In Between Panels

This was supposed to be the second part of the Mother's Day strip that also delves a bit on some of the family history (you can read the 1st part here). The original drawing sorta came out crummy so I had to redraw some parts, yadda-yadda-yadda... The only thing that annoys me with this one is my inability to write some decent words that doesn't come off drippy or strained.

A little bit of trivia here, the lyrics posted in the strip was taken from the Irish lullaby, Toora Loora Looral, the same song the character of Steve Martin sang in front of his guests in his engagement party in the movie, HouseSitter. This will be expanded to a 2-3 page story that will come out in one of those indie compilations of this series. Hope y'all like it.

* West Side is published weekly in Philippine News.

Igno will always be my favorite character in this series.

I almost laughed my brains out my nose after reading this one.

It was during the mid-90s during college when I saw my first Bruce Timm art and I fell in love with it at first sight. While everyone else was going around trying their darnest to copy Jim Lee's or Marc Silvestri's art, I was discouraged from doing so and told to stick to doing cartoons. It was around this time that I discovered Batman: The Animated Series. Of course back then I didn't know the name of the artist whose style was being used for the animation (the internet was at its infancy then and I didn't know much about it) but I knew that the style reminded me of the 1920's and the crisp, sharp lines showed me that rendering superheroes in cartoony styles can be possible. I liked his art back then and I still like it now. Although lots of people have discovered him through the JLA cartoons, I'll always have the stake on claiming that I was one of the early huge fans of his art back when it wasn't in vogue.

The story potential of this one's endless. This saw publication in 1992 in GLITTER Magazine.

We just came back from watching xXx2 at the mall and I know I should be liking it since a.) the first xXx movie rocked, b.) "Die Another Day" Director, Lee Tamahori was at the helm of this flick, and c.) Ice Cube's pretty cool in some of his previous movies I've watched. So why am I not rushing out there knocking heads and convincing them to watch this film too?

Let's see.

The action scenes are right in on the money, the same kind of action sequences one could expect from the director of one of the best James Bond movies I've watched. But looking back, there was something missing in all that I just can't figure out. And what's up with the new xXx, Darius Stone (Ice Cube) relying on an underground army of carjackers and what-have-yous to fight the enemy? To think that he was personally handpicked by Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel Jackson) because he had more guts and attitude than the first xXx, Xander Cage (enemy agents assassinated him early on). At least the first agent who had no formal training almost singlehandedly finished off a German crimelord's army with only his wits to rely on. And don't get me started on the movie soundtrack. Blech. The franchise embarrassingly falls flat on its face, despite the fact it's a no-brainer action movie to begin with. That's what I get for expecting too much from this one.

This one's for my late Lola, on whom this strip's grandmother character was patterned after. Miss you so much.

* West Side is published weekly in Philippine News.

Remember when we were small and we used to come up with a lot of wild theories and conclusions based on what grown ups told us or because of what we watched on TV? Like I used to believe that God and the angels were all sitting down on the clouds we see everyday and the first time we went to Baguio and saw the fog wrapping the countryside I was expecting to see a real live Sto. Nino floating in front of me. And that animals have immortal souls, or that I could control clouds to make it rain whenever I wanted to get out of Physical Education, or that you'd always find turtles lived on the rocky side of the beach (based on The Berenstain Family book I read in elementary school) or that I watched the light of the sun rise literally in seconds while lying in bed (I still believe that), and that you could find the white speckled red mushroom here in our shores (only to find out later that it exists but only in Europe). Think of it as one of those "Calvin and Hobbes" moments. Check out some of these funny ones:

When I was little, I believed that when you got a divorce it was just like a wedding, only you walked backwards down the aisle, the bride wore black, and the groom wore a reverse tuxedo. - Molly S.

I used to beleive that divorce court was when two people went to court and after stating their cases the judge pressed a huge red button and lights and sounds would scream and flash and when the smoke settled the two people would be DIVORCED! - roz

My little sister and I were misbehaving so my mum started peeling off her sunburnt skin and told that us that if we didn't behave she'd take her batteries out. By golly we pleaded with her not to take her batteries out and we certainly behaved that night. - Scottish Laddie

When I was a little girl my grandfather told all his grandkids that Mickey Mouse was his cousin. Being little we all got so excited to have our favorite character in our family - Stephanie

When my dad was young, he used to sing "Gladly, the Cross I'd Bear" in church. He thought the lyrics he was singing were about a cross-eyed bear named "Gladly." - Anon

I used to believe that Jesus was born again every Christmas, lived out all the Bible said he did within a couple of months, and was killed again every Easter - Bobthefunkyfish

When I was little, I used to believe that the song " May the Dear Lord Bless You" was about a deer that was a lord in a kingdom and he was saying bless you as if you had just sneezed. - Tabitha

When I was little, I used to believe the moon was God's desk chair, where he sat and watched us. I wouldn't pray when the moon was full, because that was the back of the swivel chair, meaning he was facing the other way and wouldn't hear me. When there was no moon, I was always afraid God had moved. - Colleen

My friend once told me that when people die, their bodies are buried on the street as speed bumps. Every time I drove my bike over a street bump, I'd wonder who was buried there... - nicole

When my niece was around 3 her rabbit died. She was upset because no one would tell her what had really happened. She ended up going to my husband and asking him. He told her that her bunny had gone to college and that it would come back in 5 years after graduating as a full grown rabbit. She still believes it and is counting down the days until she's 8 (She'll be 7 in November). - Kate

When I was around three or four, our cat Critter died. When I wondered where she had gone, my older sister told me that Critter was in a hole in the ground because she got too old.That left me with the image of my cat underground with a long grey beard. - Anon

I used to believe that if you picked up the phone and dialed 999-9999, you would reach Satan. I think I heard this from my brother, joking at some point. When I finally got the nerve to try calling, it didn't connect to anyone, so I assumed God had cut off his phone. - Anon

My daddy took me to church every Sunday. I heard the preacher talk about the Father. Being only about 4 or 5 at the time, I just naturally assumed that he was talking about my father which meant that my father was obviously God. Then I had an accident and broke my leg. My grandfather (my daddy's daddy) got really upset that I had not been taken to the doctor and he YELLED at my daddy. Then the most shocking thing happened. My daddy said "Yes, sir" to my grandfather. Well! I had apparently been wrong. My grandfather must be God...and that meant that my daddy was Jesus. So I asked him why he had changed his name to Raymond. When he figured out what I believed he had to set me straight. - Gabby

When I was very little, I asked my mom "Mom? Where do angels go when theres no clouds for them to sit on?" and she looked down at me and said "Why, they sit on your shoulders of course!" I believed her for the longest time...and still do. - Beckles

I believed very literally my sunday school teaching that "God knows you so well, He even knows the number of hairs on your head." So, every time I brushed my hair and some hairs came out on the brush, I would silently apologize to God for giving Him something else to have to keep track of, given all the more important things He had to do... - Vickie Pain

When I was little, my mom told me God was watching me all the time. So I would spend a great deal of time just staring up at the sky waiting for a giant eyeball to open up out of it and look back at me. - Kayla

My not so nice stepsister told me when I was around 8 yrs old that the devil lived on the top bunk of my bunkbeds (I kept my stuffed animals and spare blankets up there. One day, some blankets must have been pulled over near the edge, and so they came down with a plop by themselves! I ran out screaming, more terrified than I'd ever been in my life. No amount of my parents' reassurance could convince me to go back in there for weeks! - Hilary

I have some really interesting relatives. One of them is my cousin Tim, who is close to my dad's age. He has a really twisted sense of humor. On one visit when I was about five, Tim showed me an old ceramic sculpture of two praying hands. He told me that they were Jesus' actual hands! I was both amazed and disturbed! Such an ancient, perfectly preserved, holy thing as this was right here in Eastern Kentucky! But those were JESUS' hands! Why were they here? Wasn't this wrong? I couldn't understand why my parents weren't upset by this and every time we went to visit them, I stared at the hands in awe! - Lil Nicki

The nuns at my school talked about how the saints would watch over us as a way to help God. Well, while I was in church, I would gaze at the statues and meditate hoping that they would blink an eye or smile as a signal to me,... this went on for a couple of years, I finally gave up. - maynard

Until i was 10 I used to believe that Jesus was a Tortoise, sounds silly but i used to go to sunday school and every week they would say "jesus taught us...." so i lived with the belief that jesus was this really cool special tortoise! - JJ

I always felt connected to Peter because I had a habit of inserting my foot into my mouth too, so when I was about 5 years old, I thought that if I practiced enough times in rain puddles, that I would be able to walk on water too. - Julie

Once when i was fairly young, my family and i were in Hawaii. We were spending the day on a beutiful beach and i asked my mom if i could take a picture. She told me to take a picture with my mind. So, for a while, I thought that I could take a picture when i blinked. After I died, God and i would walk along a beach and a slide show of all my "pictures" would play in the sky. - Dani

I used to think that, on your birthday, you didn't actually turn a year older until you ate some birthday cake. - Joe

When I was in first grade the teacher was going around the room asking everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up. The kid next to me said when he grew up he wanted to be a robot. - Anon

You can read more of these from this website, I Used To Believe.* One last thing, I used to think that torches were called "torch better" (because that's what my older brothers used to say whenever they carried one of those bamboo torches around, long story). I realized later that what they meant was, "torch bearer." That was so weird of me. Tell me, what are the things you used to believe?

* My best friend from college sent that link to me and I'm really grateful to him for doing that.

I bought a bunch of new DVDs from Astroplus after realizing belatedly that a sale was going on (you gotta love this store for pulling down their prices down to a third of the regular price). Of the 5 titles that I got Back to the Future 1 & 2 (I didn't part 3 but I will later) are the best of the lot.

The first one's a huge part of my childhood as me and my brothers and sister would watch it over and over again till we got almost all the dialogue memorized and then replaying them to each other like a bunch of jokes that only we understood. Some of the most memorable lines for us were:

George McFly: Lorraine, my density has brought me to you.
Lorraine Baines: What?
George McFly: Oh, what I meant to say was...
Lorraine Baines: Wait a minute, don't I know you from somewhere?
George McFly: Yes. Yes. I'm George, George McFly. I'm your density. I mean... your destiny.

George McFly: Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.

Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?
Dr. Emmett Brown: The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?

Marty McFly: What if I send it in and they don't like it? What if they say I'm no good? What if they say "Get out of here, kid. You got no future."? I mean, I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection. Jesus, I'm starting to sound like my old man!

Lou: You gonna order something, kid?
Marty McFly: Ah, yeah... Give me a Tab.
Lou: Tab? I can't give you a tab unless you order something.
Marty McFly: Alright, give me a Pepsi Free.
Lou: You want a Pepsi, PAL, you're gonna pay for it.

Goldie Wilson: Say! Why do you let those boys push you around like that for?
George McFly: Well, they're bigger than me.
Goldie Wilson: Stand tall, boy. Have some *respect* for yourself. Don't you know if you let people walk over you now, they'll be walking over you for the rest of your life! Look at me. You think I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in *this* slop house?
Lou: Watch it, Goldie!
Goldie Wilson: No sir! I'm gonna *make* something of myself. I'm going to Night School. And one day I'm gonna *be* somebody!
Marty McFly: That's right! He's gonna be mayor.
Goldie Wilson: Yeah, I'm gonna...
[smiles, one of his front teeth is gold]
Goldie Wilson: Mayor! Now *that?s* a good idea! I can run for Mayor.
Lou: A colored Mayor, That'LL be the day.
Goldie Wilson: You wait and see, Mr. Carruthers. I *will* be Mayor! I'll be the most powerful man in Hill Valley. And I'm gonna clean up this town.
Lou: Good. You can start by sweeping the floor.
[hands Goldie a broom]
Goldie Wilson: Mayor Goldie Wilson. Like the *sound* of that.

Dr. Emmett Brown: Then tell me, "Future Boy", who's President in the United States in 1985?
Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?
[chuckles in disbelief]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Then who's VICE-President? Jerry Lewis?
[later he rushes outside, down a hill and toward his laboratory]
Dr. Emmett Brown: I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!
Marty McFly: Whoa! Wait! Doc!
Dr. Emmett Brown: And Jack Benny, the Secretary of the Treasury.
Marty McFly: Doc, You gotta listen to me.
Dr. Emmett Brown: I've had enough practical jokes for one evening. Good night, Future Boy!
Marty McFly: No, wait! Doc. The... the... the bruise... the bruise on your head. I know how that happened! You told me the whole story. You were standing on your toilet, and you were hanging a clock, and you fell, and you hit your head on the sink. And that's when you came up with the idea for the Flux Capacitor... which... is what makes time travel possible.

Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Precisely.
Marty McFly: Whoa, this is heavy.
Dr. Emmett Brown: There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?

Younger Dr. Emmett Brown: 1.21 jigawatts? 1.21 jigawatts? Great Scott!
Marty McFly: What the hell is a jigawatt?!

Marty McFly: Calvin? Wh... Why do you keep calling me Calvin?
Lorraine Baines: Well, that is your name, isn't it? Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear.

Marty McFly: Mom... is that you?
Lorraine Baines: There, there now. Just relax.
[pats a damp cloth on Marty's forehead]
Lorraine Baines: You've been asleep for almost nine hours now.
Marty McFly: I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamed that I went... back in time. It was terrible.
Lorraine Baines: Well... You're safe and sound now, back in good old 1955.
Marty McFly: 1955?!

George McFly: Who are you?
Marty McFly: Silence Earthling! My name is Darth Vader. I am an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan!

Lorraine Baines: Our first television set. Dad just bought it today. Do you have a television set?
Marty McFly: Well, yeah! You know we have... two of them.
Milton Baines: Wow! You must be rich!
Stella Baines: Oh, honey, he's teasing you. Nobody has two television sets.

Marty McFly: [watching a Honeymooners episode in 1955] Hey, hey, I've seen this one. I've seen this one. This is a classic. This is the one where Ralph dresses up as the man from space.
Milton Baines: What do you mean, you've seen this? It's brand new.
Marty McFly: Yeah, well, I saw it on a...
[realizing]
Marty McFly: ...rerun.
Milton Baines: What's a rerun?
Marty McFly: You'll find out...
Stella Baines: Marty, you look so familiar to me. Do I know your mother?
Marty McFly: [turning to look at Lorraine, his mother in the future] Yeah, I think maybe you do...

Marty McFly: Do you know where Riverside Drive is?
Sam Baines: It's on the other end of town, a block past Maple. East end of town.
Marty McFly: A block past Maple? That's John F. Kennedy Drive.
Sam Baines: Who the hell is John F. Kennedy?

Stella Baines: He's a very strange young man.
Sam Baines: He's an idiot. Comes from upbringing. His parents are probably idiots too. Lorraine, if you ever have a kid that acts that way I'll disown you.

So watching this movie would also be like travelling back in time (like 20 years ago). This got me thinking why there aren't any local fans coming out with a group that could be part of the NWA. Anyway, if you're a big fan of the trilogy like me you'd really, really, really want to check this link below: