Steampunkin' the Kalesa

Season's greetings!

Nothing much to report at the moment as I've been juggling time between my day job, some personal stuff and the holidays. It's been grand doing all these but was obviously exhausting.

On Writing:

I'm trying to finish the history and descriptions of the tribes in my story and hopefully in a couple of days I'd be able to at least post it here for everyone.

No progress on the LOK but I may be able to squeeze in some time for it over the weekend.

Comics:

Here's a little sumthin' sumthin' to whet the appetite of those looking forward to the comic book. I present to you Jann Galino's Steampunk Kalesa:

I'll be posting something in the next couple of days. For now, it's best that we all celebrate the last days of this wonderful year of 2012, tie up all loose ends and prepare for what's looking like a very promising new year ahead.

Cheers!

Pin-up Art (LOG) by Talka Pt. 2

On Writing:

On the LOK story, I've managed to edit out around 800 words only to be replaced by 1200. It's alright, I guess, if I'm actually trying for prose but what I really should be doing is convert the work into a comic book script.  Will try to do a bit more over the weekend.

Talka Orbil, my LOG artist, just gave me the scans to the second batch of character pin-up art yesterday. Allow me to share some of them with you.

Oso in action

Oso study

As usual, the detail on Talka's works makes my jaw drop to the ground like an anvil. The old-timey Filipino art feel just makes it so interesting. His additional input on my concepts fits very well most of the time.

Oso's 'Heli-topter' above is all Talka's idea and it's ideas like these that immediately gets a welcome in my universe.

More later.

Pin-up Art (LOG) by Talka Pt. 1

On Writing:

Still browsing through the Law of Kumakatok (I'll have to shorten it to LOK for now) and I am now getting a clearer view of what to put in the panels. No big stride yet but getting there.

I also received a message from my buddy Talka yesterday and he's given me exciting news that he's finished the second batch of the pin-ups of the characters from the Landbridge of Gehenia (LOG). I'll probably be posting them one of these days but I'd like to release the prelude stories first. We'll see how it goes.

Here's some of the art from the first batch (circa March 2012):

Daniel vs the Mantahunggal

Greg and a Mekanahaw

Preeeety neat right?

Cheers!

Magic Unhinged

Writing:

Today I got to read through the draft of the Law of Kumakatok and like the last time I read it, I'm finding more and more sections to look at and improve. I guess it's inevitable that I ask somebody else to have a look at it and possibly help me edit the piece but for now, I'm still in the process of pushing myself further and polishing it more so that I can at least send a more presentable product. This is a draft and this is the point of having a draft anyway.

I have inundated myself with books on writing before and the gist of it all is just start working on your stuff and practice, practice and practice more. Like all trades, you just have to devote your time and pay attention to what you're doing and try to improve. This is the only way to unhinge more and more of yourself and your mark will become more apparent.

English is not my first language and I'm not really fluent at it, not by a long shot. But I do have stories to tell and my priority is to finalize the stories, put it on paper then fix it all when it's ready to be fixed. I will find ways to make it readable enough and that people who read them will be left with at least a feeling of satisfaction. This is my mission.

On that note, I'm going to continue re-reading the draft after this blog entry.

Comics:

Here's another concept art by Jann Galino:

At this point I won't be giving too much details on the characters (though if you're a Filipino, you'd know that this is a tikbalang) but I'll be doing that one of these days once I've organised things more.

Cheers!

The Necessary Jumpstart

And so here we are again.

After many months of brainstorming  (20%) with my co-writer/co-creator/sister Sascha, procrastinating (60%) and ultimately gathering more info (20%) on how I'd like to present the initial story 'Law of Kumakatok' as a prelude to the Landbridge of Gehenia saga (working titles), I'm glad that things have progressed a bit.

I have yet to polish and finalize the story or convert the script for comics but I have, however, somehow secured myself an artist who'd provide me with the character designs for the story. His name is Jann Galino. I'm pretty sure people in the industry knows a thing or two about the works of this gentleman and would somehow be excited that he's come on board to help me out. I know I am.

And just to show how talented the guy is, I'll be presenting a preview of what we're working on.

It's not much yet but everybody knows that you just have to start something and try to progress from there.

He's set to do 14 character designs for me and so far he's done with nine of them. He's also very much involved with the Iloilo Comic Con among other things and it makes me wonder sometimes how the man finishes things impressively fast. You da' man, Jann!

Now, for the rest of you who are able and willing, please do attend the Iloilo Comic Con. I heard it would kick butt.

I'll post more updates (or images) soon or when I can.

Later.