What an Amazingly Miserable Year 2018 Was. And continues to be....

It's time again for one of my year end review things. Health wise, it's been generally good the entire 2018, punctuated by horror and near death. You don't remember the good things, it's the bad things, specially if they're horrible, that will stay with you.

My dad passed away in February. I don't feel like I'm ready to talk about that. But since my mom had passed on back in 2014, 2018 marks the year I officially became an orphan. When I started making Elmer in 2006, my heart was still full of fear of losing my parents. That actually reflected in the plot of Elmer #1. That entire issue was me expressing my fear of losing my parents. Flash forward to February 2018, I guess I had grown stronger and more mature and I was able to handle it really well.

I was in and out of the ER towards the end of April until I was finally admitted in early May for bloody ulcer. It took a while to diagnose it, so I had been slowly losing blood and steadily getting weaker. Transfusions couldn't keep up with the blood loss. That last night at home I was so weak I thought I was gonna die. I had no idea that I was that close to dying if I had waited much longer. It took Ilyn to iron will me to the hospital. I couldn't walk, literally. They had to carry me. Ilyn saved my life that night. I'm eternally grateful to her. After medications, I started to get better and I was out of the hospital a week later. It took a long time to recover at home. About a month. That's why I wasn't able to ink Captain America #2. My old buddy Leinil Yu really stepped in with help of all kinds. We've known each other for so long. We had fought, we hung out. I watched his concerts. He attended my comics events. I never realized I would be meeting a friend for life. Thanks man. You're the best.

After I got better from my ulcer, everything started to generally get better. I was fearful of the holiday season and the change of weather because that usually brings sickness for me. But in spite of the many activities, meetings, komikons and so forth, I didn't get sick at all. Well, 2018 just won't let me go without a last hit. A few days before the end of 2018 I got fever and I still got fever and I don't know when I'm going to get well from this. On top of this my left foot started hurting really bad. My knees already hurt, my damn left foot had to join the fucking party. I might be admitted tomorrow, depending on my doctor so just in case I do get admitted, I won't be around to write this on New Year's Eve like I usually do.

The good things I can talk about in this post is I found out who are the friends I can truly count on and they're so few. I will treasure them forever. I also have a new comic book out: "Dead Heart #1" which seems to be doing well. And of course, Ilyn is such a gem. She has truly fulfilled her promise of "through sickeness and in health, for richer or for poorer". There's nobody, nobody I'd be willing to spend the rest of my hopefully long life with.

Original Art Price Adjustment

I have an ongoing Original Inked Art for sale page which can be found here: http://komikeroinks.blogspot.com/

I'm pretty much letting go of all my original inked art. I cannot possibly put them all in the gallery so if there's anything you're looking for, please email my agent (and wife) Ilyn at ilynflorese@gmail.com

For a long time I have offered my pages at a very low price range. Low compared to how pages like this are sold in the US. Many pros have already informed me that I'm selling my pages too low and I reasoned that I really am selling these at those prices so Filipinos can better afford them. Most of those who are buying my pages lately are from outside the country though, and my original reasoning doesn't really make much business sense, in hindsight. I'm happy to have shared a lot of my pages for inexpensive prices for many years, but I think it's time to adjust my prices to reflect the real value of these pages.

I do have to thank all those who have bought pages from me in the past. Your business has been very much appreciated.

Funko, Johnny and Me

I only have one Funko Pop Toy. And that's the Jollibee one. I mean, what red blooded Filipino wouldn't be tempted to get one? Very few I'm sure. I mean, it's JOLLIBEE. One day people will try to explain why that answer is enough.

But as I said, I only have one Funko Pop Toy. I'm not really a fan. If I can avoid it, I will. Why? It's all tied up with memories of my old pal Johnny, who passed away years ago due to a tumor in his brain. He was a big Funko Pop fan. Every time there was a new release, he'd go crazy over it. I would hear him talk about it and I'd just shrug my shoulders. If he's happy, then I'm happy.

And then he got sick. It had come upon him slowly. Not being a fan of Western medicine, he really didn't consult with a doctor until the tumor started giving him strokes. And those little explosions in his brain slowly chipped away at this memory. Jonas and I visited him a couple of months after Johnny had somewhat disappeared from the radar. He had stopped posting on Facebook and we started to get worried. We visited him and we saw that the sickness had already taken its toll. He was very thin and he was struggling to remember things.

Jonas mentioned to Johnny that there was a new batch of Funko Pop toys at Comic Odyssey. Normally, Johnny would be excited at the news but he just furrowed his brow, struggling to remember. "Funko?" he said, as if he didn't know what that was. A moment later, I realized that he had completely forgotten. After a long time he said, "Ah.....!" as if he remembered, but it was gone again.

Jonas and I would visit Johnny one more time before he finally passed. By then we really couldn't talk to him anymore.

I still miss Johnny.

Commissions

Still working on inking Captain America, but once in a while I can do commissions. It's a new level of commissions from what I've done before. Here is a sample of the kind of drawing I'll be doing from now on:

I arrived at my rates by considering the many days I worked on it and the amount of detail that's involved. Here is my table of rates:

Blank Cover. Full detail, Cover side only, Head shot, with backgrounds $70

Blank Cover. Full detail, Cover side only, full figure, with backgrounds: $120, Additional figure $50

(8.5”x11.7”) Acid Free paper. Full Detail, Head shot, with backgrounds: $150

(8.5”x11.7”) Acid Free paper. Full Detail, full figure, with backgrounds: $250, Additional figure $75

11”X17” Acid Free paper. Full detail, full figure, with backgrounds: $500, Additional Figure $100

I realize my rates are on the high side, but I think it would be worth it.

If you are interested, please email me at gerryalanguilan at gmail.com and I'll put you on the list.

Encouraging Creativity at the Comics Festival

Every passing months brings us closer to the 4th San Pablo Comics Festival! To those curious, yes, it's a 100% go! We will be opening slots for exhibitors very soon, but first, we need to talk about something if you are interested in participating.

One of the big goals of the festival is to encourage creativity and originality among artists. We want you to create your own characters. We want you to have that experience of creating something of your own and pushing it so that it becomes a source of income.

In line with that goal, we want to encourage you to create your own characters that you will use for your prints, stickers, postcards, shirts and other merchandise. As such, we shall actively discourage and disallow the use of characters you did not create. You cannot use characters like Wolverine or Cyclops from Marvel. You cannot use characters like Batman or Wonder Woman from DC. The only exception we will make is if you have permission from those companies to use those characters for your merch. You can contact each company through the links below:

MARVEL
https://www.marvel.com/help/category/11/topic/25

DC
WBCPInquiries@warnerbros.com

We will be enforcing this rule rather strictly and we will be assigning people to check on your merch regularly. If you bring merch to sell that are copyrighted, we would require the proper paperwork that proves you are legally allowed to do so. We're sorry if this causes a problem for you, but all of us who organize the Festival are one in encouraging people to respect intellectual property. By this we respect everyone's intellectual property, specially yours.

If this is a rule that you cannot, in your own good conscience abide with, we would suggest you no longer participate to prevent any future problems, and just join the 99% other events that allow the use of copyrighted characters.

BUGEL

That's our dog Bugel, who had been with us since 2014, just a couple of months after my mom had passed away. Bugel was a gift to us. We wouldn't have been able to afford a Golden Retriever otherwise. Bugel grew up so quickly but in spirit she remains a puppy. She still thinks she is one and thinks she's still as light as she once was and believes we can still lift her. But it's so hard now haha! She's so heavy!

When my dad passed away earlier this year, Bugel got distemper from... somewhere. And it crippled her. We were crushed. When the vet was here there was talk of putting both Bugel and Lucy down but I vehemently protested. No matter what happens, we will not put our dogs down, I said. Lucy, who got distemper earlier, actually got better after a few months. She's no longer hitting walls, and she can now walk and run as she used to. Even Bugel, who had been crippled for so long, showed signs she could walk again, but it seems she had been  keeping it from us. She likes to look sad and pathetic when we're around so we feel sorry for her. Apparently she likes that because feeling sorry for her includes lots of petting.What a smart dog.

But we caught her walking one time after being guided and let go and when she realized she was walking on her own and we were looking, she collapsed and looked at us with those wide pleading eyes. Now she can't hide it anymore, so she's starting to walk more often. The other day she even ran! But she got tired so easily. I give her a month or two months more and she'll be her walking and running self all over again! I'm sure of it!

Yesterday

Yesterday started out OK. I expected nothing more except the usual when I went in for my regular session at the hospital. But for some reason, things were different. As soon as I got home, I was vomiting. And I was vomiting for the next few hours. I couldn't stand up and I couldn't eat (I'll just lose it anyway). I ended up not eating that night at all. I slept all night and woke up when it was already light out. I had breakfast because thank goodness I was finally hungry and no longer felt like throwing up. But then after breakfast I was asleep again until they woke me up for lunch. I guess my body was just so exhausted it took that long to recover. I spent the rest of the afternoon resting some more. I hope to go back to work very soon.

I wish I could say I could do things differently to avoid it happening again, but I honestly don't know what I did differently yesterday that resulted in what happened. If I don't know what I did or didn't do, how can avoid it happening again? I guess I'm just gonna have to live with it for now.

THESIS

It's that time of year when I receive several requests from students to interview me as a resource person for their thesis. I find it hard to accommodate them all so I just end up agreeing to only one. As to who I choose really depends on how they talk to me. Those who give deadlines I immediately give a pass. Only primary work clients can give me deadlines. I'm sorry, but students asking for interviews can't. There's a primal reaction when they give deadlines like I have to accommodate them within the week, just like that, as if I'm just hanging out the house doing nothing and have nothing scheduled. It just gets my goat.

Although I've learned to say no a lot, it never gets easy. So although it's kind of bad of me, I often end up just not replying at all to most requests.

I'm sure there are former students out there who still carry a bit of a grudge against me for not responding, or for stopping to respond after they gave me deadlines. I really just have to get those things out of my mind. Work will always be my priority and everything else would just have to give way. If interviews, meet ups, etc., get in the way of work, work will always win out.

Captain America #1 Signing

Photo by Zara Macandili

Leinil and I agreed that it was one of the most attended signings we've ever had. It really makes me feel glad to see so many people turn up including a lot of my friends in comics, regular readers who have supported us for years and new people picking up comics for the first time! Comic Odyssey owner Sandy told me that their location is a pretty good one as it attracts a lot of new walk in customers. New fans of comics! I think all of us in the industry need that, creators and readers alike. New blood is what we need to keep comics going.

The location is one of the things that impressed me about the new store. A large in front assures mall walkers a huge and sudden view that showcases the entire store in one look. And it's quite an impressive look. Even if I wasn't a comic book fan, I'll check it out. I think I'll find myself going here every time I go to Manila. It's always nice anyway, visiting with Sandy, Rowena and the rest of the Comic Odyssey crew.

Every trip to Manila, Ilyn and I always look forward to new places to eat. We had lunch at Botejyu, just one of the many specialty Japanese restaurants popping up all over. It seems Japanese is the hot thing right now. This particular resto's specialty is Yakisoba. So I tried it. I didn't like it. So many flavors in one plate that it was overwhelming. The much expected Japanese quality of simplicity simply went out the window. Ilyn liked her Tempura though. But Tempura is always awesome.

We had dinner at Pho Hoa. I had proper Beef Pho for the first time with all the herbs and things and it was a very interesting experience. The broth had an intense flavor, probably due to the combination of mint and coriander leaves, and the beef was really really good. I really liked it.

It was nice hanging out with Rowena and Leinil during dinner. We had a chance to talk of a lot of things, mostly not comic book related. Of course we talked about Sandy a lot, because you always talk about that one person who isn't there. Sandy's in the States with comics business. I hope he remembers to pick up some of those 100 page DC giants at Walmart for me.

We got home at around 9:30pm which isn't too bad. I didn't sleep right away because I still had to approve all the tags from the signing. And there were a lot! Thanks to everyone who uploaded photos! We weren't able to take much photos ourselves.

July and Stuff

I really don't go to Manila much anymore. I admit, it's gotten quite physically difficult for me to do so, and every time it's a great expense because we always have to rent a van. Commuting via bus is now simply out of the question. I feel bad because I miss so many events I would otherwise would like to attend. I'd like to attend more Komikons and Komikets and so forth. But right now I can only go the the November Komikon, and that's it.

But tomorrow is an exception. Comic Odyssey has released our newest high profile book, Captain America #1 with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leinil Yu, which I am inking. It's actually kind of a big deal. Sandy of Comic Odyssey has scheduled a signing for us tomorrow at Robinson's Galleria at one in the afternoon. It's been almost a year since I did one of these signings for CO. I actually kind of missed it. It's always nice to see Sandy and Rowena and all the CO staff. It's always nice to see my old buddy Leinil and that big bunch of regular readers I see so often at things like this.

My walking hasn't really improved or degraded in the last couple of years, but I've taken to use a wheelchair whenever I go up and about at malls, just so I can conserve my energy. I can still walk, but the pain in my knees makes me tired so quickly. With the wheelchair, I don't have to get so tired. I'm really bummed about it. For many years I've walked so far and so long that I've taken it for granted. I wish I could walk normally again. I've started doing some exercises to first ease the pain in the knees and after a while, I hope it becomes a permanent cure. Fingers crossed!

Captain America

As much as I enjoy putting back my online museum together, I also find as much enjoyment inking over Leinil Yu for Marvel. Our project this time around is Captain America, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I inked all 31 pages of the first issue, three pages of issue #2 and now I'm currently inking issue #3.

I didn't ink all of the second issue because I was hospitalized for what turned out to be ulcer. I had been bleeding inside, losing so much blood that I needed at least three transfusions a week. But I was losing more blood than I was transfusing that my life was actually endangered. I got treatment for it real quick and within a short time the bleeding stopped and my blood levels normalized. It was quite a relief. Still, I had to rest for a couple of weeks before I was OK to start working again.

Leinil and I will have a signing for Captain America #1 at Comic Odyssey (branch to be determined). Sandy hasn't finalized a schedule yet but once he does, I'll post about it here. I'll be bringing pages from this issue for sale, as well as Captain America FCBD 2018, one page of which, I think, will be raffled off to one lucky customer.

It's not often I get to attend signings anymore so bring all of your stuff for me to sign. :)

Komiks Museum Updates

There have been massive updates to the Komiks Museum since my last post. I've so far uploaded galleries by 9 Golden Age artists, 1 Modern Age Artist and 1 Indie Age writer.

Golden Age galleries currently up:

Francisco V. Coching
Abe Ocampo
Nestor Redondo
Alex Niño
Tony De Zuniga
Rudy Florese
Elpidio E. Torres
Fred Carrillo
Alfredo Alcala

Just click here and click on their names.

Modern Age gallery:

Whilce Portacio

Indie Age gallery

Budjette Tan

And with that, I take a break and work on comic book stuff. I will come back and add more galleries, but my priority at the moment will be Golden Age ones. Modern Age and Indie Age creators have plenty of opportunity to promote themselves and many of them have sizable presences online so information on them won't be so hard to find. I have to upload more galleries of artists who are probably too old, or have already passed on and would be unable to promote themselves.

The Philippine Comics Art Museum Online

It's been really bugging me that my online comics museum website has gone down, taking with it all previously uploaded material. And I believe it to be thousands of images from the Golden age of komiks. It was a good resource. I want to bring that resource back.

To psyche me up for this, I went ahead and bought some space online and bought the domain http://www.komiksmuseum.com

It's short and easy to remember. Nothing's there yet, but I've slowly begun rebuilding it. I'll be redesigning the site completely, but I will also use much of the material I uploaded before.

I've also renamed the museum from "The Philippine Comics Art Museum Online" to simply "Komikero Komiks Museum Online" to tie it up with a real bricks and mortar museum located right now here in San Pablo City.

There will be two major differences between the old museum and the new. This new online komiks museum will emphasize on both artists and writers, and I will now be including work by what I consider to be Modern Age creators and Independent Creators.

To simplify things, I would consider Golden Age creator as anyone from the pioneering days of komiks to someone like Lan Medina. Modern Age creator starts with someone like Rafael Kayanan and onwards. Independent Age creator includes anyone who has self published their comics from the early 1990s and onwards. There would definitely be an overlap of Modern Age and Independent Age as they started roughly at the same time and are existing concurrently.

One Rainy Day

Sometime in 2005 I started writing Elmer. I don't remember what it was that occurred during this time, or if there was any triggering event at all, but I started thinking about my parents and the growing fear I had at losing them. They were getting really old by then and I knew they didn't have that much time left.

It reflected in the writing of Elmer. In fact, it pretty much directed how that entire book came to be. At its very essence, Elmer is a reflection of the fear I had of losing my parents. I felt this way because I felt I wasn't ready yet. I wasn't ready emotionally. I dream of losing them and I wake crying.

In 2014 I lost my Mom. And just a few days ago on February 6, 2018, I lost my Dad.

I was in the middle of inking this panel when he died. Unlike my mom's death which took us all by surprise, my dad was failing for quite some time. It was really hard for him the last few days of his life. I wanted to tell him that it's OK to go and that I was ready, but by then his mind wasn't comprehending much anymore. I don't know, perhaps in a way he understood. Because not a day later, he did finally let go.

And it was true. I was ready. I don't have any parents anymore, but that's ok. Mom and Dad are finally together now. I think my mom's really happy about that. She's been waiting a long time. If I can tell them one thing, I want to tell them that they don't have to worry about me anymore. I'm doing OK. I'm in the best hands with Ilyn, and I will continue to go on with my life, doing what I love best. Comics. Making more comics.

My brother Noel. Saying our final goodbyes to dad. And just like in the movies, it started to rain.

You Tube Streak!

I don't know why, but all of a sudden I have that sudden urge to do videos on You Tube. Within the week or so, I was able to put together and upload NINE videos! The fact that You Tube recently instituted new standards for monetization had nothing to do with it because I've since demonetized all my videos. That means, I assume, that you can now watch all my videos without ads. Why demonetize? I'm seeing a lot of people quitting You Tube saying it's the end of the website because small time video makers can't make money from it anymore. The monetization standards are too high. I've been seeing "This is the end of You Tube " comments for 10 years now. Whenever You Tube institutes a change, people say it's the end, but it never is.

I understand if You Tube is a means to make a living and I'm sure it's a legit way of doing so. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's just not for me. I guess I've just seen too many content on the site that's compromised by products. You really can't talk honestly about a product if the company making the product is paying you.

There's also the "freebie" mentality that goes along with the "influencer" mentality. Hey, I'll review your restaurant in one of my videos but I would like to eat for free. Oh my God, it's something I would never find myself doing. It would juts be too embarrassing. Some people see nothing wrong with that. It's not as if they're begging or asking to eat for nothing in return. If that's how you want to live, then that's fine. I just want to say it's not for me.

Anyway, here's one of my most recent videos. Click below that video for my channel.

Komikero on You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/komikero

Patreon!

I decided to open an account on Patreon. This is the link. It's just something I wanted to try out and see how it works. I'll be actively doing my own comics this year and it will take a whole heap of money to have them printed. What I make from my day job simply not enough anymore, what with all the expenses I have here at home.

On Patreon I will be posting patrons only blog entries and artwork (dealing specifically with the projects I'm working on, things I will not repeat post here in this blog).

Further perks down the line include sketches on any book that I publish through Komikero publishing that's been helped by Patreon patrons.

That's just me dipping my toes on funding options for comic book publishing that I have not explored before. If you become a patron, thanks very much! I will offer more perks soon!

It's 2018!

It's already 11 days into 2018 and I thought I'd write something here. I did finish inking Phoenix #5 over the New Year's holidays and I've been taking it easy since then. I have a big thing happening next week, which just happens to be my 50th birthday. And it's like HOLY SHIT I'M FIFTY. When I was young I thought 50 year olds were white haired grandpas with grand children and walking canes and reading glasses. Although I do have reading glasses. I do have a walking cane. I neither have white hair nor do I have any grandkids. I don't even have any kids. Except for my dogs. Although my body is no longer as energetic as it once was, my mind seems to be the same when I was in my 30s. I still have so much I dream of doing... so much places I dream of going. It's my body that's keeping me because it's all starting to fall apart. And I'm just trying so hard just to keep that from happening.