Of Liefeld and Learning: The Creating Comics Seminar 2010

I've always dreamed of working in the comic book industry. The thought of me drawing the X-Men or Batman, illustrating their awesomeness for the whole world to see and enjoy, always got me pumped up for some reason. Which is why I'm super thankful that I was born in the generation where you've got all the stuff you need to achieve that dream: information out the wazoo, acceptance of the craft as serious business, and the annual Creating Comics Seminar.

When I heard that Glass House Graphics was visiting the Philippines again to hold one of their popular seminars, I didn't think twice. It's about comics, it's about making them, and it's got David Campiti. You win right there.


As I went inside the seminar room, the room was uncharacteristically quiet, while David Campiti was up front, being the character that he is. I love his absolutely funny insights on the American comic book industry, and he tells it like it is. No bullshit here, folks, and it's a load of laughs for it.

The venue itself (the high-tech DLSU-CSB SDA Bldg.) was pretty posh, and it didn't help that they've got some Benilde hotties manning the show. But I'm getting ahead of myself.


Anyway, David covered some great topics ranging from developing your own style to character design to what not to do with your art, a.k.a. anything Rob Liefeld does. And you know what? He's been ragging on Rob Liefeld's art every single time he's here, but it never gets old. You should have been there to hear about the "Rob Liefeld Shopping Mall" and "Tiny-toes...beware the might of Tiny-toes!"


I also got to chat with the lovely Jinky Coronado, the creator of Banzai Girl! Damn, was I starstruck. It's the first time I ever got to talk to a real live comic book creator, and she was awesome. A down to earth person with a lot to talk about, though I guess she wasn't ready when I said I was a founding member of the Banzai Girl Fan Club!


Of course, David can't exactly cover every single aspect of comic book creation by himself, so on Day Two he enlisted the help of no less than the most popular Filipino comic book artists in the industry today. Bong Dazo, Wilson Tortosa, Jay Ramos, J.M. Aldeguer, Dan Borgonos...this is starstruck territory, folks. These are the people I could only dream of being, and I can't help but just be inspired as they talked about coloring, inking, lettering, the stuff each and every person with a ticket that day would crawl a mile of broken glass to do.


It was an awesome two days of learning, drawing and laughing at other people's mistakes, but that's how you learn not to do those things. To be honest, I gotta hand it to David Campiti...even with all the horror stories he kept telling us about some Filipino artists with cold feet, bad manners and no sort of clue what they're doing, he still has enough faith in us to keep coming here every year to set us straight. I tip some gin for you, Mr. Campiti. Cheers to a successful Comic Creation Seminar 2010!

If you were there, tell me what you learned so far, and if it helped you in any way, by leaving a comment below. I wanna see if I'm not the only one learning from these things! Thanks for reading!