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TRANSCRIPT OF ALEXANDER SISON'S INTERVIEW WITH BOW GUERRERO
25 November 2013 02:22
Bow Guerrero: Hi Alexander. I'll try my best to give
clear answers ha ha ha! This is how I remember things.
I think at the time we started Alamat in the 90s, the
general feeling was that the local comics scene was so small (as compared to
today). Aggressively competing against
each other for exposure and sales could actually do more harm than good to
local comics in general. So, Alamat sort of became a protective umbrella for
all the artists and writers--a network of comic creators that helped out each
other.
Today the local comics scene is still very small but
immensely healthier. It's absolutely
okay to compete now. I think healthy
competition helps bring out better stories, better art, and better comics.
Why do comics? I
love telling stories. I've been doing it ever since I was in grade school at
the Ateneo (I grew up with a barkada of storytellers).
I loved reading novels, watching films and of course,
reading comics. But in terms of telling
stories, there was something about comics that really appealed to me--it was
that perfect mixture of words and visuals, I guess.
Plus, I grew up with comic books which had crazier
ideas than the stuff you found in books and films at that time. I'm not saying that all the comic book
stories were extremely original...actually, many of them followed the same
story archetypes found in the best books and films.
Comics just did a better job in presenting these same
stories in a different and weirder way.
Check out Jack Kirby's stuff.
You can even go way, way back. Check out Winsor McCay.
Sadly, there are still many who think of comics as a
kid's thing.
Hope that helps.
Interviewer: I guess the next thing I would like to
ask, are about the particular problems and obstacles that came your way during
the initial run of Alamat Comics. I heard for example that you guys weren't
able to finish a lot of the titles you were working on, due to scheduling
conflicts and whatnot. Could you tell me a little more about those stuff, and
what in your opinion you've learned from
those experiences?
Bow Guerrero: In some ways, some of the challenges we
faced when we were fresh out of school we still face now. When we were younger, we basically had no
money to use for making comics (except for Budjette...you might have to verify
with him) I think he bankrolled all our printed stuff whether was offset
printing, photocopies or Risographs.
There were no solid means to support our comics production on a regular
basis. So we wrote and drew our issues
sporadically.
We tried to gain more exposure and get people
interested by having small exhibits in malls...but that didn't help too much.
That's why the comics I worked on like the Phantom and
Horus have been put on hold indefinitely.
If we didn't have to worry about making money to
support our families, our lifestyles and produce comics, then we would do
comics all day everyday.
Many of us writers and artists had to find jobs that
were closely related to our first love.
Many went into graphic design, magazines and advertising (for a time all
of us in the Demon Dungeon team worked in one advertising agency :-))
We were making money but our attention had to be on
work. Our problem now is time. We put most of our time into work or our
"day jobs" as we like to call it. But every free time we get we
either draw or write.
I'm still in an ad agency so our work requires a lot of
lateral thinking which exhausts you. I
usually need to rest a day or two after every big project at the agency before
I can start working on the Demon Dungeon.
Rest is important because drawing stressed or tense always results in
really lousy illustrations.
That's why there are some drawings in the first book that I'm not too
happy with. That’s it!
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