Rusty Banana Forge

It’s a lonely thing being a comic book artist working from home.

One difficult thing about working at home is that the relationships you build don’t often go outside the home. (Especially if you have a home like ours, you’ll never want to leave (except for DSL.) And even if I’m not spending my time on coloring pages and instead decide to go out, I send myself to meet with just the same people over and over again. Or worse I sit in front of my internet computer at home, and make relations with people I’ll probably never even meet.

Working at home I meet 7 people in a day. Dad, mom, bro, sis, and the 3 househelps. Now, if I were a 9-to-5 employee, I’d be meeting 7 + N more people at work. The problem is quite simple… I don’t meet & greet enough people in a day.

What worries me about going out to meet people is the work that can only be done at home. My home. The challenge is no longer the money (though God knows I still feel like it), it’s keeping new & old relationships alive that seems to have been quite naturally neglected.

Several things got me thinking about this…
1. I saw a book called “Never Eat Alone”… the cover headline alone was a spectacular idea. Plan to buy that book - and it’s a business book.
2. Left and right my friends and relatives are getting married or finding a significant other.
3. The way other people seem to have so much more to talk about.

Golly. I must be getting old and scroogey.

What does the Crash of Culture Crash teach us? 

During its time it was the most widely sold, locally created and
produced comic book digest.   Yet today it is dead - starved for the
funds it needed to keep going.  Another case in point to reinforce that
a comic book cannot live by sales alone. CC’s artists are working on
other better paying opportunities - most of their illustrators, if not
all of them, are likely to be found the employ of Seven Seas
entertainment.

Now that Culture Crash is apparently dead, it raises a few questions. 
One of which is : How can such a briskly selling comic book find no
advertisers?  Corollary to this is : what keeps comics like CAST
(of Nautilus Comics) and comics from Mango Comics from following a
similar fate?

First and foremost, from what I know about Mango Comics, Nautilus
Comics  and Culture Crash, I rationalize that Nautilus & Mango have
access to and know how to deal with influential people.  This is not to
diss James Palabay of Culture Crash - the fact that Mango and Nautilus
have some form of advertising in their books is very telling of the
ability of their proprietors and the material itself to connect with
advertisers.

Secondly is strategic marketing.  Nautilus Comics has had a series of
lectures on comics and has had campus tours as well.  In this way it
has managed to keep its product awareness up and winning some brand
loyalty as well.  It already has Siglo and Cast retailing in the US. 
Mango Comics has taken diversity and distribution very seriously in its
strategy.  Darna, Mwahaha, Lastik Man, Mango JAM, and Moomoo Hunters
were all released perhaps a year & a half of each other shows
clearly that not all of Mango’s fruits are in one basket.  Each comic
has its own launch and comics like Mwahaha and Mango JAM can be seen on
shelves not stocked with either Culture Crash or Cast.  Culture Crash
did a superior job in the art department and was largely marketed by
word of mouth.  They had the best possible chromanga (my term for
colored manga) for everyone to talk about, they had been interviewed by
television, and they even threw the big C3 Con… but I think in the
end it was them being first to ride the anime wave that was both their
success and demise.  Success because the fans love it and ate it up. 
Demise because advertisers may have reasoned that it was for kids,
frivolous and at best a fad.  (Reinforced of course by the fact they
they didn’t come out on time.)

Third, work setup.  Of course the artists who get the comic work done
for Mango, Nautilus, and Culture Crash are freelancers.  But Culture
Crash has a studio where the artists are encouraged to work in.  And
it’s a nice studio too and they put out pretty good stuff from that
studio.  The cost is in travel allowances, food, electricity, and time.

But top factors that brought CC to an end would be the Philippine
economic setting they had to deal with and their own inexperience with
the business of selling comics.  Nautilus and Mango came after CC, and
so they had a free guinea pig if they needed one.

The second question is one I ask for myself : How can I get my own
comic published & distributed and still take in a profit?

I’m presently exploring the answers for that.

Thought I’d try putting some Chinese onto some of my next few works. 
Just to exercise my Chinese as well as quick coloring works.  Attached
is one such work.

3 new illustrations added to my website. Visit www.joelchua.com to see the latest pics.

In keeping with the Hello Garci spirit…

Well… I just called my personal slideshow of photos I took at the Writer’s Forum and calling it Hello Gaiman. 250+kb. It’s an animated gif so wait a littleHello Gaiman! And pardon the quality - I use a sucky camera.

All the political trouble we’ve been experiencing culminated in GMA leaving for Cebu and doing her work there - and Mr. Neil Gaiman coming over to Manila.

I just attended the Writer’s Forum. Saw a lot of familiar faces. But of course, there was Mr. Gaiman. All in all it was a very inspiring and educational talk. Especially interesting for me were the questions about writing.

Gaiman quirks (or putting it nicely, traditions) while writing would be using 2 fountain pains of different colored inks. Rushing into a quiet spot in a cafe to get Anansi Boys done and written.

As for writing tips, he suggested reading stuff that doesn’t jive with what you want to do. If you like fantasy for instance, read stuff that’s completely different. Read as much as you can. Steal from a variety of sources. Keep on writing. It would be nice if you could have a daily page count, but if you can’t, then just write. Another thing he recommends is working as a journalist (which he himself has done.) Helps with the brevity required for comic book speech balloons.

On the matter of choosing what form a particular idea should take, he said that generally comes from experience (”Sometimes you just know”). Whether an idea is right for a short story or a poem or a novel or a comic book - you can generally tell after writing a bit of your idea in the form of choice. If it doesn’t work due to pacing issues then switch to another form.

As for working with local artists, it was “possible”. But I got the impression it wasn’t likely - even when Neil himself was a big fan of artists Redondo, Niño, and Alcala to name a few. He had to split himself into two do it.

Major obstacle in writing according to him would just calling yourself a writer and just not writing. Aside from that nothing appears greater.

Took several pictures. Stayed behind to watch Elbert get interviewed by INQUIRER or some other media outfit. Met Yvette Tan and Yonina Chan - been a while seen I’ve seen them. Met up with Budjette, Tobie, Zach, Jac & Jonas. Even saw Patrick of Red Pumpkin Studios and Butch of OMF. Gerry Alanguilan, Dean Alfar, Charles Tan, Vin Simbulan, Andrew Drilon. Inkies Panch, Brian, Eric, and Herb. If I missed anyone it’s because I’m poor connecting names with faces. Oh and Carlo Hubilla (with someone from the League of Graphic Artists, I met her at FAME but I forgot her name), brother of Franco - taga landscape arki. Plus Meann and Meow fellow Anime@Arki viewers!

I’m quite glad I was invited and hope the British Council can help the comic scene in the Philippines (and vice-versa) further in other ways. Some photos to follow…. though I’m betting Azrael’s Merryland would have better shots.

Show Me the Money is a talk about real prosperity.
The 1st session is already done but there are 3 Thursdays left
7:30pm to 9:00pm at Robinson’s Galleria Victory Center.

If you don’t care about your finances… err… but do care about having money - check it out. Let me know if you’re going. I am.

It’s a good first step.

7:00PM I got a call and a fax saying that I’ve been chosen as Best Young Comic Book Designer (National Awards)…

It’s true. Check this link

Isn’t that odd? I mean… Well for one thing Mr. Alanguilan, Mr. Arre, Mr. Vergara, Mr. Dimaano, Mr. Tadeo, Mr. Diego, and the gentlemen at Culture Crush aren’t all that old, right? They’ve certainly got more comics out there than I do.

And think about all those artists in their early 20s who’ve come out with their own indie comics… surely they’ve gotten more material out than I have. A few of them are pretty good too.

So now I’m wondering how Consumer Today, the National Product Quality Excellence Awards, and the National Council for Product & Service Quality heard about me. Did they see my Digital Coloring Workshop ad? Did they read Vin’s Clockwork Kingdom in Cherry Blossom or did they read Jamie’s Worth the Wait in Cast? Or did Blitzworx turn over my work to them? Did they get a preview to my upcoming Suite Dream? Or did I just magically make many friends sitting hunched in front of my computer - painting?

Oho. But that’s not all! In a following fax the Consumer Today Magazine provides a fair deal of marketing mileage promises. Public recognition. Published in Inquirer and Consumer Today. Published in www.productexcellence.com - (which is in German/English and obviously hasn’t been registered properly to Consumer Today - that’s saying it nicely). All that only I remit Php15,000 to them.

So I figured — It’s likely a scam. It fed off my ego. They may have sent you or your business friends one too, so be vigilant!