Bubog in the Inquirer

There are times you realize you have finally crossed the Rubicon. Although I have been busy with a thousand little things for the past few months, I am quite certain one thing will happen: BUBOG: The Horror Anthology WILL be published.

Even Mr. Gilbert Monsanto announced it to the world---to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, in fact. Although I wasn't able to secure a copy because it was shown on the same day the test results for the nurses' exam were released, and thus, the copies of the broadsheets sold out pretty quickly. But take a look at the last part where he mentioned our comix. Hmm, now I got to move my lazy ass to make that a reality.

Make way for the Bayan Knights!

By Ruel S. De Vera
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last updated 19:22:00 02/20/2009

LIKE any epic tale, this story begins with a secret—a secret stash, that is.

When Gilbert Monsanto was young, his older brother George kept those prismatic treasures—comic books—hidden away.

“Which is actually a good thing because it made me more curious about comics,” Monsanto explains. George taught him how to draw, giving Monsanto a piece of advice he never forgot: “Drawing is about dots and spaces.”

Those dots and spaces came into play early as Monsanto actually got his work published in second year high school, a superhero tale he created with George called “Midgard” for the weekly title For Children Only. “But after just two outings, I decided to stop since I was still just too young, at 16, to seriously think about work,” he says.

In time, Monsanto would work in komiks like Super Fantasy Komiks, lend his art to covers for Psicom’s Philippine Ghost Stories and oversee the art chores for Mango Comics’ Darna revival.

He also worked behind the scenes for foreign comic titles. He self-published titles such as “Exodus: Revelations” and, recently, rolled out his most ambitious project yet through his Sacred Mountain Publications.

Monsanto, 36, has been toying with the title “Bayan Knights” for a while. Coming home from San Diego Comicon last year, Monsanto was on Deviantart.com when he noticed that someone wanted to create a Filipino superhero database.

Reading the entries, he realized this was what he was seeking.

“I actually said to myself, only if there’s a publisher who would have faith in these characters and give these creators a chance to get their stories out there.”

He invited the creators to join him and formed a team of Pinoy superheroes called the Bayan Knights, the focal point of a comic book series that took three months to construct.

Quarterly

Its second issue out soon, “Bayan Knights” is a quarterly series at P60 an issue, about a group led by Monsanto’s own creation, the former cop Sarhento Sagrado who has lost all his brave men.

“He realized he can’t trust anyone at this point, not even the government,” Monsanto explains. “His last hope is to seek aid from a different kind of hero—superheroes.”

Enter the Bayan Knights. “I placed them all in a single scenario or threat that anyone of them can relate to—their extinction. Their purpose in life, to be heroes, is suddenly being challenged. As Bayan Knights, they might stand a chance to get through this alive.”

From Manila Man and Luzviminda to Maskarado and Boy Ipis, it is clear these are Filipino heroes in a team unlike any other.

“It is all about character,” says Monsanto. “Anyone of us can don a superman costume or wear imported clothing, but when we speak, we are Pinoy to the core.”

The jokes and the dialogue—a mixture of English and Filipino—are authentically Pinoy as well. There are the ingenious, myth-based concepts of the Barong Tagalog as armor, the cockroach as terror bug, even a flying banana leaf. “If you look closely, you’ll find yourself in each of these characters, diverse and full of color.”

Flagship

“Bayan Knights” is the flagship in the expansion of the Sacred Mountain line, including the horror anthology Bubog and perhaps even individual Bayan Knights titles. But for Monsanto, it is the first strike in his own knight’s quest, where he seeks to empower a new pantheon of young Filipino creative powers.

“They (the respective creators) get to keep the rights to their original characters and create their own titles without hindrances,” he says. “I hope by giving them the right help, they’ll turn into the next generation of comics makers who will usher new readers into the future of comics entertainment in our country.”


“Bayan Knights” is available at National Book Store, Comic Odyssey and Comic Quest. For more information, visit http://bayanknights.blogspot.com.

here's the link to the article

SHIVER, the Horror Comix Anthology that was

Sa simula ng taong 2009 ay maililimbag na rin ang comix na BUBOG, isang kalipunan ng mga kwentong horror na isinulat ko at dinibuho ng ilan sa pinaka-magagaling na comix artist sa Pilipinas tulad nina Noel Flores, Lan Medina, Rey Villegas at, sige na nga...ng aking kapatid na si Mannie Abeleda. Sa apat na kwento sa BUBOG, dalawa rito ay hango sa kwento na nauna nang nailimbag bilang ashcan comix noong 1999, ang SHIVER. (Huwag na ninyong subukang humanap ng kopya dahil iilan lang ang ginawa namin noon.)

Tulad noon, nais ko pa ring lumikha ng mahusay comix pero 'di tulad dati, ayaw ko nang gumamit ng salitang Ingles para sa pag-uusap ng mga karakter ko na mga Pilipino at pawang mga nasa Pilipinas.

Binasa kong muli ang editoryal ko, at bagama't niluma na ng panahon ang ilang detalye dito, sa kabuuan ay nasasaloob pa rin nito ang layunin ko para sa proyekto kong comix.

(Ang dibuho sa itaas ay buhat sa kwentong "A Frightful Dream" ni Noel Flores, isang propesor sa sining at punong tagapag-disenyo rin ng GMA Channel 7 sa mga palabas nitong fantaserye tulad ng Mulawin, Atlantika at Encantadia.)

Narito ang editoryal:

May you live in interesting times.

In trying to put together this horror anthology/comix, the first question I asked myself was: “what scares you?”.

The answer, frighteningly enough, was: “not much”. A product of the Television-Motion Picture-Video Game Age, I assumed I have seen, one way or another, all imaginable types of human evil and depravity – all imaginable horrors – that nothing could scare me anymore. I had been “desensitized”: repeated exposures to violent shows had made me inured and apathetic to most forms of violence and horrific circumstance.

So I thought. Then I remembered something I saw on the six o’clock news: a man has beaten his wife to death.

In the ensuing investigation, it turns out that the victim is also the man’s sister. The man ran away from home as a child and returned decades later. He met a sister who wasn’t even born when he went away; one thing led to another and he got her pregnant. They lived as man and wife (while beating her from time to time) until that fatal day when he killed her.

Even the children – one of whom suffers from a birth defect – were not spared by the man’s cruel hands. And when the reporter pressed the eldest son for comment on the possible fate of his father, he indignantly remarks that he wants him to be put to the death penalty.

As the camera moves in for a close-up shot, the child adds, unflinching and unremorseful, that at that moment, if he were a grown-up and had a gun, he would shoot his own father!

Those bitter words left me horror-stricken; and at the same time, furious. I was furious at the wife-beater turned killer. I was also angry at the tv station for blatantly re-formatting their newscast to make it more “entertaining” – complete with dramatic re-enactments of events and a flurry of insensitive personal questions thrown by reporters at the victims in their crass attempt to provoke an emotional outburst for the waiting camera. And finally, I was aghast that such a despicable inhuman incident was experienced by a child.

“May you live in interesting times,” a Chinese saying goes: both a curse and a blessing. Allow me to put my own twist on it and say: “May the interesting times you live in disturb you.”

I guess that sums up to me what SHIVER is about.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fortunately for you, dear readers, what SHIVER is to me won’t be what SHIVER will always be.

I was lucky enough to hook up with a lot of talented folks (thanks in part to Gilbert Monsanto) willing to contribute their own sequential stories in this book. (I’m keeping the names under wraps until I get the finished work, OK?)

And eventually I hope (yes, a big hope) that SHIVER could be a venue for good sequential storytelling whether they be of horror, fantasy or science fiction – though I draw the line at superhero fantasy (if you want superhero yarns then you can get them from Alamat and other local comic publishers.)

Succeeding issues of SHIVER will contain reviews of current and classic comics. A preview of upcoming projects(including one with Roy Martinez!). And more of these rambling comments and mindless drivel from yours truly (ulp!). But don’t let THAT scare you.

SHIVER should be one heck of a ride--- OK, hell!

- Arnel Abeleda