Crest Hut Butt Shop

Crest Hut Returns

2007-07-13T15:07:00.000+08:00

My diary comics returns on Monday, July 16! Although I have to revise the schedule and make it only 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That's because in recent strips, it's taken me longer and longer to do. Much longer than an hour which I had alloted to do one per day. It was already eating up into the time I've reserved for my other work.

Also, the strip will use photographs more exclusively. Don't worry, I'll be keeping photographs of me at an absolute minimum.

Additionally, I've decided to run Wasted as an online strip, also beginning on Monday. You can read all about it here.

I'll Be Back

2007-07-03T11:07:00.000+08:00

Sorry webring buddies, I'm afraid I have to bow out for a while. For more info, read my main blog. Although I won't be blogging for a while, I'll continue my webcomics as soon as I'm able. Hopefully, it won't be too long.

No Sunday Strip

2007-06-24T07:39:00.001+08:00

There's no Sunday strip today, as I pre-empt it to continue my series on Sleep Paralysis. I would I could have planned that so that the series ends on a Saturday so I can start fresh with a larger Sunday strip, but like many things I do with this webcomic, it's just spontaneous, whatever I do. And I felt it would be inappropriate to break the series in the middle with a goofy Sunday strip. It will return next Sunday.

Sleep Paralysis Series

2007-06-22T10:09:00.001+08:00

Without meaning to, I began a rather long series on a personal experience of mine. I planned to do only one installment. But after doing the first one, I realized I really wanted to talk about it. I realize I rarely spoke about this to anyone before, and as always, I feel it's much better said in comics form.

If you've read the series, it actually begins with this installment, posted on June 20. Yes, I do know that it's scientifically referred to as "Sleep Paralysis". I've been aware of the term for quite a while. Researching the Internet 10 years ago on any information on my experience, I came upon a site that surveys people who have had similar experience. As far as I can tell, it was a completely scientific survey. I didn't know whatever became of the study, but after several years I've realized that it's a more common affliction than I first thought.

Already, two of my friends have offered similar experiences after reading mine. And I think comics writer/artist Rick Veitch has similar experiences, so much so that he has made a comic book, "Rare Bit Fiends" that talks a bit about it. I have an issue, and he talks a lot about his experience in the letters column.

Because of other circumstances that I have yet to relate in the strip, I believe that it's not triggered completely biologically. I believe it to be something more. But that's just what I believe.

PS. I'm sure my experience has nothing to do at all with listening to Paul McCartney's "Red Rose Speedway". It was just what I was playing when it first happened, and I'm sure it would still have happened no matter what I was listening to.

The WEBCOMICS Republic

2007-06-17T14:58:00.000+08:00

The WebComics Republic is a small group of Filipino webcomickers attempting to spread awareness about the Filipino presence in the online comics world. The second of such groups that Jonas Diego attempted, the group consists of the following five writer-artists and their comic:

The Blurb!
Jonas Diego
Delivering your comic book goodness on a daily basis!
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Adult

Crest Hut Butt Shop
Gerry Alanguilan
An online daily diary webcomic by Gerry Alanguilan.
Genre: Humor, Real Life

Class Comics
Ariel Atienza
School has never been this good…or this mad!
Genre: Humor

Tristan
Rey Villegas
Fantasy, action, and high adventure…the good stuff!
Genre: Fantasy, Action

Kathang Isip
Laguna Teddy Pavon
The story of a people in search of freedom.
Genre: Fantasy-Adventure, Action, Drama

Membership for the Webcomic Republic will be closed for a bit while we establish our groove (though we will be soliciting new members…eventually). Meanwhile, check the sites out! Some of the guys have already uploaded their comics and, in fact, have a considerable archive that you can read while waiting for the formal launch next week.

Online Offline

2007-06-16T13:22:00.000+08:00

Actually, my phone and Internet came back yesterday noon. But I've already uploaded these strips (June 15 and June 16), expecting my phone won't be back so soon. I'd hate not to post two perfectly OK strips so I'm just letting them be. Apologies to PLDT for a couple more days of unfounded ranting, since you did bring back my phone so quickly.

The Sunday Strips

2007-06-10T12:58:00.001+08:00

I love doing the Sunday strips because they're bigger and I have more space to do stuff. It's also an opportunity to depict activities all in one go, without having to cut out too much of what I wanted to say. This particular day we went to Manila was quite a nice one.

Blue Moon

2007-06-03T06:42:00.000+08:00

Appropriately enough, there was a blue moon when Eugene died. Lying in his little house he looked at me as I pointed to the sky and told him about it. A blue moon is the second full moon of the month which is not an all too common occurrence. I don't know if he understood it, most likely he didn't, but I spent a lot of time talking to him that night and on the morning he died.

We buried Eugene in a plot of land where we will be building our house a few years from now, in a spot where no posts or any structural objects would be built. We can tell because we already have a plan of our house, and we wanted him to be part of it, in a way.

I've never had a pet like Eugene. And strangely enough the word "pet" is something I never really used that often with regards to him. He wasn't our pet. He was our friend, even our child, it sometimes felt like. I've had many dogs before. Many cats. A chicken, a turtle, a beetle. But I've never been this close to an animal like I was with Eugene. Whenever I held his head in my hands and stared into his eyes, I see something more than just a physical thing driven to move by pumping blood and animal instinct. He was a being with true intelligence, emotion, and a true unique soul. The range of emotion that he can convey with his eyes, his face, and his body was really astounding, and it would surprise me and Ilyn whenever we see it.

People have suggested that we get another one, so we could easily forget. Well, we have no intention of forgetting. And it would be unfair to the new animal because we'd always be comparing Eugene to it. I guess we won't be getting any pets for some time.

Taking a Break

2007-05-31T06:49:00.000+08:00

With all that's been happening here at home in the past few days, I thought I'd take a break, mostly from doing videos and a bit of writing. I'll still be doing these strips, because I feel they're the only means of expression I have that can convey what's been happening. In difficult times, it's always been comics that have been my means of dealing with it. I'm glad I have it, I'm glad I have something to do, or else I'll do what a lot of other people do... get drunk, do drugs, get into fights, whatever.

Promoting the Strip

2007-05-29T13:07:00.000+08:00

Since I'm dead set on doing this strip on a daily basis, I thought I'd might as well go ahead and start promoting it and getting it out there. There are many ways to do it, and I've done a few. I don't want to do it all at once and quickly because what I'm doing might be misconstrued as spam. And I can't have that.

I started talking about it at Warren Ellis' The Engine Forum, and I've done write ups about it (including sample strips) at my Deviant Art Account, as well as my main blog.

I've also registered the strip with OnlineComics.net, The Web Comics List, and BuzzComix.net.

And pretty soon, I'll be joining a Philippine online comics webring masterminded by Jonas Diego, which will help increase visibility, not only for my strip but for everyone else's.

Based on the stats, I know at least the strip is being read by at least 200 people everyday, and I think that's pretty cool. It also helps that my strip never leaves the "New Today" list at WebComicsNation because there's always a new strip.

I'm not in the position to give advice to anyone with regards to online comics since I'm only really getting my feet wet, but this early I can already tell that it's not enough to just do your strip and expect everyone to find it and read it. I'm learning that you really have to get out there and make people see your strip.

I Hate Early Morning

2007-05-25T13:03:00.000+08:00

As in anytime in between 1:30am to around 4:30am. It's a time frame I wish to God I was always asleep. I don't like it. The house feels strange. There's a certain kind of hazy mist in the air and it's so maddeningly quiet it actually seems like it's maddeningly noisy. Noisy with silent spirits just jamming the air. I know I'm talking strange now so don't mind me. Mostly I'm just paranoid that the phone would ring. I hate it when the phone rings anytime between 10:30 in the evening and 6 in the morning. Those are the ungodly hours when calls always mean bad news. Once I freaked out on a fella who called that late but was a wrong number. But you can't hang the phone either because who knows when that important call would come.

Strip not there? WebComicsNation down for a bit. Hang on and come back again later.

Dog Tried to Rape Me!

2007-05-24T13:00:00.000+08:00

Yeah, that really happened. Eugene has a kidney problem you see. As dalmatians go, he's a stone former. An OVERT stone former. So he's on a strict UD diet, and since his urinary tract has sort of shrunk because of the numerous operations and insertions of the catheter, I've had to help Eugene piss because he now finds it difficult to do it himself.

Well yesterday as we were taking a walk, he seems to be gesticulating strangely with his crotch. I thought maybe a stone was passing through his dick and he was trying to shake it off. The moment passed and we rested a bit outside our old house a few blocks away. I sat down. All of a sudden Eugene attacked me. And tried to uh... MATE with me. Eugene is a BIG dog so he was strong enough to make me lose my balance. He grabbed my thigh and just started pumping. It was crazy, funny, embarrassing, ridiculous, insane at the same time.

Just then a man on a bike passed by and just laughed. I was almost screaming, calling his name repeatedly. Eugene was practically out of his mind with lust, eyes glazed over in imagined ecstasy. I had to really jerk myself free and run away. Maybe I could run it out of him.

Or maybe I really just should get him a bitch.

If the Strip is Late...

2007-05-21T09:35:00.001+08:00

It's NOT my fault! The strip for today has been finished, but webcomicsnation seems to be down. I hope they get back up a bit later.

Two Weeks of Daily Comic Strips!

2007-05-20T16:17:00.000+08:00

Today marks 2 weeks straight that I've done my daily online comic strip. So far the experience has been quite pleasurable, and today's Sunday strip has been quite fun to do. It's always great to have Eugene in there somehow because in real life, Eugene is a source of a lot of funny moments.

I know 2 weeks is nothing compared to the years many other cartoonists have invested in the format, but I'm quite happy with it myself. I hope it's the start of something that will last a long time.

I finally announced this site and the project at my main blog. It's one of the many things to do to spread the strip around and get more people to see it.

Why Webcomicsnation.com?

2007-05-15T11:32:00.000+08:00

I chose to host my webcomics at Webcomicsnation.com because I didn't want to go through the trouble of hosting my images on my own, and fix navigation manually. Doing it through Webcomicsnation, all I need to do is upload my strips and all the organization and navigation of the strips are set automatically.

Not only that, my strip gets a bit of eyeball on the webcomicsnation site and if my strips are persistent enough (and maybe if they're good enough), it's possible for it to gain notice by people for their reviews.

The Sunday Strip

2007-05-13T13:02:00.000+08:00

The strip on Sundays is much larger, in the tradition of Sunday strips in newspapers. I had not intended on setting the weekly strips almost exclusively in my drawing room/studio, but that's how it naturally turned out. For the Sunday strip, it will always be *outside* the work studio, even outside anything that has to do with work, just to break the pattern.

This isn't to say that the weekly strips will always be in the studio, it's just that it was how it naturally progressed, without any pre-planning on my part. If the process takes me out of studio, then that would be interesting as well.

Why An Online Daily Diary Comic Strip?

2007-05-12T09:00:00.000+08:00

I just wanted to see if I could do it.

I needed something to draw or sketch right after waking up just to get me in the mood for the rest of the day. I've learned that if I drew for a full hour as soon as I wake up, before I do anything else (and that includes brushing my teeth, taking a bath, eating, checking email), I learned it sort of warmed me up to "working".

I tried sketching, which was OK, but I thought, well, why not do a short comic strip and post it online? If I was going to be sketching everyday, why not do the strip every day? That meant I could be in a position to do something I never dreamed I would do before: a DAILY online comic strip.

Some might say I'd be inconsistent, as I have asserted previously in interviews, including one I did with Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter, that all my new work will be in print, and that I've always resisted doing comics online.

Nearing the half point in my life, I came to realization during the last few months that consistency is BORING. I reserve the right to change my mind, as I continue to learn and evolve as an artist.

With regards to subject matter, I was actually quite inspired by James Kochalka's American Elf, which has been running as a daily diary comics for years. If I'm going to mine whatever happens in my life on the day I do the strip, I'm sure I'll never run out of material.

Doing the strip for only one hour a day, writing, drawing, inking, lettering, coloring and uploading, demands that I find a way to do it quickly. Looking over the strips I've done so far, you'll probably spot immediately what I'm talking about.

The strip at the very top is ALWAYS the most current one, and none of the older strips will be read on this blog. If you wish to start at the beginning, click here. That will bring you to my page at Webcomicsnation.com, where the strip is actually hosted. The strip is simply "tooncasted" here from that site.

I don't plan on talking about this project yet at my main blog, as I want to see if I can do it for a longer period of time before I do.