13 Years!

It's been thirteen years since this photo was taken. Ilyn and I both decided to get married during December, between Christmas and New Year's Day because we wanted not only our wedding, but our anniversaries to happen when the weather was relatively cool, and there's a feeling of holiday and celebration in the air.

I still remember the day like it was just last week. We had our reception at Roño's Place, back when it was still owned by the Roños. They even gave us a free night in their bed and breakfast right next to the reception. The following day, Ilyn and I just walked a few blocks to our apartment, newly painted, with all new bamboo furniture and new appliances, utensils, tools, and bed sheets. We spent the day in bed just watching the special extended edition DVD of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. To this day, new paint and Lord of the Rings make me nostalgic for the Christmas season, and our wedding.

Our anniversary is actually tomorrow, December 28, but we won't be able to celebrate it then so we just decided to do it today.

Just like last year, Ilyn and I went on breakfast, lunch, and dinner dates here in San Pablo to commemorate our anniversary. The places we went to weren't that particularly special, but we didn't mind.

For breakfast, we went happily to Dunkin' Donuts. It just occurred to me that we also went to Dunkin' Donuts during our breakfast anniversary date last year.

I guess I just wanted to go to a place where I can have coffee and something to dunk into the coffee, proper breakfast style. Sadly, there's really no other place you can do that in San Pablo that's open at that hour. We would have opted to go to a local business, but even a place like Si Christina doesn't have anything you can dunk into their coffee. Can you imagine dunking cakes and sansrival into coffee? NO. Ugh.

The coffee at Dunkin' comes in really small though. As in tiny. See photo on the left for evidence. It's crazy. What is this, Hobbit land? Still, Dunkin' coffee is far more decent than most fast food coffee like those from Jollibee or McDo.

I went crazy and had three...THREE donuts. I wanted simple donuts. I didn't want those overly sweet, overly elaborate donuts that seem to be the norm in places like this. I would have loved to have a simple sugar raised donut, not any of these bavarian filled strawberry choco coco puff sprinkled sparkling carbonated bacon wrapped rainbow-colored monstrosities. Oh no, I'm starting to rant. Let me go and move on to lunch.

We happily had our lunch at David's Tea House at Puregold. David's wasn't my first choice, but we wanted to go to the newly opened Office Warehouse nearby. David's was the nearest, relatively decent place to eat.

I won't go at length about what we ate because I might start another rant haha. But let me just say that we did enjoy the food and I probably ate a little too much. No, I can't let this go! THEY FORGOT THE SAGO IN THE MANGO SAGO! There. I'm OK now.

For dinner, we happily ate at Simple Treats, one of our favorite places here in San Pablo. We actually struggled... STRUGGLED to decide where to have dinner. We were deciding between places like Hungry Gorilla, YOu Japanese Canteen and SuperWok, all of which are very near to our house. In the end, we decided on Simple Treats because I really wanted to have a really... REALLY good cup of coffee.

Hands down, Simple Treats has the best coffee here in San Pablo. I'm very sure you'll hear few arguments from those who have actually tried it. We like this coffee so much that a few years ago during our 10th Wedding Anniversary party, we actually asked Simple Treats to cater their coffee. No, they don't cater coffee, but since we're tight with the owner, he said OK. He even thought it was such a good idea that he might start catering coffee himself for other occasions.

Tonight, the coffee didn't disappoint. As usual, it was simply awesome.

So awesome that it made us truly happy.

It's really been such a nice day. Although today was special, we do try to make each day as special as this one, just in different ways.

Unfollowing Heroes

I've had to unfollow a few heroes of mine on Facebook. I had been very disappointed at how incredibly bitter some of them have become. Or have they always been that way? One of them seems to find the negative in almost anything that it just gets really tiring.

I do post angry messages once in a while that I'm sure would elicit negative feelings from people as well, but I don't do it on a regular basis. In fact, I've avoided posting about controversial, heavy stuff on my main Facebook profile for a while now. I reserve some of my angrier posts on my Facebook page. But even there I don't do it too often. I make it a point to post a few senseless, stupid, ridiculous (and hopefully funny) things every now and then.

I do understand that following someone who just keeps posting angry things every single day can be emotionally exhausting, specially if this is a person who, at some point in your life, you idolized and admired. Is this what's in store for me in the future? Will the comics industry disillusion me to the point that I become as bitter and angry as well? I hope to God it doesn't happen to me, no matter how negative my experiences could be.

In a way, I do understand the need to vent and express your emotions. That there are issues that you need spread awareness of. But I believe that the constant and relentless anger oftentimes cloud the message and the incessant slapping you in the face with these issues can close off people from looking at those issues more closely. What's the use of your message if people stop listening to you?

Christmas 2015

Christmas was pretty quiet, subdued and simple this year. It's two Christmases since my mom died, and the only people in the house are Ilyn, me and dad. We tried to keep the Christmas spirit alive by putting up the tree the lights early. We never got around to playing any Christmas music though... and in spite of the tree and the lights it didn't feel so Christmas-y for us this year. For the first time in my life I wasn't able to finish Christmas Mass. I had to go home because I wasn't feeling too well. As I write this I'm already feeling OK, having gotten a bit of a rest and some quiet time with Ilyn.

I guess I can never really go back to that time in my life as a child when Christmas was so thrilling and exciting. I didn't have any worries about life back then, never had any responsibilities. It isn't to say I was miserable this time around. No, actually I am quite happy and content with the life I have. I guess I've just come to accept that life is like this now, and I've decided to find happiness wherever and however I can find it. I've got a great job inking Star Wars comics in a season when the new Star Wars film just hit and everything is all abuzz with it. I'm still here, still alive and I never ever take that for granted.

Noche Buena was simple but nice. We had some ham my brother gave us. (My brother isn't with us this year. He's in Manila with his son spending Christmas there.) I also made soup from roasted squash and bell peppers. Even I couldn't believe how good it was. We had some peppermint hot chocolate, some grapes, fruit salad that Ilyn made and just regular plain cheese. We were unable to get a Queso de Bola this year, but that's OK. And for the first time in years we didn't have anything that was even remotely alcoholic. I did have a Dr. Pepper with a slice of lemon, which was just great.

Fireworks came early, as it usually does here in San Pablo. I guess over the last few years a few San Pableños got it in their heads to blow up some firecrackers to greet the coming of December 25. When I was younger I loved firecrackers. I lit up up a box or two of them myself, Right now I'm just not interested in it anymore. And it frightens Bugel so I have to go and try to calm her down and reassure her that nothing's gonna happen to her. Even the faintest firecracker from far away drives Bugel into a panic. Poor dog. We'll have to give her some extra attention come New Year's Eve.

I usually wake up really early, but tomorrow, Christmas Day, I plan on sleeping in. Just stay in bed and sleep until maybe 7 or 8am. Crazy, I know, but considering I usually wake up at 4:30am, that's pretty late for me.

Star Wars!

Just came home from a screening of The Force Awakens and holy shit on a stick, it was just awesome! I won't spoil it for you guys, but there were plenty of hair raising moments throughout the film that would appeal to long time fans. I made sure that I caught the very first screening here in San Pablo because I wouldn't want to be spoiled by nutjobs posting spoilers online. And with things that happened in this film, they would be truly heavy spoilers.

It's doubly exciting for me because I get to go home after watching Star Wars and actually work on an OFFICIAL Star Wars comic book! I'm currently working on inking Star Wars #16 with my longtime penciller Leinil Francis Yu.

Previously, we worked on The Darth Vader annual, with me inking, Leinil pencilling and Jason Keith coloring. I'm particularly proud of being involved with that one because I think we did a pretty good job.

To those who asked me if I will be at the book signing/launching of the annual this Saturday at Greenhills, I would have to say no, and that's because I wasn't actually invited. To be honest, I'm kind of bummed. It would have been nice to be have been part of it. In any case, I made other plans for Saturday instead.

KOMIKON 2015

My website, Komikero.com, is currently undergoing repairs so for the meantime, I will be posting updates here. I will eventually transfer all posts from here to my original site when it's fixed.

Last weekend was Komikon 2015, the first time Komikon was held for 2 days. I was excited about this because I have always believed over the last few years that Komikon has grown and must continue to grow. Adding more days to the event is one way of doing it. I don't live in Manila and to man a table for two days posed an interesting problem of logistics. I always rent a van for these events to transport our books. That meant renting a van for two days (which can be expensive). Do I get a hotel? That still meant getting a van for two days because I need to bring in and bring back books (which is more expensive). I decided to just get a van for two days and go home after each day. It could get tiring and expensive, but I thought I'd just find a way to earn enough money to pay not only for the transportation but for the cost of tables for two days.

I did find it tiring towards the end of each day. I apologize for leaving early and leaving my table with Ilyn and Zara, but I didn't want to wipe myself out too much. But even though it was tiring, it was all worth it. Komikons are always fun, and it's always personally inspiring to me to see what new things my fellow creators come up with. And this year didn't disappoint. I've so far browsed a few new titles and I'm very very impressed. The quality of stories, artwork and format have grown dramatically over the last ten years. A few of the creators who have been around making comics for a while have started to produce much more mature, much more professionally polished work. What I mean by "mature" is not "adults only" but a work that's more artistically sophisticated, benefited by years of experience and education. There's nothing amateurish bout new books like Josel Nicolas's "Bearings Windmills Volume One", "Light" by Rob Cham and Adam David and Mervin Malonzo's "Ang Subersibo". Looking at books like these make me highly optimistic about the future of Philippine comics.

The organizers of Komikon have done a tremendous job keeping things together for their first 2 day event. I remain thankful to them for taking the time and effort to create this event for the benefit of Filipino comics creators, readers, and Philippine comics as a whole.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by the table. Thanks to Iya Santos for feeding us continuously throughout the two days. Your cookies are awesome!

Temporary Blog

Greetings! My current and long time blog, Komikero.com is undergoing repair. This will where I will post my blog entries for the meantime.

My Friend Johnny

Johnny insisted that I first met him at Comics Den, a small comic book shop here in San Pablo sometime in the early 2000s. To be honest, I don’t remember. When the Laguna Artists Group (later known as the Komikero Artists Group) formed in 2002, he became one of the members. Little did I know at the time that his entry into my life would be a life changing one. Slowly over the years we got to know each other and he eventually became one of my close friends. That doesn’t mean we shared everything. Johnny was a private person and so was I. And so was Jonas, but in spite of that we three formed a strong bond. We didn’t need to see or talk to each other all the time. We didn’t intrude into each other’s personal lives. And yet we were so close it’s crazy. It’s hard to explain.

It is this same privacy that kept Johnny from telling us right away that he had been feeling seriously sick. He did tell us he felt feverish once in a while, but he didn’t tell us how serious it actually was. Talking with his sister last night at his wake, I was told how private he was with them. Talking with her made me realize something about Johnny… something I already knew but didn’t realize how significant it was. Perhaps I was too close that I didn’t fully realize it or comprehend it.

Johnny spent a large part of his life helping other people. The more I thought about it, the more I realize how true it was. Johnny spearheaded a lot of fund raising events that helped impoverished school children get school supplies. He approached those that he knew, bringing comic book artists together to create art that were sold at auctions held at our local comic book conventions.

Auctioning off artwork at Komikon. Photo by Kit Perez.

Johnny showing off how much was raised for “Lapis at Papel”. Photo by Carlo Pagulayan.

Johnny managed to get a lot of big local names to help out. Leinil Yu, Carlo Pagulayan, Stephen Segovia, Harvey Tolibao, Manix Abrera, Carlo Vergara, etc. There was something about Johnny that just made you trust him and made you want to help.

He was also involved in helping raise funds to help fellow comic book creators who had needed financial help for medical reasons, such as the case with Vergil Espinosa and Rico Rival’s family. When someone needed help, Johnny’s first thought was to help raise funds so everyone could help.

Johnny made a living for himself holding down two jobs. One job was with an NGO that helped fellow Filipinos across the country. His other job was online… and that was helping Japanese citizens learn how to speak English. It’s amazing how much of Johnny’s life was built around helping and serving other people, even right up to the end.

He thought of others more and less for himself. Sure he had his own vices. He was after all a comic book fan. He collected toys and comics. But that is as far as he went serving himself. I realize now how Johnny was one of the most selfless people I know. I wish there was some way we could have let him know how much we appreciate him and what he’s done. But knowing Johnny, he wouldn’t want the attention and the fuss.

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Last night I saw Johnny at his wake. It’s so hard to believe he’s gone. Even now I still can’t wrap my head around it. He loomed so large, so vibrant and alive that it’s hard to fully accept that he’s no longer here. Of course, in many ways he will always be around. As long as we remember him he will be. And there’s the videos. I made so many videos with Johnny. I’m thankful I did that because whenever I miss him I can just look at any one of those videos and I can laugh with him again, and be comforted by his presence again.

Back in 2004, Johnny moved to Davao to work. I had gotten so used to having Johnny around during our regular Komikero meetings that his departure devastated me. I had been moved to create the video below as a tribute to him.

Commenting on that video from faraway Davao, Johnny exclaimed: “I’m not dead yet!”

No Johnny, you will never be.