 Gerry
A.: Before I go on though, I would like to say something about
Nick Manabat. He is one of those artists that have influenced me a lot.
Not really in how I draw, but in how I approach drawing in general. Like
I said, I met him in 1992 along with the other Lakan guys.
At this time, I was already full swing into my comics submission mode.
I had already quit architecture and was practicing full time at home. I
was all by myself with no one there to look if I was improving or not.
I was kinda full of myself, thinking I was really good. I swaggered into
the first Lakan meeting where I met all these guys like I was somebody.
When I saw Nick Manabat's work for the first time, I fell like a ten ton
rock from the sky hitting the ground so hard that it staggered my feet
and I just had to sit. His work was incredible, amazing, terrifying, mind
numbing, unbelievable, I can go on. It was quite a humbling experience.
My first instinct was to just give it up altogether. But thankfully enough,
I let it inspire me instead.
Seeing his work made me strive for better
than what I was doing, that I should never be satisfied with just "good".
I should be even better. I never really got to know Nick well enough
because he was really silent. He talked rarely and when he did he just
whispered. As you know, he died of cancer just a few years later. Up until
he died, I think, he never realized just how much he influenced me. I wish
I could have told him.
GB: Moving
on back to Wasted. When did you finally finish it?
Gerry A.:
It was sometime in the middle of 1996. Budjette Tan had been asking me
about it. I was helping Whilce with Iron Man: Heroes Reborn. I found
the time to finish it because it had already been two years since I started
it and I wanted to end it. Almost everything that was going to happen in
Wasted happened in #7. #8, the last issue, was just an epilogue. I did
not plan on it ending with that letter, but as time went on, I thought
that it was the only way I could end it. Years later, women who had read
Wasted always point to that letter as the part they liked best.
GB: I've
got a confession to make. I did swipe just a little bit of it in a letter
I wrote to my then girlfriend. How did you write it? Did you just make
it up?
Gerry A.:
It was me swiping myself actually. he.he. That letter is a composite of
many letters I had written to my ex girlfriend back when we were still
"on".
GB. And
you named her in the credits section of the book as THE reason for Wasted.
Has she ever read Wasted? Does she know it's about her?
Gerry A.:
I'm not sure if she has heard of it, but as far as I know, she's never
read it. If she had, I would surely have heard from her about it. I have
no regrets about writing it. She was my childhood sweetheart you know?
I began courting her in the third grade! Losing her was really devastating
for me back then, specially since she was the reason why I got into comics
in the first place. The grief would have destroyed me, I know it. I had
to do something. I had to find some way to deal with it. And Wasted was
it. Writing it literally saved my life.
GB: What
has been the reaction to book so far?
Gerry A.:
The reaction has really surprised me. I thought I'd get sacks of hate mail,
but I've yet to receive one. A Baptist friend of mine read it, cried
foul because I killed a preacher, but she really liked it overall. The
biggest surprise really, is that I get letters from mostly women, young
girls who are still in high school. When Alamat held the launching for
the book back in Feb. 98, they comprised most of those who had their books
signed. I think they really saw the point of the book, that it's
basically a love story rather than a violent fantasy fulfillment thing.
I realized that a lot of other people felt the same way I did, specially
with regards to losing someone and then trying to deal with it. Many love
sick people, women and men, really identified with that aspect of the book.
I'm starting to get negative feedback lately though, specially because
of the serialization of Wasted at Pulp.
GB: Yeah,
I had concerns about how that will work.
Gerry A.:
I was concerned too, because I thought reading Wasted in parts increased
the risk of people taking specific story elements out of context. But I
thought, well, so what. he.he.
GB: Why
don't you and Alamat get the book reprinted? I can't find copies of it
anymore anywhere.
Gerry A.:
And you won't, anywhere. After all, we only really did 500 copies
of it or so. If Budjette hadn't unearthed a couple of copies from his house
recently, I wouldn't even have a personal copy myself. We talked about
reprinting it, but then this PULP thing came along. The editor in chief,
Vernon Go, asked me permission to reprint story in parts in his magazine.
I don't get paid for it in cash, but it has been agreed that as payment
for it, they will reprint the entire book in one volume after the serialization.
GB: Tell
me about the stories you did for PULP prior to Wasted's serialization.
Gerry A.:
Tales of the Big City. Swiped that title from Astro City. he.he. It was
Whilce Portacio really, who got me that gig with PULP. Whilce, after
reading Wasted and my other mini comics (Dead Heart), thought that I would
be the one that would fit what Vernon wanted for the strip. The problem
was, they wanted something in the vein of Wasted. I had already finished
Wasted almost 4 years prior to that time and since then, I had sorta mellowed
out. I had already done "Stupid Chicken Stories" in Dead Heart #2, which
was a strip that was the start of what would eventually become Crest Hut
Butt Shop.
 GB:
Crest
Hut Butt Shop?
Gerry A.:
Exactly! I haven't given you a copy yet huh? You have read Stupid Chicken
Stories, have you? Well, Crest Hut is basically more of the same and then
some. They're just short, often just 1-2 page stories of nothing but craziness,
a little serious stuff, some half assed attempts at poetry, and most of
them autobiographical. I'm mostly inspired by this mini comic called "Assassin
and the Whiner" (Asswhine for short) by a really talented artist named
Carrie McNinch. She writes and draws literally a diary of her life. It's
very very good. Although mine is autobiographical, I exaggerate a tad to
make situations more hilarious than they really were. I'm a hundred percent
honest with all the serious stuff though.
GB: Man,
you've got to give me a copy of that one!
Gerry A.:
Sure! So anyway, I had gotten tired of doing serious stories. This
time I just wanted to go nuts and crazy and silly and stupid. Perhaps it
was a reflection of me. I was no longer depressed. I was no longer mooning
over some lost love. I had gotten over it and I was happy. I was in no
emotional state to do more Wasted stories. Whilce had a talk with
me and convinced me to do it. He told me that I really didn't need to be
depressed to write stories like that. And yeah, I guess that's true.
And so I did it. It was difficult, because they were all very emotionally
draining to do.
GB: Your
story for Pulp #3 received some unpleasant attention, I hear.
Gerry A.:
I don't have first hand knowledge about that, actually. I only heard it
from other people. Apparently, people have complained about that strip
because of some explicit sexual situations in it. I make no excuses
for it. I was really happy with that particular story and I see nothing
wrong with it. Vernon came to me one day and said he wanted a story about
a reckless bus driver, and another day he wanted a story about a prostitute.
I thought about it for a while and came up with a story that combined both
subjects. Vernon giving me 2 pages to do it was a big help because I would
have not have been able to do it with only one page. Man, I tell you. It's
TOUGH to make stories work with only one page to work with.
GB: Last
question! I have seen Filipino band "Barbie's Cradle" sing their song "The
Dance" and I was surprised when the singer, Barbie Almalbis, tell the story
of how she was inspired to write that song because of Wasted. How did that
make you feel?
Gerry A.:
Aw, man. I was in heaven when I found out about it. I mean, jeez! I was
really knocked out of my feet. And I heard that song and it's a great song!
I don't say that because of what Barbie said, but I really loved it. And
it flatters me hundreds of times over that she would do something like
that. I actually met her some time ago. Budjette introduced us. I
felt like I didn't wanna wash my hand after she shook it. It's probably
one of the best things Wasted has made possible for me. I mean, I never
expected all this. All I wanted was to write something. When all these
things started happening, I was like...oh man. Is it really me they're
talking about? When did that happen? I've met a lot of friends and I have
gotten many opportunities because of it. I was never sorry I did it.
GB: Anything
you might like to add before we go?
Gerry A.:
Yeah, I'm not ERIC!!! People read Wasted and Tales and they think I'm this
brooding guy with an eternal bad mood who listens to death metal. One guy
came up to me once and asked me what kind of music I liked. When I said
I liked the Carpenters, the guy thought I was kidding. Jeez, I LOVE the
Carpenters. Karen Carpenter, God rest her soul, had the most beautiful
voice in the history of pop music, bar none. Anyway, the face on the guy
was pure disillusionment. ha!ha! Another guy came up to me, not realizing
I had written Wasted, and told me that the guy who wrote the book must
be some kind of nut, and that he must have been the product of a broken
home. I didn't correct him then. I just let him go on. To be honest, I
found it amusing. But he since found out though and we've been friends
since then.
|