Wednesday, April 11, 2012

One More Page

Another Buhay Indie entry.

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Journal entry #27
04/10/12
Greetings again!

Honestly, I thought I’d be able to create lots of pages because of the Lenten break but I only managed to finish one. I guess I got too busy watching movies, doing some home chores, attending our church's General Conference, and simply spending time with my wife. Anyway, I’m glad I still got something done came Araw ng Kagitingan.

While creating the page, I realized something: a single comic strip takes hours to make but only requires a few seconds for readers to finish. Conceptualizing, deciding how many panels a strip needs, and doing the actual artwork is not as easy as it sounds. I’m just so thankful Teardrop and Steph are always around to provide much-needed help along the way. Plus my wife is extremely supportive.

I think I’ve gained bigger admiration for comic creators now than I ever did. Again, creating comics could be a challenge but knowing you have brightened someone’s day (or have at least made them chuckle) makes it all worth it.

Mark Rosario

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Chronicling The Journey Through Comic Strips

This article was originally written for the Buhay Indie Komiks blog. Enjoy!
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Journal Entry #17
14 March 2012

Greetings, earthlings!

More than 2 months after the wedding, me and my wife were thrilled to discover that she is pregnant with our first child. Since then, we had lots of weird and funny experiences together and I enjoyed sharing them with some of our closest friends. Along the way, I suddenly had this wild idea of turning them into comic strips so we could share our tale with more people.


With my wife’s motivations, I did just that. Writing and drawing My Wife Is Pregnant is really a great learning experience for me. My wife is both my #1 fan and #1 critic. That’s definitely a good thing for a first-timer like me. With a little help from my friends (Teardrop Cordez and StephFaith Bautista – yey!), I got to finish a few strips. Actually, my wife even assisted me in inking a few panels because I am terribly bad at using rulers hahaha! I then posted the comics on my Facebook and made a Tumblr account for it just for fun.

Currently, I already have 11 pages of thumbnails (plus a cover concept) on my sketchbook. I’m hoping to work on them one step at a time. The goal is to complete at least 20 finished pages (I have 3 – 17 more to go!) and then eventually release them as a compiled comic book on one of the upcoming conventions. I believe this year’s November Komikon (or Summer Komikon 2013, at least) should be a good target. Besides, I think our baby’s birth should be the book’s main highlight. I want that to happen first and I want the experience captured on the strips as well.

Mark Rosario
Writer, Illustrator for My Wife Is Pregnant