3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Links Part 2

Here are some Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards coverage and Neil Gaiman interviews/testimonies.

• Fully Booked's Revelations: The Book Signing Event photos.
• Cynthia Arre on A short video of our dinner with Neil Gaiman / Chef Jessie @ Rockwell Club, Makati, Philippines.
• Gerry Alanguilan on Neil Gaiman and Me, March 2010 (video).
• Azrael's photos: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
• Philippine Star interview.
• Budjette Tan's experience.
• Maui's new resume.
• Business Mirror interview.
  

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Links Part 1

I have some media files here.

First up is ANC's (local network) interview with Neil Gaiman up on YouTube: (Part 1|Part 2)

Edit: Rocket Kapre has some videos from the event.

And here are some files I uploaded:

• Jaime Daez's introduction to the event. |MP3|
• Neil Gaiman's introduction speech. |MP3|
• Neil Gaiman reading an original poem. |MP3|
• Neil Gaiman's speech on why he sponsored the event. |MP3|
• Prose judge's criteria for picking the winning stories. |MP3|
  

And here's Neil Gaiman's feedback on the winning stories (MP3s also):

1st: "A Kind of Flotsam" by Christelle Rhodamae Mariano
2nd: "Filipina: The Super Maid" by Irene Carolina A. Sarmiento
3rd: "Cherry Clubbing" by Kenneth Yu and "Remembrance" by Dean Alfar

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards

The title for the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards was Revelations: Stories of Light and Darkness and was held at the Rockwell Tent last March 17, 2010. Sponsors for the event were Pelicola, San Miguel and Globe.

Here's the list of this year's winners:

Prose: (Judges: Gabrielle de la Rama-Talan, Luis Katigbak, Angelo R. Lacuesta)

1st: "A Kind of Flotsam" by Christelle Rhodamae Mariano
2nd: "Filipina: The Super Maid" by Irene Carolina A. Sarmiento
3rd: "Cherry Clubbing" by Kenneth Yu and "Remembrance" by Dean Alfar

Comics: (Judges: Gerry Alanguilan, Arnold Arre, Jaime Daez)

1st: "I See" by Manuel Abrera (disqualified but nonetheless recognized)
2nd: "Douglas" by Genevieve Go
3rd: "(Love) at Last Sight" by Heubert Khan Michael

Film: (Judges: Topel Lee, Quark Henares, Erik Mati)

2nd: "Kumot ng Panaginip" Jedd Chris P. Dumaguina
3rd: "Squatters from Mars" by Rommel Sales

There was also a People's Choice Awards category:

Prose:

1st: "Filipina: The Super Maid" by Irene Carolina A. Sarmiento
2nd: "A Kind of Flotsam" by Christelle Rhodamae Mariano
3rd: "The Street Child and the Dwarf" by Diabelle Joy M. Pazcoguin

Comics:

1st: "Hunger" by Jeremiah D. Faustino and Norman Jim Faustino
2nd: "Raisinhead: A Tale of a Modern-Day Tiyanak" by Christian Oliver A. Cruz
3rd: "Traffick" by Alarice A. Francisco

Film:

1st: "Kumot ng Panaginip" by Jedd Chris P. Dumaguina
2nd: "Anak ng Tikbalang" Desiree Ann C. Samson
3rd: "Embrace" Ron Sapinoso

Here's the original Short List:

Prose:

1. "Babymakers" by Laura Jermina R. Abejo
2. "Leg Men" by Dominique Gerald Cimafranca
3. "Cherry Clubbing" by Kenneth Yu
4. "The Sweet Stranger" by Michael A.R. Co
5. "A Kind of Flotsam" by Christelle Rhodamae Mariano
6. "Won't You Be My Friend, Mr. Faceless Creature of Evil?" by Karlos de Mesa
7. "The Street Child and the Dwarf" by Diabelle Joy M. Pazcoguin
8. "Filipina: The Super Maid" by Irene Carolina A. Sarmiento
9. "Remembrance" by Dean Alfar
10. "Pursuit of the Litaniera" by Elyrose G. Punsalan

Comics:

1. "Traffick" by Alarice A. Francisco
2. "Raisinhead: A Tale of a Modern-Day Tiyanak" by Christian Oliver A. Cruz
3. "The Revolutionary" by Kevin Justin T. Ang
4. "Hunger" by Jeremiah D. Faustino and Norman Jim Faustino
5. "Mekanix" by Romir Sucaldito and Jhem Manalang
6. "(Love) at Last Sight" by Heubert Khan Michael
7. "Douglas" by Genevieve Go
8. "I See" by Manuel Abrera

Film:

1. "Lost and Found" by Jethro Trogo and Gharawi Usman
2. "Squatters in Mars" by Rommel Sales
3. "Anak ng Tikbalang" by Desiree Ann Samson
4. "Blogog" by Rommel Tolentino
5. "Black Worms" by Khavn dela Cruz
6. "Panibugho (Jealousy)" by Alvin Yapan
7. "Takot Ako" by Jules Dan Katanyag
8. "Kumot ng Panaginip" by Jedd Chris Dumaguina
9. "Embrace" by Ronnie Sapinoso
10. "Kulob" by Camille Jensen Hirro and Liezl Ortacio

The 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards was also the launch of the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards anthologies (one for comics, one for film) which includes the winners from all three competitions:

Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Prose (P550)

Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Comics (P699)

Plug: The 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Night

From Fully Booked:

Fully Booked and Neil Gaiman
present
REVELATIONS: Stories of Light and Darkness
The 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Night

Join us as Neil Gaiman reveals the winners of the prose fiction, comics and short film categories on Wednesday, March 17, 7PM at the Rockwell Tent, Power Plant Mall.

He will also unveil the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Anthology, a compendium of the winning entries plus selected stories from the past contests.

A special raffle will be held to award slots for an exclusive book signing on the same night.

The 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards Extended

From Fully Booked: (at the time of this posting, someone was lazy when it came to formatting so for everyone's sakes, here are the rules with the appropriate spacing; also note the disappearance of guideline #11)

The 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards is officially extended and the new deadline for submission of entries is NOVEMBER 3, 2008.

CONTEST GUIDELINES:

1. Submissions must be given or delivered before or on November 3, 2008, with a duly accomplished application form and resume, to be sealed inside a brown envelope with the heading, "3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards." All submissions should be given or delivered to: Fully Booked Customer Service Fully Booked Bldg 6, 902 Bonifacio High Street Bonifacio Global City 1634 Taguig City Only 1 submission per envelope (for those submitting to all three categories). Application forms may be downloaded below.

2. The contest is open to all Filipino citizens, even those who may be in a foreign country at the time, so long as they are still legal citizens, except current officers and employees of Fully Booked and the contest's sponsors.

3. All submissions must be in English except for the short film category, which may be in English or Filipino with English subtitles.

4. There are three categories: comics, prose fiction and short film. Contestants may join in all categories, and collaborations are allowed; however, each contestant may only submit and/or be involved with only one (1) submission per category.

5. Submissions must not have been awarded by another body or published in a national publication. Submissions to the short film category must not have been exhibited commercially, locally or internationally.

6. All submissions must be original. No adaptations of produced / published / copyrighted material are allowed. All intellectual property rights of submissions must belong to the author/s and director/s. Fully Booked and its sponsors shall be exempt from any and all liability in the event that the submission is said to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of another existing work. All rights revert to respective authors and directors, but FULLY BOOKED maintains/reserves the right to publish submissions without permission / approval / compensation.

7. a. PROSE - Submissions must fall under the genres of science fiction, fantasy and/or horror. Stories may not exceed seven thousand (7,000) words. Submissions must include four (4) hard copies, typewritten or computerized (preferably computerized). Submissions should be double-spaced on letter-size bond paper (8 1/2 X 11 inches), with approximately one-inch margin on all sides. Fonts should be Arial or Times New Roman and the font size should be 12. The author/s' name and address must not appear on the submission or any of its pages. Every page must contain the title of the work and must be numbered consecutively (e.g. 1 of 20, 5 of 15 and so on). The submission must include one (1) soft copy on a CD-ROM (files should be in .rtf [Rich Text Format]).

b. COMICS - For Comics, the theme is open (non-fiction is allowed). Twelve (12) pages is the maximum length. All submissions should be in black and white. Contestants may use any media they wish. No signatures/names must appear on any of the pages. Submissions must include four (4) hard copies (letter-size bond paper [8 1/2 X 11 inches]) and one (1) soft copy on CD-ROM (files should be in .jpg format, with art scanned at a minimum of 300 dpi); no original art must be submitted.

c. SHORT FILM - Submissions must fall under the genres of science fiction, fantasy and/or horror. The production of the short film must be in 2008, it should not exceed 20 minutes (including credits) and must be submitted in a digital video format (DVD). This category is open to professionals, however, no corporate financing is allowed.

8. Fully Booked has no obligation to return submissions.

9. In case submissions from overseas win, an authenticated copy of the Authorization Form by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate will be required.

10. The Board of Judges shall have the discretion, not to award any prize if, in its judgment, no worthy submission has been entered.

12. Fully Booked has the sole right to designate the persons who shall constitute the Board of Judges in each of the contest categories. The decision of the majority of the Board of Judges in all categories shall be final.

13. All rules and guidelines of the contest must be followed STRICTLY. Non-compliance will subject the submission to immediate disqualification. For any questions or clarifications, please email us at philgraphicfiction@fullybookedonline.com

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Erin Chupeco

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Erin Chupeco placed third in last year's Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards fiction category. When not writing freelance here and there, she also sells crochet dolls.

Tell us something about yourself.

I'm a twenty-something year old Chinese girl who had just recently resigned in pursuit of more emotionally rewarding, though financially deprived pleasures. In other words - a starving artist.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

I was riding the MRT during rush hour, right next to an extremely emaciated woman one day; as rude as I'm going to sound, she closely resembled a walking cadaver to me. I wondered then if she'd look any different if she was actually dead. And then I wondered how the people around her would react if she really WAS dead.

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Actually finding the time to write the story. Being a full time corporate drone had its disadvantages, especially when your boss thinks he owns your soul. About a few days before the deadline, figured what the hell, called in sick, and speed-wrote the story in under two days.

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

Nothing beats a kiss from Neil Gaiman. Or the little high you get at being told you've got the potential to be a good writer.

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

Entertain misgivings. Acknowledge that you might need improvement further down the road. Fuss and worry if your writing's going to be up to par with everyone else's.

But do it anyway.

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Yvette Tan

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Yvette Uy Tan is a prolific writer whose works (both fiction and non-fiction) have appeared in publications like Philippine Speculative Fiction, The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, Rogue Magazine, and numerous others. She has also won a few awards including the Palancas and the Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Tell us something about yourself.

I'm a media mercenary -- I'll write anything for anyone on any topic. I once said that I'd do everything except politcs but guess what? I just did my first political piece about two months ago and it was surprisingly well received. I love writing about my interests, which can be summed up as: music, movies, food, personalities, business and finance, and of course, horror. So yeah, I'll pretty much write about anything.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

I have always wanted to write something about the Martial Law era, without going into the politics of things. I was the last of the Martial Law babies so even if I spent the seventies and early eighties in a cloud of confusion that often comes with childhood (my only memories of the EDSA Revolution are swiping some lechon kawali from the dishes that my family was sending the protesters and that a flying voter voted in my mom' stead during the snap elections), I do feel a weird, slightly detached kinship to the era, via Voltes V cartoons, late night checkpoints and remembering when fruit used to be expensive. We as a nation have, I believe, a love-hate relationship with the ex-President and his wife. My mother for example, is deathly scared of anything that has to do with the military because her father and elder brother was "invited" to Crame for a few months during Martial Law, yet she is a die hard fan of the Madame. It's juxtapositions like this that I attempt to capture in "The Bridge," which is a reworking of an urban legend I heard as a child. Strangely enough, everyone I've asked hasn't heard of this particular story, which makes me wonder if it was something that I really heard, or if it was something I actually dreamt.

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Figuring out what to submit. I wasn't actually supposed to submit anything, but Luis suggested I submit "The Bridge," which was up for Vin's dragon anthology. I asked Vin for permission to send it in, he said yes, and I'm happy that it got noticed, and by Neil Gaiman no less! So I have Luis to thank, actually, and Vin, too.

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

The coolest moment came after, when I realized that Neil himself had picked my story for 2nd place. Also when I was on stage and didn't know what to do, I suddenly felt hands pulling me into a hug and a kiss -- only to find that it was Neil! It's not everyday have the guy who got you through high school (I am proud to say that I was the first girl in my batch who got into Gaiman -- I even got my friends into him!) kisses you in public! Yes, this is a very girly gush-fest but hey, can anyone, male or female, come up with a story about Neil Gaman that doesn't involve any drooling of some sort?

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

Don't write to win.

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Michael R. Co

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Michael R. Co tied for 1st-place in the 1st Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. His short fiction has appeared in publications like Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 2 and The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories.

Tell us something about yourself.

I collect books. Most of my disposable income goes into buying books for my personal library. I have a wide range of interests, but I especially like quirky histories, exotic languages, and, of course, science fiction.

For the Generation Y crowd: I'm in my 30's, in a relationship, and looking for friends and activity partners.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

The concept had been gestating for more than a decade. I was in college at the time. During a class discussion on science fiction, I proposed that the core of any sf story should be the concept (like "What if some guy wrote a math proof of God?") and its implications ("Will he go insane?" "Will the world blow up?" "Or will God try to stop him?"). I wanted to write a story about it, so I came up with a cool title: The God Equation.

I never got around to writing it because, well, I'm a lazy bum. But when the contest was announced, I realized I'm also a greedy bum. So I wrote the story.

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Getting the story finished (and submitted) on time. I was still writing on the last day of submission. When my printer wouldn't work, I emailed the file to my girlfriend for printing. She called and said she didn't have enough paper (and the stores were already closed). So I drove to her place with extra paper. But as we were printing, the power went out. At that point, I gave up, went out, looked up into the night sky and wondered if this was punishment for writing about God's mysterious ways. Thankfully, the power came back after 15 minutes, and I submitted my entry before Fully Booked closed.

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

Aside from Neil Gaiman describing my writing as "muscular" and getting hugs and kisses from my loved ones? I'd say it was when two people approached me after I came down from the stage. The first person was Wawi Navarroza, the hot vocalist of The Late Isabel, who asked me to sign her leather bound copy of The God Equation. Imagine that: she hand stitched it in real leather! I was really touched. I hope one day, when I'm like, world famous and all, she gets a good price for it at eBay. The second person was Chiles Samaniego who told me he posted a review of my story on his blog. It was a fantastic review, and he even called it "geek noir." I like the term.

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

I'll give three pieces of advice (to be taken with three crystals of sodium chloride):

1.) Write your story early and revise, revise, revise. After submitting my entry, I was found one or two grammatical errors which I hoped the judges wouldn't catch. And after I won, I still ended up revising the ending.

2.) Show your story to someone honest. I mean really honest. Did I mention honest? So if your boyfriend/girlfriend says "It's absolutely perfect!" he/she is probably cheating on you.

3.) On awards night, wear a nice shirt. Even if you don't win, you'll appear in a photo on someone's blog; you might as well look sharp.

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Heubert Khan Michael

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Heubert Khan Michael (the second guy from the left) tied for 3rd place in the comics category during last year's Graphic/Fiction Awards. He released his own comic, "Unstoppable", in last year's Komikon and was recently featured in The Inquirer.

Tell us something about yourself.

I am a 29-year old Guidance Counselor who loves comic books and superheroes. I am a health buff (I’ve been featured in Men’s Health Philippines twice) and a video game addict, and I hold a Master’s Degree in School Psychology, which I don’t think I’ll need where I’m going. I’ll be working as a full-time comicbook artist soon. =) The calling is much stronger this time that I can’t deny it. I think it’s never too late to become what I could have been. I have my works online and I’d be happy if you check it out: wrathofkhan(dot)deviantart(dot)com.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

Back in the early 90’s I have read this comic where the lead character went to the church to confess, only to find out later that there was not a priest listening to him all the while. I thought it was cool, then I thought, “What if SOMEONE actually listened, and what if that someone is God?”. Then I thought of another twist which I incorporated to the “what if” story I thought after reading that old comic, making the story more complex, with a more unrealistically creepy-it-gives-me-the-goosebumps feel. Mr. Gaiman, though, did not feel that way. Made me realize that you can hardly scare the guy who has already thought of all things creepy. ;-)

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Trying to impress Neil Gaiman himself is on top of my list in that area. What comes in a close second is trying to best all the wonderful Filipino artists who would be joining. These are the real scare. Wait. There’s an idea. Tell me, if I write about a guy joining the PG/FA and taking the challenge of trying to scare Mr. Gaiman, would that be a horror story, or just a horrible one?

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

I can not think of anything cooler than Neil Gaiman publicly announcing, live on stage, that my entry was THE BEST DRAWN ENTRY among the lot. Man it gave me an instant shrinkage, and I think I was like 2 inches up from the ground, floating. He again told me that during Post-Ceremonial dinner. =)

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

Oh, since I’d be joining again? I think this would be more of like a note to self, but hey, I don’t mind sharing it to those who look forward to owning the super-cool dreamcatcher. =) Here goes:
1. Be original. Trust your imagination. =)
2. Give it your all. Win or lose, it’s all worth the effort. ☺ and lastly
3. Have fun while working on your entry!

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Ian Casocot

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Ian Casocot is a writer based in Dumaguete where he teaches English and Literature. His fiction has appeared in numerous publications such as The Philippines Free Press and The Philippine Daily Inquirer as well as winning several local literary awards. He tied for 1st-place in the 1st Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards and tied again for 2nd place in last year's competition.

Tell us something about yourself.

Things about me you can easily Google. Let me talk about writing instead. Writing has become my life and my sanity—but, truth to tell, my writing first started out as a convenient tool for revenge. I never wanted to become a writing teacher, or a writer. True, I've been writing since I was a kid—but I never thought I'd be making it my strongest vocation in life. But people in my life prodded me to certain directions I never thought possible for myself. People told me to apply for the National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete, for example. 'What is that?' I asked, and they said, "You'll see." I did apply in 2000, and I got in, and I got to meet these really nice [older] people who seemed passionate about the craft. "Who are they?" I asked, and people said, "Why, that is so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so…" And I got to know them and most became great friends who later on would support my fledgling goal to become a "writer." Still, I thought this was just a post-collegiate phase, and that writing would never amount to anything with me. But there were other people in my circle in Dumaguete then who utterly dismissed me, and would talk about me behind my back. When I soon got wind of what they were saying about me, I told myself, "Maybe I should write a story, and submit it to the Palanca, just to show them and piss them off." I did. And it won second prize. I won second prize again the very next year—and I've never stopped writing since. Oh, they still dismiss me, but I think I'm at a point in my writing life when I've simply stopped caring about what these people have to say. Because nobody reads them anyway, so there you go. And so yes, there are stories and there are awards and there are friends and there are "frenemies." In the long run, when you find yourself aching to tell a story, it no longer matters what made you write in the first place. What matters is that you write at all.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

I just came off winning, together with Michael Co, the first prize in the first-ever Neil Gaiman contest, and so writing the second story for the second year of the same contest proved daunting, and even more challenging. But I knew I wanted to try my hand at writing a "tale." And I wanted to showcase the history of where I came from, as I had previously with "A Strange Map of Time". I was armed with the writing philosophy of Chari Lucero which had stuck to me ever since I heard her speak in Iligan in 2002 (in a wonderful speech titled "The Music of Mortar-and-Pestle," which won the Palanca for essay in 2004): she said that we owed it to ourselves to tell the untold tales about where we came from, to fight what she called "historical amnesia" in our creative writing. And I realized that much of the ancient history of Negros actually narrates like magical tales full of treachery and mayhem and heartbreak and so on and so forth. Around that time, I was interviewing my mother's sister, my Aunt Fannie (old name: Epefania), about her childhood in my hometown of Bayawan (formerly Tolong) in southern Negros Oriental. The image she conjured of herself as a young girl who fell in love with the handsome son of one of the town's prominent families struck me. When I began writing the story, I also told myself I wanted to write a love story that was not your run-of-the-mill romance where all tropes would be explored like a checklist. I've always loved the way Dean Francis Alfar writes his love stories where love is always denied and unrequited—but still manages to evoke a romance that makes us sigh. And so I read and reread "L'Aquilone du Estrellas," and when I felt I have consumed the essence of that tale, I began mine. And so there were really three people who helped me come up with that story, my aunt Fannie Rosales-Moncal, Rosario Cruz Lucero, and Dean Francis Alfar.

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Waiting for the result during Awards night. The writing is the easy part, because you do that in the privacy of your own writing room. But the Gaiman contest is like the Oscars. The finalists are told they've made the cut, and instructed to show up during awarding. And only then do you get to know whether you've won or lost. So you really don't know what to expect. In my case, it's even a bigger challenge because I live in Dumaguete and I have to fly in to Manila for the contest—and traveling and staying in the metropolis can be quite expensive. What if I show up and don't win anything at all? That's P15,000 down the drain, just like that.

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

In the first year, it was arriving in the NBC tent to find a beautiful installation inspired by my story. Also the fact that Dean actually read an excerpt from my story in an earlier event. It was like being anointed by the Master. In the second year, it was having dinner with Neil Gaiman himself and talking at length with him. And he signed all my Gaiman books, too!

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

Write the story you are compelled to write about, and that only you can tell. I think that's an old advice from Francisco Arcellana himself.

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Andrew Drilon

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Andrew Drilon is the 2nd-place winner for the comics category in last year's Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. His fiction has appeared in publications like Bewildering Stories, Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, and Philippine Speculative Fiction while his comics work can be found at The Chemistry Set (Kare-Kare Komiks).

Tell us something about yourself.

My name's Andrew Drilon; I'm 22 years old with a Godzilla love for comics. I buy them, read them, make them and try my best to understand them, which is harder the more you get into it.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

"Lines and Spaces" was conceived as an homage to Alex Niño, one of the best Filipino comic book artists ever. I've been a fan of his work for a long time, and part of the story came out of a fanboy wish to experience his psychedelic worlds and perhaps try to emulate them. So the idea was to make a story where an artist literally dives into a comic book that he's making (which is also a tribute to his favorite artist) in an effort to understand comics and perhaps himself. It's basically about how inspiration is passed on through generations of artists, and of how emotions like love and loss are intertwined with the creative process.

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Making the comic! The hardest part of it was figuring out how to do a visual tribute to Alex Niño, when clearly there was no way I could draw like him short of copying his work. In the end, I decided to call the absent artist "Axel Nuñez", which freed me up to create characters and vistas that paid tribute to Niño's work without straight-out plagiarizing them. Then I struggled to conflate the story in 8 pages, because I tend to make narratively dense comics, and this one needed space to breathe. It worked out well in the end, because Niño's personal work tends to have a travelogue feel to it, and I think the comic managed to achieve that.

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

Lots of moments, really. Halfway through the program, I discovered, belatedly, that I was sitting next to Neil Gaiman's son, Michael, who's like 2 years older than me. That was funny, because I actually thought he was one of the contestants. And then when my name was called, I think I lost my head a bit, because I couldn't believe it. I ran up the stage thinking "Awesome Oh Shit I Can't Believe This It's Not Real" over and over, and when Neil Gaiman shook my hand, there were lots of people in the audience shouting "Kiss Him!" and I think impulse took over and I kissed him quickly on the cheek, to everyone's surprise. That was insane. The after-program dinner with Neil was also wonderful, even though I didn't get to talk much, because my brain was still on fire. It was my first time meeting Neil, and he was so pleasant and down-to-earth.

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

Do your stuff. Be yourself. I think it's clear, if you look at the previous winners of the competition, that the judges aren't necessarily looking for Neil Gaiman or Dave McKean-style comics. They're just looking for good comics. The thing I like about most of the winners is that they have a solid identity and style. Manix Abrera's stuff is Manix Abrera's stuff; it's not Sandman and it's its own brand of awesome. Have a good story and present it to the best of your ability; that's all you really have to do.

One more thing: competitions are always a crapshoot, but whether you win or you don't, keep making comics. I realize that a lot of people jump into this competition for the money, but I think it's a shame when they stop after that. The competition is there to inspire people to make comics, so we owe it to ourselves to keep at it. Keep writing, keep drawing, and share your talent with the world.

3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Special Feature: Interview with Joseph Nacino

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.


Joseph Nacino won 1st place in last year's Graphic/Fiction Awards with his short story "Logovore". His fiction has appeared in Philippine Speculative Fiction as well as Digest of Philippine Genre Stories.

Tell us something about yourself.

Well, I'm currently a writer working for a hardware magazine but I'm also doing freelance writing work. On the side I read a lot, usually speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy and horror (and everything in between). However, my favorite is really fantasy and all its shades. I grew up reading horror stories (and treat it like an older brother) while SF is that distant middle sibling who you can rely on but never really trust. From reading stories, it was relatively easy to move into writing them.

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

With regard to my story "Logovore", it began with the simple kernel of an idea: what would words taste like. It was based on a kind of imaginative synesthesia, and I came up with the idea of a man who actually lives on words alone . Moreover, I wondered how a person who survives on eating one particular language (in this case, English) would be able to live in a foreign land and that has a foreign language (in this case, the Philippines). I added a few true-to-life incidents (particularly those involving teachers and teaching) and this story came out.

What was the most challenging part of the competition?

Challenging? I suppose you could say the challenging part right now is the post-contest pressure, of trying to live up to a "reputation" of having won to begin with. But then again, I just like writing my stories and that's how I deal with the pressure: I write the stories I think would be fascinating and to hell with the rest.

What was the coolest moment you experienced when you won the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards?

Having Neil Gaiman and Dean Alfar chatting at the dinner table with us. Whatever traces of geekhood I had left after growing up started squee-ing at that moment.

What advice can you give to those participating in this year's competition?

Submit, dammit. You have nothing to lose. And when writing your story, remember that it's about who and what you are: you as a person, you as a Filipino, you as a human being. Put that in your story. That's what makes your story unique and that's what will make your story stick out for the judges.

Special Feature: Countdown to Fully Booked and Neil Gaiman's 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards

Every Wednesday until August, I'll have a special feature on the 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards.


Just reminding Filipino writers, comic artists, and filmmakers that the deadline for the 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards (see guidelines here) is on Sept. 30, 2008. (On a side note, Filipino speculative fiction authors should also remember that the deadline for Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 4 is on September 15, 2008.)

Now the cash prize for first place in the competition (based on the previous two years) is P100,000.00 (roughly $2,222.00) and that's certainly more than half my annual salary so both aspiring and existing authors, artists, and film directors have a lucrative chance to not only gain prestige but earn some lucrative cash as well.

Anyway, to help promote the event and encourage participants (this is all voluntary on my part and neither Fully Booked nor Neil Gaiman is supporting this blog), I'll be posting some interviews I had with the previous winners starting next Wednesday (at the very least, you can look forward to interviews with Joey Nacino and Ian Casocot and Andrew Drilon).

In the meantime, you can treat yourself to some excerpts from Neil Gaiman's speech during last year's awarding ceremonies. You can also download and listen to the RAW mp3 of the event here (Gaiman starts talking at around 5 minutes into the recording).

Would you tell us Neil why you're so involved in these awards?

So I came up around two and a half years ago and one of the first things I had to do, more or less getting off the plane was judge an art competition and I was astonished by how good the art was and then I kept going around and talking to people and meeting people. And I got a sense of how smart everybody was, how good they were, how really cleaned up on science fiction and fantasy and horror and how much science fiction and fantasy and horror was part of the walk of life of society here. How well they understood it and nobody seemed to be writing it. There wasn't really a tradition of Filipino fantasy and Filipino horror despite the fact that you got the coolest and richest folklore in the world. And you do! And you have such amazing, intelligent people. When I grew up, when I was around fourteen, the best artists in American comics were Filipinos. They were Alex Nino, they were Alfredo Alcala, they were Tony de Zuniga, Nestor Rodondo. There were lots of them and they were amazing. And then these days you don't seem to be playing very much, just started at it again. There are a few people who are playing on a global stage. And I thought I wanted to encourage them so I phoned up Jaime Daez from Fully Booked and I said okay, I will deal with you. We talked about it a bit and I would put up the prize money personally if you run the competition. So that's the way it turned up. I put up the prize money. Putting up the prize money is the easy bit. Jaime Daez, they really have the hard bit because they have to organize it and then to run it. About a year ago, the first round of winners were announced. And then a year later, I've written the introduction and we have two collections of the winners so you can actually read them. It has the winners and has a lot of good stuff in there, but if you're can't be good enough to be runner up or worse, what we'll be doing later today is announce the winners of this year's competition and we'll always talk, I think I'll mention it now. We're going into year three, we're going to do the competition for year three and the quality of the prose entries I actually thought was excellent in year one. You have better writers, better writing than we did in year one. The comics entries weren't actually as good. I should warn you ahead of time that when we talked this evening, we have no first prize. We have two second prizes and a third prizes but no first which we thought was good enough. And we got the --- that we're not giving you long enough so so you have about a year. This year. We are announcing right now, there will be a third year.

How would you describe or define Filipino Unrealism?

Filipino Unrealism is really, it began as a comment by me out of reading about why are the things coming out of the Philippines is if you come to the Philippines, people will give you things. And they give you really cool things you've never encountered before if you're me like Calamansi juice and strange little wooden carvings with enormous penises. Even Chocnut. One of the things I was given in quantity were books of the literature of the Philippines including short story collections and great Filipino short stories and I've been reading this stuff and loving it and wondering why do you have an amazing tradition here of Filipino realistic literature. There's great realism but there doesn't seem to be any unrealism. There's no tradition of great fantastic literature, of great horror, of great science fiction. That's really what I'm looking to pick up the --- tube to use an English expression and see if we can push on Filipino unrealism.

How can writers of fiction, especially speculative fiction, engage themselves in social causes? How can writers be agents of change?

Which is a really good question because I think that sometimes people think that you cannot talk about something real when you're talking about something unreal. Whereas I think it's the other way around. I think it's very very hard sometimes to talk about things that people are very very familiar with. Why did I write ---? I could have written a novel about homelessness in London and nobody would have ever read it except those people who are interested in homelessness in London. And instead I wrote a novel called Neverwhere. And somewhere you get --- taken away from him about the people who fall through the cracks and I get to write about the dispossessed, I get to write about the people whose lives fall through the cracks, I get to write about the homeless and the land in a way which makes people read the book and look at the homeless encounter possibly for the first time because it's talking about the way that all the people who've become invisible to the people who have jobs working income. But you can do that better sometimes when you sort of go around the prom.... in the same way that you talk about these feelings that you had when you were a kid whether you're gay, whether you're sloppy, whether you're weird, whether you were a nerd, whether you were lonely. And suddenly you're a --- and you could have helped that in a way...

Plug: 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards

From Fully Booked:

NEIL GAIMAN and FULLY BOOKED
present

The 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards

After two successful years of exploring Filipino Unrealism through prose fiction and comics, the Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards opens its third with a new category: short film.

All Filipino citizens may send their original entries in the prose fiction, comics, and short film categories to any Fully Booked branch.

The winning prose and comics entries will be compiled and published by Fully Booked, with a foreword by Neil Gaiman. All winning short films will be screened on awarding day.

CONTEST GUIDELINES:

1. Submissions must be given or delivered before or on September 30, 2008, with a duly accomplished application form and resume, to be sealed inside a legal size letter envelope with the heading, "3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards." All submissions should be given or delivered to:

Fully Booked Customer Service
Fully Booked
Bldg 6, 902 Bonifacio High Street
Bonifacio Global City
1634 Taguig City

Only 1 submission per envelope (for those submitting to all three categories). Application forms may be downloaded below.

2. The contest is open to all Filipino citizens, even those who may be in a foreign country at the time, so long as they are still legal citizens, except current officers and employees of Fully Booked and the contest's sponsors.

3. All submissions must be in English except for the short film category, which may be in English or Filipino with English subtitles.

4. There are three categories: comics, prose fiction and short film. Contestants may join in all categories, and collaborations are allowed; however, each contestant may only submit and/or be involved with only one (1) submission per category.

5. Submissions must not have been awarded by another body or published in a national publication. Submissions to the short film category must not have been exhibited commercially, locally or internationally.

6. All submissions must be original. No adaptations of produced / published / copyrighted material are allowed. All intellectual property rights of submissions must belong to the author/s and director/s. Fully Booked and its sponsors shall be exempt from any and all liability in the event that the submission is said to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of another existing work. All rights revert to respective authors and directors, but FULLY BOOKED maintains/reserves the right to publish submissions without permission / approval / compensation.

7. a. PROSE - Submissions must fall under the genres of science fiction, fantasy and/or horror. Stories may not exceed seven thousand (7,000) words. Submissions must include four (4) hard copies, typewritten or computerized (preferably computerized). Submissions should be double-spaced on letter-size bond paper (8 1/2 X 11 inches), with approximately one-inch margin on all sides. Fonts should be Arial or Times New Roman and the font size should be 12. The author/s' name and address must not appear on the submission or any of its pages. Every page must contain the title of the work and must be numbered consecutively (e.g. 1 of 20, 5 of 15 and so on). The submission must include one (1) soft copy on a CD-ROM (files should be in .rtf [Rich Text Format]).

b. COMICS - For Comics, the theme is open (non-fiction is allowed). Twelve (12) pages is the maximum length. All submissions should be in black and white. Contestants may use any media they wish. No signatures/names must appear on any of the pages. Submissions must include four (4) hard copies (letter-size bond paper [8 1/2 X 11 inches]) and one (1) soft copy on CD-ROM (files should be in .jpg format, with art scanned at a minimum of 300 dpi); no original art must be submitted.

c. SHORT FILM - Submissions must fall under the genres of science fiction, fantasy and/or horror. The production of the short film must be in 2008, it should not exceed 20 minutes (including credits) and must be submitted in a digital video format (DVD). This category is open to professionals, however, no corporate financing is allowed.

8. Fully Booked has no obligation to return submissions.

9. In case submissions from overseas win, an authenticated copy of the Authorization Form by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate will be required.

10. The Board of Judges shall have the discretion, not to award any prize if, in its judgment, no worthy submission has been entered.

12. Fully Booked has the sole right to designate the persons who shall constitute the Board of Judges in each of the contest categories. The decision of the majority of the Board of Judges in all categories shall be final.

13. All rules and guidelines of the contest must be followed STRICTLY. Non-compliance will subject the submission to immediate disqualification.

Download: OFFICIAL_APPLICATION_FORM.pdf

Fully Booked's In-Print Magazine - New Look, New Writers

In the latest issue of Fully Booked's In-Print magazine, they mention that they're revamping the magazine starting with their June/July 2008 issue.

It's also mentioned that interested contributors can send their resume and writing sample to in_print_fb@gmail.com.

Black Dossier and Manga for P100.00

First off, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is now available at Fully Booked. Comic shops couldn't order this title because of legal restrictions (limiting it to the US) but somehow Fully Booked got around that limitation.

Second, the Shangri-La branch of National Bookstore has a bargain bin... full of manga! Tokyopop titles are going for P100.00 ($2.50) each.

Fully Booked Rockwell Sale

This just came in from the inbox:

TO OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS:

We would like to inform you that FULLYBOOKED ROCKWELL will be on SALE starting tomorrow until the 6th.

20% off cash and card on all regular items except on LOCAL & CONSIGNED ITEMS (N CODED ITEMS).

Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Fullybooked Customer Service

Fully Booked Promo

Dropped by Fullly Booked today and they have various promos which involve you buying books for them. For example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being sold for P750 if you buy anything else with a minimum purchase of P100.00. Other items that involve a similar promo are the Marvel Encyclopedias (Hulk and Spider-Man).

Fully Booked Announcement

Fully Booked has updated their site and posted the list of winners with photographs.

Graphic/Fiction Awards 2007 Transcripts

I'm juggling too many transcripts currently but here's an abridged version (to be updated when they're finished) of the various speeches at the Graphic/Fiction Awards.

Many thanks to the hosts and --- are words I couldn't quite understand while ... are entire phrases which I couldn't comprehend.

Neil Gaiman's Introduction:

What did you think about your entrance?

The great thing about coming to the Philippines is that people always ask what was the strangest thing that has happened to me in the Philippines. Today when they were asking me upstairs as I was being interviewed was yesterday during the book signing that I did in Subic, somebody named Jason with him through my FAQ line on my website and said I want to propose marriage to my girlfriend, would you mind writing Maui would you marry Jason in my book? Of course I did it. I wrote Maui would you marry Jason and--I did a Sandman drawing first and handed it to her and she looked very baffled at first, possibly I was the one proposing. And then she looked at the word Jason attached to it and by that point she had Jason down on his knees pulling out a ring. That was yesterday's strangest thing.

I assume she said yes?

She did. I was worried if she said no. So that was yesterday's. Today's most peculiar thing was definitely coming on holding the word quintessential. In the middle of a not-quite-arrived typhoon.

Would you tell us Neil why you're so involved in these awards?

How many of you were here at the Rockwell event? So I recognized that-- So I came up around two and a half years ago and one of the first things I had to do, more or less getting off the plane was judge an art competition and I was astonished by how good the art was and then I kept going around and talking to people and meeting people. And I got a sense of how smart everybody was, how good they were, how really cleaned up on science fiction and fantasy and how much science fiction and fantasy and horror was part of the walk of the --- of society here. How well they understood it and nobody seemed to be writing it. There wasn't really a tradition of Filipino fantasy and Filipino horror despite the fact that you got the coolest and richest folklore in the world. And you do! And you have such amazing, intelligent people. When I grew up, when I was around fourteen, the best artists in American comics were Filipinos. They were Alex Nino, they were Alfredo Alcala, they were Tony de Zuniga, Nestor Rodondo. There were lots of them and they were amazing. And then these days you don't seem to be playing very much, just started at it again. There are a few people who are playing on a global stage. But I wanted to encourage them so I phoned up Jaime Daez from Fully Booked and I said okay, I would be with you. We talked about it a bit and I would put up the prize money personally if you run the competition. So that's the way it turned up. I put up the prize money. Putting up the prize money is the easy bit. Jaime Daez, they really have the hard bit because they have to organize it and then to run it. About a year ago, the first round of winners were announced. And then a year later, I've written the introduction and we have two collections of the winners so you can actually read them. It has the winners and has a lot of good stuff in there, but if you're can't be good enough to be runner up or worse, what we'll be doing later today is announce the winners of this year's competition and we'll always talk, I think I'll mention it now. We're going into year three, we're going to do the competition for year three and the quality of the prose entries I actually thought was excellent in year one. You have better writers, better writing than we did in year one. The comics entries weren't actually as good. I should warn you ahead of time that when we talked this evening, we have no first prize. We have two second prizes and a third prizes but no first which we thought was good enough. And we got the --- that we're not giving you long enough so so you have about a year. This year. We are announcing right now, there will be a third year.

Will you be back for the third year?

Depends on the quality of the entries. If they're good enough I'll come back. The other thing we want to do is add an extra category. Up until now we got prose and we got comics. This year we will add short film.

How would you describe or define Filipino Realism?

Filipino on Realism is really, it began as a comment by me out of reading about why are the things coming out of the Philippines is if you come to the Philippines, people give you things. And they give you really cool things you've never encountered before if you're me like Calamansi juice and strange little wooden carvings with enormous penises. Even Chocnut. One of the things I was given in quantity were books of the literature of the Philippines including short story collections and great Filipino short stories and I've been reading this stuff and loving it and wondering why do you have an amazing tradition here of Filipino realistic literature. There's great realism but there doesn't seem to be any unrealism. There's no tradition of great fantastic literature, of great horror, of great science fiction. That's really what I'm looking to pick up the --- tube to use an English expression and see if we can put on Filipino unrealism.

Neil Gaiman's Q&A:

When will we be seeing the Endless on the big screen and who would you want to play Dream, yourself not included?

I'm not tall enough anyway. Or white enough. I don't know. Probably because we're going to see them in the Death movie if that happens. I vote out early this year with Guillermo del Torro as executive producer on the Death movie. And --- will be directing. And Guillermo to be the one offered to me because he's out on ---, He's .... He's filming Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. And so I could shadow him and learn everything, critique me about directing techniques. I can ask him any question I want to. So do. And I follow him around and I think it's marvelous. And we had the marvelous time and what brought me off course is I'm on strike. As a writer's guild member, I'm on strike which means I can't do anything to the script until the strike is over. But once it's over I'm really looking forward to working on the Death movie. As for who would play Dream or who would play Death, that's for me to know or hope and you guys to find out when it gets made.

I would tell you but somebody might post it at Ain't It Cool News.

What is the most important ingredient in making an effective dark plot or dark character?

Most important ingredient in making an effective dark plot or dark character is believing in it yourself. If you want to write something scary, you're going to be scaring yourself. If you're going to write something troubling, you better go find something that actually troubles you. If it doesn't scare you then it probably does not scare anybody else at all. So that's for me is the most effective thing, finding--Coraline, with ---, with nightmares, ---. The thing with --- is that kind of thing that I scare myself when I was a kid. I'd sit there at school, thinking what would happen if while I'm at school, my parents forget me and move out and there's nobody there when I get home. What if my parents move house completely look exactly like my parents move in. And I wouldn't know. I'd sit there absolutely terrified, wonderfully terrified about this. So that for me, and that was the beginning of Coraline. You got to find something that scares you.

I'd like to know your thoughts on the Amazon Kindle or Ebooks in general.

I was very lucky, I was given a Kindle in June. I got to play with it through September when they worried there might be a security leak and made me give it back. It was wonderful. It was not a substitute for a book. A book--a paper object book is always going to be preferable. But if like me you travel too much and you really don't have room in your bag to put for twenty or thirty books, the electronic version is --- and just being able to --- on Kindle was going to be the best with Maddie and sitting on the plane before it took off and she looked at me really worried and said I don't have anything to read and I put out the Kindle and just bought her five --- books to .... and she has books to read all her way through, she has books to read while sitting on the film set. Then when she got bored of ---, she started reading things like Stephen King's The Cell, and Dracula. Which I can't imagine she would have ever read except as a --- on the Kindle...

I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with your works being sold on the Kindle.

No, I don't have a problem with eBooks. They are not a substitute, they are something else.

How can writers of fiction, especially speculative fiction, engage themselves in social causes? How can writers be agents of change?

Which is a really good question because I think that sometimes people think that you cannot talk about something real when you're talking about something unreal. Whereas I think it's the other way around. I think it's very very hard sometimes to talk about things that people are very very familiar with. Why did I ---? I could have written a novel about homelessness in London and nobody would have ever read it except those people who are interested in homelessness in London. And instead I wrote a novel called Neverwhere. And somewhere you get --- taken away from him about the people who fall through the cracks and I get to write about the dispossessed, I get to write about the people whose lives fall through the cracks, I get to write about the homeless and the land in a way which makes people read the book and look at the homeless encounter possibly for the first time because it's talking about the way that all the people who've become invisible to the people who have jobs working income. But you can do that better sometimes when you sort of go around the prom.... talk about these feelings that you had when you were a kid about --- whether you're gay, whether you're sloppy, whether you're weird, whether you were a nerd, whether you were lonely. And suddenly you're a --- and you could have helped that in a way...

How has being a father to Maddy especially influenced or changed the content of your work? Has any of them shown any writer's inclinations?

That's a good question... Mike come up on stage. Okay, this is my son Michael.... because he works for Google. And I think being a father is great because I've been stealing stuff from my kids now for over twenty years. How many books have I stolen from you?

Michael: Many. I would say you steal from me, you stole from me ---

Goldfish book? That was you? I put him one day and he was really grumpy because I thought he was much taller. I told him something terrible like go to bed or clean his room and he looked up at me and do you know what it was he said?

Michael: I assume it had something to do with, I don't know.

It was. You looked up at me and were very grumpy and said I wish I didn't have a dad. I wish I had, and then you stopped and thought because what else did you have? And then you said I wish I had goldfish. And I thought that's brilliant, I'll steal it. And I did and I wrote a novel.

Michael: And I went to college so it all works out.

And I stole some more from Maddie who woke up and she said dad, she was in bed and crying, and I said what's the matter? She said there were wolves, there were wolves in the house and they came out and they took the house over. I said I think you have a bad dream. She said no, I can show you the place in the wall where they came out from. And I thought there you go. And one day we'll put her through college.

I don't think, I mean my children's books, without any children, I probably would have written all the other books but the children's books, including The Graveyard Book. The Graveyard Book is which is what I'm writing currently began about two years ago. We didn't have a garden so we would drive around in his little tricycle, his little tricycle in the graveyard next door. And sit on the bench and watch this little girl puttering next to gravestones thinking I'm going to use that one, ay? And I did.

Jaime Daez Speech:

Good afternoon everyone. I'm honestly very, very honored, flattered and out of words because this is our first publication ever. For anyone in my position, it is a dream come true that the guy who's launching this book together with me is one of the greatest writers in the world right now. So Neil, once again, I can't thank you enough for all the support, for coming over two and a half years ago, and going through all the hell lines just to satisfy everyone. And for coming back and for keeping on supporting this by already telling everyone that we will be doing this again next year. Having said that, there are a lot of people as well involved, people who don't get acknowledged and I want to acknowledge these people right now who worked very hard to make this happen. These are the people who had to go through the hundreds of entries and basically go through and judge which are the winners. So I would like to acknowledge them right now. Ramon de Veyra, I'm sure he's here right now. Ramon is the guy who really helped sort through the whole comics list and Erwin Romulo, I see you right there. Erwin Romulo was the one who sorted through the whole prose list. And then I have three of my staff. Vivian Chuaseco, and Tals Diaz who really helped as well in sorting everything out and deciding who the final cut was going to be. I would like to make special mention to one of my staff as well, I see her right now. Rhea Llamas. Rhea was the one who really did the work. This was the, this was what Neil was saying when he said this was the hell part. Of compiling everything, going through the printing, going through the editing, checking every word so that everything was done correctly. Again, Rhea, thank you very much. Last but not least, aside from the judges who will be presented anyway later, I would like to thank the guy who did the cover: Leinil Yu, please. For all of you who do not know, Leinil Yu is one of the most sought out comic book artist in the world. Currently drawing the best-selling comic right now in the US, the New Avengers. If you do not know him, by next year you will because anyone of you who has read Civil War, the biggest comic book next year is going to be Secret Invasion and he is the guy drawing it. So he probably makes some people very very proud, we have one of the best right here. Thank you all for coming, I believe that you already know that the books are available but unfortunately, Neil cannot sign for everyone. If you do buy the set, you are guaranteed one book signed by him.

Once again, a big round of applause for Neil.

On This Year's Winners:

"Absolution" is a wonderful little comic. Beautifully drawn, doesn't really have enough of a story to be a first prize winner. And with your story it would have been probably the best drawn I think.

"Afterlife" was beautifully drawn, too wordy and felt too compressed as if it had just a little room to breathe it would have given you a few more pages, it would have worked out better. Nice art though.

"Juan Perez's Corpse" really funny, nasty story. And I loved both the funniness and the nastiness of a corpse of a man killed in a plane crash, wakes up in bed in a particularly nasty condition and goes down for breakfast and the reaction of the neighbors and everybody else to what's going on and it actually manages to be moving as well which I thought was lovely.

The other thing that managed to be moving was "Lines and Spaces", our second place for comics which was basically a tribute to Alex Nino and which I thought was particularly apt since Alex Nino was one of the huge inspirations behind comics and it's a lovely little story.

Second place winner "The Bridge" very spooky. One of the things I loved about all the stories is that they all feel uniquely Filipino. And "The Bridge" which is a story about a psychic little girl and her encounter with a political leader of a country a lot like the Philippines is very, very creepy and really nicely done.

"The Sugilanon of Epifania's Heartbreak" which Ian, who also won 1st place in last year's competition is a lovely little fable and felt it should have been illustrated. If you get it published, maybe in the book next year we can get a few illustrations.

The first place winner is science fiction and fantasy and uniquely Filipino and very, very, very odd in all of the nicest possible ways. And it's a story called "Logovore" about somebody who eats words and their encounters with the people--it's almost indescribable and I've never read anything like it before and was absolutely ready to go on the world stage. I looked at that story and--it could have been fantasy or science fiction and it ought to be picked up by the best of the year anthologies.

So honestly you guys, especially in prose, nothing to be ashamed of. So absolutely terrific showing. What I'm hoping for next year is that we not only get absolutely world class prose but we also get absolutely world class comics as well. Not to mention of course short films. We have strange plans for the short films, quite possibly our own YouTube channel. Maybe having to do the DVD. And I guess I'll have to do the introduction to the DVD.