RED RIDING HOOD HAS A NAME

Since there's no important turn of events to talk about recently other than the Kris Aquino-James Yap "Flopped Teleserye," I decided to post another Twisted Fairy Tale that I wrote for BLACK INK SHORT CUTS: Fairy Tails.  

THE WOLF IN THE WOODS features the pages of a veteran illustrator Eleazar Alipis, one of our original artists in Dark Pages several years ago. In this version, Red Riding Hood's real name was revealed (oh boy, that's something new)...and I'm sure it sounded familiar (if you've seen that movie). Haha! 

Anyway, here are some pages to awaken the curious cat sleeping under your bed.

Uuhh...digital image enhancements and lettering done by me, by the way.  Still struggling but enjoying to explore new techniques. I need more coffee...

THE BLANK PAGE MONSTER

Would you agree when I say facing that virgin white surface inside the monitor is one of the hardest parts in writing a script? I know a handful of writers who suffer from the same problem. It's like pumping a water well in the middle of a desert, or like being constipated as meteors fall from the sky.

I don't know what other writers do to overcome this terror. But me...when my creative juices won't squirt out of my head, I do the following activities so I can start caressing the computer and pollute that white shit...er...sheet of "paper" (staring at me) with words that could create different dimensions:

1.) I walk back and forth inside the house without any direction. I check the refrigerator and gobble some left overs. I stare outside the window and observe our neighbors busy discussing the latest update about Maia and Sir Chief. I drown myself with liters and liters of cold water. 

2.) I read my previous works (including the oldest ones) and reminisce how I felt having bad hair days when I wrote them, I recall how many of my neighbors' windows I broke, how many computer keyboards I shattered, and how many bottles of "Hinyebra" I tossed upside down.

3.) I listen to non-stop sentimental music until my tears fall like fire and made me cry like a pig being castrated...makes me feel the urge to bang my head on the wall 1000 times.

4.) I watch some parts of my favorite TV Series over and over again while imagining I am the lucky guy inside the screen. Hehe.

5.) I talk to myself, "Should I start writing now? Playing NBA has ignited my adrenaline." Then I answer myself, "No! One more game! Kobe did not score that much! He needs to improve his stats to win the MVP race!"

6.) I read my old Facebook posts and laugh like a clown every time I notice some grammatical errors and nonsense blah-blahs. 

7.) I surf the net to find any interesting subject that might ignite the passion inside me. Just need to be careful with those nasty pages that keep on popping from nowhere (you know what I mean, boys).

8.) I sing in the bathroom on top of my lungs (ugh...my never ending epic favorite song "Wherever You Will Go") to distract lizards and insects. Nah...to distract myself and loosen some rusty psychological dramas.

9.) I go to bed and sleep. There are many times that I figured out how to start/end my story while being chased by Freddy Kreugger. Creepy!

10.) Finally, I go back in front of the computer and shut it down. Maybe I should write tomorrow. I need to stretch my legs and take a walk, shower myself with sunrise, observe the moon, meet some friends, find some enemies.

Writing is not just about tapping abc's and killing/torturing people we (writers) hate in our stories or creating our imaginary world...it is about finding connections with real people around us and getting in touch with nature that binds us to the real world. 

BLACK INK'S SHORT CUTS

When our publisher thought of publishing short stories aside from our regular series and novels for BLACK INK COMICS, we came up with the title SHORT CUTS. This imprint has 3 versions; the regular fantasy-horror genre, the twisted fairy tales, and the Manga. It is also consisted of 3 twenty pages short stories in English or Tagalog per book.

I'd just like to share some of the pages of the very first short story I made for Short Cuts. I thought of writing an environmental theme since my personal advocacy is to promote awareness on Global Warming and Climate Change (I worked on a project regarding this matter few years back). This also marked my reunion with artist ROLANDO ENRIQUEZ. Rol was my illustrator for WOLFGANG, my first mainstream novel serialized in ALIWAN KOMIKS during the (almost forgotten) "glorious days" of Philippine Comics.

CHLOROPHYLL will be featured in the next wave of Short Cuts to be released probably next month (April 2013). And by the way, I did the digital enhancements and the texts for this material. Just a product of my curiosity on how Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator work (hehehe). Again--I have proven--lahat ng gusto nating matutunan, maabot at marating ay puwedeng makuha sa tiyaga.

THE RED JOURNAL

After an overwhelming positive feedback from readers regarding BLACK INK COMICS, I was inspired to continue working with my 3rd graphic novel entitled THE RED JOURNAL. This project is long overdue because of some revisions that I wasn't able to find time to work with. However, after watching some episodes of CSI and CRIMINAL MINDS, my interest in the concept was reawakened and inspired me to "push the magic pen" and let the world of the heroin Naya Rivero go round...once again.

THE RED JOURNAL follows the story of a young lady with a troubled past who works as an NBI Profiler. She keeps a journal that she calls "Mister J" and it serves as her best friend. Naya shares all her secrets only with "Mister J". Secrets that will be revealed dramatically with a touch of adrenaline rush. A graphic novel about PASSION, ROMANCE, DANGER, MYSTERY and ADVENTURE.

Below are some teaser pages done by a talented veteran comics illustrator ARNEL CORONEL, feast your eyes and get excited. THE RED JOURNAL will be coming your way soon, only from BLACK INK COMICS!

PINOY COMICS INVASION

After almost 4 years, I finally decided to update this blog. A lot of things happened in the past. Got busy with some projects; may mga natuloy, may mga nabitin. I even joined the BPO industry for a couple of years. I had a chance to work as a call center agent for a Facebook game (FarmVille) and as an email and chat support for eBay. It was such a very rewarding experience. I gained more knowledge and self respect, met new friends, acquired deeper understanding with the environment I never thought I could cope up with.

Anyway, wanna know the reason why I'm saving this blog site from extinction? The answer is simple and precise. KOMIKS! Yes, that's right...for the love of COMICS. I thought I would never have a chance again to do what I love the most...writing comics scripts. My passion. My cup of tea. My Adamantium. My Kryptonite.

In the early days of 2012, we started to hold a series of meetings in Quezon City. We meet the "Mastermind" every Tuesdays or Wednesdays to brew some "coffee" and bake some "cookies". We started out as six (6) enthusiastic and excited individuals, full of hopes and dreams, crossing our fingers while praying for success. Finally, after almost a year of consistent meaningful blabbering, brain pickings, gobbling pansit and mamon and pizza and bottomless bottles of beer...the fruit of our passion has been served. 

This year 2013, BLACK INK COMICS came to life...ready to entice the appetite of the new generation of Filipino comics enthusiasts (both young and young at hearts).

The date was October 27, 2012. The venue: Bayanihan Center in Pasig City. The event: KOMIKON 2012. The exciting news: the launching of a handful of titles from Black Ink Comics such as HANDS OF THE DRAGON (Jeffrey Marcelino Ong/Gilbert Monsanto), ANIMEN (Ron Mendoza/Randy Valiente), MY MIDNIGHT (Ron Mendoza/Randy Valiente), PEPE (Ron Mendoza/Arnold Renia Cruz) and VERGIL (Arman Francisco/Elmer Cantada).

It was truly the start of something big, I can say. Since then, our group continuously received positive comments and feedback from those who already got some copies of our comics. It inspired us to keep on digging for more concepts and ideas that we can serve to all the comics lovers throughout the country. We're also thankful to our publisher (Segundo Matias Jr.) for his undying passion and enthusiasm for this project, for the trust and belief that he gave us (writers and artists) to make this project come into reality.

January 13, 2013 is also a significant date, 13 Black Ink Comics titles were officially launched and became available at all Precious Pages stores and National Bookstore branches nationwide. Aside from the above mentioned titles, THE REAPER (Nald Tabuzo/Vovoi Lim) has been included to the list of available graphic novels. Also, 4 SHORT CUTS imprints (3 in 1 anthology) has been added.

Just recently, more graphic novels were introduced at the 1st PINOYKON held at Paseo De Magallanes in Makati City. Coincidentally, I wrote those 2 new releases. HANDS OF THE DRAGON (Book 2) and KALASAG (Superhero ng Masang Pilipino) became available exclusively on that day. Those titles will be released officially this March 2013 together with other comic books like MANILA VICE (Rosahlee Bautista/Almar Denso), FAIRIES' WHEEL (Randy Valiente/Jon Ashley Santos), DAUGHTERS OF AN ANCIENT FAIRY (Rosahlee Bautista/ Arnold Renia Cruz), ANGELS VERSUS DEVILS (Arman Francisco/Tirso Llaneta) and HEART SISTERS (Nald Tabuzo/Ric Isiderio).

With these exciting turn of events for MAINSTREAM Filipino Comics, I can say without any doubt...good things are yet to come! We, the creators of Black Ink Comics are more than happy and privileged for being a part of this remarkable development in the history of Philippine Comics. Suportahan po natin ang gawang PINOY!

                                                     BLACK INK COMICS