datu talim surrounded! this production sketch has one of the "tweaks" i've been talking about. the creatures 'round talim is my version of tianaks. i know, i know, i'm totally breaking away from the traditional look of the creature (child like vampires/ ghouls), but there has been precedence in updating folklore before. all of the classic monsters in the pass have had face lift and re interpretation. take the werewolf for example. each succesive generation has their version: there's the lon chaney version, the american werewolf in london version to the more recent van helsing CGI model.

my version happens to be more beast like than anything. they do not have eyes but hunts by heat/smell signature the prey emits . the slits in front of the head acts as heat/olfactory sensors.
i also have the idea of them being able to 'liquify' the ground and sink into it, so they can lie in wait in ambush, much like some bug species i've seen. they can generate a sort of ultra sonic vibration that breaks apart stone, dirt, sand et. at. similar to earthquakes. they are known to liquify the ground if the tremor is big enough and the vibration frequency is just right. only the tianaks do it on a very localized point and in a more focused manner.

i also want him to interact with weird and fantastic creatures throughout the storyline. ray harryhausen movies are some of the influences i had growing up, so i'd like to have something that harry might have animated in the day.

the buwaya (croc) seen here is from some ancient mythology that people living in the southern part of 'pinas has. i'm going to incorporate some of these into my story, but i want to tweak them a bit, with sort of a 21st century sensibility built into it.

Some of the stories about these creatures might have been scary to people centuries ago, but to a modern audience, they would just appear silly. what i would like to do is to preserve the core or essence of whatever i'm adapting and give it an internal logic as to how a creature such as this would behave and function in a world similar to our own.

they called this type of creature, Kurits. and according to legend, the kurit's hide is so tough, that no kalis can penetrate it. perhaps that's why datu talim is using a kampilan , instead of his usual weapon : )

Speaking of which, datu talim is well versed in all types of weaponry. i want to draw him with a variety of weapons, but his trademark would be his kalis. he will also be well versed in hand to hand combat. more excuse for me to draw some cool action scenes!

What attracted me about opening the story on the silk road is because the road winds through some of the harshest envirorment known to earth. the gobi desert, with it's ocean of sand and rock, have this outworldly quality to it. it's not just miles and miles of sand, but it also have some very cool rock and geological features i'd like to incorporate into the backdrop. from 100 degrees + of scorching wasteland, the silk road cut a swath across the great grassland of Xizhang to the frozen wilderness of the china/ russia border frontier, one has a lot to play with.

like, how would a boy from the island (i call pilipinas, Silangan in my story, which is pronounced: Cee-la- 'ngan) fare in these hostile envirorments? because of his intensive training, he is able to have almost total control over his physiology. he would be able to regulate the temperature of his body to such a degree that he would be literally smoking as he raises his core temperature when he hits the frozen thundra. all the while wearing his togs where ever he goes!

i also want to draw him on a horse and all sort of conveyances along his journey. the horse riding sequences would be specially enjoyable to me because i'm a big western fan. it's sort of my way of making a western eastern style ; )

i love the searchers. john ford's classic has those amazing vistas of the western landscape becomes a character in its self. one of john waynes best movies as well.

Another thing i want to have is a distinctive approach to action scenes. i've been researching the pilipino martial art of kali and indonesian silat, and having been a student has given me a great appreciation of these arts. i realise what a shame it would be not to reflect their beauty and effectiveness in this project, accurately. why both? some high ranking teachers are of the opinion that kali and silat are related arts. and having seen both, i tend to lean in that direction.



There are some things i can't depict out of galang and adat hormat. but i want to at least have the "flavour" seep through the work. i want datu Talim to use the kalis because of it's connnection to the art. you saw datu Talim doing sepok (front cross step) on the last post. his wearing the taruk, sarong/malong and sawal kiput also identifies him with kali and silat as they are analogous to a samurai wearing his kimono, obi ,tabi and katana.

this was fun. i have datu talim interacting with the world's fierces fighters in the story line. and why not? mandirigma (warriors) of the islands has proven the effectiveness of the arts for centuries.
this one has datu talim vs. a mongol general. hmmm... i wonder what's the story behind that?

stay tuned!!!

His world is where the fantastic and the mundane co- exists.


The story opens with datu Talim at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains, an area where the borders of china and russia meets. it would be around 12th century AD.
Or at least that's the time frame i want to use as a template. i don't want to be too constrained by sticking with the timeline verbatim, but straying far won't do either. peter jackson got it right with LOTR, where he used existing historical artifacts and tweaked them to suit the story. The right balance of design sense and authenticity really came together to form a coherent overall concept. That's what i aim to do.


The setting itself really did existed. there was a trade route called the silk road in china for thousands of years. from the warm pacific ocean , looking east, to the cold, desolate thundra of the Steepes, westward , the road ran through the heartland of china.

culture and goods exchange hands along these roads. and many a merchant became wealthy and powerful during it's heyday. but in every great endeavor, there are great risks. the harsh climate of the Gobi desert took it's toll among many hapless caravans as well as bandits who
roamed the vast landscape.

the sheer magnitude of the route itself prevented the emperor to provide all subjects the necessary force to protect the frontier. So it was at this juncture that many security agency sprung up and flourished. bodyguard/mercenary hired by merchants to escort their goods safetly from one out post to another, until reaching the market place of the west.

This is where we meet datu Talim.

...and the third. Perhaps something like this jacket can be incorporated in his wardrobe. i also have him wearing a double pony tail/braid thing. Seem like, according to researchers, they really cared about how one looked back then. the styles changed with the season, so i don't see why that aesthetic can't apply to datu Talim here.

Here's a 2nd version of datu Talim. i'm thinking datu Talim should have more that just one outfit. He could have an variant for the different envirorments he will be functioning in, but i want to have him wear something of a signature for him. Something that makes him stick out. And i think the Malong/sarong elements would be it. i also like the "color" value in this.
i got the idea of the"hat" from an old pix of a makabebe scout from the end of the 18th century. it was a before and after pix. He wore the "hat" before he joined the phillipine constabulary. the "hat" is a lot bigger than the one datu Talim is wearing. oh, well. he can always take it off.

Now, Maharlika Chronicles sort of sprung forth during my studies about pre european phillipines and pilipino martial arts. it just blew me away as to how incredibly brave and resourceful they where back then. i dug into many reference books and found out that my perception about Pinoy history was distorted by misinformation. so i continued to delve into this body of work and looked beyond the spanish advent and thats when Talim and his world started to take shape. in the next few posting i'll write about the reference books that influenced me as well as the process that i'm using in developing this project. in the mean time, enjoy more of datu Talim. These are preliminary sketches that has the quality i'm going for. All of the elements that datu Talim's clothes has are indigenous to the island before the spanish arrival (hence to be refered to as btsa). the malong (the "sash" across his body) and the sarong (the "kilt") are common to south east asia so there are a lot of over lap in terms of clothes, language, martial arts in the area, because of the proximity of the neighboring islands. there are no "borders" to speak of as well, so the whole area has ample opportunity and time to crosspolinate with each other wheter it's through trade, intermarriges or warfare. what makes the elements unique to each area would be how one wears the acoutrements, the patterns in the textile, and what is left out/added to.
however, that is not to say that each has no style of their own, these cultures were and still are dynamic and alive. those common threads in the cultures of the phillipines, indonesia and malaysia were evident, but they still retained their individual flair and aesthetics.

The sword datu Talim is carrying is called a Kalis. some call it keris, kris et. al. but for datu Talim, i'm calling it Kalis. this is also indigenous, uniquely pinoy. the malaysian/indonesian version of the blade is more like a dagger and is not really considered a sword proper.

So there he was. drawing away at what looks like man o war from valiant comics back in the day.
after a few minutes, i got the nerve to actually talk to him while he was working. i broke the ice by asking him about the pens he uses. we sort of talk shop for a few minutes, all the while, my brain was racing as how to show him my work without making like a fanboy.
finally, there was an opening. some guy interrupted (politely) our small talk. i took this opportunity to grab my LAST copy of jungle corps and steeled myself. after the dude walked away, i handed whilce the copy and said that i wanted to give this to him as a token of my esteem for his work. he was starting up again (drawing) when i handed it to him, so i didn't expect anything.
but check this out: he did a double take and he said that he was looking for something like this for a while now. imagine my surprise! after this, we talked at lenght about my work and how he had been looking for material that falls in line with what i was doing.

what a trip!

so after that, he asked me if i have my contact info in the book (i did). and a few weeks later i had a encouraging email from him about the project.

we met a few times and started to talk about my other projects. one of which is something that's been rattling 'round my noggin for a while now.
i told whilce about it it's called MAHARLIKA CHRONICLES. and here's the hero of the piece
his name is Datu TALIM.

now, were wuz i.... oh yeah. COMICON ! the i remember the first time i went. it was in the early eighties. me and a bud, marc williams, took an old clunker (was based in L.A. at that time) and headed down to the old place where they held it. man those were the days! seems to me that the comicon back then was more innocent (meaning it was for comics, by comic geeks). i was really blown over by how large the con has become. but that's another story.

flash forward. two years ago. got back into the con thing and equipt with a finished mini, i trucked down to the con. but as i said, i was just tripping on how LARGE every has become! and not only that, i had no contact was so ever. i had sent the mini to a pro back east that i really admired named rafael kayanan, and got back some kind encouragement from him. that sort of gave me a boost to actually show my stuff to other pros.

up and down i went through the halls of the convention center. that year was a lot hotter than i remembered san diego to be. i felt like the center's aircon was struggling to cool off the teeming hordes of humanity.

saw some cool artists and their wares. one thing i dig about the new layout: you can be up close and personal with the artist.

so while i was making the circuit, i was wracking my brain: who to show my stuff to. the artists that i admired were busy with signing and all, so my time was limited. not to mention that i was shaking in my boots. i was going thru this thought when i got to the begining of the artist alley and lo and behold, i saw i guy, whose work i always thought just rocks. it just so happened that there was a lull between crowds. and like the parting of the red sea, there was an opening. there he was in front of me. he was drawing/inking an old character named XO man o war.

it was whilce portacio.

after a lot of obstacles and barriers,
one of which is having to settle working with corel draw and a partial version at that, here it is.
the mini comic is 32 pages long and it sort of a compilation of some of the genres i have interest in (martial arts, war stories, manga, anime...). now all i had to do was find a publisher. and where would a neophyte go and find one? where else but comiccon!

ps:
to see the cover better, click on it. you'll get to another window. place the arrow cursor in the middle of the pix and it will show a small square with arrows inside of it on the lower right hand side. click on that. it will give you a great view of the cover.

ok, so the family went and left for america. i finally got access to the mother load of geekdom.
i got all the comics i could get a hold of, and during this time i honed my skills as best i can.
i wasn't really a school kind of guy, so what ever i learned artwise, i learned by doing and by just being plain stubborn

i've seen guys that are better than me growing up, but they never really had the passion for the artform as i do, cause now, NONE of them ever produced work. which is kind of sad. these guys had these super duper computers and have all these resources but none has produced anything we talked about when we were kids.

after high school, i got caught up in this thing they called LIFE and for a while allowed that to be as the excuse to not pursue my dream. nothing wrong with having a LIFE (y'know 9-5, kids, mortgage et al. or at least chasing after them) but there was something in me that just won't settle for that.

after a few years of doing grunt work in the graphics field, i got so fed up with doing someone elses work, that i finally got going onproducing a comic book. it was during this time i met a good bud from high school again.

we talked for a while about the days. but like many of my contemporaries, he has not produced anything. that sort of got me thinking: if not now, when? that was really the spark that set this whole thing up. more talk insued and the result was "let's get a studio together!" we met for a few weeks while i was doing my work, and we talked about how to go about this. but, like i said, the passion wasn't there. i had to move to san diego, but that in it self shouldn't have shut anything down. i emailed him a few times, but after a while, he stopped answering. too much work, i recon.

but i kept on. i worked on the project every where. coffee shops, book stores, parks, you name it.
nothing was going to keep me from the goal.

howdy all! after all this time, i finally up and went blogging! i wrote this to document this project i'm involved with. what is it? well, like all good stories, we need to start at the beginning.
i've always been nuts about comics. ever since i was a kid i've been facinated by these pictures with word that took me into lands that i never imagined existed. i started off reading the daily comics that was in the news paper back in the day. they reprinted those cool tarzan, the phantom, flash gordon adventure strips as a kid in the p. i.

i got so hooked that i started to do my own "comics". i got these butcher paper (we wuz poor. i didn't even gradute to typing paper til later!) and started to draw. i drew everything. but my favorite was making up all kinds of adventures of my heroes on those bacon fat stained paper complete with me vocalizing the dialogs and sounds effects (c'mon, you know you all did it too ; ) ).

i would go to the neighborhood palenke and rent these ratty copies of dc and marvel comics. i guess the lady who own the stall had some contact with someone at the US base, cause back then, it was kinda hard to find american comic books in my neck of the woods. i didn't care if some of the books were missing covers. i ate them up! she had the justice league of america, superman, the works! and with a tindahan that sells halo halo close by, it was nerd nirvana! i also devoured the local pinoy komiks stuff. i wish i still had those, cause they were awesome works from some masters of the artform. some of them actually did work for dc and marvel which just thrilled me no end!

later i got some fantastic four and daredevil from my father. it was the first time i actually saw some brand new american comics up close. kewl stuff. it was then i knew that i HAD to do this.
but how?

the answer came when it was announced that the family was moving to america.