HUMANIS REX

Closed

2005-08-01T20:57:00.000+08:00

I'll be closing this blog and I'll be transferring all material with regards to Humanis Rex on my main blog from now on.

I thought about it, and I think it's much more sensible to collect all posts about my work into just one blog. I'll try to see if I can incorporate the posts already here into that one, but if I can't then I'll just leave it here untouched for archive purposes.

See you there. :)

Humanis Rex #4

2005-06-30T18:57:00.000+08:00

Dr. Edgar Romanes and a Crimean

After all the set-ups time jumps, backgrounds and introductions, the story now begins in earnest. Humanis Rex #4 will present the time and setting in which the rest of the story will be told.

Below is a list of characters/places that have been featured prominently so far....

General Elias Andres. The greatest Philippine hero of the Third World War. In Humanis Rex #1 and 2, General Andres in 2045 held the Cavite Coastal Pass, preventing the spread of the New Axis Empire in the Pacific, thus effectively beginning the end of the war, but at the cost of his own life.

Crimean Dominion. They are a race of extra-terrestials who visited the earth in 2168. The aliens first appeared to be benevolent, offering technological and medical advances that benefit the people of Earth. The aliens arrived and came to stay, establishing their own country in an island given to them by the grateful people of the planet that they had helped.

In the century that followed, The Crimean Dominion, empowered by their superior technology, because the number one superpower in the entire planet, enforcing their will upon the whole world.

Solum Novus. The place that used to be called Metro Manila. This is where our story will entirely take place.

Humanis Rex #4 introduces us to Dr. Edgar Romanes (not yet named in the issue), a scientist that will play a small but important part in the story.

Humanis Rex #3!

2005-06-15T11:09:00.000+08:00

Humanis Rex #3 comes with the new issue of Fudge to be sold at the Toycon 2005 at Megatrade Hall, Megamall, on June 26.

From FUDGE ED-In Chief....

Hope you can check us out in mag stands and bookstores!

By the way, Fudge is one of the sponsors of the 4th PHILIPPINE TOYS, HOBBIES and COLLECTIBLES CONVENTION 2005 on June 26 at the SM Megamall MegaTrade Hall 3! Lots of toys, hard-to-find collectibles, people in costume and rabid buyers!!!

PLUS: Fudge has a selling booth there and for every purchase of a Batman issue of Fudge magazine (only P100!), you'll get a special limited edition Batmam Begins 25inx38in poster for free. Lilmited stocks and we assure you the posters rock! And they are numbered so they will soon be rare. So see you guys there!

Fudge on!
Annie

A Different Cover

2005-06-11T17:32:00.000+08:00

It turns out the current issue of FUDGE, where Humanis Rex #2 comes out, has a 2nd cover, this time with Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner in an attention-getting yellow cover.

Humanis Rex #2!

2005-06-02T20:12:00.000+08:00

Humanis Rex #2 is out with the latest issue of Fudge!

Working on #3

I also just finished part 3 of the story, and having been pressed for time (due to Silent Dragon), I considered dusting off an old unpublished page which suited the story I wanted to tell in #3 perfectly.

For a long time I was kind of put off by the fact that some of my best stuff will remain unpublished and I'm glad I was able to reconfigure at least a page to fit what I'm doing today. This page would comprise much of page 2 of Humanis Rex #3, but page 1 is compeltely new.

For those who have been following the strip, #1 had a full page spread of an "overview" of the series, showing who the main characters were, who the bad guys were, where it's all happening, and a hint of some of events that are going to take place.

Humanis Rex #1 Page 1

This "overview" page is inspired by how komiks stories were told for many decades here in the Philippines. "Part 1" or "Unang Labas" as they were called, usually had a large panel, sometimes a whole page, and sometimes a 2-page spread (as in the case of Coching's latter work and Hal Santiago's 70's work) showing the "essentials" of the story without giving too much away.

#2 is a prologue establishing one of the major characters of the story.

#3 is a presentation of the status quo of the society in which I will be telling my story.

#4 is where the story can finally begin, now that I've established who, what, where and when.

Humanis Rex #1!

2005-05-03T14:01:00.000+08:00

Humanis Rex #1 has finally come out in the April 2005 issue of Fudge Magazine. I got a copy at National Bookstore so it should be everywhere by now. There are only 2 pages of the story per issue. I would love to do more, but 2 pages it seems is all I can do with the time I have in between all my other work. It's 2 pages on a monthly basis for 2 years. I guess it isn't so bad. At least it's an excuse to go to the Bulletin offices and meet my pals at Fudge once a month.

Working With a Brush

2005-04-28T23:30:00.000+08:00

Humanis Rex #2 is the first piece of work I drew almost exclusively with a brush. I used a Hunts #102 on some backgrounds, and I did use tech pens on the guns, but the brush is what I used on the figurework, hair, cross hatchings, clothing, grass, etc.

Working with a brush is so fantastic. I love the softness of the linework and the speed in which I finished the page. I drew this in half the time I did Humanis Rex #1. Now I don't know if there are any drawing I'll do in the future without using it, except of course my inking job with Leinil on Silent Dragon, which requires the use of the smallest tech pen point for the insanely intricate microscopic linework.

Unang Labas!

2005-04-21T08:04:00.000+08:00

The first installment of Humanis Rex in Fudge Magazine ought to be coming out at anytime this week, if it already hasn't. I might not be able to get a copy of it until next week.

Humanis First!

2005-04-06T20:30:00.000+08:00

I was first approached to do a comic strip for the Inquirer a year ago which was by then still planning to put together a comic section for their Sunday edition. Since a date had been set for the first release (which I remember to be nearly immediate), I rushed to do two proposals, one for Timawa and another for Humanis Rex. The format for the strip will be horizontal and so I designed my pages that way. They were interested in both proposals, but I had said I had time to do just one. I don't remember if I decided to do Timawa or if they decided it, but it was Timawa that I ended up developing.

But the months wore on, and the intitial release date had been postponed indefinitely. I decided to move on to other things and committed myself to drawing other comics when the Inquirer called again to say that we were back on track. I had to tell them of my situation, that I had taken on committments in the meantime which prevent me from continuing with the strip. So I had to let them go.

It wasn't until I got in touch with an old friend, Annie Alejo, editor of FUDGE Magazine that I had the opportunity to do the strip on a less hectic schedule. I knew Annie from PULP Magazine... and I also know Fudge's Editorial/Marketing Assistant and Photographer Ed Ramos, who happens to be Annie's significant other. So it's pretty much doing something with some old good friends. Pero di sila old, ha.

Bring on the Bad Guys!!

2005-04-03T13:12:00.000+08:00

Here's a sneak peak on the look of the bad guys of the story, the Crimean Dominion.

Part 1 has been finished and submitted last week and it should be coming out in the upcoming issue of FUDGE. I was finally able to see what the Humanis Rex ad below looks like in print and I'll use that as a guide on how to approach future pages in terms of inking and coloring and what would look good on the printed page. I expect to be trying to get a grip on this in the first few installments as I learn how to best present the art.

Man is King

2005-03-25T11:42:00.000+08:00

I've been thinking of doing a science fiction story for quite sometime, as early as 2001, I think. A science fiction story where pretty much everything will not make the use of any reference material, and everything will come from my imagination, with exception of perhaps face, figurework and clothing. But everything else from buildings, to cars, to technologies.... all of them I'll just try and make up. I think it will be very fun and challenging.

Sometime last year I was finally able to come up with a story in which I'll try and do this experiment and I decided to call it Humanis Rex. It's my clumsy attempt at latin which maybe hopefully means "Man is King". If not, well, I guess I'll just let it be because it sounds cool anyway. And it is at the very core of what my story is about. About humanity and its struggle to be free.

After a couple of false starts, I was able to find a publisher willing to serialize this story in their magazine. Fudge Magazine is edited by a friend of mine whom I approached earlier this year about doing a comics story for them. And thankfully enough, she agreed!

Next month the series starts in the magazine. And I can't wait! To start drawing it! :)