The Philippine Online Chronicles

Smell that wonderful, slightly pulpy scent in the air? Yes, it's the pre-book fair book sale season again, with the Powerbooks Power Sale (which began July 15) continuing until August 15, the National Bookstore Cut-price Book Sale (which began July 30) going on until August 22. Independent bookstore A Different Bookstore is also on sale until sometime in August, although I can't find the exact date. We'll have a whole host of Geek Bargains posts for you next week, but for now, on with this week's Filipino SF roundup:

Two Bathala Komiks: What are the odds that two big komik releases for the second half of the year would involve Bathala? Codename: Bathala and Bathala Apokalypsis are two titles which should be available in August, both of which are looking very interesting, but it might help to distinguish them:

• Codename: Bathala: Markus gives us an overview of the new project from writer Jon Zamar and Judd Abinuman, featuring a character you may already recognize from his recent appearance in Bayan Knights #4. This Bathala isn't an ancient deity, but one of the new breed of Philippine armored heroes. Preview pages can be found either at the indie komplex forums or at Jon Zamar's deviantart gallery. The komik will launch at the upcoming Metro Comic Con, on August 21 and 22. (Planet Markus)
• Bathala Apokalypsis: Not as much information to be had on this comic, but the pedigree alone is enough to grab my attention: based partly on an idea by Gerry Alanguilan, with a script by David Hontiveros, art by Ace Enriquez, and Budjette Tan on editing duties. What we know is that it is a seven-part story which explores the question: What if Superman had to deal with the Apocalypse? It is tentatively scheduled for a release in the third week of August. (Five-Legged Iguana)

Pakinggan Pilipinas Episode 2 is Live: The second episode of the new monthly Filipino fiction podcast (you might remember it from our interview with Elyss Punsalan here) is up on the Pakinggan Pilipinas website. The story for August is Ghost Between Moments by Kate Aton-Osias, which first appeared in Bewildering Stories.

Girls like fiction, boys like fact: Fantaghiro has a post up recounting a Literacy Forum she attended, sponsored by the Reading Association of the Philippines at the National Library, and she wonders if the statement made there as to the reading preferences of the genders is accurate. (Coffeespoons)

CG Pintor Zombie Art Jam: (NSFW warning) With July having just packed its bags, it's a good time to go and check the entries in the recently concluded July Artjam of CG Pintor, especially since the month's theme was one near and dear to our genre loving hearts: zombies! Personally, I liked the entries of irving-zero and teygraphy the best.

Book Parade!: If you'd rather view something a tad more wholesome, here's some kids' (and some young adults) cosplay from a book parade at the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation. (Bookmarked!)

"Spider Hunt" by Kenneth Yu: The editor of the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories has been busy lately, with a new story published recently at the Aurora Wolf online literary journal. This story is a traditional fantasy in the heroic vein, and Kenneth blogs about how and why he ventured outside his usual hunting grounds here.  (via Philippine Genre Stories)

Interview - Kevin Libranda: Itsura Manga's latest interview is with artist Kevin Libranda, who worked on the Aporia series in Mangaholix. (Apparently he no longer does, and I'm not sure what that means for Aporia. I haven't seen a new Mangaholix issue in a while.)

The Secret Secret Origin of the Kambal: Budjette Tan tells us how he came up with the popular Kambal characters from the Trese series, walking us through his influences. Of course, we know from the notes at the end of Trese: Mass Murders that co-creator Kajo Baldisimo was thereafter responsible for the shift in their nature--but let's not go into that particular spoiler.

The State of Comics Preservation in the Philippines: Gerry Alanguilan holds his own SONA, or rather, writes about the state of comics preservation in our contry. (The Comics Journal)

Zaturnnah sa Maynila: Chapter 2, pages 4 to 7: For those following the progress of the ZsaZsa Zaturnnah sequel, Carlo Vergara has uploaded the latest pages on his blog. (The Carver's House)

[Image source: Planet Markus. Art by Joseph Zacate. Copyright holder/s maintain appropriate rights.]