Slip of the Pen

We recently launched Komiks.ph, the new portal for Filipino comics and comic creators. By we, I mean yours truly, Ia, and Garro).

Yes, I’m a fan of comics, Pinoy and foreign. Though my fanaticism level might not be at par with most members of the Komiks community, it’s enough to sustain my rabid outbursts when my dad hectors me into selling my balikbayan box-sized comics collection to the junk shop. Collection age: more than a decade. In fifty more years, these comics will be classics, heh.

In the months ahead, Garro and I will be very busy creating our own comic book/s, considerable previews of which will appear in Komiks.ph. A graphic novel is also in the works; aside from Garro and Ia, the only person to know something about the story is Paolo Manalo. Ah, so the Corsarius is now becoming a comic book writer. Is there no limit to his insanity? I’m betting against myself that something (blogging, Filipino poetry, English prose, work) has gotta give. Hopefully not soon.

Before I forget — Komiks.ph offers free blog hosting and a cool subdomain for comic artists, writers, historians, producers, and so on. Also, we’ll be regularly featuring up-and-coming Komik creators (especially the indies), so pay us a visit if you wish to get exposed! Learn more in my related post on Crimson Crux.

Do visit Komiks.ph!

With a dose of Trinoma thrown in, just for the fun of it.

I’m nearly halfway through the two-month “main course” of the LIRA poetry workshop, which began last June 2. Three corrections to my first LIRA post are in order:

1) Thirty fellows, not fourteen. I got the fourteen from the number of email recipients. Thirty…well, at least in the first day. By the third week, our ranks had thinned to…fourteen. Premonition?

2) The workshop will last for six months, not two. The first two is when the brutal, full-weekend manhandling of our works (and our preconceptions and misconceptions of Filipino literature) take place; the final four months are set aside for (hopefully) less demanding activities with no schedule yet.

3) “I’m not sure if [National Artist Virgilio Almario] will conduct more lectures after [the first talk].” Oh boy, was I dead wrong. Sir Rio has been a very doting (if a bit frank) professor to us fellows. He’s always there for every workshop (palihan in Filipino), and I’ve been humbled quite a few times by his words. What’s the feeling of having such a legendary figure teach you, admonish you, guide you, and casually converse with you? Very surreal.

Now, the LIRA experience would be a tad better if I weren’t splitting my body among three lives — the problogger and freelance writer who publishes 200+ blog posts a month (no kidding), the web projects (hey, we just soft-launched a new site, a definite biggie!) slash Netpreneurial spirit, and the literary Corsarius (hey, who’s this jerk?). With these three juggling for attention, the one week in between workshops is not enough to create poems worthy of Sir Rio’s praise.

To summarize, I’ve been learning and re-learning things as quickly as Manila’s streets flood during this rainy season, so fast that everything spills over and disrupts the ‘other lives’ (schizo!), causing much disorientation. The past three weeks were marred by low work productivity and numerous days’ worth of feeling physically sick, no doubt unleashed by fully-booked weekends and [insert other excuses here, so I can avoid admitting how sickly I am]. Oops.

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