ULAN

I have already shared this comics a long time ago. Although I have published every pages separately. This time, I decided to collect all of them in one whole flip book to make sense of it all. I hope you find the comics fun. To all my foreign visitors, I am sorry if you can't understand it, I'll try to translate it as best as I can in my next blog post. For now, enjoy the art at least. :D

P.S.

Ulan means Rain by the way. Which is the theme of this comics.

When in Heat - Ilong lang ang pagkakaiba ni Empoy at Jake Cuenca

Sabi mo mag-te-text ka lang!? Eh, bakit tumawag ka!?

The power was out for a few hours yesterday. While wallowing in intense heat, I decided to pull out my trusty notebook and doodle some stuff up. I used references for most of my drawings and thanks to a Readers Digest nearby, I was able to whip up some of the images I have posted here. It was fun to actually write and draw without thinking too hard about what I am doing.

Ilong lang ang pagkakaiba ni Empoy at Jake Cuenca

To all of my foreign visitors, the language I use here is my own native tongue, Filipino. I am sorry if I am not going to bother translating this, most of the things I have written is done in jest and most of it involves Pilipino humor. So you will not understand it even if I translate it. Ha-ha. Anyway, you might be curious with the difference between Filipino and Pilipino. There's a difference actually, we use Filipino if we are referring to our language and Pilipino if we are referring to ourselves, our nationality.

...joke lang. Brown out kasi. Dumadami ang pinaglalaban.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the images I have concocted while dreaming of cold air (it was really HOT!) and ice cold water. :D

EDIT: This is also my 100th post! Hooray!

Naga City's Plaza Quince Martires Statue

Monument of the Fifteen Martyr of Bicol

I've been taking my damn time posting anything in my blog. I can't seem to find the focus I once have. 3 years ago, it's all different. I can always find the time to sit down and just draw for hours on end. Nowadays, I find myself just reminiscing of times that I have allowed to pass me by. Anyway, this is a sketch of the statue found in the Naga City Quince Martires Plaza, locally its called Monumento para sa Kaglimang Martir kan Bikol. The monument is situated at the center of Naga's Central Business District I. It's to honor the martyrdom of the 15 heroes that originate from Naga who opposed the Spanish Regime. 

I forgot when I sketched this, but I am sure I added the color just a few weeks ago. 

Enjoy! 

Resurgence

After years of art not posting any art works here, here's something I delved from one of my numerous notebooks. I think I have already tweeted this 2 years ago or 3. I don't remember. I am a little lost with the the past 2 (or 3) years. I haven't really kept any formal records or journal so I don't have any notes to look back and I have a really horrible memory. Lately, I have been playing a lot of Destiny proof of which was my last post. I have been playing a lot of video games really. It's part of the nature of my job. 

I am really disappointed with myself. I regret not being able to blog or keep a journal. I hope that I will be able to sustain this tiny surge of creativity. I am a little glad that I have a scanner now, an A4 scanner which I can use to scan most of my art in my notebooks. It's a little bit useless if I try scanning my larger work so I am thinking of buying a new one. My older scanner which is quite big is broken contributing to my 2 (or 3 years) of blogging inactivity.

Thank you for reading. Thanks for visiting.

If you're below 18, beware! :D

Destiny - After 6 Months of Playing

Ah, finally. I've been planning to sit down and write my impression of this game. But I just can't find the time to do this. I find it really difficult to sit down in front of my PC and just write about Destiny when I can just play it. I wish I can play it right now, but there's no other time for me to sit still and pen my experience with this game.

Now since I suddenly find time to focus on writing, let's start shall we?

My first character. A titan when he was level 16.

I first heard about Destiny through my office mates. They're casually talking about how Destiny and was a bit hyped about how awesome game and how it will be the COD killer. I did not pay them attention that much since I was really interested with a different game, Dragon Age: Inquisition, at the time. I actually watched some gameplay and felt a little bit underwhelmed by the game. It's not just going to cut it for me. It looks bland and a little bit generic. Not really my game. 

Then I get to play during the beta. Playstation decided that I might be interested in testing the game during its beta phase and sent me codes to be used during the beta test weekends. One for the PS3 and one for the PS4. Since I have the PS4 at the time, I went ahead and dived into the game. I decided to roll a female Awoken Titan. I fully get immersed into the game. The graphics was phenomenal and the world is really beautiful! The waterfalls and the rivers in the Cosmodrome reminds me of my childhood summer when we get to visit my mother's hometown. It was a nice experience that made me view the game differently. I liked it, but not enough to make me want to buy it on release. I am not going to buy another FPS online shooter. Not just now. Although, I am a little miffed that I did not get any records of my first female Titan during beta, but oh, well. That's life.

I can play the game like this. The view is gorgeous!

Destiny was released last September 9, 2014. It was a grand day for Bungie. This was a new IP after the excellent Halo series. A lot of people get to play the game and a lot of words and opinion was published. For some, the story was lacking. Others, it has a horrible grind. There were a lot of positive and negative feedback floating around the internet. But I never paid heed. I am intent on ignoring it as best as I can. I was still playing World of Warcraft and it was enough online gaming for me at the time.

Luckily (or unluckily), a friend hooked me up with a copy. I get to create a new Character for the game. This time, I rolled a Human Titan. In one day, I was able to grind from Level 1 to 16, playing a mix of story missions and Crucible PVP. I was a little bit curious with how the story will go and I was a bit puzzled as to why a lot of gamers who played it find Dinklebot lacking or the story missing. In my opinion, Dinklebot was okay. Not excellent but okay. Not horrible but okay, and the story? I don't find it wanting. It was short but the content is there. I understand what Bungie was doing here, they're just laying the groundwork for the next title in the Destiny series and they have paved the road to the next game excellently. Not a lot of people look at it the same way I did. Different person, different opinions I guess.

I hit the then current Max level 15 hours before the current-current max level arrived. 

I was hooked. I am in-love with Destiny and playing as my character to be able to interact with the NPC and the monsters inside of the game was a blast. I fell in love with the Queen in the Reef. Crucible is also better that BF or COD multiplayer where 2 bullets will instantly kill you. The Plasma rifle is a little OP though, but it did not take away from my initial experience. I love it. The game was amazing, frustrating, fun and most of all, challenging. When I say challenging, the challenges in the game are difficult and it will be really difficult if you don't know the mechanics. But all of them are do-able even if you are not that skilled as a gamer (You will learn the skills along the way) and all of the challenges in the game are meant to be overcome with a little thinking and perseverance.

I played through with it until I realized that it's not fun anymore. I was having a blast, but the constant hilarity of getting to find other gamers through LFG and setting up a raid team is taking its toll on me. Plus the game is, admittedly, repetitive. The grind is not fun anymore after a few repetitions. The grind is not fun! Luckily, Dragon Age: Inquisition just hit the stores and I was able to snag a copy immediately when it got released (here in the Philippines, there was a week delay). So Dragon Age: Inquisition it is. Until about I hit Week 2 of playing DA: I. I was suddenly missing the grind, the good looking armor and the not so complicated story of Destiny. Plus, the Dark Below just got released. So I said, f**k Dragon Age (It's still an awesome game, I love you DA: I) and bought the first DLC. 

ANG PANDAY! Imagine The King inside of Destiny.

I felt the difference immediately after I entered the game post Dark Below. The game is a bit different now. There was more content (if you call unlocking a few places and a few events "more content") to play with and the Crota's End raid was an easy raid to figure out (Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese on my sandwich). This was a second wind for me. The game is exciting again and all of those LFG friends I added during the earlier part of the game paid off. I can now have a regular group to play with at all times if I want to. 

So where am I getting at? What am I trying to say here? Nothing. I am just rambling about my experience and just sharing how I felt about Destiny from the start. At this point, I am already feeling the burn again. I kinda wish that they release new events for the game to make it interesting again. The Iron Banner event is kinda getting stale and old already. It's not fun to play through anymore. Maybe Queen's Wrath? I missed that event. How about a Dark Below events? Where we get to do missions that involve killing Hive monsters. In my opinion, to make this game interesting, they should add monthly events that are different from the Iron Banner; the price can be as meager as a unique shader or more cosmetic items. I enjoy getting cosmetic items. 

I like it cuz I can be senti as hell in the game!

So to end this, after 6 months of playing Destiny, I can say that it was money well spent. The entertainment I get from this game stretched out the $50++ I spent to be able to play it. It also allowed me to meet new people from around the globe and it also provided me with a way to be closer to my friends who played it. The grind was worth it. Now watch my Hunter in Crucible. :D

RENEW YOUR VOWS

Excited!

That's the only description of what I felt when I saw this picture:

Got the photo here: http://goo.gl/EzHnIh Thanks Marvel! :)

We all know that One More Day was one of the Spidey-arc that only a few fans liked. Personally, I hated that arc. It robbed me of one of the most beautiful relationship in comics. It was a good thing I still have the comic strips to look forward to. Before OMD, I was an avid fan. I bought The Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis, atleast as regular as my allowance will allow it. But after OMD, nope. Never again.

According to the news and speculations I have stumbled into (thank you Internet!), it seems that this will not be the status quo. But just an interim story before they end the current Marvel Universe with the Secret Wars mega event. Marvel decided that they needed a clean slate like what DC made a few years ago with the New52. The only difference with Marvel's reboot, they decided to collapse the Ultimate Universe into the 616 Universe. There are speculations that if we're going to interpret the picture above, Marvel may be thinking of retiring Peter Parker's Spider-Man and replace him with the current Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles Morales. Some even say that Peter will be acting like an Old man Bruce Wayne to Miles' Terry McGinnis.

All I am hoping for my future Spider-Man stories is that they return his marriage with Mary Jane. It was one of the reason why I believe in Spider-Man so much. That with all the difficulties he has and all the challenges in his life, he still has this strong connection to the people in his life that it allows him to keep on moving. He still has an anchor so he does not slip into the other side. 

I hope this will be the future status quo. A Peter Parker Spider-Man mentoring a Miles Morals Spider-Man. Something to look forward to. I wish I don't get disappointed.