I've just been interviewed over at the Comic Book Catacombs. It's all about my work for the upcoming Captain Action Winter Special slated for release this January. Click here to read the entire thing.

Thanks to Chuck Wells!

The guys of Sketch Pad Studios (which includes me) will be at National Book Store Power Plant Mall on December 5, 2010 starting at 2pm. Hope you guys drop by!

Oh, and there's this obscure comics artist named Leinil Yu who's gonna be there too. :)

KOMIKON 2010


The 6th Komikon will be on November 13, Saturday at the STARMALL Trade Hall in Mandaluyong (corner of EDSA and Shaw Blvd.). I'll be slumming with Ariel Atienza and Lyndon Gregorio at their table, so thanks guys for letting me join you.

I'll be selling some stuff, so for those interested here's a list of what will be available from me:

Phantom Captain Action issues 1 and 2 (Moonstone Books)
Domino Lady issues 2 and 4 (Moonstone Books)
Wall of Angels issues 5 and 6 (Twenty To Six Books)
Graphic Classics: Ambrose Bierce (Eureka Productions)
Sequential Suicide: Slop (803 studies) note: only 1 copy to be sold

And some leftover copies of Maskarado: Visions and Marvelous Komiks Preview.

And hey, if you buy 3 or more copies of anything I'll throw in a copy of Domino Lady #1 for free (I didn't work on that one, though).

Sounds good? Good! See you on Saturday!

Employment Opportunities...

Anyone out there needs a job? See below for some jobs you might be qualified for:

A. Graphic Artist:
1. Preferably male but female applicants are okay
2. Accepting fresh graduates as long as he/she knows how to do FA (final art)
for offset printing
3. Proficient in the use of Adobe Illustrator (very important)

B. Technical Assistant:
1. Female with pleasing personality
2. Can operate simple machines (but will be trained once accepted)
3. Can handle walk-in clients
4. Computer literate, fast learner
5. Honest and punctual
6. Undergraduates are welcome to apply

C. Account Executive:
1. Female, with pleasing personality
2. Responsible, hardworking
3. Has good communication skills
4. Computer literate
5. Undergraduates are welcome to apply

Please send your CV and portfolio (for graphic artist applicants) to second.edition@yahoo.com

Phantom Captain Action #2 Review from comicsbulletin...

Reviewed by Ray Tate...

"Reno Maniquis, Keith Williams and Bob Pedroza contribute illustrations that lends visual impact to Lady Action's burst of color on the scene. Their Captain Action is a stalwart figure but one prone to youthful body language, especially when faced with defeat.

Maniquis, Williams and Pedroza present the Phantom as larger than life. The Ghost Who Walks moves as quick lightning, and his footfalls are powered by thunder. He tumbles. He leaps. He vaults. The artists display a lifetime of training in every one of the Phantom's moves. It's what you expect. It's what you get.

The Phantom & Captain Action really surprised me. The Phantom wasn't denigrated. I came away liking Captain Action more than I did. Bullock is Moonstone's Phantom writer, and when he draws the Phantom out of the shadows, this book sings."

Rad the entire review here.

AL WILLIAMSON, March 21, 1931 – June 13, 2010
Thank you for being such a great inspiration to me.

Phantom/Captain Action #2 Preview!

Head on over to bzzurkk.com for an 8-page preview. Release date is on June 23, 2010!

The two timeless titans collide in their first crossover. Captain Action and Diana have tracked down the Phantom's kidnappers, but when the bullets start flying, and their plan is shot full of holes, the entire world may come crashing down around them before their mission is accomplished. Guest-starring Lady Action!

Written by Mike Bullock and Ed Catto, with art by Reno Maniquis and a cover by Art Thibert.

So, I'm a bit late in reading stuff and just got around to reading the "death of Ryan Choi" recently. I think it was done as both shock value and to garner a strong reaction from comic fans (which it did to great effect).

I didn't follow Ryan Choi's career as the All-New Atom, mostly because I found the Silver-Age Atom Ray Palmer boring as hell (same way I feel about Barry Allen). The only time I found Ray Palmer interesting was when he became a loinclothed hero in Sword of the Atom. But seeing the reactions of people online, I guess Ryan's a much more interesting character than his predecessor.

But, come on. How stupid was Ryan Choi during his last moments, really? You know the most obvious way for a guy like him to avoid getting killed in that instance? Just shrink down to sub-atomic levels and wait for the bad guys to leave. Not a cowardly move, considering he knew he was outclassed. At least he would have lived to fight another day.

I don't get the hoopla surrounding the killing of Prometheus by Green Arrow. He certainly has done it before, as far back as Mike Grell's excellent LONGBOW HUNTERS, even. So why are the other heroes giving him so much grief over this? Prometheus certainly deserved it.

Was the Mike Grell Green Arrow retconned? But it was during that series that Ollie got killed, and certainly his relationship with Shado is still in continuity. It just gets so confusing, really. Or maybe the slate got wiped clean when he was resurrected during Kevin Smith's run (which I still hold as the sloppiest excuse for a comic character's resurrection that I have ever read).

Anyways, I find what's happening to Arsenal much more interesting. So I guess I'll follow that storyline instead.

Came across this nice review for Phantom/Captain Action #1 over at brokenfrontier.com. What really struck me was this particular statement...

"Artist Reno Maniquis never strays from the grid format during talk portions of the story and rarely ever stays within panel borders during a brawl. This pattern he sets focuses the reader’s attention on the many action scenes. It gives the sense that the talking parts are small breaks between fights, which makes the story move at a fast pace."

I never really noticed myself doing that kind of thing when I draw. But looking back at the pages I drew, it's kind of amusing to see that, yeah, I really do stick to the grid format during quiet scenes, and then my characters break out of the panels while in action. I guess it's something that I'm doing subconsciously.

Read the full review at the link above or click here.

REMINDER: Summer Komikon 2010 is tomorrow, April 17! I urge everyone reading this to attend, although I myself am not sure if I can make it. :P

Phantom/Captain Action #1 will now be out in April instead of this week.

But you can still see the preview pages here. :)

Dick Giordano has passed away. As a kid growing up in the 1980s, it's hard not to have known about him, especially if you read mostly DC Comics like me. He was a good artist, not spectacular, but a good one nonetheless. But for me, I'll always remember the enjoyment I got every time I read his "Meanwhile..." columns in the pages of the DC titles that I read. That might sound weird to some people, but I genuinely enjoyed all the things he talked about, be it news on upcoming titles, sharing some of his personal experiences, encouraging fans, featuring new talent... It was a good read for me. So, I guess it's only fitting that I say... to you, Mr. Giordano... Thank you and a good afternoon.

PHANTOM/CAPTAIN ACTION #1 will be available in comic stores next week, March 31, 2010!

For a sneak peek, head on over to comixology.com for a 12-page preview! Thanks a lot to Moonstone Books' editor-in-chief Joe Gentile and writer/editor Mike Bullock for giving me the opportunity to work on this. Also thanks go out to Captain Action Enterprises' Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto for their support.

Working hard on more comics projects for 2010. Will keep things updated here. :)

SUMMER KOMIKON 2010
April 17, 2010, Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman

Inglourious Basterds

Just saw this film recently (yes, I'm way behind when in comes to movies), and I'm really wondering why so many people are so "bravo!", "excellent!", and all that about this movie. Me... not so much.

Okay, so from here I'll be assuming you've seen the film so you'll know what I'm talking about.

Some parts were brilliant, especially the opening scene. Very tense, and you can really feel the emotion from the characters. One other scene that was executed well was the bar scene where the spies were trying to avoid an incident with the German soldiers. Very Tarantino (which means it's talky), but again, the tension was built up excellently.

What really bothered me with this movie is that the titular characters, the Inglourious Basterds, were not really important to the film at all. You could remove them from the movie and it would have made little difference. The main plot about the orphaned Shoshanna's revenge on the Nazis would have been sufficient to carry the movie, even without the Inglourious Basterds involvement, which really doesn't involve them as the movie went along. It just so happened they had the same goals in the end. And even if the Basterds weren't there in the climactic scene, Shoshanna's revenge would have still killed Hitler and the Nazis.

Come to think of it, if they just jettisoned the Basterds altogether, and made it a simple tale about Shoshanna's revenge plot, I guess I would have liked this movie much better.

Phantom/Captain Action is PREVIEW's STAFF PICK for January 10!

From the PREVIEWS website:

Those of us who are old enough to remember the Captain Action toys of the 1960s will recall that one of the coolest facets of the action figure was the ability to change from the Captain persona into one of a host of popular superhero characters. This alone made the toy extremely valuable to kids because the figure became two toys in one and gave you more opportunity to develop complex and often convoluted play schemes. In a flash, he could be transformed into Captain America, Batman, Flash Gordon, the Lone Ranger, or the Phantom to mete out justice to the collected plastic villains of said scenario.

This month, the folks at Moonstone have stepped into the fantasy battles of yesteryear by pitting Captain Action against the Phantom in their first-ever comic book crossover (since the original toy allowed you to crossover the characters during play). There is something incredibly nostalgic about this pairing that has me incredibly interested to see what writer Mike Bullock and artist Reno Maniquis have in store for the iconic heroes. Moonstone has been cranking out a respectable and quality line of comic books for over ten years and they seem to have really found a strong niche with these classic pulp inspired characters. If you enjoy classic action fare or are a fan of either character, this series is a must to check out in March! If only I still had the toys.

I find it kind of funny when, in popular fiction, a guy who has mad fighting skills holds off multiple attackers, and the attackers just keep on coming. Much like when a superhero fights a bunch of henchmen, these henchmen just keep on attacking and in the end they get their butts kicked.

I mean, seriously, if I was one of those henchmen and I saw this guy disposing my comrades left and right, I would think twice about jumping into the fray. Chances are, I'd wind up in a hospital (or even dead, if the particular guy happens to be someone like, say, Wolverine).

So why do these guys keep on doing it? Or maybe they get recruited to be cannon fodder because they're total idiots and their purpose is to be exactly that? But, hey, if I were an evil mastermind, I'd recruit guys who're very, veerrry good at fighting. That way, I can defeat Batman or Daredevil or Bruce Lee with just a few henchmen. Quality trumps quantity, right?

So, to all henchmen out there, think twice before attacking a lone guy. And to all evil masterminds, think twice about what kind of guys you hire to be henchmen. :)

A new year, a new direction for me. January has been very hectic, but in a good way. For those who don't know yet, I've started freelancing full-time this month. Workload-wise, it's been very fruitful. Jobs keep coming in, and hopefully the trend will continue throughout the year.

Working at home has it's benefits... I save up on train and jeepney fare since I don't have to go anywhere (except on occasions where I have a meeting or I need to get my paycheck for a particular job done). The stress of commuting is also gone.

I don't snack on junk food too much anymore. The office pantry was stock full of junk food that it's hard to resist it's siren call. And I also save up on the money that I would otherwise use to buy junk food, too.

Best of all, I get to greet my daughter every time she comes home from school. Seeing me when she arrives puts a smile on her face, and it also puts a smile on mine, too.

I do miss my morning runs from the train station to the office, though. I occasionally get to run at the track of a nearby sports stadium, but sometimes there's a lot of work to be done so I have to start with it bright and early. Hopefully I can get back on track (no pun intended) with my running this February.

But overall, life has been better. I'm looking forward to this new phase with a lot of optimism. :)