The theme for this year’s Philippine 24-hour Comic Book Challenge is “Bakit Astig ang Pinoy?”

The Comic Book Challenge has attracted 46 participants ranging from rookies to seasoned veterans. The goal here is to finish 24 pages of comic books in 24 hours. It’s sort of like a marathon though instead of running the participants will be drawing.

And drawing 24 pages in 24 hours is no easy task, believe me.

This marathon is far from over and it’s exciting to see Filipino comic book creators burn lead.

Check out the comics they participants are producing here.

Go Pinoy!

The 1st Philippine 24-Hour Comic Book Challenge happened in Puerto Galera back in 2005 with Jamie Bautista, Jonas Diego, Jac Ting Lim, Rex Espino, and Elbert Or organized by Paul Zialcita and Niña Terol-Zialcita. The pages were later published in a compilation titled Buhay ang Baston: The 1st Philippine 24-Hour Comic Book Challenge.

This year, as a prelude to the upcoming 2010 PICCA Festival, we’re doing another one. So, if you think you have the staying power to create 24 comic pages in 24 hours, join us!

Sign up here.

For more information about the Philippine 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge, click here.

A friend of mine currently is working within the Hollywood movie industry and is soliciting my comic book stories. She plans to shop them around to see if any movie producers are interested in optioning them for TV and movie production.

I suggested that we include works from other creators aside from my own and she was open to the idea.

If you are okay with your comic book works being turned into a TV series or a movie, I encourage you to submit.

In anticipation of numerous submissions, I have prepared a submissions guideline to make the process as easy and as streamlined as possible.

Who among the current crop of presidential aspirants (and the rest of the motley crew running for various public office) actually has a good solid specific plan for the Philippine Comic Book Industry?

Beyond giving comic books in the Philippines an artificial push by requiring comic book versions of communication materials for government and public school consumption; we need leaders who will be sympathetic to our plight as a community and as an industry. We need someone who will stand by us in developing local talent, spurring economic activity for publishers and creators, and finding new markets for our comic books.

The last thing we need is to elect some idiot who don’t give a hoot about Komiks.

Guys, I know most of us would rather not get involved in politics and the dirt that comes along with it but if Komiks is to thrive once again, we have to select a leader who will help us develop our beloved industry.

Take note that I said, “help us”.

The Philippine Comic Book Industry does not need some politician to save it (most of the time they seem to be the problem).

Komiks is composed of passionate, creative, and intelligent individuals who are perfectly capable of dealing with the tasks at hand.

We do need leaders however who will work with us.

Not get in the way.

Don’t be swayed by popular opinion or peer pressure.

Pagaralan natin ng masusi ang mga kandidatong tatakbo, lalo na ang kanilang mga plano at plataporma para sa bayan…at higit sa lahat para sa Komiks.

If we manage to elect a leader that will be working with us to improve our lot as comic book creators, publishers, and a community then we will be truly doing a lot of great things in the next six years.

Let’s start with the guy we’re going to elect as president.

The Festival is an annual event organized by KOMIKERO Publishing and JONASDIEGO, Inc. in cooperation with the KOMIKERO Artist Group. This year will see it happening at the Lion’s Den Clubhouse in San Pablo City, Laguna this coming December 6, 2009, Sunday.

The Second San Pablo Comics Festival is a celebration of Philippine comics where one can buy independently produced Filipino comic books (as well as imported ones) and meet the people who create them!

There will be a comic art exhibit, art contest, writer and artist signings, comic book sales, mini- tutorials, mini seminars, panel discussions and many more!

Check out the following URLs:

Official Website

Official Blog

Official Facebook Page

One confirmed guest is comic strip and rock and roll artist, Manix Abrera (asteeg!).

See you there!

This is the first time that the KOMIKON will be held outside of the UP Bahay ng Alumni, its home for the past few years.

We’ll be launching the 3rd KOMIKERO Komiks Anthology with a new format with a limited run of a hundred copies at the event. After some delay, the BETA version of the KOMIKERO Komiks website is finally up. You can check it out here.

All in all it looks like it’s going to be a fun but busy day for us.

We’ll be holding a digital coloring demo all day long and selling copies of the KOMIKERO Komiks Anthology and some old books.

Come by and say hello if you’re in the area. We’ll be at booth 78.

As some of you may now, the Philippines have recently gone through one of the worst storm it has ever encountered in recent history. We haven’t seen its like in the last four decades. At the height of Typhoon Ondoy (International Name: Ketsana), as much as 25% of Metro Manila was underwater with many Filipinos stranded on their roof tops to escape the rising flood waters.

Adversity however brings out the best of people and this time was no exception.

From within the ranks of ordinary people, heroes stepped forward and did what needed to be done without hope of reward and recognition.

Men and women utilized amazing technology to bring real time information about the storm and its effects and (later) coordinate relief efforts. Nameless individuals put in the time to pack and move a great number of goods to those in dire need. People brought their specializations and their talents to the table and sought to cope and overcome with the tragedy brought about by the Typhoon.

One even made the ultimate sacrifice to save others.

How can I or any of us do any less?

A line from “A Heroes’ Thoughts” by Kevin Smith rang true.

No oath, no pledge, no vow greater than this: to never give up.

As of this writing, many things still need to be done. For those of you with the capacity to do something please do so.

The details on how you can help can be found here.

Gerry Alanguilan, rapscallion extraordinaire, is inviting comic book creators and art appreciators far and wide to attend the once monthly Komikero meeting beside scenic Sampalok Lake in San Pablo City in Laguna and become Komikero members.

The Komikero Group’s only requirement for membership is for the prospective member to attend at least one Komikero meeting in San Pablo City, Laguna.

If you haven’t been to San Pablo City before, Gerry was kind enough to make instructions on how to get there by bus.

Click here to read the instructions.

If you plan on going, drop us an e-mail over at admin (at) jonasdiego.com or at johnny (at) jonasdiego.com and we’ll send you our contact details just in case you get lost or something en route.

Bring art materials, your sketchpads, cameras, and whatever it is you use to make art.

Oh, yeah…bring extra clothes.

A reminder from Gerry himself.

Komikero meetings usually starts at around 11:00 AM and lasts up until 5:00 PM or so.

Feel free to spread the word and re-post this in your blogs.

We’ll see you guys there!

There was a time when we were together almost every weekend.

We would draw, take pictures and videos, and just plain gab incessantly and spend the day away from our respective drawing boards and day jobs.

As we grew older and acquired new responsibilities however we found our free time being eaten away more and more by work.

As such, the only time we’re able to catch up with the old gang is during conventions and events.

And that’s exactly what happened last weekend at the Metro Comic Con.

From left to right: Dexter Entera, Jonas Diego, Mico Suayan, Ryan Toledo, Gerry Alanguilan, Johnny Danganan, Rene Enriquez, Geoff Borgonia, Edgar and Laarni Tadeo.

Pilar Esber, Rod Andres, and Henry Anima also dropped by.

Too bad that we weren’t able to snap a pic with all of us together (but there’s always the next time, I always say).

It was fun catching up while signing copies of the Komikero Komiks Anthology that we were  selling at the Robo Monkey Pixel Fighters booth.

I’ll see you guys again at the next convention!

This comic strip was made from various screenshots from the third installment of The Matrix franchise, The Matrix: Revolutions by the Wachowski Brothers starring Keanu Reeves as Neo and Lawrence Fishburne as Morpheus.

The first movie is still the best in my opinion but that didn’t really stop me from watching the second and third movie in the series on the big screen and again on DVD.

In fact, I still hold Matrix movie marathons every other month or so whenever I have to work late.

I usually leave it playing in the background.

It helps keep me awake and alert for some reason. Really helpful when you’re drawing.

A lot of comic book artists I know frequently play DVDs and leave it on while they work.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!