TABLOID KOMIKS CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Hello everyone!

As some of you may know, I occasionally publish a free mini-comic entitled TABLOID KOMIKS, the aim of which is to hopefully kindle or rekindle in some people the desire to read komiks. That is why TABLOID is entirely FREE, so that anyone can have access to it.

I now call on anyone (professionals or newbies alike) interested in seeing their work printed in TABLOID. Here are the guidelines:

1. Writers and/or artists can send in short stories ranging from 1-8 pages in length. It can be completely drawn or in the case of writers, scripts will suffice.
2. Any type of story is acceptable. You can send in horror, action, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, comedy, real-life stories... ANYTHING.
3. No serials or ongoing series. Only short stories will be accepted.
4. Writers can also send in 1-page prose pieces.
5. Artists can send in samples of sequential art, and if a script is suited to your style, I'll send it to you to draw. No pin-ups please.
6. Black and white lineart only, no washes or shading.
7. Anime/manga style art is discouraged but may still be accepted. The reason for this is that there's an oversaturation of this style out in the market now, especially the local stuff. I'd like to avoid the glut.
8. Please limit profanity, harsh language and material which may be deemed unsuitable for younger audiences. This may be purely subjective, I know, but I'd also like future editions of TABLOID to be accessible to a broader audience.
9. There is NO MONETARY COMPENSATION if your work is printed. I pblish TABLOID from my own pocket, and I do not have the resources to pay talent. The printing cost is heavy enough as it is. This is just a chance to get your stuff published and read by people, and also a chance to support what I think is a worthy cause to drum up interest in the local komiks industry.
10. The creators keep the copyrights to their works, in no way will I keep your work hostage. You can pull out your work anytime from me if you find another publisher willing to publish it.
11. I will inform you if your work is going to be published or not. This could be via e-mail, phone call or text. So please include your contact information with your submssion.
12. Submissions can be in CD format, or e-mailed to me (JPEG file only, 300dpi). Clear photocopies are also acceptable. You can also upload them on the internet and tell me where i can download them. Artwork size should be no bigger than a letter-sized bond paper.

I guess that's it. If there are any bases that I haven't covered, please let me know. You can contact me via e-mail at renom1@yahoo.com and capsulezone@hotmail.com.

Thank you very much for your time and I hope that there is enough support for this project to keep it alive.


P.S. If anyone would like to contribute financially or would like to place an ad in TABLOID to help in the printing costs, I will whoelheartedly accept your donation. Thanks!

Another fine example of how incompetent the people in government are here in the Philippines. They can't even decide right off the bat if they're gonna declare today, August 29, a non-working holiday. First came the announcement that it would be a regular working day. Fine. Everyone was fine with that. Then they announced that it was a non-working holiday, and workers all around the country were elated to have an extra day off. Then came the news that it was only schools and government offices that are on holiday today, and that the private sector workforce would need to go to work. What the hell??!? Which makes people even MORE depressed, becuase the extra day-ff they were expecting didn't come. They should have stuck to their original decision rather than rocking back and forth all the while keeping people's hopes up and then suddenly that hope suddenly DIES.

Pwe.

Pero kung mapalitan man ang presidente, sinong papalit? Mga gago't gunggong din?

MASKARADO #18



Thursday Comic Webring time! Clickety-click on the names below...



Jonas Diego
Edgar Tadeo
Ariel Atienza
Jerald Dorado

FRED CARRILLO 1926-2005

Just got this bit of sad news from Gerry Alanguilan on the Filipino Comicbook Creators mailing list:

Filipino comics illustrator Fred Carrillo passed away last week. His daughter Iris had previously informed me that he suffered from both lymphoma and Alzheimer's disease, and that he had come home to the Philippines from the United States this year.

Fred Carrillo was one of the pioneers of Philippine Comics, having worked on the earliest published comic books like Halakhak and Pilipino Komiks, first published after the end of World War 2.

In the United States, he worked on many titles including Phantom Stranger, Black Orchid, Captain Power, GI Combat, Ghosts, House of Mystery, Weird War Tales, Unknown Soldier and even an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Fred Carrillo Profile and Art Gallery

Last night, I trooped to the newsstand near Shaw Blvd. where I occassionally buy Liwayway magazine (one of the few newsstands left who sells it), hoping to get a copy of the latest issue. It was their "Buwan ng Wika" issue, which I read about in Gerry's journal. To my shock, the newsstand was GONE!!!! In fact, the whole line of stalls that used to be there were gone! What was there were these tiangge type stalls where they sell cellphone accessories.

Now I'm at a loss as to where to buy a copy. All the newsstands I used to frequent have all closed down. I don't want to subscribe, since I only buy it occassionally when there's a topic of interest that I want to check out.

Bummer.

My one day vacation leave last Thursday turned out to be two days of sick leave, since I caught a flu bug somehow last Wednesday (damn this ultra-cold office aircon!). And that was after three days of overtime work. I was supposed to go on leave for kuki's cousin's wedding, which of course I missed. Didn't get ot use my newly-pressed barong, and I was alone the whole Thursday until around 11pm because the wedding reception lasted kinda late. Jade was off visiting her cousins since we didn't want her to catch whatever it was I had.

Didn't even recover well enough until just yesterday, Sunday, and now I've gone ANOTHER week without any exercise whatsoever. My muscles feel like Jell-O. I even had to go out Saturday morning even though I was still feeling a bit sluggish because it was my last physical therapy appointment for this thingie that's bothering my right leg, and I just wanted the therapy to be over with.

After going to the doctor (in Clinica Manila), I went to Comic Quest just to pick up my batch of comic books for the week, and was surprised to see there are still copies of TABLOID KOMIKS on the counter. They usually disappear after 3-4 days of delivery. It seems some folks are hesitant to get a copy because they don't believe that it's FREE.

So here it is, my official announcement... TABLOID KOMIKS IS FREE!!!!! NO NEED TO PAY FOR IT, NO OTHER PURCHASE NECESSARY. LIBRE!!!!!!!

Am I going anywhere with this story?

Nope.

I'm jumping the gun a little for the Thursday Comic Webring, since I'll be on leave from the office tomorrow and won't have the chance to post a new strip. So without further ado, here's...

MASKARADO #17



Check out the other Thursday Webring strips...



Jonas Diego
Edgar Tadeo
Ariel Atienza
Jerald Dorado

AVAILABLE NOW!

MASKARADO #6 and TABLOID KOMIKS #3 nasa Comic Quest Megamall na!

'Yun lang. Back to work......

AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK!



MASKARADO issue 6 will be available at Comic Quest Megamall next week for only (?) 60 pesoses. It's the penultimate chapter of the present storyarc. Please check it out. I need the money. Hehe.

TABLOID issue 3 will also be up for grabs, and as always it's for FREE! It's the second part of the "DUGO" story by Dodo Dayao and Bong Leal. Plus more goodies from Jonas Diego and Ariel Atienza.

Thanks for the support.

I'd also like to congratulate Dean & Nikki Alfar for winning in this year's Palanca Awards. So... congrats, guys! =)

MASKARADO #16



You know the drill by now...



Jonas Diego
Edgar Tadeo
Ariel Atienza
Jerald Dorado

TEAM-UP!



I did the illustration above because Ner Pedrina wanted to do a team-up between Maskarado and his character, Sandata. He sent me a first draft of his story, and it got me excited to at least draw these two characters together. And if anyone remembers, Ner did a nice job of these two together before, so it's only fair I return the favor.

It's also a big coincidence that Ner brought up his idea of a team-up, just when I'm in the process of scripting and drawing another team-up with another flag-based hero, this time created by Gio Paredes (from a plot by him, too), who is perhaps Maskarado's biggest fan. I'll try to post images in the future.

'Ika nga sa Pinoy komiks:

ITUTULOY...

My boss called me up yesterday, asking for help on making a PowerPoint presentation. The big surprise is that it was for his nephew's assignment. And his nephew is barely in grade school! This stuff got me to thinking if kids today are pressured too much in school. Noong araw we used to cut and paste pictures from magazines and old books and paste them onto oslo paper tapos handwritten yung text. But now.... PowerPoint?!?! Naisip ko din na baka the teachers expect their students to know how to use these programs, when clearly they don't (or they're not uch adept at using them) kasi nagpapatulong pa sila sa adults.

Maybe that's why patuloy ang downhill slide ng education in many parts of the world.

Which got me to remembering something I said to myself not too long ago... if ever I become a teacher or even Department of Education head, I'm gonna abolish homework. That's right. Kung maging isang guro ako, di ko pagagawin ng homework or assignement ang mga mag-aaral ko. Aren't they studying enough in school without the extra burden of bringing home their work with them? Di ba most of us adults naman leave our work in the office (except for those who are really busy or workaholics)? Why can't kids have the same benefit and enjoy playing, watching TV or even spending quality time with their parents? The most I'm going to ask my students is to study if there's an upcoming quiz.

Kids also need to relax and enjoy life. They should enjoy being kids. Minsan lang naman mangyari sa buhay natin yun eh.

MASKARADO #15



Another round of the THURSDAY COMIC WEBRING! As always, click on the names below for their respective strips...



Jonas Diego
Edgar Tadeo
Ariel Atienza
Jerald Dorado

AGIMAT'S CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Still another bit forwarded by Budjette...

Agimat is a department/property of Anino Design, my company. The site is free to the web viewer but one of our long term plan is to also help the indie artists get payed in their works (Sounds cool, huh). Anino Design will handle all the marketing stuff and strategies to make this happen. Artists can freely create their works pn their own style, even in series or just "one shots". Form of art is unlimited, that's why I call it ... Anino Project: Indie Multi-Media.

To protect the copyright of the Artists and the legality of Anino Design to post, I've made a Content Distribution Agreement for all the contributors. You can download it at www.agimat.net/agreement.doc. If you're interested and agreed with the terms, just fill up the blank spaces in the document and mail it back to me. If you've got questions or curious about anything, just email me or contact me thru my mobile #0920-9120341.

-- Bon Labora

This blog was pointed out by Budjette Tan in the Filipino ComicBook Creators mailing list. An informative read about Pinoy Komiks (or Komix, as the author/s would like to call it). Click on the link...

Pinoy Komix Biz

It's a bit opinionated, but that's okay, since everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. I do agree on some of the author's points, and disagree with some. but then again, that's my point of view too. We can't all agree on everything.

It seems the author is Lawrence Mijares, of Siklab Magazine, though I can't be sure. Frequent visitors of Gerry Alanguilan's Message Board may recall some of the heated discussions there involving Mr. Mijares, but i think it's just that he's just really passionate about the local komiks (okay, komix) scene that I'm okay with what happened. And I guess that's why forums and message boards are here, so that people can exchange ideas and opinions.