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After taking a break for several months, the Komikero meetings will resume this January 2008! As usual, it will be on the LAST Sunday of the month, which falls on January 27. The venue will be the parks surrounding Sampalok Lake here in San Pablo City, the most common location we use is pictured above.

Long time Komikeros will know exactly where to look for us, because we could be anywhere along the lake. For those of you who will be attending for the first time (everyone is welcome to attend as long as you have an interest in art and a healthy sense of humor), you can consult the photo map here: [link]

Once you get to the bottom of the stairs, turn LEFT and just keep walking and we’ll be hanging out along one of the parks that you encounter. We will most likely be in one of the further parks, away from most people.

If you have any artwork you wish to share for critique, please bring them along. Bring a sketchbook, pencils and pens. You can draw whatever you like, but it’s preferable that you take time out to draw from life. There are lots of things in the surroundings that you can draw. Take a break from the superhero, fantasy, sci fi stuff you may regularly draw, and just take the time to appreciate nature by drawing it.

Long time Komikeros take note: I’m not KIDDING. We really are gonna draw this time so bring your stuff!

The meeting begins at 2:00PM, which will be an exception to subsequent meetings (we usually start them in the morning). I have another meeting to go to in the morning and won’t be there until after lunch. But you can come early if you want and start drawing on your own. There’s lots of places to eat around, there’s rest rooms and lots of places to hang out and just draw.

Don’t worry about arriving late. We’ll be there until late into the afternoon anyway.

In case it RAINS, we’ll be at the huge covered court behind the San Pablo City Municipal Hall, just beside the lake.

To summarize:

KOMIKERO JANUARY 2008 Meeting!
January 27, 2008
2:00pm
Sampalok Lake Parks
San Pablo City
[link]

See you there!

Here’s a couple of videos from our past Komikero meetings:
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Thanks to all who visited my table at the Komikon to buy Elmer or to just even say hi! It was a hectic day, as always, but I do think a lot more people turned out this time around. Because I was tied to my table a lot, I didn't get the chance to go around too much.

Even then I was able to come up with a short video of the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx6Rs6dXpq8

I think I sold close to 200 issues of Elmer #3, and completely sold out #1. Thanks everyone for the support! I promise it won't take another year and another Komikon before you all see #4, the last issue. I fully intend to release it as soon as I can, which will be anytime around February or March. I have OTHER things planned for Komikon 2008.

I'll be at the Komikon this Saturday, November 17 2007, at the UP Bahay ng Alumni, University of the Philippines, Diliman Quezon City. I'll be there pretty much the entire day from 10am to 6pm.

I'll be launching ELMER #3!

One of my comic books, WASTED, which I did between 1994-1996 and originally came out as photocopied mini comics and eventually as compiled books from two different publishers, can now be read completely online!

WASTED ONLINE
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/komikero/wasted/

Most pages come with background notes on the creation of the comic book.

This piece of work comes in very early in my career in comics, and is naturally very very rough. To be honest, I can't stand to look at the art in many of these pages, and it makes me want to redraw everything. But I'm still thinking about it.

TIMAWA, one of my long unfulfilled projects is finally going to be published on the pages of THE BUZZ Magasin beginning with it's October 2007 issue, which will become available beginning September 15, 2007 in Metro Manila, September 20 in the provinces, and much later in OFW communities abroad.

Although I'm a bit disappointed that Dr. Rizal is somewhat delayed, I'm very happy that Timawa is finally coming out far sooner than I expected. This was something planned for much much later, but when the opportunity to do this fell on my lap, with the kind of audience it could potentially have, I knew I just had to do it, regardless of the killer deadline that came with it.

Since THE BUZZ Magasin is a mass market publication, with an audience of primarily Filipinos with a language that is almost exclusively Tagalog, I decided to do Timawa in Tagalog as well, which is only appropriate for the story, and the setting it takes place in.

If Panel 1 seems familiar, to those of you who have seen my work, then you would be right. It's the same scene as my 1995 illustration of Timawa that can be found on DA here:

http://tagasanpablo.deviantart.com/art/TIMAWA-29776861

I had wanted to use that same illustration in panel 1 of my new story because publication wise, it came in a comic book that had a very small print run (500-1000) and it was something that wasn't really seen.

But when I recently visited the place in Blumentritt where my photo reference of this was taken 12 years ago, I've noticed that a lot of things have changed. I just had to take new photos and redraw it, just to make the story more accurately portray the present. I keep imagining a few people who might live in the area and notice that this was taken in their neighborhood. The Buzz Magazine in hand, they'd go up the LRT station to compare, I'm sure.