Sunday, April 10, 2011

Gerry and Elmer

Congratulations to my old comic book creator friend Gerry Alanguilan, whose “Elmer” collection was recently nominated in the Eisner Awards’ Best Graphic Album category. Wow, that’s just awesome (or “wizard,” as he’d say).

Okay, this is sort of an “I knew him when” post: Gerry and I belonged to a comic book group called Creative Underground, which included members like Nick Manabat, John Toledo, Marvin Quien, Arnold Arre, Ian Orendain, Budjette Tan, and Chris Bernardo (among many others). We met up weekly back in the early ‘90s, and shared art duties on a book called “Lakan” (which never got published for various reasons). Gerry used to lend me his Frank Miller and Alan Moore-written comics; we’d spend hours just talking about our favorite stories and creators. We went to comic shops a couple of times. The group eventually became co-founders of independent comics movement Alamat, and Gerry started writing and illustrating his projects, titles like Wasted, Crest Hut Butt Shop, and Timawa. He began inking comic books for Image, Marvel, and some American indie companies soon after, and hasn’t stopped working on comic books since.

He eventually became an online komiks historian, helping me out periodically with articles that require his impressive knowledge on the subject. He graciously answers my questions even when he’s busy, so I’m really thankful for that. He’s one of the hardest-working persons I know. And yeah, he’s certainly one of the most opinionated ones, too!

So congrats, brother. Proud of you!

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