TINY TONY COSTUME DESIGNS

The original Tiny Tony was created by Mars Ravelo and Jim Fernandez. I think this character, out of all the other Mars Ravelo characters, was really begging for a re-design, since he was just wearing a striped shirt, black trunks and went around barefoot. Here are some of my sketches for the new Tiny Tony design, commissioned by the Ravelos...



These are the initial designs I had. You can see what I thought about each design from my notes. The first one is in the vein of the traditional superhero tights, but even as I did it I wanted it to be not too superhero-ey. The second is more of a special forces type, since I reasoned that in his small size he could do with a bit more of protection, and also as you can see I wanted him to have gadgets, since he was a scientist in his original incarnation. On the third design, I was playing with the thought of him being an adventurer-type like Doc Savage. Although I think it went a bit too far to the other side of the spectrum and the look became too much civilian wear-ish.




Here's the final design. Ultimately, they went with the first sketch, but incorporating the idea of the second sketch wherein he will have gadgets to help him do whatever stuff he needs to do. Also, the bodysuit has become a bit more of a body armor. In all of the designs, the big "T" is ever-present, although I think in spite of it being big, it comes off as a subtle design element.

All in all, I have done three re-designs for the Ravelos, namely Captain Barbell, Flash Bomba and Tiny Tony.

And as an added treat, here's Tony fighting a snake (art by Jim Fernandez), image borrowed from www.internationalhero.co.uk, courtesy of Mars Ravelo fanatic Raffy Arcega...

I just saw Dennis Redondo last night, and got a pleasant surprise since he was wearing one of the Mars Ravelo shirts that I illustrated a while back. So, to anyone who wants one, just go to your nearest Branded Shirts store and procure one there!

Looking around the Branded website, there's also a new Captain Barbell shirt (also drawn by me), and a new Darna shirt (drawn by Bong Leal). There's also a Kalayaan shirt (created and drawn by Gio Paredes). Buy them all!

From my editor/writer at TwentyToSix Books, Anthony Garcia...

While we're anxiously awaiting the release of Wall Of Angels #5, issues 1 through 4 are now available as free downloads at wowio.

Here's the link: WALL OF ANGELS at WOWIO

Wowio.com is an online library getting high traffic to its comics section. Since July of this year, Wowio been growing at an incredible rate, going from a registered user base of 14K to coming up on 90K currently, and growing at a rate of 2-3K a week. Wowio has had about 900,000 downloads, and is averaging 40-50K downloads per week.

If you don't know about Wall Of Angels, it's a series of inter-related story arcs that explores the boundaries between technology and mythology, science and superstition, good and evil, angels and demons, human and inhuman. In THE FRANCHISE, a watershed moment has been reached. A mysterious figure known only as Ignacio has manipulated the CEO of a Talbot Security into finding an ancient artifact of unknown power that will change the world forever. A classic story of adventure and intrigue, of good versus evil, The Franchise is a six issue miniseries in the WALL OF ANGELS universe.

Please check it out, every free download adds to the publishing coffers here at TwentyToSix so that we can keep getting quality books to you. More than that Wall Of Angels is actually a pretty good read, and really, how can you go wrong with free?

Thank you so much!






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Unfortunately, WOWIO is for US residents only, so folks here in the Philippines can't get it. But if anyone who's from the US is reading this, I hope you do check the books out!

I have to mention that the artwork for issues 1-4 were done by fellow Filipinos Jim and Jay Jimenez, who are also successful recording artists along with their brother Joy... The J Brothers!

I'll be taking over art chores from issue #5 onwards, and below is the cover to the next issue...

803 Studios' SEQUENTIAL SUICIDE: SLOP is now available from indyplanet.com!



Written and Illustrated by Steven Prouse, Anthony Hightower, Chuck Brown, Eraklis Petmezas, Rob Hicks, John Padding, Daniele Serra, Mauricio Castro, Mark Gottlieb, Carlos Campos O., Thomas Wells, Monty, Dana Shukartsi, Corey Stokes, Chris McJunkin, Steven Ekstrom, Douglas Draper, Patrick Tkaczynski, Reno Maniquis, Travis Legge, Alexander Levita, Phil Parkerson, Chris Carroll, Andrew Gregory, Bobby Irving and Rodrigo Ramos Rodolfo

Standard Sized Trade Paperback
Black & White
Page Count: 96
$9.99

54 year old Remus Filch lives on his Pig Farm 35 miles outside Charville, a northern mid-sized city. Everyone would have described him as a quiet simple man. Except for one thing; his fetish for prostitutes. Primarily his insatiable desire to murder them. His pigs love them too... as dinner. Remus disposes of the bodies like any good psychopath would, by chopping them to bits and feeding them to his animals. This issue of Sequential Suicide collects 14 all-new stories from some incredible comics talent focusing on Remus and his victims.

Enter the suicidal world of comics. Travel with 803 Studios through their newest edition of their acclaimed anthology, Sequential Suicide! SS is a collection of new and untested comics talent centered around an annual theme. Announced in August of '06, Sequential Suicide gives 803 Studios the opportunity to continue what they were founded to do, support independent and unpublished comics talent around the globe. 803 Studios continues to build its fan library and publishing reputation by releasing this second issue of Sequential Suicide, our first ever open-submissions anthology. Thanks for supporting 803 Studios and the independent artists and writers in this year's edition of Sequential Suicide!

More pencils-to-ink pages...

Here's a short story I'm doing for GRAPHIC CLASSICS. I'm kinda excited and nervous at the same time about doing this, since I've loved the old Pendulum Press Illustrated Classics way back when I was a kid, and I guess I want the quality of my work to be up to those standards. Also, this is my highest profile gig yet in the US and I really want to do a good job on it. Plus, a lot of great artists have contributed to this series, including fellow Filipinos Gerry Alanguilan, Carlo Vergara, Arnold Arre and even Nestor Redondo.




On this page, I was contemplating if I should put some texture on the cabin walls, but thought that the overall page might look overworked. So I left it bare at first, but it looked too clean, so I just put some thin texture lines and added shadows for the figures. I think it worked out for the best since it added to the grim atmosphere of the scene.




I didn't have much indecision when inking this one. I just adjusted some of the shadows on the faces of the characters, so as to lessen the "muddiness" of the pencils.

This is for the upcoming AMBROSE BIERCE collection from Graphic Classics.

I run to work everyday.

Not from the house, of course. That's too far. I take the train (MRT) and disembark at the Ayala station, and then run from there. I really don't know how far my office building is from the train station, but when I first started it took me about 12 to 15 minutes to complete the run. Nowadays, I clock in at about 8 to 10 minutes. the fastest I was able to do was around 6 minutes.

I give the impression to some people that I'm a health buff, and to a small degree I am. But it's more of a "trying to live better" attitude than an "I want a buff physique" one. Although a lean, muscular physique would be nice. Some people think that I possess such a physique, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have a (relatively) flat tummy, but no visible abs, and there's still a bit of love handles peeking from my sides. My arms aren't flabby, but not toned. I'm in pretty good shape, but not good enough, I think.

I used to weigh more than 180 lbs., but according to my height I should be around 150-160lbs. I don't know what prompted me to lose weight, maybe it was because I felt too sluggish, and felt older than my age of 30 (at that time). I started lifting weights, and cut my food intake in half. In 3-4 months, my weight dropped to 140 lbs. When I realized what happened, I got a little panicked. I don't think that's a safe way to lose weight, and started eating more sensibly.

I'd like to think I remedied the situation, and now I'm at an ideal 160 lbs.

What's my point to all this? I guess I'd just like to illustrate that having a healthy body is not impossible. You just have to WANT it. Motivation really is a big factor.

And I guess my body is doing pretty okay. My last few check-ups show no signs of anything wrong. I remember this one time I hooked up with a couple of pals around my age. They were talking about what medications they were taking! I was a bit surprised, since it didn't occur to me that people at my age would have health problems like that.

I remember when I had a photo-shoot recently. I was looking at the takes on the computer monitor when the client walked up to me and poked my chest. "Swimmer?" he said. I replied "Nope. Just weights." I guess I felt a bit flattered, since swimmers' physiques are among the best. So I think for this year, I'll try to shoot for a well-defined physique.

Hey, if Aga Muhlach can do it, I don't see any reason why I can't. :)

Another one of my indy US projects has finally seen a release, this one coming from ULTIMATE COMICS GROUP, LLC. I've drawn a short story detailing the origin of one of their superheroes named ESSENCE. It's part of STORMBLAZER #0. The solicitation reads...

Stormblazer Issue 0
This Fantastic ORIGIN issue contains 23 whopping story pages and includes the origins of Stormblazer, Essence AND Ultimate. Find out the history behind your favorite UCG characters.
Cover Art: Rod Jacobsen,
Written by: John Lai,
Art: Charles Wright, Lewis Smith, Reno Maniquis & Russell Walton,
Inks by: Lewis Smith, Timothy Gula, Reno Maniquis & Russell Walton,
Colors by: Isai Leal, Terrence Paris Kirton, John Lai & Shaun (Gaspode) Lewis

Samples of some of the pages I did...





You can purchase the comic online here.

I was browsing the 'net when I came upon this particular image...



Looks kinda familiar...



The artist of the top piece is Rodel Tapaya. this was made for a children's book entitled ANG BATANG MARAMING BAWAL from CANVAS.

I really don't mind the swipe. Lord knows I've done my fair share of that, too. I just decided to post it here because I found it amusing.

The book is actually pretty good, both story and illustrations. I think I'll be hunting this one down so I can read it to Jade.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD


The ultimate team-up... Jade and one of her favorite superheroes, the Flash!

DWAYNE JOHNSON (aka "THE ROCK")as BLACK ADAM!?!?! How cool is that?!?!?



Now all they need to do is cast Dean Cain as the Big Red Cheese himself and I'll be happy.

On a related note... JEFF HARDY is INSANE. See below...

RAW 14.Jan.2008 Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton
Uploaded by Ricardo109