"Global frequency-ish but locally relevant"

This review made my day! Thanks Benedict Bartolome for the honest-creatively done- review.

Descriptive phrase of the day: "Global frequency-ish but locally relevant."

About the balloons. Yeah, we really need to work on the balloons. It really feels good when a reader gets it. :)

____________________________

By the way, Segovia Solutions will be available tomorrow at Table 10 (near the stage/facing Summit Media's table) at Indieket. This will be held at the Bayanihan Center, Pioneer St, Pasig City ( a tricycle ride from Robinsons Pioneer in Edsa). See you there!

Jerald Uy

Rappler: Summer Komikon 2012

My feature on Summer Komikon 2012 is now up. Thanks to Tepai Pascual, Tina de Zuniga, Dingdong Dantes, Benjo Ferrer, Mark Millar, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, John Zamar and Carlo San Juan for the interviews.

(Trivia: I was not given a media i.d. in the event and I also experienced being blocked by the Bayanihan Center guard from interviewing Dingdong Dantes. All the things that could tick off a writer. That's perhaps the downside of being a freelance journalist. Nevertheless, I managed to write a complete story about it. Comics FTW!)

http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/7380-the-stars-fell-on-summer-komikon

Jerald Uy

Review: Heart of the Black Matrix (Bayan Knights)

Heart of the Black Matrix

Script: Don Celedina and Mark Wong

Story: Gilbert Monsanto

Art: Erwin Ropa

If you love action heroes but apprehensive of picking up a Bayan Knights comic because of its multitudinous cast, trust me when I tell you to have an open mind and read the character-driven “Heart of the Black Matrix.”

SPOILER ALERT

The story is about five mostly street-level Bayan Knights sent to rescue a half-breed Aswang child being grafted with the so-called “Black Matrix.” But while a couple of characters were just following orders or hangers on, other characters Kawal, Mao and Zheya had their personal reasons in joining the mission.

I generally enjoyed it because the writers balanced characterization and action in the story. The scribes know that to write an effective superhero story, they have to make readers care about the characters first before throwing them in a fight.

By looking at the art, you would know that the artist enjoyed drawing action-packed scenes. My only complaint was the panel showing Overdrive getting nun-chucks. Were these weapons teleported to him? It was not clear how he received his weapons.

I am intrigued by Kawal, a character who can morph his arms into various weapons, not because of his power set but his quest to find his true identity. Did he lose his memories or is he an artificial man with blank slate? I believe the issue primarily advanced Kawal's story and made this reader hugely interested.

I hoped there was a hint why Mao, a doctor wielding a half-shear from another dimension was valuable to the mission. He was not really effective in the fight itself that I began to question why the team's enigmatic deployer Council, I suspect, had to kill Mao's lady friend to mislead him in joining the mission. Sure, Council may have been shown to have the power to resurrect the dead, which I assume, he did to Overdrive, but I think inflicting the pain of being stabbed with a bamboo stick or a metal rod, especially to a woman, is inhuman for someone who was supposed to be on the side of angels.

I also did not understand why Mao had to be plucked from his home dimension to join Bayan Knights. Are there not enough heroes who can match whatever power set or medical skills Mao has? I suspect Mao was created as an extradimensional character because his own continuity does not fit in the BK universe. Creators have to show in the upcoming issues how essential he is to justify why Council had to practically drag him to the mission and to their universe.

But I must admit, this is great way to advance the character of Council as a manipulative “fan” of BK. I just hope to read a story where Council pays for his actions.

I wished I was the guy who created Talim. He's awesome! I dig the character design and can only dream to borrow Talim to have him team-up with my character Muckraker in Segovia Solutions. But what he showed off in combat, he lacked in character development. But hey, we can't give everyone the spotlight.

I was not exactly a fan of the elven-dreamwalker Zheya being included in the team but the dream-walk sequence was fantastic. Zheya though is the most likely candidate to expose Council's machinations, if there are.

Overdrive was cool but I hope his death and resurrection would somehow have an effect on his character in the upcoming issues and other titles. I suggest to have the character deal with his mortality and “second chance” in life. This reminds me of Impulse maturing and becoming Kid Flash after being shot on the knee by Deathstroke.

All in all, it was good team book. I congratulate the people behind the “X-Force” of Bayan Knights. Sure, I may have raised some points for improvement (Blame Overdrive creator Mark Rosario; he asked me to make a review.) but I have re-read the book five times so far. I guess it is an understatement to say that I enjoyed it. I slept beside the book with a smile on my face on the night of Summer Komikon.

Jerald Uy

Being Spidey on a Stellar Comics Day

Thanks to National Book Store for bringing Mark Millar
to the Philippines!

I now understand how Spider-man feels being on several teams. (These are two teams of Avengers and Future Foundation, for those living under a rock.)

I was all set last Saturday to sell our self-published comic Segovia Solutions on our humble spot at Summer Komikon's Indie Tiangge in Mandaluyong City. But then I got a message from my editor at Rappler.com at 5 in the morning that she had arranged an interview with visiting Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar at 11:30 a.m.

For a week, I had been trying to reach the people of National Bookstore to ask if Millar would be giving a talk that would be open to the public and other media organizations that were not their media partners. I admit, I got a little bit frustrated that I did not get any reply through their social media platforms and corporate e-mail.

Mark Millar and the Flipgeeks.
Photo by Flipgeeks.com

I can actually meet Millar if I would tag along with the other writers of Flipgeeks.com where I also contribute articles about comics. But I understood that Flipgeeks wanted the interview to be exclusive to the site. The interview with Millar was indeed a milestone for the fledgling "Newsarama and CBR of the Philippines," as FG co-founder Earl Maghirang said.

Out of respect, I had to either sit this one out or join the other Flipgeeks as a Flipgeek.This, until I learned that I can actually meet and have a one-on-one interview with Millar.

With not much sleep, I set up our table in Bayanihan Center while formulating questions for Millar in my head. The setback though, my artist Jether just woke up at 9 am because he was up all night taking care of his sick son. I got increasingly worried that I might not make it on time because when Komikon opened, Jet had not yet arrived to man the table. Thanks to Khalil Baet of Pulang Punla Studios, he looked after my table as I met Jet lining up at the entrance in a buzzer beater moment at 11 am.

Jether's here!

A tricycle and an MRT ride after, I arrived at National Bookstore in Glorietta 5 at 11:20 am. The Flipgeeks gang was taping their interview with Millar. The interviews did not start on time. Good news for me because I needed to catch my breath and drink a glass of water, which NBS's Chad gladly helped me with.

When my turn came around 12:40 pm, Mark Millar was game in giving a video message to visitors of Rappler about the importance of reading. I then mostly asked questions on how he compartmentalizes his life as a practicing Catholic and a writer of mostly irreverent stories. I am not giving away everything because you need to read my article at Rappler.com when it comes out.

Funny thing happened. While I was interviewing Millar, my phone's recorder stopped due to a text message sent by Jether. He said HeroTV interviewed him and asked for a copy of our comic. The journalist-side of me was a bit irked for interrupting the interview but the my comic creator-side was so ecstatic about it.

After the interview, I felt exhausted travelling back to Bayanihan Center. There's that moment that I was oblivious of what's happening in the event that I later realized that Vampirella artist Hubert Khan Michael just talked to me.

To bring back my old jolly self, I joined a "Bring Me" contest when the host asked to bring a copy of a signed Supercrooks #1. I approached the stage and handed my comic but the host opted not to mention that my comic was signed by Mark Millar, and not of the other creators present in the venue. She could only say, "Wow," perhaps apparently because Millar was a surprise guest.

I also interviewed actor Dingdong Dantes for less than a minute. I find it funny though that when I was talking to him, the fans kept enough distance until actress Lovi Poe arrived, commotion ensued and this was the only decent photo of Dantes holding the comic based from his movie that I was able to take.

Dingdong Dantes. Camera's over here.

Back at selling comics, a number of people were looking for the second issue. Unfortunately, Tin Manasan, my Singapore-based artist was not able to finish the comic in time. We also met a store manager from Ilocos Norte asking us if we could consign our books to the store. Jet was also visited by his fan, a girl who said was "blown away" by his art.

" Thanks! Sir Jerry!! Just read my copy! Galing! It's refreshing to read a manga which is based on reality and tackles a relevant issue. We need a muckracker nowadays, he's awesome XD"- Kirej Javier, InkJinks 

"Thanks Jerry! :D Ang ganda ng intro mo sa issue 1.
Yung nanay at yung tatay. 8D"-Tepai Pascual, Meganon Comics 

(Bayan Knights' DCel also reviewed our first issue here: http://jtmtzrwj.tumblr.com/post/24058431848/segovia-solutions)

I met Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Go and also talked to Mrs. Tina de Zuniga, Tony de Zuniga's widow. I will not go into details but please watch out for my two articles about Mark Millar and Summer Komikon at Rappler.com.

Yu and Uy

The day was truly both eventful and fulfilling as a comics fan, a writer and an aspiring comic book scribe. If only I have the healing factor of Wolverine though, beyond Spidey's sense of responsibility, I'd wish this to happen everyday.

Jerry and Sir Gerry!

Jerald Uy