Well, on second thought maybe I just got blessed of having good teachers every now and then. Looking back –yeah, there were year/grade levels that I too got bored in my History/Sibika at Kultura. I remember having a very stiff, soft-voiced, near-old maid, history teacher in high school. I’m not sure if I actually learned anything from her. To top it all off and as if to spite me, the classes were usually held at 1 PM or 2 PM in the afternoon!

But then there were also the great teachers that I had. My history teacher back in grades 5 and 6 was an about-twenty-years-veteran on the subject –and boy was she entertaining! (Well, most of the time at least) And then my senior year in high school… yeah, I enjoyed history back then too. 

Maybe what I am just trying to say is: history should not be boring if you’d be creative in telling it. It’s just as entertaining, intriguing, fun and exciting as your favorite TV series and movies. All you have to do is tell the lessons like one. Heck, for all I know, maybe you’ll even like it better than the movies!

I was surprised to know how the Katipunan revered Jose Rizal so much, that they hung his portrait in their halls and used his name, “Rizal” as password in their secret organization, much to the disbelief of our National Hero when he learned about it during his trial. How about the Supermo saving Emilio Jacinto on their retreat to Balara? The Spanish bullet got too close for comfort, sparing Bonifacio's neck, but not his collar.

Then there was the time when Rizal waited by the highway on his horse, for the carriage of the sweet Segunda Katigbak, a girl whom he wooed. He’d be brave against the firing squad when his time comes, but on that moment, he’d withdraw and ride the other way from a lost love.

Could you imagine Andres Bonifacio disguising himself as a woman to avoid detection? Well, he did! And then he lent his legendary bolo to the care of a katipunero, since it was too big to hide under his skirt. Unfortunately, that bolo never found its way back to the Supremo’s hands.

Well, those are just some bits and pieces I’ve discovered in my readings from the pages of Ambeth Ocampo, Teodoro A. Agoncillo, and Leon Maria Guerrero –some of our finest historians.

My next (and biggest) comics project would require me to do all these research on our history from the Rizal, to the Philippine Revolution, until the Philippine-American War. And like I’ve always said before, I am the writer who seldom reads. I can only read up to ten consecutive pages of a book before my eyes get heavy and doze off. The rest of the book would have to wait until the next time I hold the book in my hands. So imagine how long it takes me to finish a novel, much more say –a biography of Jose Rizal? All the readings and research may be tedious tasks, but I will do everything to make the best effort  in every aspect of its creation. Because I know once it is completed,  it is something that I will be proud of for the rest of my life.

The late poster that I am; The Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Comics Anthology is finally out! To those not familiar with that, it all started several years ago when Neil Gaiman visited the Philippines for the first time. On what he probably thought would be a routine signing and interviews event, transgressed into something much larger than he initially expected. He greatly appreciated how the Filipinos’ received him with “a wall of sound”, before ultimately getting astounded by the plenty amount of untapped talents in the country.

To cut everything short, he, together with Jaime Daez’s Fully Booked chain of bookstores, decided to put up a series of contests that encouraged Filipinos to explore the magical and fantastic world of the unreal and use it in our literature. This, after Mr. Gaiman observed that almost all of the works by local authors that he was able to read, tackled the realities of one’s self and his surroundings. Very few wandered into the realms of our fantastic mythologies and legends. Not that it was a bad thing, but he longed to see Filipino unrealism, created by Filipinos.

The result was The Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. The contest that (if I am not mistaken) has spanned seven years since the first challenge was announced to the final judging of the third installment of the series last March.

And now, all the winning entries, plus some other notable entries that didn’t make it, are published in the thickest (and very gorgeous) pinoy comic book that I’ve ever seen. I’d like to mention too how the book itself is great. It’s the best pinoy komiks ever in terms of printing and paper quality! Thank you , Fully Booked for not going cheap on it.

I was blessed to have my entry get picked as a winner in the second TPGFA. My story, “Afterlife” made the third place back in 2007. The experience allowed me to get published alongside an array of highly talented fellow Filipinos who share my passion for creating original stories and comics –not to mention sit and dine beside Neil Gaiman himself. That victory (although it was not the grand prize) also initiated me as a serious comics creator –specially as a writer. It boosted my esteem to write more and somehow, I proved to myself that I can accomplish a lot more in comics than what I usually did before the contest.

It was mentioned in the awarding ceremony of the third contest that Neil and Jaime agreed on three installments of the TPGFA. Did they mean the third TPGFA was the last of it? I am really hoping it wasn’t, because I have set a personal goal to win it one day –I am thinking, the next one!

Manoy will be performing again at Conspiracy Bar & Garden Cafe on December 01, 2009 (that's a Tuesday) for the event, Rock Baby, Rock! (So Be it.). We'll be jamming with RockBato, Toyo and Datu's Tribe. Catch it by all means if possible. Tickets: 100 Php.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of the band, taken from our last gig called "Rise Up Broken Man". Thanks, Aba! We don't have a regular drummer at the moment so things didn't go out ideally for the band in the past month. Hopefully, we get to find one soon. Like before December 01! Lol! 

http://conspiblog.wordpress.com/ 

Last week, I finally got a hold on my copy of the Darkstalkers Tribute book. And boy, it felt awesome!

You see, Udon Entertainment made a call for submissions to artists all over the world to do their take on any of the Darkstalkers characters. From the submissions, they’d pick whichever works they think are best and include them in the tribute book. Needless to say, I was blessed to get my work picked among thousands of entries, and thus, I get a free copy of the book and a much needed exposure.

I hope they do it again next year. I’m definitely going to submit another entry for sure.

Click here to get a copy! 

 Click here to see image at DeviantArt.

Last Friday night held the opening for the art show called “Faith” by my art group, Tinangtuko (also here).  The show will run up until November 20, 2009 at Prose Art Gallery at Arnaiz Avenue corner Paseo De Roxas, Makati City.

The event was a blast! A gazillion thanks to everyone who dropped by to see our works. We truly appreciated your effort. The core group plus some of our friends however, stayed at the gallery up until 2 AM jamming with a couple of guitars, a flute, a harmonica, and a cooler full of beer.

See you again in December for our next show! For now, here are some photos (more on Kei’s Multiply):

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I could not believe my eyes when I saw it. It’s actually a cotton canvas -for watercolors! –here in the Philippines! Oh, yeah!

Well to make the long story short, there was no way that I could have resisted buying the pad. I bought it together with a calligraphy set for inking and watercolors. I didn’t waste any time before I started drawing on it once I got back to the office, and boy, it did not disappoint. It may be a bit pricey compared to other same products, but it is very well worth every cent that I paid.

I have my eye now on the larger cut of the same canvas. It sure is looking pretty good for a project I have in mind… on second thought, nope - it’s gonna be perfect.

So here are the stuffs that I acquired (okay, they were from Fully Booked!):

 ·         Fredrix Watercolor Canvas (10 sheets 9x12 pad)

·          Cretacolor Calligraphy nibs and holder.

Cretacolor Calligraphy Ink (Best ink that I’ve tried so far!) 

It started out as a joke when I came up with it years ago. A friend told me about a certain painter named Solano Cruz who developed an art style which he called “Banigism”. The art style mimics the effects of the banig (nipa sleeping mat) in a painting.

I remember laughing when I first heard it. I thought it was a joke –until that friend showed me a painting done in that style. And then I thought, it must be really cool to come up with an original art style, and better yet, name it in any way that pleases you.

I’ve been drawing in a certain style during those days –using guri-guri (wild scribbles) to create my images. Inspired by Mr. Cruz’s Banigism, I decided to claim the drawing style as my own, and call it “Guri-gurism”! I said to myself, why not? If others have done it before, then why can’t I?

Although I wouldn’t say the style hasn’t been done before (because I’d bet my ass a lot of artists probably used it before), I would dare to claim the works I will come up with using the style to be Guri-gurisms.

For most of my previous works on this style, I have used the pencil or pen and ink as they are the easiest mediums you can use to do scribbles. But recently, for our exhibit “Faith”, I attempted to use the style in the oil on canvass medium. See it this coming Friday to get a glimpse of the first-ever guri-gurism painting by good ole me. 

I just love branding my works - or maybe I'm just a self-indulgent bastard. But who the hell cares? Hahaha!

One thing that irks me a little though is the fact that the side bars of this template is too narrow for the most of the widgets I've found. I had to let go of several cool-looking ones simply because they wont fit in either of the side bars. I tried resizing the width to 155 pixels only to find out that i.ph automatically offsets the widgets about 10 pixels on all sides, off-centering the mini apps. Look at my Twitter and MyBloglog widgets to see what I mean. I like how this template has sidebars on both sides, but they could have made them wider, 200 pixels at least..

I also checked out the Widget Box in the "edits" panel, but still - the same problems - the widgets won't fit in the side bars. They just look nasty cut and off-centered. I wish somebody in i.ph could do something about this. Or at least they could take out the offset when installing the widgets if they can't adjust the size -or they could show us how to turn that off. That shouldn't be so hard to do.

Anyway, I chose i.ph because the domain name looks a lot more personal than let's say, www.jrldorado.livejournal.com, et al. That is very appealing enough to me that I'd put up with their limited features.

I leave you now with a widget I found in their widget box. And then tell me, "how on Google Earth could this fit in the side bars?". Never mind the purpose. 

Stay safe, people. 

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 *Btw, Manoy gig tonight at Freedom Bar! 

After the group's successful maiden group show last September, Tinangtuko, our art group is back for it's second exhibit this year. The show entitled "Faith" will open on the 6th of November, 2009 at around 6:00 PM. 

You and your friends are most welcome to attend. I'll be showcasing a piece in which I used an art style that I've been developing called, Guri-gurism. This will be the first time that I'll translate it in the oil medium so it should be interesting. Be there to see it together with the works of my talented buddies in the group. 

Also, I recently got a gig via the Darkstalkers Tribute Book, wherein my art was picked to be included. The publisher of that gig went here to see more of my works and thank God, he still decided to get me despite of the horrendous appearance of this site a few days ago. More about that, in the days to come. What’s important is that I learned this site is actually good for something and it’s worth maintaining.

Manoy gig on Monday at Freedom bar, 10 PM onwards. Be there!