The Butterfly

One day while walking through the woods, a man found a cocoon. He decided to take the cocoon home to watch its transformation into a beautiful butterfly. He gently placed it on his table and watched it for several days.

One day, a small opening appeared and the cocoon started to move. The old man sat and watched it for several hours as it struggled and struggled to force its body from the cocoon. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and was unable to go any farther.

Finally, the old man feeling sorry for the cocooned butterfly, decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then easily emerged. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, were Nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we go through our life without any obstacles, it would only cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

Fighting Against Superman

Superman V.S. a Jedi

A friend of mine just emailed me this. Superman V.S. a Jedi. Who would you think will win? Me? I am betting on Superman of course. I am a Star Wars fan but I think Force or no Force, the man of steel still wins.

Kalayaan #2 pages 2 - 5

I am still busy with my computer programming work at the office. But that did not stopped me from finishing the script of issue #4. This coming week, I will be already start penciling the pages of issue #4. But for the mean time, here are a page preview of Kalayaan #2 pages 2 to 5. It is still available at all comic odysseys stores.

Rod Stewart Live Concert

I just recently bought a Rod Stewart Live concert DVD which has this video. It is one of the best live performance I ever watched. The first time I saw this when I was on a bus on a commute going home. I was so impress by the performance that I just have to find the DVD of that convert. And so I did. :-)

Merging Man and Machine

Here is an interesting article that I just recently read. I am a little skeptical about this, since up to now the level of intelligence of all of the computer in the world combine (in my opinion) is still equal to a cockroach. But then again, if we are going to follow Moore's Law. This idea is not too far fetched.
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Machines 'to match man by 2029'

Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.

Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people’s brains to make them more intelligent, said Ray Kurzweil.

The engineer believes machines and humans will eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.

“It’s really part of our civilisation,” Mr Kurzweil explained.

“But that’s not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us.”

Being a writer

One of the hardest thing that I found in the entire comic book production, is writing the script. Making a plot (story with no character dialog) is much easier for me. But creating a script and breaking down the entire plot into 20 sequential pages is very brain draining.

Many year ago, I always wonder why is the script writer always comes first before the artist. And now I know. It takes alot of brain power to create a script.

I often create the plot of my story, way ahead of the script. As of this writing, I already have a plot up to Kalayaan #15. I often create the plot during my commute from office to our house. When I got that itch to create a story, I will write it down immediately. Those moments are rare and I tend to make the most of it. Even if the vehicle is moving, I will write the idea down and just revise it at home.

After the plot comes the creation of the script (the complete story with character dialog). I only create the script only when I am ready to draw the entire issue. It is hard for me to write a script without drawing a simple sketch of the page layout. It is much easier for me, if I will create the page layout with the character dialog simultaneously.

So ... that is how I do it with my comics. I wonder if the other independent comic creator also has the same or similar procedure as I have.

Marvel CG Video

Checkout this Marvel CG Video from MarvelKids.com
I hope they make a movie like this or a TV series. Now that would rock our world. And it would also be nice if DC would also create a CG Video of the Justice League.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Delivery and Updated Stores

I just came home from Sputnik Store at Cubao. I delivered a few copies of Kalayaan #3. There are many people always asking me where could they buy my comics. Well, here is the updated/current stores that sells my comics.

I think one of the challenges that an independent comics that faces are the distribution of their products. There are only a handful of store owners out there that understand small and independent publishing.

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Here are the updated list of stores that sells Kalayaan Comics

1.) Comic Odyssey Robinsons Galleria Level 3,Ext. Mall, Edsa corner Ortigas

2.) Comic Odyssey Robinsons Manila, Level 3 Pedro Gil Wing M.Adriantico st. Ermita Manila

3.) Comic Odyssey 2nd Floor, Space 125 Cyber and Fashion mall Eastwood city cyberpark Q.C.

4.) Druids Keep - Unit 315 Gateway Center, Paseo de Magallanes Makati City

5.) SPUTNIK - Shop 60 at the Cubao Expo on Gen. Romulo Ave., Cubao, Q.C.

Kalayaan Site Update

I just recently update the Kalayaan web site. Here are the updates

1.)Added new Fan art of
Gerard Fernandez
Bien Sta.Maria
Benedict Estanislao

2.)Added Kalayaan video from YouTube.

3.)Updated the comic book store where Kalayaan comics are available.

4.)Added short description/story of all the issues on the Kalayaan Issue section.

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It is Tuesday and I am not feeling well. I have slight fever, a cold and my voice is like coming from the grave. I did not slept well last night because I was breathing only through my mouth because my nose is totally congested. But despite all of this, am still at our office at ortigas. I have so many things to do with so little time.

Delivery and Meeting

I just finished the delivery of Kalayaan #3 at Comic Odyssey Robinsons Galleria today. After completing my delivery at boss Sandy. I meet up with Bien del Rosario at around 3 to 3:10 pm. Bien gave me the original fan art of Kalayaan that he recently created which is very cool. Thanks Bien.

After that, Benedict and two other of his friends came along. I wanted to meet up with Ben today, because I want to gave him a complimentary copy of issue #3, because he is the one who colored the cover.

And after 30 to 40 min. or so. Gener Pedrina came along. Me and Gener is currently planning something. I still don't want to talk about it here because it is still in a planning stage and it is still in a distant future. Suffice to say that it will be very exciting.

Next week, I will be also delivering at Sputnik Comics Shop at Cubao and Druids Keep in Magallanes.

Ready for Delivery

Here it is, Kalayaan #3 ready for delivery. I thought I would never finish it on time. But some how I have made it through. And just in a nick of time. I will be delivering a few of these to Comic Odyssey this Saturday, Feb. 9,2008 at Robinsons Galleria. I will probably arrive there afternoon, about 3 to 4pm. Because aside from delivery, I will also be talking to a friend of mine.

And after that, probably next week. I will also be delivering to Druids Keep at Magallanes.

Another Fan Art

Here is another fan art that I received from a very good friend Bien del Rosario. I first meet Bien during the last comic con at UP. We were seat mates with his Rex Agimat comics. Bien is also helping me with my comics by proof reading it. I just given him a sample copy of issue 3 a few days ago and boy do I have a lot of bloopers.

This piece of Art is probably one of the best fan art I have seen as of late. That is why I am giving some thought on making a feature fan art corner for the next issue of Kalayaan.