquote>constrained comics - previously nothing more than an experiment, constrained comics gained prominence when <a href="http://www.qwantz.com/index.php">qwantz/dinosaur comics</a> and <a href="http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/">garfield minus garfield</a> went viral. In a nutshell, these comics are produced under specific constraints or rules that cannot be broken. These comics often reuse older material as the constraint, & often the impetus for new insight. Other examples of constrained comics are <a href="http://www.marriedtothesea.com/">Married To The Sea</a> and <a href="http://scottmeetsfamilycircus.tumblr.com/">Scott Meets Family Circus</a>.</blockquote>Globalization has both facilitated and threatened this comics diversity. On one end, it's easier to discover new comics of different kinds, as well as find more comics related resources and information. On the other hand, local comics have been dying out as people worldwide start reading more of the same thing. <br />
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Komiks makers are affected by this in two ways:<br />
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1) komiks are part of that diversity. Pinoy comics have a different flavor from comics in Belgium or Hong Kong. <br />
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2) komiks makers themselves are affected by globalization, to either join in what other people have been doing or to stand apart from the pack.<br />
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Locally, I think you can make connections between Trese and horror komiks stories of old, as well as superheroes then and now, and also with Mwahaha and the old satirical komiks. But I am concerned about other genres, like the old style adventure komiks serials, romance and love stories, magical stories, and the recurring soap opera style serials.<br />
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Now, some of these stories are of course being retold in film and movies. And some core concepts are being reexplored in different ways, such as love stories in manga style komiks, or adventure themes in superhero komiks. However, you couldn't really say these genres survive if they aren't being reexplored the way they used to be.<br />
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But, this may not necessarily be a good or bad thing. Perhaps some of these genres aren't worth reexploring, or no one active is interested or capable of doing so. In any case, I want to urge you to take a look at komiks you bought today and consider how much it contributes to komiks diversity.<br />
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This Wednesday I'll tell the story of how I discovered the beauty of comics diversity.<br />
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<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fcomics-and-komiks-diversity.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-64352885602508058692011-01-07T07:30:00.046+08:002011-01-07T07:38:06.345+08:00Self-Publishing Lessons from Gandhi Part 2: What We Can Do TodayNote: I've decided to litter this article with pictures of Gandhi as a young man in South Africa. He looks different from what you may expect, and yet still somehow familiar.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXZx7gCuXI/AAAAAAAAAIE/ljsbTrQeXnU/s1600/Gandhi_London_1906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXZx7gCuXI/AAAAAAAAAIE/ljsbTrQeXnU/s320/Gandhi_London_1906.jpg" width="230" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">source: Wikimedia Commons</div><br />
A lot of things have changed in the world of publishing in the last twenty years alone, and we can expect rapid changes and experimentation. And yet as the cliche goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here are some things we can take from Gandhi's foray in self-publishing we can still apply today:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>1) Have a message. It's easy to take this for granted, and perhaps it would mostly be people who have experienced the limits of conventional publishing who would immediately appreciate the freedom accorded of doing it on your own. Still, don't waste the possibilities afforded by self-publishing and just publish material willy-nilly.<br />
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It need not be fully radicalized like Gandhi's satyagraha. If you want to tell stories of your childhood, or share fashion tips, you can make that your message. What's important is that you explore that intentionality.<br />
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I would caution that it really is too easy to say what everybody else is saying. You admire what this artist or writer has done & want to make something as clever, ornate or emotional. However, the world would be better served if you bring yourself to the table.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXZyrQSGCI/AAAAAAAAAII/EH_SQz2R9rs/s1600/Gandhi_suit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXZyrQSGCI/AAAAAAAAAII/EH_SQz2R9rs/s320/Gandhi_suit.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="250" /></a></div><br />
2) Be dedicated. It's the story that's retold over and over again, but never changes. Publishing in general entails so many tasks and demands, from producing content, to printing and distribution. If you will forego a big traditional publisher, you will have to utilize as many resources available to you as possible.<br />
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It definitely helps to find other people who are interested in publishing the same things as you. Not only will you be able to share resources, but you will also establish a support network for each other.<br />
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Here I would point out a common misconception regarding online publishing. It's too easy to assume that success is a lulu e-book or app subscription away, but that's only 1/3 of the work. You should still treat it like publishing on paper, with the budgeting & promotion & everything. If you don't know how to do these things online, you need to learn them to be successful.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXbHfSf-9I/AAAAAAAAAIQ/HyNHWRppor4/s1600/Gandhi_South-Africa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXbHfSf-9I/AAAAAAAAAIQ/HyNHWRppor4/s1600/Gandhi_South-Africa.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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3) Let the experience affect you. For Gandhi, the research, writing, publishing, and distribution of Indian Opinion led to his realization of the realities of Indian inequality under British rule. Whereas he initially intended to work within the British justice system, he gradually moved towards Indian independence, in keeping with what Indians needed, not just what he thought Indians needed.<br />
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Again, you may not experience something as radical as Gandhi, but you'll want to treat it like a feedback mechanism to inform your ongoing and future work.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXbb5Xn39I/AAAAAAAAAIc/ljMJIW1A8Js/s1600/256px-Gandhi_1900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXbb5Xn39I/AAAAAAAAAIc/ljMJIW1A8Js/s320/256px-Gandhi_1900.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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4) Be ambitious. Not necessarily the kind of ambition that gets you in the New York Times Bestseller list, although that is good too. Think about how you want your work to influence people. The depth of that influence will determine how your work will be remembered for posterity.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXZmdCDGEI/AAAAAAAAAH4/Aa9v4Hlyd1o/s1600/128px-Gandhi_spinning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSXZmdCDGEI/AAAAAAAAAH4/Aa9v4Hlyd1o/s1600/128px-Gandhi_spinning.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div>And of course, you may not want or be able to apply all of these learnings in your personal self-publishing efforts, so just pick up and use what you can use.<br />
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<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fself-publishing-lessons-from-gandhi_07.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-31033649218711499672011-01-06T07:30:00.001+08:002011-01-06T07:44:28.468+08:00Self-Publishing Lessons from Gandhi Part 1: Indian OpinionThinking out of the box, I was looking for a perspective on self-publishing that deviated from the profit building model, which has been growing in popularity thank to people like Seth Godin and Tim Ferris (see Tim Ferris' reflections on Godin's move to self-publishing <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/08/23/seth-godin-and-print-publishing/">here</a>.)<br />
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But here you might already be saying; what's the point of writing if you don't make money off of it? What else is there?<br />
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And so I introduce you to self-publisher Mohandas Gandhi:<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRwmah_6EQI/AAAAAAAAAHo/geBLRV7in3w/s1600/Indian_Opinion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRwmah_6EQI/AAAAAAAAAHo/geBLRV7in3w/s320/Indian_Opinion.png" width="241" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">source: Wikimedia Commons</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Gandhi, at 33, was an Indian lawyer in South Africa. Although a British citizen, he, as well as other Indians in the colony, was suffering discrimination from the local white Afrikaan community. At the time, the Jan Smuts goverment enforced serious limitations to Indian rights, such as warrantless arrests and seizires. He sought a way to campaign for Indian civil rights in what was then a British colony, as their own native land India was.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With help from fellow Indians of influence, he was able to pool resources, including a printing press and a small stretch of land, to start publishing the Indian Opinion, a monthly magazine in 1903. At first intended to merely document Indian human rights abuses, the magazine essentially became the prime mover towards Gandhi's development of satyagraha, the philosophical and political movement of nonviolent resistance.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSSQ-XgxTcI/AAAAAAAAAHs/LqTiug_-N4I/s1600/1903_june11_PageNo-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSSQ-XgxTcI/AAAAAAAAAHs/LqTiug_-N4I/s320/1903_june11_PageNo-2.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">source: National Gandhi Museum.org</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The hows of making the magazine were also relevant. For one, Gandhi arranged for a unique cooperative scheme. Nobody was paid a flat wage. Instead, everyone involved in making the magazine also worked together to maintain the printing press and living quarters, and even grow their own food. They were to share in any profits that they would make, but they were going to be self-sufficient. Also amazing was that they published in multiple languages: Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil and English. Translation wasn't perfect, but they were able to spread their message nonetheless.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At its height, Indian Opinion had a circulation of 35,000 readers and averaged at 20,000. These were small numbers compared to leading periodicals with 50,000 readers. The magazine did not reach its relevance from its profits or wide readership, but from how it influenced people. To quote Gandhi: "Satyagraha would have been impossible without Indian Opinion." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSSTdhBbchI/AAAAAAAAAHw/Iah1nsP4AN4/s1600/1903_Sept17_PageNo-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TSSTdhBbchI/AAAAAAAAAHw/Iah1nsP4AN4/s320/1903_Sept17_PageNo-2.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">source: National Gandhi Museum.org</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In Part 2, we will explore what learnings we can get from Gandhi and Indian Opinion, how they can be adapted to the digital publishing revolution, and how komiks self publishers, actually, any self publisher, can be like Gandhi.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sources: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Opinion</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>South African History Online, http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/artsmediaculture/arts/media/indian-opinion.htm<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Images: Wikimedia Commons, National Gandhi Museum.org </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You can see more previews of Indian Opinion <a href="http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/eduresources/eduresources_archives_indianopinion.htm">here </a>and <a href="http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?searchword=indian+opinion+vol&ordering=&searchphrase=all&limit=20&option=com_qsearch&view=qsearch">here</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fself-publishing-lessons-from-gandhi.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-40938265660916550222011-01-03T07:30:00.065+08:002011-01-03T09:25:28.546+08:00The Komiks Advocate for 2011Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your holidays. Now everyone's back to work, including me.<br />
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When I started my blog, I was kind of running with this crazy idea in my head that the komiks community needed as much help as possible, that in fact, it needed saving. Saving from this imaginary intangible thing that I couldn't clearly define and didn't know how to overcome.<br />
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Of course, getting published in the QBCCC and attending Komikon 2010 changed that mindset completely. Komiks is alive and well, and I was so wrong to believe otherwise. Consequently, I realized it was egoistic to assume that I would somehow save komiks, as if I had some special knowledge that the people who dedicated their time, money and even careers to komiks did not. I think this komiks saving psyche can be a good thing, in that it can motivate people to get into it, but it's definitely a delusion I needed to get out of to be of actual benefit to the community.<br />
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Still, I think I have a lot to contribute, based on what I know and ideas I have. This blog is more than just a blog. I'm happy to have received feedback from people saying this blog has inspired them, for one reason or another. I know this blog hasn't really proven it's worth to everyone, but this year I intend to change that. I want people reading this blog to see it as a starting point for many a bright idea, perhaps some for me to explore further, and others for some people to pursue on their own.<br />
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What I recognized in the interim is that since there are no major komiks publishing companies, everybody making komiks has to deal with the publishing as much as the komiks making side. And as much as there are merits to self publication, this cuts into the time and effort that could have been focused on making komiks itself.<br />
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This fact alone has tangible consequences on komiks publishing as it is today. Just yesterday, Budjette Tan <a href="http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/2011/01/grand-plans-and-sidetrips.html">blogged </a>that he & Kajo intend to finish Trese Book 4 just in time for Summer Komikon/Metro Comic Con. I think komiks people deserve a greater opportunity to produce more than what they are able to now. The readers certainly deserve to get the best from them.<br />
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I also believe in giving things away for free. For now all I can share are ideas, but there are many things I want to try and reveal to everyone, which would take a lot of the guesswork out of the self publishing end. I hope to explore these ideas and experiments throughout the year.<br />
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For now, my only tangible goal for this blog is to make 3 regular posts a week; every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have a backlog of topics to go through in my head, although new ideas come up everyday based on my interactions with komiks people everyday. To put that in context, that is potentially 220 posts for this year. I may miss it a few times, and I probably won't do it every single week, but it's workable and simple enough to keep me going. Good luck to me, and to everyone in the komiks community.<br />
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Again, a Happy New Year's to everyone!<br />
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<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkomiksadvocate.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fkomiks-advocate-for-2011.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-48491965160793384622010-12-24T07:10:00.109+08:002010-12-27T11:31:03.534+08:002010 Christmas komiks and komiks art!<div style="text-align: center;">This post is just for fun. Happy holidays everyone! ^__^</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://komix.org.uk/strips/?callous/321/"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1ZRc-LBI/AAAAAAAAAGY/11Og16tFq7A/s400/20101219+callous.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Click the comic to see it in its original page.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">Callous Comics, by Carlo Jose San Juan, M.D.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Check out the <a href="http://www.callouscomics.com/">Callous Comics site</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/callouscomics?v=wall">Facebook</a>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://crazymetro.smackjeeves.com/comics/1065246/act-01-plans-for-holiday/"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1au72-1I/AAAAAAAAAGc/xAsarZm1Ffc/s400/Crazy+Metro+-Ernest+Darryl+Fiestan.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://crazymetro.smackjeeves.com/comics/1063549/crazy-metro-christmas/"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRNmDp5RTpI/AAAAAAAAAG8/hjvSpYyIPM4/s400/6dcf433ecgGK3.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>Click the comic to see it in its original page.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">Crazy Metro Comics, by Ernest John Daryll Fiestan</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Ernest also made this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF-CtipBqI/AAAAAAAAAG4/QiEerw-FwOg/s1600/133573_137042139687953_134204663305034_221994_3059915_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF-CtipBqI/AAAAAAAAAG4/QiEerw-FwOg/s400/133573_137042139687953_134204663305034_221994_3059915_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">This art features characters Diwa from <a href="http://onefloorup.smackjeeves.com/">One Floor Up</a> and Emina from <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/ladystorykeeper/apps/photos/album?albumid=1121482">The Channels Express</a>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Check out Crazy Metro Comics on <a href="http://ernz1318.deviantart.com/gallery/25922448">deviantART </a>and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crazy-Metro-Comics/134204663305034">Facebook</a>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ahahulekomiks.blogspot.com/2010/12/kakaibang-christmas.html?spref=fb"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRR6qfVx6SI/AAAAAAAAAHM/38pYdcTB3Gs/s400/Aha+Hule+248+rgb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Aha Hule Komiks<br />
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Aha Hule Komiks is by Greco Milambiling. Check out their <a href="http://ahahulekomiks.blogspot.com/">blog </a>and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ahahulekomiks">Facebook</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://wipcomics.com/?m=20101225"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRf4vAwHiwI/AAAAAAAAAHU/s4Uf9xBegEk/s400/MERRY-CHRISTMAS-2010-from-WIP.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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WIP: Work In Progress<br />
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WIP: Work In Progress is by Teddy Pavon and Hub Pacheco. Check out their site <a href="http://wipcomics.com/">here</a>.<br />
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EDITED: Combo breaker! Classic komiks style art from one of the oldies but goodies, Romeo Tanghal, Sr.!!!<br />
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First off, Joker's got a present for all you suckers!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRQH8JY-eKI/AAAAAAAAAHE/h181xDzXx_U/s1600/134685_188385664508545_100000113398683_778305_4520218_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRQH8JY-eKI/AAAAAAAAAHE/h181xDzXx_U/s400/134685_188385664508545_100000113398683_778305_4520218_o.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><br />
And here's a more traditional komiks illustration <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRQIANZFkkI/AAAAAAAAAHI/-dKT1o6TX5s/s1600/131619_186874711326307_100000113398683_764547_2205235_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRQIANZFkkI/AAAAAAAAAHI/-dKT1o6TX5s/s640/131619_186874711326307_100000113398683_764547_2205235_o.jpg" width="468" /></a></div><br />
Romeo Tanghal, Sr.<br />
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See more of Romeo Tanghal, Sr.'s sketches <a href="http://romeotanghalsrcollectionofsketches.blogspot.com/">here</a>, and add him on Facebook <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000113398683">here</a>.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1bhMo4KI/AAAAAAAAAGg/3y_VbVDto0g/s1600/JT+Calingo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1bhMo4KI/AAAAAAAAAGg/3y_VbVDto0g/s400/JT+Calingo.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Joanah Tinio Calingo</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Joanah Tinio Calingo is on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1613101743">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://ika-siyam.deviantart.com/">deviantART</a>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1caiT_qI/AAAAAAAAAGk/LsTuYhaU43E/s1600/Marco+Dimaano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1caiT_qI/AAAAAAAAAGk/LsTuYhaU43E/s400/Marco+Dimaano.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Marco Antonio G. Dimaano</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Marco Antonio G. Dimaano is the maker of Angel Ace & Kia. You can check out his personal blog <a href="http://starkravingmadman.blogspot.com/">Stark Raving Mad</a> & fighting game blog<a href="http://thelonegamer.wordpress.com/"> The Lone Gamer</a>. He's also on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=525653505">Facebook</a>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRf8X_CmzlI/AAAAAAAAAHc/ndlQnQOJKjI/s1600/134078_177631545591291_129669377054175_470391_4411766_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRf8X_CmzlI/AAAAAAAAAHc/ndlQnQOJKjI/s400/134078_177631545591291_129669377054175_470391_4411766_o.jpg" width="377" /></a></div><br />
Jose Gamboa<br />
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Jose Gamboa made The Pacquiao Comic, which you can purchase from lulu <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/pacquiao/13621267">here</a>.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1dpcDUUI/AAAAAAAAAGo/aTbkAp1TmIU/s1600/Meganon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1dpcDUUI/AAAAAAAAAGo/aTbkAp1TmIU/s400/Meganon.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Meganon Comics </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Meganon Comics is on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001170702570&sk=info">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://meganoncomics.deviantart.com/">deviantART</a>, <a href="http://meganoncomics.multiply.com/">Multiply </a>and <a href="http://twitter.com/MEGANONComics">Twitter</a>. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://henry26.deviantart.com/art/Season-s-Greetings-2010-190762841"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRgHXV_RjsI/AAAAAAAAAHg/tDeSEc_Rz8Y/s400/Mark+Henry+Bustamante.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><br />
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Mark Henry Bustamante<br />
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Mark Henry Bustamante made My Falling Star Girlfriend. Check out his work on <a href="http://henry26.deviantart.com/">Deviantart</a><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">And this series from the hardworking people over at Bokimkat Komiks!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1olLjVvI/AAAAAAAAAGs/9o2dMztkv4k/s1600/Aliyah+%2526+Mr.+M+of+REALM+OF+DREAMS+CRIMSON+NIGHT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1olLjVvI/AAAAAAAAAGs/9o2dMztkv4k/s400/Aliyah+%2526+Mr.+M+of+REALM+OF+DREAMS+CRIMSON+NIGHT.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Aliyah & Mr. M of REALM OF DREAMS : CRIMSON NIGHT</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1rjlaARI/AAAAAAAAAGw/4mjZjPNKyC4/s1600/Keiko+Bayani+Dragon+Kid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1rjlaARI/AAAAAAAAAGw/4mjZjPNKyC4/s400/Keiko+Bayani+Dragon+Kid.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Keiko and Bayani of DRAGON KID</span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1tYzqS0I/AAAAAAAAAG0/mXT4pwO1nN8/s1600/Kiara+and+Paolo+of+REALM+OF+DREAMS+ROYAL+ORDER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRF1tYzqS0I/AAAAAAAAAG0/mXT4pwO1nN8/s400/Kiara+and+Paolo+of+REALM+OF+DREAMS+ROYAL+ORDER.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Kiara and Paolo of REALM OF DREAMS : ROYAL ORDER</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bokimkat Komiks is on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001532591920">Facebook</a>. You can also check out previews of their work in Flipgeeks <a href="http://flipgeeks.com/komiks-preview-realm-of-dreams-1-royal-order/">here </a>and <a href="http://flipgeeks.com/komiks-preview-realm-of-dreams-2-crimson-night/">here</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRf5VLZ3kaI/AAAAAAAAAHY/rr0rzXyndV8/s1600/Rasel+Reyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRf5VLZ3kaI/AAAAAAAAAHY/rr0rzXyndV8/s400/Rasel+Reyes.jpg" width="352" /></a></div><br />
Rasel Reyes<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRN3jdGpenI/AAAAAAAAAHA/4T81NCBW1uo/s1600/133904_1518834616381_1399985681_31118523_4312071_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRN3jdGpenI/AAAAAAAAAHA/4T81NCBW1uo/s400/133904_1518834616381_1399985681_31118523_4312071_o.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><br />
Stephen Segovia<br />
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Stephen Segovia is on <a href="http://sjsegovia.deviantart.com/">deviantART</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRgIP58H6DI/AAAAAAAAAHk/UU6QMA-sRg8/s1600/170056_1568632172122_1124993234_31298466_12300_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TRgIP58H6DI/AAAAAAAAAHk/UU6QMA-sRg8/s400/170056_1568632172122_1124993234_31298466_12300_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Silent Sanctum Manga<br />
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Silent Sanctum Manga made a hilarious post on the<a href="http://silentsanctummanga.blogspot.com/2010/12/25-ways-to-enjoy-christmas-ssm-blogspot.html"> 25 Ways to Enjoy Christmas</a>. Check it out!<br />
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Also, Gerry Alanguilan wrote <a href="http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/3043">this</a> and Jonas Diego made <a href="http://jonasdiegocom.blogspot.com/2010/12/merry-christmas.html">this</a>.<br />
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If you guys made something, I can still add it in, no problem! Just contact me, tnx :) </div>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-77402307505155558302010-12-17T07:30:00.000+08:002010-12-17T07:30:00.627+08:00On Self-Publishing: Silent Sanctum Manga<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The following is the sixth in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
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Today's article comes from the people behind Silent Sanctum Manga.</span></i><br />
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<div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Silent Sanctum Manga is a bi-monthly independent manga brand from the Philippines, with current issues and back issues available at both <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291749129_0" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Sputnik</span> and Comic Odyssey in Ortigas. We've been doing this for about 3 years now. Originally composed of Chapel, Rodent, Head and Ookami, our current roster now includes king, Frinkster, Green and Hachi.</div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Our main goal back then was to join Culture Crash's "Make The Page" comic feature and earn some money for our rather expensive art materials and school projects. And since everyone was still involved with school, our first issue came much later than we had planned. We basically waited long enough for everyone to graduate. We all became really serious about it around Komikon 2006. We became really interested in the convention scene, and since then became regulars at similar events. At present, Silent Sanctum Manga has 6 issues; 6.5 if you count our 5.5th issue, which has in it a direct homage to our heroes, Culture Crash.</div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1 What made you decide to publish your own komiks?</span></b></span><br />
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<div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">We decided to publish our own work due to the fact that <br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> <br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> 1. We didn't know anyone that would publish our work and <br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> 2. We did not want any board of directors/ censors /conservative groups to dictate how we should do our stories.</div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Early on, we understood completely the importance of that freedom and what we must and should do to keep that freedom. Keeping it mature but still classy and maintaining the same goals and principles, these are the things that makes us who we are, today!</div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">2 What did you need to do to get into komiks?</span></b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">As a beginner artist, you have to have the passion and drive to continue whatever it is that your doing. Everyone in Silent Sanctum Manga were all artists long before the book had even started. So, with that passion, you should have outlets and ways to share your gift with others.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">In the early stages of Silent Sanctum Manga, none of us had any knowledge whatsoever of Photoshop, Corel Draw, etc. And even if you wanted to learn about these things, people knowledgeable in these skills kept their mouths shut. And so, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">out of necessity, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">we were forced to learn on our own. And just like any kid our age would do, we did as much research as possible, trying out tutorials, trying to learn from whatever is on the net.Basically, we tried to adapt with the changing times and evolved for the betterment of the book and ourselves.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">We never really had any problem with our drawing skills and such, but we were concerned with learning how to use new technologies. But adaptation is the key, and sure enough, after some editing, we were able to finish our first ever indie manga.Change is good, because it keeps us from STAGNATING!</span><br />
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</span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">3 What are the main hurdles to overcome in self-publishing, and how should new komiks makers get over these hurdles?</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
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<div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">As I've mentioned earlier, one of our problems back then was technology. We wanted to put out an indie that could rival, say, an anime magazine. And with that goal we made plans for how to make that dream a reality.We wanted a book that reflected the OTAKU lifestyle, as we saw it in that time when anime was pretty much new and a big deal, and everyone wouldn't shut up about it. Reminiscing the 90's, a time of innocence and discovery. Our comic book was going to be a fan-based, fan-oriented, fan-centric book that would make everyone feel accepted and loved, regardless of age, gender, preferences, etc. A komik book for everyone!</div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Another problem would be the dividing factions between manga versus comics. Back when we were just starting out, komiks veterans and newbies alike would share their opinions and debate this topic. We were criticized as being unpatriotic and unoriginal. But we felt these criticisms had no basis, and at the time, PERSONAL. We've noticed that trend of bullying up to this day. But we survived this, in the long run, by taking everything with a grain of salt and accepting both the positives and the negatives. It helped us improve in a way. However, you have to remember that you can't please everyone. As long as you're happy, that's all that really matters!</div><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I can already sense this interview may start quite the comments thread, so let me remind you that this interview does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Komiks Advocate blog, nor me, plsburydoughboy, personally. </span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Reminder: Join the Katarungan Sa Pilipinas komiks making contest! Just a few hours to go! You can see the details and submit your entry <a href="http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-a-one">here</a>.</span></i>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-18614286581210887812010-12-15T07:30:00.057+08:002010-12-15T07:30:00.326+08:00On Self-Publishing: Gener Pedriña<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The following is the eighth in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
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Today's article comes from Gener Pedriña, more commonly known online as nerp.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Most people in the "indie" industry know me as nerp, creator of the Sanduguan characters. I started my first indie in '98 with the </span><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_0" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">first appearance</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> of Bato: The Agimat Warrior on Handicrapcomix #1. When Handicrapcomix folded up due to personal time constraints, I entered the world of digital comix. I came back to print form only, when a lot of readers requested that i do printed stuff.</span><br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /></span></span><br />
<div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">1998</b> Handicrap # 1-6</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">1999</b> LEGEND OF ZODIAC #1 & 2</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2002</b> Color Assist, Philippine Legends Published by Psicom</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ang Alamat ni Bernardo Karpio<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Alamat ng Maynilad<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Alamat Ng Mais<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Alamat Ni Apobolinayen At Ang Araw<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Tigbauan At Lamokon</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2003</b> Colors, Look And Find Series Coloring Published by Psicom</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1 - Invasion<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />2 - <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_1" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">The Forest</span><br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />3 - J Brothers Adventure<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />4 - Baranggay Anay, cover only<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />5 - The 12 Huntsmen<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />6 - The Abduction<br style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />8 - <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_2" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Carnival</span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_2" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Philippine <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Ghost Stories</span> #8 Pin-up Published by Psicom</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">DARNA Color Assist Published by Mango Comics</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">SANDUGUAN REVELATIONS Written by <a class="yiv1493846745new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christophe_Pacaud&action=edit&redlink=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #003399; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="Christophe Pacaud (page does not exist)"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_4" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Christophe Pacaud</span></a> Published by Blue Shuffle</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">WAN: Tatlong Kuwento. Talong Buhay With Tobie Abad</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2004</b> TIKBALANG NATION Written by <a class="yiv1493846745new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jason_Banico&action=edit&redlink=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #003399; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="Jason Banico (page does not exist)"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_5" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Jason Banico</span></a> Published by Dynatica</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2005</b> FANTASYA,"Kasaysayan: Minsan Isang Tag-Ulan" Written by Alex Osias Published by Psicom,</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">BASTED "Noon At Kailanman" Written by Kate Aton Cover colors Published by Psicom</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">BASTED: Tagos Hanggang Buto Cover colors Published by Psicom</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">PROJECT: HERO, Razor Lolita Written by <a class="yiv1493846745new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jason_Banico&action=edit&redlink=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #003399; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="Jason Banico (page does not exist)">Jason Banico</a> Published byQuest Ventures</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_6" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">KOMIKS</span> ATBP, Ang Alamat ni Bato Published by Point Zero</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">SHINING GOLD: APOCRYPHUS Written by Darrin Hunt under <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1291726136_7" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Ronin</span> Studios</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2007</b> SANDUGUAN:Himagsikan 0 </span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2008</b> SANDATA 0, BATO, Agimat Warrior 1 Published by Kathang Indio</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">2009</b> KALAYAAN #6 Written by Gio Paredes, Kathang Indio Visual Stories. Spot drawings on the Buzz magasin prose story.</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sanduguan and Bato are my ongoing projects.</span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="display: block; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b>1 What made you decide to publish your own komiks?</b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal;">I entered the comix world because I just love to draw and make my own stories, and others told me why not go into "indie" publishing. So, after evaluating my own works and characters, I decided to make Philippine mythology my main focus and published my first indie sampler, Sanduguan 0.</span></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b>2 What did you need to do to get into komiks?</b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;">I entered the comic book community just wanting to share my works to others. This is why I started online, armed only </span></b></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;">with </span></b></span></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;">the knowledge and experience I picked up along the way. I do my comix the "Marvel Style". I draw the pages based on a plot and then fix the continuity of the pages I finished. I fill up the gaps and build my script from the pages I have. (1) I'm not much of a writer, so this process works to my advantage.</span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;">3 What are the main hurdles to overcome in self-publishing, and how should new komiks makers get over these hurdles?</span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;">The main hurdle I have is finishing my comix on time. Since there are no editors to nag and push you, you do it only when you feel like it or when the next convention is just around the corner. Better to finish those pages early to avoid crunch time which leaves out room for many mistakes.</span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><i>(1) Ner P. is referring to an editorial style popularized by Stan Lee often referred to as The Marvel Method. Using this method, the writer does not make a full script for a comics story. Instead, he makes a synopsis and allows the artist to fill in the details. This method is intended to increase the level of collaboration between the writer and artist. Read the Wikipedia entry on it <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Method">here</a>.</i></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><i>You can see Gener/nerp's deviantART <a href="http://nerp.deviantart.com/">here</a>.</i></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="display: block; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></span></span></div>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-49950018700458859912010-12-13T07:30:00.030+08:002010-12-13T07:30:00.665+08:00On Self-Publishing: Carlo Jose San Juan<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The following is the seventh in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
<br />
Today's article comes from Carlo Jose San Juan, who shares his experiences on self-publishing online as well as in print.</span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">Carlo Jose San Juan, MD is a licensed physician and writes and illustrates the Callous comic strip series which has been running since 1996. He has been producing comics in print and online since 1993. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">My First Year as a Webcomic<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">There I was, slumped on my desk with a pile of rejected pages. My inkjet printer, exhausted from printing out page after page of errors, stood silently but beckoned me to call it quits. So, I did what any other online-junkie in my position would do to vent my frustration. I took a picture of my pile of faulty pages and posted it on Facebook. One reply I got from a fellow webcomic artist was, “That’s self-publishing!”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">Go back to just over a year prior I was tooling around with the online sitebuilder of a service that provided free website hosting with the intention of transferring my scattered archive of scanned comic strips published in various student newspapers to it. Since the site was remarkably easy to update, I decided to try doing a daily online comic strip... just to see how long I could do it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TP4rjCAlPhI/AAAAAAAAAFc/oPI6Q0TOCaE/s1600/yola.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TP4rjCAlPhI/AAAAAAAAAFc/oPI6Q0TOCaE/s320/yola.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">I set it all up through <a href="http://www.yola.com/">Yola </a>which was very helpful in helping you register your new site on places like Yahoo!, Google, and Bing and gave basic tips on search engine optimization (SEO). I then Googled for advice on free website promotion and free online comic promotion and was pleasantly surprised with the wealth of detailed guides which would help you start off your “webcomic” (a new term for me at the time) and bring it to readers around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">My comic had been on hiatus for a little more than four years at the time and during my absence from that world other artists had slaved through various processes of establishing themselves as pioneer webcomic artists and figured out feasible business models. It’s easy to think that had I stayed on I probably would have been one of those pioneers but I’d rather think like that’s one piece of hard work done for me and I now benefit from the trail they blazed. So just think, it’s all out there. All the guides, advice, and techniques are online, as varying as they are numerous. It’s all a matter of figuring out which path suits you best.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">What about skills? You may have noticed I’ve hardly talked about actually drawing the comic. There’s a good reason but more on that later. Anyways, here are the minimal artistic skill requirements you need to produce a comic:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">1) You need to know how to write in a manner that would reflect on a narrative sequential illustration medium and you need to know how to illustrate that writing in a manner that the message comes across to someone looking at it. Some people are good at one or the other while some are good at both. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">2) Furthermore, you don’t need to be Leonardo da Vinci to be a comic artist (though I’m sure it helps) but it’s more important that you are able to convey what’s going on in the writing. I also think of comics as a form of public speaking and one rule in both forms of expression is that you have to cater your work for your target audience and they must understand everything you’re saying. In the end, it’s all about communication.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">Now it is crucial to master your own craft in making the comic itself. It is, after all, the heart and soul of all this. But as many artists will tell you, drawing the comic is easy. If you’ve read this far it’s quite likely that you’re already skilled at it. It’s marketing and distributing your work that will take up most of your time. And for webcomics, learning the byzantine language of HTML and CSS code is an additional burden.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TP4r1G6Do2I/AAAAAAAAAFg/tYQ7Nk4ZPyQ/s1600/Comicpress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TP4r1G6Do2I/AAAAAAAAAFg/tYQ7Nk4ZPyQ/s320/Comicpress.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">The popular software of choice in the webcomic world is the wordpress plugin, <a href="http://comicpress.org/">ComicPress </a>(and in the near future, Comic Easel). It requires at least basic knowledge of HTML and CSS. With it you can design beautiful sites and expand your creativity beyond the comic and it has a great comic management system. I, however, had no time to learn all that code. So I went with hosts like Yola and Square Space which have online sitebuilders where you simply drag-and-drop site components (I personally use Yola’s blog interface... and try to make it look like a Comicpress-scripted site).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">As for marketing, yes it takes up a lot of time but it’s really not that hard. I go through various channels to market my comic but the main ones are Twitter and Facebook. Yup, Web 2.0 is the way to go, at least for me, and being “social” has benefitted me in more ways than just gaining more readers. I’ve found that readers like to connect with the creators of the comics they read and nowadays it’s easier than ever! It’s great to communicate with readers and fellow artists and the community is, mostly, a friendly one. Most give constructive advice as well and you in turn can help other struggling artists out. But be prepared. The internet can be a vicious place as well with a myriad of trolls just waiting to pounce on a weak spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">Once you have your home on the web set up, it’s time to publish your comic. The best marketing strategy you can have is to regularly update your site. Give people reason to keep coming back. Obviously, for a newspaper-style comic strip series like mine, daily updates are the absolute best thing to do. However, it’s not unheard of to find similarly-styled comics that update two to five times a week and still be just as successful as long as they maintain their publishing schedule. Comic book-styled comics can even update once a week or even less often than that and still get good readership. So, figure out the most frequent update schedule you can realistically accomplish then make sure you stick to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">After producing around a year’s worth of online daily comic strips and gaining a decent readership, I decided it was time to bring my efforts to print to introduce my work to the non-webcomic reading public (which was, admittedly, a vast majority of the Philippine comic-reading populace). I had landed a table at an upcoming comic con and began looking around for printing services that would cater to my publishing needs. After all, I only needed around a hundred comic books for the event, how much could it possibly cost?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">WHAT?! P200 – P300 a copy?! The best prices I got weren’t much better.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">Why did it cost so much? The main reason is that my comic is now primarily in color. Simply shifting it to grayscale didn’t agree with my eye’s palate. You might think I’m overreacting but hey, it’s my comic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">After much frustration looking for a printing service I was left with only one feasible option: to print the darn thing myself as an ashcan compilation comic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">I used Paper One’s A4 Presentation paper because it guarantees being able to take back-to-back color printing without having the ink bleed though the pages. For the cover I used CD-R King’s A4 Photo Paper. I saddle-stitched each copy myself with a long stapler.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">For the layout I used Microsoft Word to arrange my pages in booklet format. The upside is it makes figuring out the page arrangement for printing quite easy! The downside is it comes out lousy. My print turned out pretty small due to one factor or another creating a white border around each page, shrinking it. I advise using MS Word only to figure out your layout in booklet format then reflecting these arranged pages as images, printing them out as separate photos.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">The greatest monetary investment will come in the form of printer ink. I resorted to using the cheap ink refills you see around which cut costs dramatically.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">So I found myself in a comic con selling my comics and reaching a whole new audience. As nice as it is to see your comic online, there’s still something about seeing it in print that is particularly thrilling!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">But I’ve found, after keeping my series in relative obscurity for so long, that it is incredibly rewarding to have someone actually read your hard work and hearing them say they loved it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;">P.S. – The above methods were figured out all on my own with little to no help from anyone else, shaped to fit the circumstances of my life. It may or may not fit yours but I hope it helps you find your own direction. </span><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">J</span><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>You can read Callous <a href="http://callouscomics.com/">here</a>. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-62480222150963737122010-12-10T07:30:00.000+08:002010-12-10T07:30:01.115+08:00Why Pinoy Komiks Are Much Cheaper Than What People Think.<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The following is another repost of a Facebook Note by Gilbert Monsanto. View the original, including comments, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=161689840541012">here</a>.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 16px;"></span></i><br />
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A guy asked me how much is a copy of my comicbook. I said, sixty pesos only. He'd go, ang mahal na ng komiks ngayon no? He is not alone in thinking that Pinoy komiks nowadays are expensive. A few months ago I received an email, a guy was insisting that komiks should be priced cheaper, ten pesos even less. He said that's how low he can afford it to be. I told him, we can do that but we have to time travel back to 1996 then. Because today, it is just not possible... at all.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Let me try and explain why this is so. Imagine you are an independent creator. You'll be needing things for you to produce your very own comic book:</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Content- This is basically everything you'll be putting inside your title. From cover to back cover.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Cover art</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-articles, editorial page and such.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-interior pages</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">(around 36 pages standard numbers of pages including cover.)</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Printing- reproducing the actual books.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> and you are ready.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-photocopy (let's start small)</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, so let's start the computations then. If you intend to print just a plain one color book using photocopies. Then That's easy. 1.50 per face. 36 pages divided by 4 (2face) =9 x 3.00= 27.00</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If you like the colored cover version. I think the cover is already like 15pesos per face ad that to 24 pesos, equals 39.00</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">From here you'd think nice, I can sell that for 60 bucks and maybe I can earn a profit.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But wait, we are forgetting something here. Can you guess? Yup. It is the production cost. Yes, the author and the artist is the seller yes. But does it mean, what he wrote and drew is for freeeeee?</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, different artists means different rates. So let's start small again. Let's say an amateur's work is at a minimum. Like 100 or 200 per page? 200 x 32= 6,400.00</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Writing rates? hmmm let's say 75 -100 per page. 100 x 36 (including editorials and articles) =3,600</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">6,400.00 + 3,600.00= 10,000.00</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Let's say the creator printed 100 copies to be sold at conventions. 100 x 27.00= 2,700.00 + 10,000 =12,700</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">12,700 divided by a hundred is 127.00 per comic book. He will sell this for 60pesos at the convention. Now tell me is it still expensive for you? You may argue that if he sold a thousand copies of these then he'll be earning more and will cover all the expenses. This is true, but are you seeing young indie titles selling more than a hundred at conventions?</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The cost for putting these on bookstore for distribution, (legwork, fare and all) are not yet included.</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Still think Komiks are expensive?</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Now picture this using my rate :) You'd probably realize what you are buying from us is actually a gift. And if you do? Thanks!</span></i></div><div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">NOTE: Katarungan sa Pilipinas komiks making contest rules have changed! We are now making it an editorial cartoon contest, and deadline has been extended to December 16. You can work on it over the weekend! If you're interested in joining and want to know the details, please email me with your real name and contact details at komiksadvocate@yahoo.com Thanks!</span></i></div>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-14751368025093411462010-12-08T07:48:00.001+08:002010-12-08T07:55:23.547+08:00What Google eBooks could mean to komiksIf you hadn't heard the news yet, Google just launched their eBooks service. It's been setup to be readable on any device that can log onto the web. The books are not downloaded, but rather stored in a personal library you can log into from anywhere. It will automatically sync between devices too, so you could start reading on your desktop at home, and then continue on your smartphone or laptop as you're going about your day. Cool stuff.<br />
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Here's a video explaining the whole concept:<br />
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<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZKEaypYJbb4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZKEaypYJbb4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br />
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So why should komiks people be interested in this? Unlike existing ebook stores from Amazon and Apple, Google is looking to partner with as many publishers as possible. They're partnering with all the publishing giants, but will also accept independent publishers. Directly self-publishing through Google is not quite there yet, which they may pursue depending on the success of this endeavor.<br />
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In any case, it also wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see some comics made by Pinoys, and even locally made comics, to appear here eventually. If we do get in such a market, we're more likely to get more favorable terms than from Apple's restrictive App Store approval process. It's best that we find out about these technologies now so that we'll be ready to utilize them when they become available to us.<br />
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Sources <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/google-editions-brings-open-ecosystem-to-ebook-market/2052">here </a>and <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/google-launches-ebookstore-with-3-million-books/">here</a>. You can also read Google's official press release <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/discover-more-than-3-million-google.html">here</a>.<br />
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you can check out Google eBooks (which already has some complete public domain classics, for free) here <a href="http://books.google.com/ebooks">http://books.google.com/ebooks</a><br />
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Reminder: Join the Katarungan Sa Pilipinas komiks making contest! Just a few hours to go! You can see the details and submit your entry <a href="http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-a-one">here</a>.plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-12186856858295298642010-12-06T07:30:00.006+08:002010-12-07T19:14:27.628+08:00Katarungan Sa Pilipinas; a one-week-only komiks making contestDigitalFilipino and The Komiks Advocate are proud to present the Katarungan Sa Pilipinas one-week-only komiks making contest! This is partly inspired by the 24 hour comics project, only we're giving you a full week so that you can do it just right!<br />
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In light of recent events such as the continuing detainment of the Morong 43, the Maguindanao Massacre, Panfilo Lacson's escape from prosecution and Cheche Lazaro's documentary Dalawang Mukha Ng Hustisya, do you feel there is still justice in the Philippines? Please share your thoughts in illustrated form.<br />
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For those who were unable to watch Dalawang Mukha, but want to know why Hubert Webb's case is being reassessed in the public eye, please read this blog post from InfluentialBlogger.net: <a href="http://www.influentialblogger.net/2010/11/preparing-to-meet-and-interview-hubert.html">Hubert Webb, Vizconde Massacre: The Philippines Justice System On Trial.</a><br />
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We are looking for komiks makers to make a quick komiks strip about justice in the Philippines. To join:<br />
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1) make an account in the <a href="http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-a-one">Digital Filipino Ning network</a> (you can use your Twitter or Facebook)<br />
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2) post your entry with your name as a comment <a href="http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-a-1">here</a>! post your emails if possible, but you can message me if you prefer.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>You can also send pics & contact info to my Twitter @plsburydoughboy or my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pleasebury.doughboy">Facebook </a>but we'll be putting them here anyway, so you might as well do it directly!<br />
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-You can opt to make a one page illustration or a four panel strip, as commonly found in newspapers.<br />
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-Please bear in mind we may share entries in an upcoming public event via projector or slideshow, so keep your concepts simple.<br />
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-Due to time constraints, we won't require you to make full komiks (pictures with text), but of course this is preferred.<br />
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-We will accept all entries from all komiks makers! Active, retired, hobbyist or even aspiring komiks makers, but you have to submit it within the week!<br />
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We are offering the winner a prize of PH P 3000! We will also post the winner's work in Digitalfilipino.com as well as The Komiks Advocate. And, we will share some of your entries in the upcoming iBlog Mini: Blogging About Cases, Sub Judice, and Freedom of Expression.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TPu38DwxdRI/AAAAAAAAAFU/dib_FeKC1X4/s1600/digitalfilipino.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TPu38DwxdRI/AAAAAAAAAFU/dib_FeKC1X4/s320/digitalfilipino.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TPu4FadbbUI/AAAAAAAAAFY/xTCHQfX30lk/s1600/Plsburydoughboy.JPEG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dalXHEN2UwY/TPu4FadbbUI/AAAAAAAAAFY/xTCHQfX30lk/s1600/Plsburydoughboy.JPEG" /></a></div><br />
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A few disclaimers:<br />
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-You will retain ownership of your entries, but please note that you are giving Janette Toral and Komiks Advocate the right to upload your entry to their blogs and social networking sites.<br />
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-Joining the contest also means that you are giving Janette Toral and Komiks Advocate the right to use your entry for promotional purposes.<br />
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-The prize will be transmitted via Paypal.<br />
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-This flash contest is a project for an online course.<br />
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-Do not post entries here. Again, you have to post them at the <a href="http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/katarungan-sa-pilipinas-a-one">DigitalFilipino Ning network</a>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-55238341499605817692010-12-03T07:30:00.002+08:002010-12-07T20:29:59.942+08:00On Self-Publishing: Elmer Damaso<i>The following is the fifth in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
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Today's article comes from Elmer Damaso, one of the original creators of Culture Crash:</i><br />
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I am Elmer Damaso. I studied BFA Visual Communication at the University of The Philippines, Diliman. Comics was a self-taught project for me. It was never taught in College and I never studied in any special art school or comic book making courses.<br />
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Below are some of the titles/comics I drew locally and abroad:<br />
-Cat's Trail (under Culture Crash Comics, Philippines)<br />
-One Day Isang Diwa (under Culture Crash Comics, Philippines)<br />
-Unearthly (under Seven Seas Entertainment, USA)<br />
-Ravenskull (under Seven Seas Entertainment, USA)<br />
-Speed Racer (under Seven Seas Entertainment, USA)<br />
-Ninja Diaries (under Seven Seas Entertainment and Metromix LA, USA)<br />
-10 Beautiful Assassins (under Seven Seas Entertainment, USA)<br />
-various K-LEB comics (serialized under K-Zone Philippines)<br />
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I also do other graphic services for other companies outside of comic books.<br />
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<b>1 What made you decide to publish your own komiks?</b><br />
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I decided to publish my own comics because I wanted to give the original readers of Culture Crash a proper Cat's Trail ending. I think they deserve one. Initially, I just wanted to make it an online comics instead of printing it. It was my wife's idea to have it printed. She didn't want to settle for photocopy or risograph. She said if we wanted to give Cat's Trail another try, we should do it properly. I'm glad we did it her way.<br />
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<b>2 What did you need to do to get into komiks?</b><br />
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Originally, I was lucky enough to be in the company of friends with common interests as me. I was lucky to have met Mr. James Palabay (the head honcho of Culture Crash) who not only had the financial capabilities to start a comic book company, but also had the connections and the necessary experience to start it. I was lucky that Culture Crash made waves in the local comic book industry and was actually successful in promoting the comic book business and its artists. Therefore, when my wife and I decided to re-launch Cat's Trail and self-publish it, there was already a fan/reader base to begin with.<br />
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With regards to distribution, our resources are a bit limited to direct selling it via conventions, selling it via email requests or via Comic Odyssey Galleria. Since we live in Rizal (very far from the big city), it is a bit inconvenient for us to personally deliver it to more outlets. That is the only limitation. <br />
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<b>3 What are the main hurdles to overcome in self-publishing, and how should new komiks makers get over these hurdles?</b><br />
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The main hurdles in self-publishing (in my experience) are:<br />
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1.) Finances - You really have to be ready to shell out a big amount if you want to go the printed route. The photocopy or risograph method is relatively cheaper but you still have to commit a good amount of money. Be prepared to go broke. Don't expect a new title to be an instant success. It doesn't work that way all the time. Before self-publishing your work, be prepared to finance a good 4-6 issues first (If it's a short mini-series, it's best to be prepared to finance all issues). Don't rely on your first issue to pay for your next.<br />
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2.) Promotion - Being an individual (or a small group of friends) without corporate backing will be tough. You can't always rely on your friends to buy your stuff and stop there. You have to get more attention somehow. Word of mouth is good but has its limitations. Thank God for the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook, Friendster, Twitter, etc. These are a faster way to get your message across with little to no cost at all. Of course, if you have friends in high places, that always works wonders. Being visible during conventions also helps a lot.<br />
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3.) Commitment - In my case, Cat's Trail is more of a hobby and not exactly set to get food at our table and pay for our monthly expenses. So my common problem is prioritizing work. I have to work on my main projects before Cat's Trail. Sometimes I get too tired to work on it at all. You have to be committed to work on your comics. You can't always say, "I'll draw it tomorrow". Not when you've got readers waiting for the next issue. It's best to have a proper schedule set everyday or every month.<br />
<i><br />
You can check out Elmer Damaso's deviantART <a href="http://iq40.deviantart.com/">here</a> and his personal blog <a href="http://www.bwrain.blogspot.com/">here</a>.</i>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-9525772227159486762010-12-02T07:30:00.004+08:002010-12-07T20:28:01.421+08:00On Self-Publishing: Omi Remalante, Jr.<i>The following is the fourth in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
<br />
Today's article comes from Omi Remalante, Jr:</i><br />
<br />
My name is Omi Remalante Jr., I work as a senior artist for a computer components company in Ortigas, Pasig. I am also a freelance digital colorist, illustrator and inker for various indie companies in the U.S. In the deviant art world, I am known as spidey0318. Aside from doing comic book sequential pages, I also do pin-up commissions for the online game City of Heroes.<br />
<br />
<b>1 What made you decide to publish your own komiks?</b><br />
<br />
I created a character named Talim on September 2008 because a few online friends told me to create a super hero and that they were invited to join a "ala" Pinoy Justice League, in a group headed by Gilbert Monsanto. Back then, Gilbert was creating Bayan Knights. Bayan Knights as we all know is a known comic book nowadays and fans often ask: "who are these bunch of super heroes?" "where did they come from?" and some of my friends asked me : "you can draw and you can color. why not make your own comic book?".<br />
<br />
One challenge was when I read comments of the 2008 Komikon, I stumbled upon a non-indie comic book believer. He said : "Why should I buy a crappy indie comic book? yeah it costs less but the art and story you get are all trash. Halatang minadali, walang pinatutunguhan ang kwento. Puro lang sapakan.".<br />
<br />
These questions challenged me and this year, I decided to create my own comic book. Together with close friend R.H. Quilantang, we formed a plot. R.H. developed a kick-ass script and of course I provided the visuals to prove to non-believers that indie comic books can be cooler than your regular Marvel and D.C. comic books. I also decided that self publishing will give me freedom to produce any quantity I want, without the pressure na malulugi ang komiks mo. I also decided to go black and white because Talim's story is kinda dark, just like Sin City, Hellblazer, etc. I myself am a big crime/noir fan.<br />
<br />
Also, I had to choose the best printing press as possible to get solid results even if the Talim pages were only photocopied. As of the moment, I haven't decided if I will sell it on comic book shops around Metro Manila. I can't find time to do that but maybe, with the help of friends, you'll see Talim on the bookshelves next year. But as of the moment, Talim will be sold exclusively during the Komikon.<br />
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<b>2 What did you need to do to get into komiks?</b><br />
<br />
I've been a comic book fanatic since I was 5 years old. My first book was the Amazing Spider-Man. As a child, I dreamt of creating my own comic book so I practiced a lot. I studied anatomy a lot, perspectives, objects, etc. until I had my own drawing style. After my stint as a digital colorist for an indie U.S. comic book group, I had the funds to create my own comic book. I never attempted to show my work to any local company because I think I am not a well-known artist here. Besides, people think that comic books are dead. I just wanted to prove them wrong and do it my own way. I have funds, I have the skills and I have a cool character so publishing was the easy part.<br />
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<b>3 What are the main hurdles to overcome in self-publishing, and how should new komiks makers get over these hurdles?</b><br />
<br />
Printing was really easy because Jon Zamar, Gio Paredes and Ner Pedriña told me where to have my comic book printed. The hard part was how to sell it because hey, I'm not known locally, and Talim is just a supporting character in Bayan Knights. Attending comic book conventions helped me to gain new friends, new fans and new contacts.<br />
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Facebook was a big help too. During the 2010 MCC, I asked JC Villaverde (who, back then, made a Facebook page of Kalayaan) to create a fan page for Talim and told him to help me advertise my not-so-known character. I also asked my Bayan Knights friends for help and created awesome "Asan ka na?" teaser ads that created a buzz on Bayan Knights fans on Facebook and deviantART. It circulated for months and created hype. Updating my Talim fan page almost three times a day was also a good idea and tagging a bunch of friends created more awareness about my character.<br />
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November 2010. Komikon came and the big question was : "How can I sell all these books?" Thankfully, a cool woman bought one and I said to myself: "Salamat sa Diyos. one down, 99 to go!" . After that sale, I had the longest 1 1/2 hrs of my life. Walang bumibili ng Talim #1!. My table mate, Lanie told me to hang on. The first 2 hours of Komikon is always slow. After uttering those words, 5 people bought Talim and so forth and so on. Sobra na akong napagod kapipirma, ka sisigaw at kangingiti sa camera. I was also interviewed by the cool people of Astig TV (thanks!). To make a long story short, the first issue of Talim was a HUGE SUCCESS!<br />
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Advice to newbie komik book creators: If you think you're ready to show the world your drawing writing skills then go for it. Maintain a bunch of helpful friends who can help you in a lot of ways both in advertising and keeping your hopes up all the time and of course this : Facebook is your friend too. Lastly, if you wanna publish your own book, save up to P4,000 to produce you own title. There are bunch of printing press in UP Diliman and I chose YZA Printing. They know comic books I tell ya!<br />
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Hope this inspires you and help you create your own title. Whilce Portacio told me once when I asked for his autograph: " Dreams, keep them alive." I am now living my dreams and you know, IT'S SOOOO DAMN GOOD!<br />
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<i>You can check out Omi Remalante's deviantART <a href="http://spidey0318.deviantart.com/">here</a>. I feel I have to warn you some of his work seems NSFW.</i>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-58727801747259882582010-12-01T07:30:00.004+08:002010-12-07T20:19:03.848+08:00On Self-Publishing: Tepai Pascual and Maika Ezawa<i>The following is the third in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
<br />
Today's article comes from the tag team of Tepai Pascual and Maika Ezawa. We start with a list of their work:</i><br />
<br />
MEGANON Comics [April 2009]<br />
Founded by Tepai Pascual, Maika Ezawa and Dragfly. We debuted this at the Summer KOMIKON 2009 but we were still with the UP LUNAROCK (Tepai's Fine Arts Org). We released our first title, MARK 9verse47 with chapters 1 and 2 then followed by MAKTAN 1521 on SUMMER KOMIKON 2010. MAKTAN 1521 is now on SULYAP, the first KOMIKOM inc., publication that just came out last KOMIKON 2010, November 13.<br />
<br />
MARK 9verse47. Written by Maika Ezawa and Art by Tepai Pascual. Edited by DRAGFLY.<br />
<br />
MAKTAN 1521. Story and Art by Tepai Pascual.<br />
<br />
<b>1 What made you decide to publish your own komiks?</b><br />
<br />
We publish our own komiks because it's hard to get a publisher who is willing to print and publish our work. Furthermore, we like the experience of selling our komiks and see the people read your komiks and see how they react to our works. The interaction with the readers is priceless for us. "Masarap magbenta" kumbaga. :) <br />
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<b>2 What did you need to do to get into komiks?</b><br />
<br />
Tepai & Maika have both been making komiks since high school. Tepai had a formal art training in UP College of Fine Arts so she's at her best but still learning a lot until now. Maika didn't have formal training in writing [she took up engineering] but she is a good storyteller and has a wild imagination, so she can write anything. The duo works together to form a better flow of story for their piece and gives it to their editor "Dragfly" to check if it's good or if there's something that needs to be revised (especially the grammar LOL)<br />
<br />
February 14, yeah, it was valentine's day. Tepai got the chicken pox and had to stay home for 2-3 weeks. She was bored and sometimes when artists are bored, something just "clicks". Tepai began to dig up some stories and thought of Maika's draft of MARK 9verse47. She thought of making some sketches and then BOOM, she made the first page of the komiks and it went on and on. But Tepai wasn't really thinking about producing it then. She just wanted to kill time but apparently, she was invited by the METRO COMIC CON 2010 Indie go Valley that same year and the first Summer KOMIKON came to the scene. She just had to grab the opportunity to submit the requirements and named us "MEGANONComics". She's also the one who's sponsoring the reproduction of our komiks. She first took it from her monthly salary then able to reproduce more komiks with what we've earned from the sales. Maliit ang kita, pero masaya parin kami kasi nababasa na ng mas maraming tao ang gawa namin kumpara dati na mga kaibigan at kamag-anak lang. <br />
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We sell our komiks during conventions and we distribute it outside the convention by consignment. We look for shops like Comic Quest, Comic Odyssey, Sputnik, Wakuwaku, CSCentrl. Since our MARK 9verse47 is manga-ish, we consigned in Wakuwaku and CSCentrl. It's not the usual comics shop but our target audience is going there. Maktan 1521 is now at Comic Quest so that's good for us too. <br />
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We let the whole world know through the cheapest advertising vector ever--- internet. Since Tepai works in an advertising agency, she knew which strings to pull to get people's attention. Minsan, para syang advertisement sa boxing match ni Pacquiao. Yung tipong every after ng isang round, may ads. MAKULIT at PAULIT-ULIT. But good for us, people remember us. Same reaction about our group name. MEGANON Comics was just an impulse name. Tepai heard her officemate said "meganon?!" then BOOM. We're now MEGANON Comics. And she just keeps using it everytime and everywhere like, "MEGANON sa KOMIKON" "MEGANON sa MCC" "MEGANON sa kung ano man." LOL <br />
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<b>3 What are the main hurdles to overcome in self-publishing, and how should new komiks makers get over these hurdles?</b><br />
<br />
A common hurdle for indie komiks makers; having good story but no editor; a good story but no good artist; a good art but the story isn't that good; and budget. We may have a good story and a good artist but if the budget isn't good, it's hard to keep komiks going around. Although, the answer to that is making a web comics. It's free and more people gets to read it. We can do that but like what we said earlier, we want the interaction with the readers. That's one of the priceless moments when selling your work. <br />
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Another hurdle: TROLLS. Yup, that's right. Trolls. Some people think that what we're doing isn't good or just a waste of time, money and energy. These people usually like to see us go down miserably because either no one wants to buy our comics or no one likes our works. These trolls tend to take you down by spreading bad news about you or your works. Crabs or self-proclaimed critics if I may say. <br />
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The best thing to do about this is just keep on doing your thing. These people may have some points to consider and may they may give you hints that may be used to do better in your works. LISTEN to all the things you here. Some may be harsh and cruel but some are also encouraging and enlightening. It's just a matter of breaking them down and see which of these should you consider.<i><br />
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Check out MEGANON Comics DeviantART page <a href="http://meganoncomics.deviantart.com/">here </a>and Tepai's personal DeviantART page <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://tepaipascual.deviantart.com/">here</a>.</i>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-5792635748846045002010-11-30T07:30:00.005+08:002010-12-07T20:16:20.274+08:00On Self-Publishing: Emmanuel Casallos<i>The following is the second in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com.<br />
<br />
Today's article comes from Emmanuel Casallos of Glasshouse Graphics.</i><br />
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I am Emmanuel Casallos. I just did Sulat-kamay for the latest Komikon. I draw comics for the international market. Currently I'm doing "Dream Police" with Jeff Seeman and a little card project from Marvel Comics on the side.<br />
<br />
<b>1 What made you decide to publish your own komiks?</b><br />
<br />
I decided to publish my own komiks because there are no restrictions. I can publish my own stories and no one will edit it out but me. We are the master of "our universe" in the case of self-publishing. We can exercise full freedom of expression, so to speak.<br />
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<b>2 What did you need to do to get into komiks?</b><br />
<br />
I needed a know-how on drawing and writing of course. guts and courage as well. To get the word out on our komiks, we just advertised on various social networks, used word of mouth and got a little help from our friends.<br />
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<b>3 What are the main hurdles to overcome in self-publishing, and how should new komiks makers get over these hurdles?</b><br />
<br />
I don't really know of any hurdles in self-publishing... funds maybe. Yes.. Money... YES! Maybe if there are publishing houses willing to publish or would risk publishing us, that would be awesome!<br />
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Regarding the budgeting for self-publishing, it depends on how many pages and the quality of paper to be used. Xerox copies are much cheaper of course.<br />
<br />
<i>You can check out Emmanuel's profile in Glasshouse Graphics <a href="http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/creators/pencilers/emancasallos/">here</a> and his deviantART <a href="http://leuname-x31.deviantart.com/">here</a>.</i>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6031874795160089941.post-83643535283596981112010-11-29T07:30:00.003+08:002010-12-01T05:41:42.650+08:00On Self Publishing: Joanah Tinio-Calingo<i>The following is the first in a series of email interviews with some recently acquired contacts in the komiks community. If you'd like to share your own story, or just be a contact, please email me at komiksadvoc8@yahoo.com. </i><br />
<br />
<i>And the first article comes from frequent commenter on the blog Joanah Tinio-Calingo!</i><br />
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I’m Joanah Tinio-Calingo. I’m a freelance Illustrator, art workshop facilitator, and housewife. I’m also a member of the Point Zero indie comic group, and have been doing my comic, Cresci Prophecies (a hard-bound photocopied book), for 11 years now. I’ve also worked on other personal comic projects namely D-koi Junkie (comic strips that came out in Manila Times), Empress 9, Curtains For Hire and I’m currently co-writing KANTO Inc.<br />
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My college friends and I decided to make our indie anthology, after being inspired by the black and white charm of manga. We thought it was doable.<br />
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We planned to distribute our comic within the college. And since we don’t have a big budget, we opted for photocopy prints. We only planned small scale, so a few copies would be just right for us. But that plan didn’t push through since we were all busy back then. <br />
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I met my current group (Point Zero) a few years later (also in UPCFA). They were already into photocopying their own comics, and they also sell their stuff during FA week. I thought, it was about time I tried sharing the story I’ve been working on for years. So I did, even if I only sold one the first time I released it. ^_^;<br />
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I continued making my second issue after that, and I began giving it away to close friends.<br />
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After that, I met a group of anime shop owners in Katipunan who were willing to distribute my comics. Soon after, people were looking for it. So I continued delivering my comics there. Another comic shop, also in Katipunan, offered to distribute indies, so I took the chance. The location of the two shops were very close to Ateneo and Miriam College, so I was lucky the two shops were there.<br />
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The big opportunity came when Culture Crash decided to have indie booths in their event. I grabbed the chance and tried selling my comics to a wider audience. From there on, I continued distributing my comics whenever and wherever possible. <br />
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I think what you need to get into comic making, whether you’re just doing it on the side or doing it as a profession, is Patience. Making comics is taxing even if you’re just doing it as a hobby. It’s easy to get lazy if you’re not committed to your project or have no intention to finish it. It’s labor intensive. If you don’t have the time, have the patience and you’ll eventually finish it whenever you get the chance to sit on it.<br />
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For me, you don’t need to be as good as Jim Lee or Clamp to actually decide to come out with your own comic. Even if you can only draw stick figures, as long as you know how to tell a story, you can make a comic. <br />
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I picked up storytelling techniques by reading books, observing how some of my favorite movies worked by analyzing why I liked it. And why the visuals worked with the story. I read novels, and I have a lot of graphic novels in my collection. I also watch indie films, specially animated shorts. I also have art books of some animated films, and I read about how they came up with the concepts and the final look of the films they worked on.<br />
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If you’re worried about your drawing skill, you can get all the practice you want once you start making you own comic, even just by doing drafts. Making the characters consistent in every page would force you to draw over and over. I sucked at drawing when I made my first chapters, but I got my discipline and practice after doing an animated short (in college), and while doing my comic. I experimented with halftones, and since I’m quite adept with pencils and other traditional dry media, I tried using it for my comic. Testing out the limits of the photocopy machine helped me a lot in finding the right technique for my comic.<br />
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Of course what you learn from others and what you pick up from art school would really help you grow. But mind you, drawing with live models and thinking up poses to match your story without one requires a different kind of discipline. I’m still learning from a lot of artists about new ways and new techniques to make drawing a little bit faster. <br />
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Like any other person, I have mood swings, and I also experience burnouts. I figured how to get around it by doing other things that would, in the end, still contribute to finishing my comic project. Like watching TV, listening to music, reading novels and other comic books, and writing. It helps me jumpstart. <br />
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When I work on a comic project, I usually start with a script. It’s divided into 3 parts; setting, scene, and then the dialogues. I do the comic breakdowns when working on the comic drafts.<br />
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I do my rough drafts and layouts in drawing books (the type you can buy in book stores). Normally I would work on 2 chapters worth of drafts before making the actual comic. <br />
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I use pre-cut vellum, and draw my comic close to the actual size. Drawing in actual size is part of coping with my mood swings. But I practice doing detail work on small spaces by drawing detailed mini-sketches.<br />
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After doing all the pencils, I scan all my pages for archiving, and for text fitting. I crawl my way to finishing my inks, by working on at least 3 spreads simultaneously. Doing that gives me the feeling that I’m getting closer to finishing. <br />
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After the inks, I stick the text and SFX on the original art with tape (the text is printed out, done in Photoshop). Then I have it flattened via the photocopy machine. I had a bad experience scanning my lineart so I have it photocopied instead to preserve its sharpness. After copying, I shade in the shadows using a special type of crayon, and colored pencils. I photocopy that again, and let the machine interpret my grays for me. <br />
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I cut up the pages to prepare the Sigs (signatures, 4 pages back to back). Then I make a dummy comic book to arrange the comic pages in sig form and tape the actual pages in 2s. After the preps, I bring it to the photocopy shop to have the Master copies done.<br />
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When making the book (compilation) I divide the individual chapters of the books into mini-books or sets. After combining the sets, I have it stitch bound (hardbound) in the shop. I wrap the books after fitting the covers to each book. Binding jobs could be unpredictable and inconsistent so it’s unavoidable for me. It’s a very tedious process.<br />
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I sell my books in Comic Odyssey. Other than that, I only sell my comic during events, and via pick-up orders. I do my promotions and get orders online, mostly via Deviantart and Facebook. Sometimes, I get new readers via other readers who borrowed their copies from them. <br />
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Sometimes I make comic merchandise in forms of key chains and whatever I could think of.<br />
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One of the things newbies have to overcome is Shyness. You’re gonna have to get out of your cave and sell your story. I know some artists who think they’re not good enough, but aren’t practicing. So how are you going to get good at it if you don’t test the waters right? It’s better to find out what you’re doing wrong after you try it. Believe me, when people get to read your stuff and like it, you’ll be really excited to work on the next, and all the effort will be worth it. And before you know it, you’ve made enough issues to release your first volume!<br />
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If you’re awfully shy to go solo, you could join a group. You can learn a lot from your group, and you can help each other promote your comics.<br />
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Another one is BUDGET. You need to dish out funds. But you don’t really need thousands to come up with one issue. All you need is a few hundred bucks to invest in materials, master copy production, and the copies to sell. The earnings you will get from the sales will be the funds for the next release. On the safe side, you should have a day job or some other source of income to fund your comic.<br />
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Build your resources and find good suppliers, canvass for the best service at the most affordable price. I got rejected by photocopy shops by having comics that are too dark, and Kanto Inc. was also rejected to be printed in RISO for the same reason. It’s good to find shops that would be more considerate.<br />
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Distribution is a big problem, even for those who want to go into mainstream. But if you have connections, even your neighboring coffee shop or sari-sari store, take the risk to ask them if they can distribute your work for you. And sniff around for comic shops who are willing to sell indies and never hesitate to participate in conventions.<br />
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<i>You can check out Joanah Tinio-Calingo's DeviantART <a href="http://ika-siyam.deviantart.com/journal/">here</a>. </i><br />
<br />
<i>NB! Joanah just edited the article to make a few points clearer. Thanks Joanah!</i>plsburydoughboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06508008841737069075noreply@blogger.com0