Does this mean that we’ll be paid less? I hope not! That would make me a saaad panda.
Also, this negates the added hours of work spent coloring the comics. I wonder what’s up at the MB?
October, 2008
24
Oct 08
Teriyaki Boy > Yoshinoya
Always the opportunist, I moved my cheat day to today once dad invited us to chow down at Teriyaki Boy.
I decided I’d try something other than the usual orders of Katsudon and/or Gyudon that I have whenever in a Japanese-themed food outlet, so I decided to order Chirashi-don, to go along with my California Maki, Miso Soup, and bottomless diabetes iced tea.
The Chirashi-Don is basically a rice bowl with some raw fish, seafood, and egg. It’s delicious!
The California Maki was pretty good – better than what Tokyo Tokyo and other competitors have to offer – but it’s not the best I’ve tasted.
On the other hand, their Sukiyaki Beef Teriyaki is pretty good. It’s probably the closest you could get to Yoshinoya’s stuff before they started watering down their food (boo!).
So yeah, I’d eat at Teriyaki Boy again, definitely. They’ve got much better food than what the other Japanese fastfood outlets offer (panis ka na ngayon Yoshinoya. Tse!).
22
Oct 08
ESD Development Sketches + Notes
I’ve been working on the reboot since September; frankly, it’s been going much slower than I’d like.
I’ve been writing and rewriting scripts, redesigning characters, developing profiles and back stories… just doing a bit of everything, pretty much. I want to make this project as great a piece of fiction as I possibly can, so I’m going totally OCD on everything – the environment, the technologies, the culture, even the architecture. I failed to show the depth of the world of Evergreen back then. I’m hoping to introduce that properly in this iteration of the comic, hopefully without slowing down the pace too much and leaving the humor to degrade.
Working on the big picture first helps me develop the little details more. For example, it becomes easier for me to draw the interiors of a house into a comic panel if I know what the house’s layout is. You can also create distinctions for every character’s environment, which can add to the depth and quality of a storyarc when you write it while considering such details. Eventually, you can develop a whole world using this paradigm. It may take quite a while, but the more you add to a world, the more potential quality storyarcs that can develop may emerge.
If you’re as good a writer as you are an illustrator (or vice versa; whatever the case, it’s good to be both!), you will be able to develop a compelling work of fiction that will attract a fair number of regular readers, much more so than you would as opposed to gag-a-day comics (in my belief; of course, there are always exceptions to such rules).
20
Oct 08
Sining, Kalayaan At Paglikha – An Editorial Cartoon Exhibit
Thanks to Ariel Atienza (West Side, Class Comics) for inviting me to this SKP event. Nakalibre tuloy ako bigla ng lunch. Ahihihi. Apir!
I keed. It was great to hang around with other comic artists (Stanley Chi, Julius Villanueva), joke around, and then stare at each other awkwardly in silence like deer in headlights (Norman Isaac, Aileen Casis). Yeah, pretty much.
Above, from left to right: Freely Abrigo (Kulas), Some Dumbass (No Need For Kaide, EvergreenSD) Ariel Atienza (West Side, Class Comics), Julius Villanueva (Life in Progress), Stanley Chi (Chopsticks), Lito Yonzon (Mango Comics).
The Exhibit will be open to the public for a month, to my knowledge. Check it out at the Alab Art Space, IP Philippines, Makati Avenue, Makati City.
If you’re coming from the LRT, just hop on a jeep going towards Guadalupe. You’ll see the IPO to your left, just before you get to the Petron Gas Station. If you’re coming from EDSA, just ride anything that goes through Makati Avenue that has “LRT” written on it
16
Oct 08
My First Few Photos Of Spain
This is the first time in around four years that these photos will see the light of day. I bought my trusty ol’ Nikon digicam from an FNAC store in Sol, Spain, but forgot to buy a memory card with the purchase. So the first few shots were stored on internal memory. When I got back home, I lost the camera’s USB cable, and I couldn’t find anything like it in most computer stores. So the photos in the camera were stuck. A few days ago, while decluttering, I dug it up (along with an unused, unboxed Bluetooth Dongle)! So now I retrieved all those photos from the camera. Here are a few of those photos.
Back then, we spent most of our time in a small hostel in Villalba, which is north of Madrid and takes two hours to get to by car (a little less by train). I love that place. Best of all are the little diners and cafes like in the picture above where you could stuff yourself with food for only 6-8 Euros. You get two huge plates of food consisting of vegetables, meat (mostly lamb), and soup (or salad). You also get served a free bottle of red wine and some baguettes. For desert, you can choose between ice cream, leche flan, or coffee. Also, when they serve French fries, they don’t serve the crappy, stuff like McDonald’s does; they serve freshly sliced and fried potatoes, which taste fantastic.
That’s one of the plates. You get another one just like it once you’re done with it. Why? I dunno. It’s like that in every sidestreet cafe and diner that I’ve eaten in in and around Madrid. Ya gotta love it! What’s more, a lot of these establishments are family-run, so you get awesome, home-cooked goodness every time you step into these places.
This is Pozuelo de Alarcon – It’s where we fixed our citizenship papers. It’s one of my favorite places in the entire metro, simply because just about everything here is landscaped and just plain beautiful.
Chillin’ at one of the train stations. You can buy a monthly pass for 50 or so Euros (back then, dunno how much it is now) and you got unlimited rides on buses and trains all over Madrid. It’s a great way to get around. Heck, even the different train stations are great places to catch a beautiful sunrise or grab a tasty sandwich.
This has to be my favorite shop of all: the “Museo de Jamon“. IT’S FULL OF MEAT! All kinds of meat! There are so many varieties it’s nauseating! But I love it! Now why can’t we have something like that over here?
Someday, I’d like to come back to Spain and just take it all in again, but at a much more Bohemian manner. But for now, gotta work!
16
Oct 08
Shigoto, Shigoto
Splitting time between this business me and my friends are planning to set up and my comic thing… and then some. The past few weeks have been both entertaining and tiring.
A decade ago we pretty much all lived in the same city, but now we’ve scattered about over the metro. It’s become harder to meet up and catch up on things, but the effort is worth it. It feels so great to touch base with some of my childhood buddies again. And now we’re doing the business thing… see where this’ll take us. It’s just a small venture, one that will complement whatever job currently occupies each of us. Well, them. I’m not yet prepared to qualify being a “comic artist”, as I stand right now, as a real job. Not until I can actually earn enough to support myself financially.
So I guess I could say I’ve got a bit more of a vested interest in this venture than they might have… I’m not quite sure. Time that might have been spent working on EvergreenSD is now being spent working on my part of said venture. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just that I find that I lack the discipline required to balance to large tasks at once, as I am used to throwing myself into just one at a time (Binge Productivity, Serial Tasking).
Then, there’s the fact working from home just makes me so bored. So I end up ditching stuff I’m supposed to be working on playing games. Then I forget to sleep. Then I CAN’T sleep. I start eating junk food instead of the healthy stuff. I get sick. Hfff.
Sometimes I think a huge part of me never grew up… and still refuses to. But then again, I guess that’s why making comics is the thing I do best (besides being a bum). Oh well.
5
Oct 08
No Need For Kaide Debuts In The Manila Bulletin Today
But for some reason they just called it “Kaide”.
I’ve got some really mixed feelings about this; both really elated and at the same time irked. Regardless, I’m hoping I will be allowed my candor without unpropitious consequences.
First off, I’m really happy that the comic turned out very nicely in print! It just seems a bit darker than what I had when making it on screen; I’m thinking maybe it’s got to do with the newsprint or something? I’m not really sure.
4
Oct 08
I’m Starting To Go For More Of Gloria Jean’s Coffee Beans
Shot over to Glorietta to buy some coffee beans. I headed over to Gloria Jean’s this time because the Starbucks store I patronize hasn’t stocked up on fresh coffee beans yet – all they have in the store shelves are the old coffee bean stock, which are mostly just two months away from expiring.
Three things I like about Gloria Jean’s: (1) coffee beans on the store shelves tend to be fresher, since they are delivered quarterly (which is more often than Starbucks, to my knowledge), (2), you can buy by weight. I bought 1/2 pound of decaffeinated Colombian Supremo Beans (they ran out of the non-decaf beans), and (3), some of the beans are mostly cheaper than their equivalents in Starbucks or the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Also, it was a funny site to see a bunch of cops sitting in two tables outside the GJC store drinking coffee and stuff. I thought they only did Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Creme. Looks like them cops are getting paid better by the government… or are they? Heh.