But what is a poor soul like me to do when insomnia attacks? I can already hear the roosters cackling and the only consolation for me at this wee hour is that it's raining and that means when I finally hit the sack a little (hopefully) later, I'll be sleeping soundly. Plus, the advent of rain at this hour also alleviates a bit the worry I've been having about Metro Manila not having enough water supply. I just hope that this rainy weather reaches Angat Dam, the main reservoir where Metro Manilans get their water supply.
But enough of talks of rain and water.
It's been an interesting first half of the month. And while has started to pile up, I find myself picking up an old habit -- comics. It's been ages since I've bought a DC comic and I just did recently -- purchasing the collected editions of Identity Crisis and Kingdom Come. Yes, I know, Identity happened somewhere in 2005 while KC happened before the millennium hit. But unfortunately, I was not into comics during those years. I guess you can brand me a late-bloomer and now have to play catch-up with what's happening in DCU (DC Universe ... sorry, am not much of a Marvel fan although my introduction to US superhero comics was Spiderman and Captain America, it's just that I find DC characters more interesting).
The latest in DCU is this Blackest Night event which I've heard of from the likes of comics-aficionado Joel Conato last year. I wasn't into still into comics when I bumped into him at Glorietta late last year -- I recently come from the voter's registration, and he coming from the Planet X which was celebrating and where he just purchased the latest comics issues relating to Blackest Night. By summer this year, Brightest Day will happen ... but I don't think my finances will allow me to splurge about P200 per issue. I'll be waiting for the softcover collected editions (TPBs) instead and probably purchase them next year when they will be priced much, much lower.
If I do get some dough to buy updated comics, I'll most likely be buying Flash comics which promises to be special with the return of Barry Allen to the red suit. Plus, Grant Morrison's storyline of Batman trying to get to the present tense by traversing time periods is equally promising (hopefully not a dud).
For now, I'll be availing of older cataclysmic events in DCU (and let's see, maybe a few Marvel event -- especially intrigued with their Civil War event and on a more elderly tone, the events that transpired with the mutant persecution in the X-Men titles). I've already made a list of TPBs I'll be buying and collecting such as Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis, plus I've always been curious about the Janus Directive storyline in Checkmate. There are also a lot of interesting arcs over at Green Lantern such as the Sinestro Corps War and the Green Arrow titles seem interesting.
A quick trip over to Fully Booked in Rockwell got me in the know that they have a much broader line of graphic novels and collected editions there than in Bibliarch or their Greenbelt branch. I guess, their Bonifacio High Street branch will yield even more. I've yet to purchase something from Planet X but for sure I'll be trooping there more frequently in the coming months.
I'm also in the mood (right now) to try and get back into drawing. The ulti-aim is to hopefully draw a comic again -- an outright paper comic or something on the web. But need to start practicing again and that means buying a sketch pad. Trying to get back into drawing is also another reason to troop to Planet X (or other comic shop) to buy comics drawn by artists whose artworks are just fantastic. In the early 90s, the works of Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio and Todd McFarlane blew me away. Nowadays, comic art drawn by Ethan Van Sciver, Phil Jimenez, and several younger artists look awesome. Certainly, inspiration for me to pick up the pencil and start drawing again.
Ah, more on comics in upcoming posts :)
