3rd World Snow in Motion

Way back in 1991, the eruption of long dormant Mount Pinatubo spewed out enough debris and particulates into the air that it lowered global temperatures. Over a hundred kilometers away in Quezon City, where I live, the sky had begun to darken by around 3 or 4pm. The following morning, the city was covered in white ash. It was as if, for the first time, there was snow in the Philippines. I was 13 years old at the time.

Many years later, I made a silent comic inspired by that little moment in history. I entered it into the 2nd Fully Booked / Neil Gaiman Graphic Fiction Competition and it didn’t win anything. Didn’t even get into the shortlist. Too bad. Boo hoo.

Anyway, a couple of months ago during one of our regular INK (Ilustrador ng Kabataan) meetings, I presented the comic, but this time with a couple of transition effects.

It’s like a very primitive motion comic. Hope you enjoy it.

Book Binge…again

There’s a lesson in all this: stay away from bookstores when tired and in need of a pick me up.

After literally spending a night at the museum (the Ayala Museum to be exact) preparing for our INK Annual Exhibit, I wanted a good art book…or four (the fourth one not shown here).

This week week, I ended buying Joe the Barbarian (Deluxe Edition), the B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs Omnibus Vol. 1, Flight of Angels from Vertigo and The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis.

I had previously read Joe the Barbarian and B.P.R.D through digital downloads but I’ve always wanted my own copies. Especially with B.P.R.D., which I had been following for years now. The trades were a little bit to expensive on their own and by now there are a lot of volumes out. When I saw the Omnibus edition, it was as good a time as any to get into collecting the series.

Flight of Angels on the other was an impulse buy (well, more impulsive than the rest). I read about the book in the Vertigo blog and it sounded interesting. I still haven’t read it though, so the jury’s out if it was a good buy.

The big surprise though was Peter Sis’ The Conference of the Birds, an adaptation of a Persian poem. Wiki here. I saw it sitting on a shelf behind the Fully Booked counter as I was paying for Flight of Angels.

I immediately browsed through the copy and it was beautiful and lyrical. It’s the kind of book that screams instant classic. Highly recommended.