Rusty Banana Forge

This year’s Komikon trumps all others that have come before it. The place was packed with creators, headhunters, and sponsors. Awesome.

I only bought Batch 72 and the Creative Sparks mag. That was my budget. 200. If only my recent hitch at FEDEX didn’t deplete my cash reserves… I would have bought more.

I got to read a book on Alfredo Alcala’s “secret” techniques over at the Komikero booth.
Got a copy of Tabloid Komiks from Reno Maniquis.

Saw Leinil Yu ink his own work and heard him talk about his thoughts on comics and creating them. It was a treat.

Met Nathan from Storyboardsonline.com. A company over there in the States that does and fields out advertising work. Pretty risky to be scouting for talent and an office over here in the Philippines. But they took it and I hope it was worth it for them.

The Wacom people brought over a Cintiq tablet!! I painted something on it. A strain on the arm, but it does make things much simpler. But for 60,000Php? It ain’t for the middle class.

Learned a little about Visprint from David Hontiveros. Visprint makes it their mission to encourage Pinoys who don’t read, to read. David had 3 titles out, and I so much wanted to buy at least one… if not for the tithing I have to do on Sundays.

The indie groups were there in force. With so many comics to choose from, it was just overwhelming. Obviously didn’t buy anything… you know how many indie comics are, you buy them and they don’t continue. There were some solid choices though and I will have to look out for them when I have the cash.

Blitzworx magazine wasn’t able to make it to the con. Disappointing, but they’ll be having their own launch soon.

I’ve never heard of The Drawing Board, but it sounds like a Blitzworx in the making… except that their proposed office will be having computers. I offered to provide training in Digital Coloring once they get things up and running.

Agimat.net was there. I met Bon, whom I corresponded via email. They handed out a survey on comics. I hope it helps them plan their multimedia indie comics well.

There was an Pinoy artist group from the middle east that had pretty spectacular stuff on display. I didn’t really know why they were showcasing their stuff there though.

Pinoy Komiks History was truly available for everyone to see. Thanks to Gerry Alanguilan for bringing it all the way from his place in Rizal. It kinda makes me sorry I never bought any copies of their works when I was growing up — I would’ve been much better at drawing… as well as talking in Tagalog.

The first story page of my first children’s book. Written by Trina Perfecto (I’ve never met her, but I’m guessing she’s in either grade school or high school), the story is called Zohn’s Tale to Tell. A drama set in the Atmosphere City, and dig this - it’s all about the Ozone. Cool huh?

A few things I learned or got to exercise so far while working on this project:

1. Sculpting cartoony characters in digital paint - I usually fill in lineart don’t I? I mean doing all the comic colors. But when left to my own cartoony devices - I appear much more competent in crafting the form.

2. Variety VARiety varieteiii - Contrast is the name of the game. Contrast in size is especially tricky for my mind to just DO! Never keep drawing in the same size over and over again - even if it’s just sketch practice. You may, just like me, get the tendency to plan sequential illustrations in similiar sizes. But the trick is…

3. The text gets in the way. It’s so tricky to fit it right in without emptying entire areas of the canvas (especially if you only have 10 pages to work on and a lot of narrative.) So there is natural tendency (for me anyway) to squeeze characters until they are usually portrayed full-body.

4. Photoshop Textured Brushes can work. - I’ve been avoiding them, but I finally had the project to give them a try. A LOT of potential with the texture brushes. I could previously make digital work look like water color, and oil - it eludes people as to which I am trying to emulate. I hope to solidify a working process for each medium to make that clearer to everyone. The following pages in the Zohn story appear like oil pastels very much - so I’m crossing my fingers.