FLASH BOMBA coming to ABS-CBN!

Mars Ravelo's Flash Bomba is finally coming to ABS-CBN this February, starring Luis Manzano. The Ravelos commissioned me some years back to re-design Flash Bomba's costume for modern times, and I'm glad to see that ABS-CBN has been very faithful to the design I did. See below...

I thought that they would have trouble bringing the enlarged hands and feet to live-action, but the prosthetics that they did look good. I think it works better this way, as opposed to using CGI to achieve the effect.

Actually, this is the very first design that I did for the Ravelos, even before I did the Captain Barbell re-design. My friend Bong Leal did the re-designs of Lastikman and Darna (I think they haven't used the re-designed Darna costume yet). I also did the Tiny Tony design (which John Prats brought to life on the screen) but they tweaked it somewhat and it doesn't look like my original design much, IMO.

I also did the logo design for Flash Bomba...

More info on the Flash Bomba TV series here. You can see the trailer here.

I don't suppose I can interest ABS-CBN to do a Maskarado TV series? :)

Mystery solved!

Thanks to an anonymous poster, who left a link in the comments section, confirming that Greg Larocque is half-Filipino, and has a Filipino wife. Link below...

The Secret Identities Interview: Greg Larocque

The link is from an excerpt of an interview, from the upcoming book SECRET IDENTITIES: THE ASIAN AMERICAN SUPERHERO ANTHOLOGY. That's a mouthful, huh?

Thank you, Anonymous. Now another mystery has reared its head... WHO IS ANONYMOUS!?!?!

Is Greg Larocque Filipino?

This thought has been bugging me forever. Well, ever since his latter days as artist of The Flash. Specifically during the Return of Barry Allen storyline. I remember one splash page of Wally West holding Jay Garrick's helmet, and in the background was a Jollibee restaurant. Plus, at the very last page of the story arc, Wally was wearing a jacket with the Philippine flag on it.

So is he or isn't he? According to Wikipedia, he's married to a woman named Rosario. Is Rosario the Pinoy in the family that's why he injected all that Pinoy stuff in his art?

Regardless, I like his art. My first Greg Larocque experience was Marvel Team-Up 148, which I bought way back when the US had military bases in the Philippines. I bought it at a PX Goods store in Pampanga. I read the issue thinking that the main villain, the Black Abbott, was pretty cool. I also dug the art. It wasn't spectacular, but it was clear and the action was easy to follow.

I think he began to hit his stride when he did Legion of Super Heroes. I'm not a Legion fan, so I skipped over that part of his career. The Flash was where I would catch up with Mr. Larocque next. I liked how he would make Wally West move, as opposed to previous artist Jackson "Butch" Guice's, which looked stiff at that time. I also liked the sleek, shiny design that he would make for Wally later on, making Wally his own man yet still recognizable enough as the Flash. It's a shame he doesn't do mainstream books nowadays.

But still, everything comes back to the original question... Is Greg Larocque Filipino? Can anyone help me out here?

First day of the new work year, and I got stuck at the LTO.

Yep, the whole LTO computer database went offline nationwide today, which meant no papers nor licenses could be issued until they fixed the problem.

I was at the LTO branch at the Ayala MRT station a little past 9am, and it was already packed with people wanting to renew their licenses. A lot of them were supposed to have renewed last month but missed the opportunity because of the long Christmas break (which meant that government offices were all closed).

The line for the application form went smoothly enough, but the Drug Testing and Medical check-up seemed to go on forever. By the time I got back to the LTO window, their computers were going on-and-offline. That was past 11am. Of course, that meant that lunch break was looming. And you know the rep of our government offices once lunch break comes. Everything stops. To the LTO's credit, they still worked up until around 12:15pm.

At a little close to 2pm, it was announced that they have gone offline for good. But that there's a chance that it could be fixed. Needless to say, some people got pissed, and the broken airconditioning didn't help. I was already second in line at the second to the last stop (the cashier), so I decided to tough it out. Good thing I had some pencil pages that I could ink while waiting. A lot of the other people there also decided to wait it out, so they just spent the time talking to complete strangers (which I did, too).

At around a little before 4pm, the guy ahead of me decided to give up and just return tomorrow. Which meant I was now first in line. So I decided that I'd go all the way and hope that everything gets fixed before they close at 6pm.

Thank goodness the system got fixed at 4:30pm. I immediately paid the cashier, got my license, and rode the train home. Suffice it to say, I had to go on an impromptu leave of absence from the office. What a way to start the year, huh?

And to the few of you who stuck around to get to the end of this boring post, my deepest thanks and apologies. :P