I feel tired today.
A couple of events yesterday plus the rigors of daily commute, I think, have finally taken their toll on me. This morning, we also had to wake up extra earlier than usual because we had to move out of my folks' home in Laguna where we've been temporarily holing up for the past week (Ikai has been there since the Holy Week break!).
And it'll also be a busy weekend well unto next week. I hope I'll be able to catch up on rest. Don't get me wrong, I've been solidly sleeping recently but I guess there are just extra more stuff to do these past few days that I've been running myself out of breath. Good if it was helping me lose weight but it isn't. It's extra stress that's disguised as fatigue and it's conning me into eating more than usual. Woe will be my next check-up which is due next week.
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Since I haven't been frequenting my usual online haunts the past few weeks, it is only today that I learned that one local comic book I've been looking out for has finally seen print -- The Filipino Heroes League -- by adman Paolo Fabregas. Apparently, the comic was released during the Summer Komikon last April 16 and I'm sure that I read about it somewhere (probably in Gerry's blog or in the Komikon site) but those were toxic days in the Desk (still is) so I promptly forgot all about it (along with other possible indie releases).
So, after lunch with my wife at that famous chicken place not named Mang Inasal, we trooped to the nearby National Bookstore outlet where as mentioned by FHL comic-creator Fabregas one can find the comic book. It's actually a graphic novel and its Book 1, meaning to say, it'll be bitin (as evidenced by a quick scan of the end pages) and that Book 2 is forthcoming.
Looking forward to reading this uniquely-premised superhero comic book. As prefaced by FHL editor Budjette Tan, Filipino superhero teams are difficult to assemble. How do you situate a superhero team in a third world country like the Philippines? Paolo took the challenge of this idea willingly and the result is a Filipino superhero team that sorely lacks funding, functions out of a dilapidated hut, has faulty transpo, and caught up in the graft and corruption of the Philippine political system. In the world of the FHL, there are other Filipinos bestowed with mighty powers but they've chosen to leave their motherland and harness their skills as overseas Filipino heroes.
Quite a mouthful for sure to digest, right? Let's see if Paolo succeeds in eliciting a favorable response from yours truly.
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Aside from Filipino Heroes League, there have been several interesting local comic books that have been emerging. Unfortunately, when they emerge (during the Komikons mostly), they coincide with times when my pockets are lean. Sure, I've gotten Gerry Alanguilan's Elmer and his (along with the late Arlan Esmeña illustrating) Where Boldstars Go to Die, Arnold Arre's Martial Law Babies, and even that Summit comics antho. But I missed out on a lot of others like the other works of Arre -- Andong Agimat, foremost in mind, and Tan's Trese series. I also lucked out on Ian Sta. Maria's SkyWorld (saw it in the Komikon last year but didn't have moolah left) as well as on the Ian Monsanto-led Bayan Knights (which to my understanding has undergone a metamorphosis).
When's the next upcoming local comics event?
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On the subject of local superhero teams, one of my personal projects is to once again write and draw a comic book.
The last personal comic-book I created was still way back in high school with my LSH-like team called the Legion of Future Heroes which closely followed the exploits of a futuristic group of young heroes in their quest to keep peace and order in the universe. In all, I created three issues of LFH, two of them created during my late-grade school years and the last during the summer of my second year in high school. The two earlier issues were quarter-sized (each page was as big as a 1/4 bond paper) mainly because I didn't have much resources at that time. But the last one was bond-paper sized and was, I think, my best drawn comic complete with shading.
The LFH third issue was the last comic I've created and then life stepped in.
I recall having uploaded some sketches before that included cartoonized versions of some of the LFH members. Will be good if I could scan the last LFH comic I made. It's still around somewhere.
Aside from LFH, I also created several other comics including a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired adventure, a comic set during the VietNam war, a Star Wars-inspired story that heavily drew from the first Star Wars film, a comics about a vigilante superhero taking down a supervillain team, and others which I now have forgotten. The anime bug also hit me and I was working on a Robotech-quish before I shelved it because I was really not into anime-styled drawing.
One of these days, I wish I can once again embark on comics creation. Some of the story ideas I come up with are better off appearing on the media than in words and I've still got lots of stories to tell of the superheroes I've created in my youth. In fact, the last LFH ended on a cliffhanger and I've never gotten around to completing it.
Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully. Maybe online is the ticket.
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On a related note, my web-comic that was supposed to start last year hasn't flown yet. Sorry about that. A lot of my projects continue to be grounded, sad to say.
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Caught the movie Thor last week. And while it wasn't as grandiose or as action-packed as I expected, it was fun. Looking forward to Captain America: The First Avenger whose preview promises to be more hardhitting.
