We Are A Brown Race

I was just looking at my birth certificate and I noticed the Nationality and Race of my parents. Nationality: Filipino; Race: Brown.

Race: Brown? WTF?

Lest you think I'm ancient, Kate's birth certificate lists the same thing for her parents.
CraftWatch: Writing

I suddenly realized I'm writing a lot more than I used to. I write a semi-regular column for a news magazine, I've just written a short story for Dean's anthology (rejected, for being... ah... more than meets the eye), and I'm rewriting the script for a 10 page comic.

Techie that I am, I keep thinking about a way to systematize writing things up. I think that a notebook full of story ideas and storytelling techniques would be good thing to keep... just the thing when people say "write something... anything!" I think that a good archive of all written short stories would be good (rejected or not). You never know when you'll be called upon to rewrite your story into a given format.

Speaking of formats, I've found that for writing quick comic scripts, the following method works quite well:

  1. write a brief paragraph about the setting of the story, and note any visual elements you'd like the artist to make;
  2. write one brief paragraph about each major character in the story, especially the protagonist(s);
  3. write a short summary of the plot flow and any special flourishes you want in the story;
  4. go through the summary, and break it down by pages into a page summary;
  5. go through each page summary and modify it by breaking down the number of necessary panels without bothering with the actual panel layout on the page;
  6. go back through each page summary add captions, SFX and dialogue;
  7. read through the entire 1st draft of the comic script and check for EVERYTHING: plot holes, pages overcrowded with panels, panels overcrowded with captions / word balloons / sound effects, realistic dialogue, unrealistic expectations of the artist, and so on.
Back to work. Apparently, my comc script has to be in Tagalog...

HobbyWatch Comics

HobbyWatch: Comics

DC Comics has been my favorite publisher for the past 10 or so years. I’ve always collected at least one DC comic series such as Legion of Superheroes or Teen Titans or some funky Elseworlds thing. They came out with the Swamp Thing and Sandman stuff that eventually become Vertigo, and they’ve shown they were willing to make major changes to the world for fairly lengthy amounts of time.



I’m very excited about the Infinite Crisis storyline, which seems to be revitalizing the universe. It seems that the Big Three (Supes, Bats and Wondy) will no longer be seeing eye to eye, and generations seem to play a role.

I really like the George Perez cover showing several generations for the different superhero “houses”. You have Superboy and Supergirl for the Superman clan, Robin and Nightwing for the Batman clan, and Wonder Girl and Troia for the Wonder Woman clan. I like the re-emergence of the Green Lantern Corps and the Rann-Thanagar War (with L.E.G.I.O.N. playing an important role). I like the Villains getting their act together and uniting (somewhat). I’m kinda iffy on the supernatural ‘verse, but I’m willing to see where it all goes.