 Okay, hey, welcome everybody. Good afternoon from the San Francisco Public Library, virtual event presentation of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month where we are bringing to you a book talk with writer budget 10 and artist Kajo Balisovo creators of the award winning serialized urban fantasy graphic novel and upcoming Netflix series stress it. Let's hear it for a shout out the love from on your chat. Also, we'd like to share have folks share where they're coming from around the world if you'd like to let us know where you're all rejoining us from. So, first off, I'd like to share a land acknowledgement because we here in San Francisco are living on the unseated land of the aloney tribe tribal people so we want to acknowledge the many Ramaytush aloney tribal groups and families as the rightful stewards of the lands on which we reside. The San Francisco Public Library is committed to uplifting the name of these lands and community members from these nations with whom we live together. The San Francisco Public Library encourages you to learn more about first person culture and land rights and are committed to hosting and events and providing educational resources on these topics. And another thing that we'd also like to acknowledge during Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month or more serious issue to address is the anti Asian violence that is rampant throughout this country, including here in the Bay Area so we'd like to share our library statement on on what is happening to our Asian and Asian American communities. We condemn the horrendous violence against Asian and Asian Americans in our communities, our state, nationwide, both the reported and invisible crimes that have occurred. It is unconscionable for Asians and Asian Americans to be targeted for violence and murdered. It is unconscionable for our Asian elders to be harmed by these actions, and we stand with our Asian communities, neighbors and colleagues distressed and hurt by these attacks. Asian communities demands for safety and respect are heard by us at the library. The library is determined to work with our city and communities to recognize and dismantle the discrimination and violence that has been perpetrated. We acknowledge that these are events are complicated by the entanglement of anti black and anti Asian stereotypes and the reporting of these acts of violence. We also acknowledge the reduction in humanity and harm done to the black community by the coverage and hateful commentary that has been deployed. Black and anti Asian racism both uphold white supremacy. We are still harmed by these racial structures. We racist structures, excuse me, we believe everyone has a stake in dismantling white supremacy in favor of a true multiracial democracy. We believe that a truly equitable society cannot exist until we dismantle all dimensions of racism. We must remain vigilant and continue to create a compassionate and welcoming environment that is inclusive of our staff, our patrons and the public. And we wanted to share this great quote from the activists, Chinese American activists Grace Lee Boggs, the only way to survive is by taking care of one another. I think that's something we all want to live and stand by today and in always in and in the future. Thank you. This is for acknowledgments at the end. So we can share the move on to yeah. And this is an event that's going to be coming on later on in this month so for the instead of supernatural crime will be visiting regular crime and punishment in through the debut book of this author me a P man and so man and so Sala, who will be debuting her novel crime novel arsenic and adobo so please join us May 18 another virtual event with San Francisco Public Library. And also, one of our sponsors today archipelago books is selling trece one the US edition so we encourage you to visit their website. They do have copies available. So please support independent bookstores. Next slide. So, coming soon with with archipelago covering them are trece two and three I believe Kajos working on, well probably is finished to and is working on on three so give a shout out one later on when we bring him on live. Okay, so let me continue on to our the introductions here at this event is a community partnership with the, you know, with us, the Filipino American Center library with with me representing as librarian. We are the only Filipino American Center in the US public library system and our mission is to really highlight the Filipino Americans experience. The center contains materials in English Filipino and other languages from the Philippines. Another sponsor is our great supporting group, the friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Another great community partner who's celebrating 50 years as as an institution in the city and county of San Francisco is the Philippines Studies Department of City College the only Philippine Studies Department in California, and the oldest of its kind in this world. As I mentioned archipelago books. They are a San Francisco based community institution for over 20 years and a distributor of books from the Philippines and Filipino American titles. And then they are carrying a blaze one and will carry the whole US ablaze series, and then also power Philippine American writers and artists, a Northern California based organization and independent publisher of Filipino American literature powers main goal is to create and ensure in the arts for the preservation and enrichment of Filipino American historical cultural and spiritual values power is also the anchor organization for the biennial Filipino American International Book Festival, or fill book fest so fill book is supposed to be happening this year but due to COVID we've the COVID pandemic and we it has been moved to October 14 through the 16th and 2022 here at the main library in San Francisco so think about that time, put it on your calendar and please join us next year. So, this May, as I met, we know is Asian American Pacific Islander History Month and we are spotlighting the cultures of many peoples from around that area of the world and stuff today so we bring you this May 8 of a panel event with Tressa creators budget 10 and artist Kajo Baldissimo. So, let me introduce our guests for today as we will begin our journey into the world of Tressa. Baldissimo is a cartoonist and co creator of Tressa. He is an avid reader of Filipino comics from the 80s and the 90s. He draws storyboards for a living and create comic comic books to live. After spending 40 years of his life in Makati city. He is now permanently residing in Davao city trying to establish an animal shelter together with his wife and son. And our next guest is budget 10 if he is the writer and co creator of Tressa. He also collaborated with Bob Guerrero and JB Tapia and creating the dark colony books. He is also co editor and co writer of the Alejandro Pardo books with David Juan Tiveros. Recently he co edited with Charis Locke, the Southeast Asian comic book sound a comic anthology published by a different ancient. He currently works for the Lego agency in Denmark and lives there with his super wife and their little super boy. And last but not least our moderator for today's program is Carl Angel. He is a visual artist who grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. Carl is the illustrator of numerous books including Lacoste and the Manila town fish, Sky High, the true story of Maggie G. The girl who saved yesterday and the forthcoming Pedro's yo-yos. He is also the art director and designer of many books from Children's Book Press and Leon Lowe. His art is included in the anthologies honoring our ancestors and on our block. He lives with his wife and son in Burbank, California. So thank you all for joining us today Carl. And thank you for joining us today. Let's go into the world of Tresit. Take us there Carl. Okay, first of all can everybody hear me and just want to make sure. Okay, all right good. Well, I want to thank, first of all, I want to thank SFPL and aid for having me take part in this conversation. I was telling budget before we started that I'm going to try and keep myself as contained as possible because I'm such a fan. And, you know, I'm a little intimidated. Well, this is my first time full disclosure and I'll try and get all this out of the way as soon as possible. It's my first time interviewing anybody really so. And yet I feel like I'm in the, I'm the one who's being grilled I don't know why, but the expectations are high. And you guys have superseded all of them with this book. Thank you SFPL for giving me this opportunity. Thank you gentlemen for, for doing this. And I guess I was telling also the rest of staff that we're basically covering all sleep cycles here. So, good afternoon to everyone in the States. Good evening to those in Denmark. Good morning to those in Davao in the Philippines. So we've got, we've got the world watching here. There's a lot of people that registered to see this presentation and so and well worth it and well deserved. Thank you to those of mine. Tracy came into my orbit fairly recently but just about a year ago and I just kept tabs on it and I just, when I, when I read it I just became an instant fan. It's, I mean, I guess it doesn't hurt if you get an endorsement for Neil Gaiman but I would put this, I would put this up alongside anything that anybody has ever done. What, what's amazing about the world, well actually you know what, for the uninitiated budget why don't you introduce us to the character of Tracy in the world and that she comes from. Yeah, so thanks, thanks Carl, thanks Abe. Thank you everyone who invited us to be here. And thank you to everyone who just woke up is not really awake is maybe sleepwalking and pretending to watch this. And it's all a dream. Yeah, so, so quick pitch on what Alexander Tresse is all about. Tresse is about paranormal investigator Alexandra Tresse, who investigates the strange weird cases that happen in Metro Manila. And, and it usually involves Aswan, Chanak, Encanto, and Muto. And what makes her different from all other detectives is she uses magic spells too. And there is, are you, are you, what are you, are you a duende? Are you a duende? What are you, why are you still awake? Someone. So there, so maybe Chanjo can take over while I put this little boy in bed. I'll wait for you, bud. You can, you can tell it's better. I'll give you two minutes. Basically, it's, it's almost, it's, it's sort of a mix of, of, you know, CSI. For those, you know, more modern, I was about to date myself by saying Carl Kolchak, the night stalker. Now everybody knows how old I am, but, but it draws from all sorts of genres. What's amazing about it is that it's familiar. I mean, it's fresh but yet familiar. Because, you know, I grew up with these kinds of stories and we all grew up with being told, you know, forbidding tales of what we would do by our parents or what would happen to us. The creature would come and grab us in the middle of the night, or there's a boogeyman. We've all had our boogeyman stories when we were growing up. And, and in Filipino folklore, there's a lot of boogeyman. There, you know, there's, there's over a thousand islands, there's over, there's different, there's different religions, different beliefs, indigenous and otherwise. And I mean, the wealth of underworld material is vast in Filipino folklore. And the thing that I'm so impressed by with with budget and culture were able to do is that they cracked the code. I mean, and it's funny because it didn't seem like there was, it seems so natural way that they did it. It's probably an immense task to to gather, or if it's not intimidatingly so to take in all the different types of folklore that the Philippine that Filipino culture has, and to try and make it accessible and and fun and not academic. I've done a series on Filipino folklore, just a series of paintings back when I just graduated from college. I won't say when. But back then, there weren't a lot of resources for for me to look at there was maybe one overdue library paperback book and, and everything else was looking at Berkeley Library for, you know, just card resources and stuff. There was no internet and, you know, it was just, it was just thing of discovery for me. And so, since then, I mean, with the advent of the internet and just with a deeper awareness that the next generation is having about their heritage. There's just more coming out and, and even with the amount of resources coming out which is great. It just shows how vast the stories are how vast the tales are, and the amount of material there is now to take all that, and then to be able to make it accessible and fun, and, and natural, I guess is the only way I can put it because there's nothing about the storytelling that Kajo and budget have that that seems deliberate work, or, or it's so brilliantly realized that it's almost like budget budget budget is just sort of open the door and, and Kajo just like the two of these guys just open the door and all of a sudden, there you are. You're in it with this detective. And if I may say so before I quickly turn it back over to budget so I don't ruin his synopsis is that this character of Alexander is is she's ahead of her time. I mean these guys started at 16 years ago. Now, I mean, you have the reiteration of the kung fu TV series you have Ryan the last dragon these strong powerful heroines. Well, I mean, you had Disney princesses stuff that could sing. To this day I haven't seen Alexander or haven't read anything about Alexander trece musical numbers or anything like that, aided by by animals or anything, but that's coming up probably right this way. But in this in the character of Alexander trece, what I found with somebody in this funny how Kaja depicts her. She is slight. And she's, you know, on her side are two bodyguards, you know, her brothers and them, and these guys, they seem kind of imposing and you would think that Oh, you know, they're there to kind of protect her but when the way that Kajo frames it in his drawings and the way that budget character, there's, it's almost like they're holding her back. You know, because she is, she speaks very kind of succinctly. She goes right I mean it's like a real detective but there's no, there's no lack of self assuredness about this character. And, and the fact that she's like this much, you know, the guys are this tall and she's like there but you still think Oh, she's the boss, and she's here for business. And these guys, you know, are at her command I mean it's, it's amazing that you have a female character that's that strong without, without these guys having to point arrows at her saying that she's a strong character and it's a tribute and a testament to budgets writing and the way that Kajo frames a page I mean it's I mean you just open up to any, any page in that in this book and it's, I mean, what the hell. This is, I mean, we'll talk shop later but anyway. All right, I covered for your budget. With how the world was, was, you know, what, what you think of the world I was talking about how in Filipino folklore, there is a lot of there's a wealth of underworld material. Yes. I mean, at least announcing that when I, when I first discovered it there was hardly anything now there's all this stuff I mean I'm sure that both of you guys are probably students of maximum or almost just named one. But I mean, I mean, how, how aware of you, how aware of that you of Filipino folklore were you, both of you, when coming up, when, when coming up with this idea I mean was it sort of a horse before the carts are thinking it's always kind of been brewing. Or for Kajo when you when you had that kind of a Tiffany moment wasn't a Tiffany when you said, you know what budget and I got to work together, or, and that came to it or was it, you know, go ahead take over. If I get yeah if it's okay Carl I put together a little show and tell great. So I think it should answer like some of the basic questions, and then I'm sure you guys and the rest of the readers will will probably drill us but but yes just to answer your first question. We, a lot of people think that we are, you know, experts and scholars as far as Philippine lower mythology is concerned, and we're not, you know, it's just that we got surrounded by the right kind of people or maybe why the wrong kind of people. And it was only as far as I'm concerned it was only later on that I did discover Maximo Ramos's books. But yeah, if it's okay I will share screen right and take you through I hope really quickly the secret origin of of dress it. Okay. Okay, I hope I am allowed to share screen. Yes. Yes. Yes, thank you. Thank you, people in the background. So, and just and just like any business meet zoom meeting can you see my screen. It's the question. Yes. All right. Yes. All right, fantastic. So yeah, so allow me to take you a tour of magical Manila. And for those of you who grew up in Manila, you might say that Manila's not like that, but this is Manila from our point of view. And this is what eventually led to the birth of dress it. Yeah, Manila Metro Manila is now and I just Googled it 14 million people living in Metro Manila. It would have been cooler to say 13 million but yes we just keep giving birth to more people. It's a it's a great this is a great shot of Metro Manila to show how modern it is. This is a picture I show to my colleagues here in Denmark to show them, you know, it's not all pretty beaches in the Philippines. But what I love about Manila of course is that we still cling to traditions and to our faith that in the middle of a very modern metropolis you have churches that are over 400 years old. And that, you know, even in churches like Capo, right in front of it you have people who will sell you what they say are magical amulets, you know, hunting hunting, they will sell you potions and candles that will supposedly heal you and cure you. So it's an interesting mix of, you know, embracing modern first world technology and moving forward but at the same time we're still pretty much grounded with the things that we believe in. In the 1980s this is what I grew up seeing on newspaper headlines that Amanananggal was attacking people in Sao Paulo. So to me as a kid, seeing this in a newspaper mean it to me it signaled they must be real, you know, they these asoang must be real life monsters out there because the newspaper I didn't know it was a tabloid. I remember thinking about it right. So one of the, in my research, one of the interesting articles I found came out in the Daily Express in 1973, and it was about a house in Merville subdivision in Paranyape that was supposedly haunted. A new couple had moved into the house with their relatives and their newborn baby. You know, if you, if you read the report it would go through the usual, you know, haunted house stories of like lights switching on and off, voices would be heard coming from empty rooms, objects would be moving by themselves supposedly at one time, you know, one of the occupants of the house woke up to get a drink from the kitchen and he saw his chenelas walking away from him. And all of these things are happening except to the mother in the house. And she said she didn't believe any of those stories. And one summer afternoon she had just given a bath to her six month old baby. And so she puts the baby on the bed that she turns around to get the clothes. And the moment she looks back at her baby, half of her baby's face had wrinkled out like an old man's face. And the eye turned gray. And in that instant she realized that all of those stories of the hot things were real. And in that split second she realized that a spirit had possessed her child. And the only thing she could think of doing was she slapped her baby. She slapped that baby hard and commanded the spirit to leave the child. But the thing on the bed didn't cry. It just stared back at her as if daring her to do it again. And that's when she got down on her knees and she started to pray and she said it felt like she prayed to every saint she knew. And she prayed to the Virgin Mary and she prayed and prayed and prayed until her baby's face returned to normal. According to the news report, the couple who lived there was Buddy Tan. The mother's name is Adjet Tan. And the baby's name is Buddy Tan. That was my childhood. I don't know what's worse, being made to wear this full shot jumper or getting possessed by that spirit. But that was, so this is the story I grew up with. So I grew up with my dad telling me, oh, you know, there's a swan outside the window. You know, it's bedtime. Don't get off the bed. And my mom would tell me these stories of, you know, when you were a child, you were possessed by a spirit of a haunted house. So again, it was like, this is, this was normal for me. And I guess Presse is dealing with the trauma of growing up in that kind of household. So are you in therapy budget? I think comics has become my therapy. So let's skip the therapy part. In 1994, me and a group of guys, including Kajo, which is where we met, formed a group called Alamat Comics. And some of us were fresh out of college. Kajo was still in college at the time. And, you know, we thought we were going to be the next big thing. You know, we, we had big dreams of becoming the next Marvel in DC and image comics. But as you might have noticed, you're all going, we've never heard of these titles. And yes, some of these titles never got beyond issue one. But, you know, that, that dream of wanting to do comics just was something that we, we, I guess, never let go of. So it was in 2005. You know, so that was 1994 cut to what 11 years later in 2005. Kajo sends me a text message that he says, you know, hey budge, you want to make a comic book. So in the text message was, you know, budge, you want to make monthly comics. And we were both working for ad agencies at the time. And it felt like, and if you work in an ad agency, there's very little time for anything else. So I thought, you know, how could we possibly do this? But Kajo was the one who made the commitment and said, if you can give me a 20 page script, I can draw it in 20 days. So by the end of, you know, the 20 days, you would have a comic book. So what happened, and that's how, and that's how Tresi was born. Tresi was a character I came up with a few years back. And it was greatly inspired by detective stories. And Carl, I heard you mentioned Carl Colchak. Carl Colchak is another big influence in Tresi. He's along with Fox Mulder, Gil Grissom, John Constantine, and Batman. So when, and I couldn't finish the Tresi script when I was trying to write him as a guy, as Anton Tresi, a tough, you know, Pinoy detective. But when Kajo sent me that text, and I sent him a script of Tresi and he drew Tresi as a tough guy. And he's emailed me back the first sketch of Tresi as this, you know, really cool looking dude. I said, wow, this might just work. There's this crazy idea of Kajo. But then something clicked in my head and I said, why does this tough guy look so typical? Which just made me think, and I texted Kajo back and said, what if Tresi was a woman? And Kajo just replied, oh, that would make her so badass is what Kajo said. And in the same day, Kajo sent me a new sketch of Tresi with a devil's haircut and that, you know, intense look on her face. And that's been her character design ever since. I mean, I didn't, I don't think I even had a description for Tresi. I just said, you know, this is what she's all about. And somehow Kajo came up with that character and look. And that's been the same look. We've never changed. It did not go through, you know, different designs or anything like that. And thus she became our supernatural detective. We photocopied the first issue of Tresi back in 2005 and sold it for 30 pesos, which is less than a dollar because we were afraid no one would buy it. Three years later we got picked up by Vizprint, who has been our publisher ever since in the Philippines. And yes, as you guys have talked about last year, a blaze came out with the US edition of Tresi. And before this year ends, book two and three will come out. And later this year, the anime will be streaming on Netflix. And a lot of the cases of Tresi, of course, are based on creatures of Philippine myth and folklore. And this was the book that Carlos was talking about or Abe was talking about earlier, wherein we wrote essentially like a guidebook to most of these, or to some of the interesting ones that we thought were worth mentioning. Maximoramos of course has written chronicle, I don't know, hundreds of these creatures from all of our islands. We have the Asuang of course, which has taken many shapes and forms depending what province you're in. We have our creatures who live underground like the Duende, which is our version of the dwarf. We have the Nuno Sapunso, which is where we all learn to say tabi tabi po if you see a mound of dirt, especially if it's near a tree. And make sure you do not piss on the mound of dirt because if you hit the Nuno, the Nuno will cast a sumpa, a purse on you and make you sick. The Manananggal, which to a lot of, especially foreign readers are so horrified when they find out what the Manananggal is all about. The Tikbalang, which is supposed to be found on crossroads in the province, and it's the reason why you get lost in the forest, or it would challenge you to a wrestling match. And if you lose that match, you go insane. But supposedly if you can beat the Tikbalang, and the way to beat the Tikbalang is to wrestle it and get one hair from its main. And that will make the Tikbalang subservient to you, and will grant you a wish supposedly. And I also, through research, I discovered the Santelmo, or our version of St. Elmo's Fire, which is supposedly seen as a ball of fire bouncing on, you know, a dirt road, or fishermen have seen this bouncing on the horizon of the sea. And supposedly this ball of fire are spirits of people who died at that spot, but did not get the proper burial. So that they were, you know, this is their way of calling out for help. So all of those stories, you know, I grew up with or discovered through hearing it from family and friends and from research. And when we started to pray, the main question we always ask is, where are they now in the city? And this was greatly inspired by Neil Gaiman's American Gods and his Sandman. That's the very same question he asked. He asked that when he created the American Gods, did all of these old gods come with the, you know, when people migrated to America, did they bring their gods with them? And where are they now? So I took that same question and applied it to Manila context. So the Nuno Sapunso is now a Nuno, a manhole, and is an informant of Trece as far as things in the underworld is concerned. The Manananggal who loves to, you know, attack pregnant women and suck the babies out of their bellies are now flying around the high-rise condos and apartments of Makati and Ortigas. And that's where they're looking for babies. And some of them have formed a kidnapping ring and they get into gang wars with other Aswang. And that's where Trece needs to come in and stop these gang wars. The Tikbalam now waits at the highways, at motorways and challenges people to drag races instead of wrestling with them. And the deal is the same. If you lose, you lose your car. And that's why there are accidents that happen on particular streets in Metro Manila. But if you're able to defeat the, outrace the Tikbalam, then he would grant you a wish. And the Santelmo is now a fire elemental that Trece can summon using her cell phone in order to investigate other crimes committed by fire elementals. And like I said, Trece uses magic spells to investigate crimes. So for example, she needs to see, they find the body of the victim and they need to find out who was the last person that this victim was looking at. Before he or she died. And what Trece would do is she would get her crease, her magical dagger and she would pluck out the eyeball, put it on the white handkerchief, fold it, save the magic word. She stabs it. And when she opens the handkerchief, an image appears on the white handkerchief. Is that something that you came up with? Or is that like, that's all this stuff is so outrageous? I mean, is that something that you came up with? This is a mix of several things. So the whole concept of the image being imprinted on the eyeball of a victim came from Sherlock Holmes. There was a belief in during that time that if somebody dies, that the image of whatever he or she was looking at gets imprinted in the retina or the iris of the victim. So essentially during that time, there were people who were experimenting and they would take photographs of the eyeball and try to, you know, expand that photo trying to figure out the image. So that's where that idea came from. And I just needed to figure out what is, if that's the scientific way of doing it, what's the magical version of it. Another source of this is if you are familiar with the ritual of the Pantatawas. So to find out if there is a encanto living in your house or your land, you do a Tawas ritual, which is supposedly you get a basin of water. You get a basin filled with water, you get a white candle, you light it, you say prayers and you let candle wax drip on the water. The wax is supposedly going to take the shape of a face or a creature. And that's how the Pantatawas knows what kind of creature is living in your land. So I just mashed up those two things and this spell is what came out. So it was a natural thing for you to take all these underworld figures and then in terms of mythical underworld and then personify them like crime underworld. Does that just seem like a natural thing? I mean, oh, these guys are going to fly around condos, these guys are going to, I mean, where did that part come from? It was really that it was because I had written a bunch of ghost stories set in Metro Manila with a friend of mine, Mark Gattela. By the way, Mark is the one who came up with the name Anton Treze. So we wrote all of these ghost stories based in Manila and they were really inspired a lot by Stephen King, Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crip. But they were your typical one-off stories that would usually end with, and the man saw the lady in white and he went insane. And it would be these open-ended stories. So to me, it was like, I want an ending. I need to know where the white lady came from. And that's where the thought of, well, maybe there should be a detective figuring these things out. So it was really taking all of those supernatural stories and then putting a detective story lens in front of it and trying to figure out the mystery and secret behind it. And so we come to this. And for those, I would have really wanted, I would have really loved to show you a trailer to the Treze Netflix anime. But of course, Netflix would probably send their asswams to stop me. So what I'd love to do for you now is to give you a preview for those of you who haven't read Treze, a reading of the first couple of pages of Treze. And then let's continue with, and then I'll stop talking and let Katjo take over. I'm ready, Katjo. Alright. No, go ahead. Got questions. So again, this is the first story of Treze and it's, and we were talking to Lily May earlier about ballet and drive. And yes, you know, I was, it was one of those times when whenever we would go to my grandmother's house and then go home, ballet and drive was one of those roads we'd always pass. And, you know, someone in the car would always say, oh, you know, the street is haunted by a white lady. And then the thing is, every time I hear the story of the white lady, somebody has a different version of it. Right. So to me, I just thought, okay, I want to write the definitive secret origin of the white lady. And we start the story with the white lady, but in this case, instead of her frightening people, she's the victim. So the story starts with the white lady ballet drive being found dead on the street. And Treze needs to investigate who wants to kill the white lady. And more importantly, how do you kill a ghost? So here's at the intersection of ballet and 13th Street. The night wind howls like a wounded dying animal. One might think the street was mourning this particular death. Do we take away the body now? No, not yet. Wait, she's on her way. Sir, the sopo already collected all the important evidence. Good evening, Captain Guerrero. Thanks for calling me. Hello, Alexandra. I had a feeling you'd want to see this for yourself. Of course, it's not every day a white lady is found dead, especially on this street. So what do you know so far? Looks like your typical automobile accident until one of the neighbors identified the victim. Her name was Gina Santos. And the neighbor said, as far as they remember, she died back in the 1960s. Interesting. What's this? And she sees dust on the road, white dust or white powder. She smells it and tastes it and says, salty. Seems like we're missing the bigger picture here. And that's when Treze notices that the white dust was used to create a big circle around that intersection. Guerrero says, and it seems like as usual, you're the only one who has a clue on what this is all about. Actually, I don't, but I look into it. Thanks. Treze walks down the street and sees a mound of dirt. And that's when she says, tabi tabi po. Good evening po. Psst, nobody stays there anymore. And a hand lifts up the manhole and says, not a good place to stay. Always lots of litter, garbage, not good at all. Good evening, sir. Can I ask you some questions? The Penzoo's asking. My name is Alexandra Treze. And, ah, your Anton Spohn. Okay, okay. What do you want to know? Did you see what happened here tonight? No, no, I try not to get involved in such things. This was on the street. Do you know what it is? Hmm, yes, salty, ancient. So what is this powder? It's mermaid, the bones of a mermaid ground to dust. Fine, very useful if one wants to trap spirits. Highly recommended. Better than iodized salt. So, and where does one find ground up mermaid bones? Sorry, I wouldn't know. Not my territory. Don't like to see so much. That would be a good place to start. The sea. Good night, little Treze. Careful where you tread. That's the end of the preview. And I just wanted to end last two slides. I wanted to end with this slide and say, back in the 60s, the, you know, the Filipino comics outsold out circulated any printed material, even newspapers. It was, you know, sold in the hundreds of thousands and then you can even rent it at the Sari Sari store, right. But for many, many reasons, you know, these companies closed down and eventually there were no more big comic book companies in the Philippines. Although I was in my favorite comic book store in Manila, and as I was picking up my usual titles, I heard these three little voices behind me, and they were so excited by something. And I turned around and I saw these three girls and I just had to take a picture, because they were naming each and every superhero on that shelf. And they were like, oh, this is local, that's cyborg, this is what he can do, and that's super girl. And I was, you know, it just made my heart swell to know that there's a new generation of comic book readers. But it also made me think, what do we need to do to get this new generation of kids excited and say, oh, that's a Pinoy hero or she's a new Filipino hero, I like this one. And have this shelf just get filled up with Filipino stories. And so it is, it's, I am, me and Kajo are so, I suddenly lost words on like, how far Tracy has reached, and we are so thankful for our readers who have as far back as 2007 has used it as a loop on to share it with fellow families and family and friends abroad. And I do hope that eventually that this could be the start, because we do have many, many, many fantastic comic book stories, graphic novels in the Philippines and so many great creators. And I hope that the next time I visit this comic book store that this would get me, this would be filled with Filipino comics, and that there will be more kids just going, being really excited to pick up their favorite Filipino comic book character. Thank you very much. You can now go to your questions. Why don't you tell me you're going to do this so we've got some popcorn. Guys. I know this is for you, but, but before I have to save the budget to things once a question and ones. Well, she's budget after that story of your childhood I guess Tracy is not horror fiction it is a documentary. It's amazing that you're as well adjusted as you are speaking of which, how is your child by the way who tells the bedtime stories in that house. When you when you went away to touch him in the bed where you like. All right, good night you're about to close doing like, wait, did you hear something. Oh, never mind, never mind. Or I haven't, I haven't used that tactic yet, but I might thank you for reminding me. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, what, well thank you so much for doing that that took a lot of the heavy lifting off of me and I mean, I'm just now I'm just the audience as you were an audience member again. And I mean is wonderful is as your words are they wouldn't. It wouldn't be what it is without Kajo I mean just from a fellow illustrated to another I mean how, how do you start off you know I mean forget all the horror and all the mythical creatures and all this deep stuff. The thing I am most blown away by is budget send me a page and then I'll, I'll send you something in an hour. That's the most impressive thing to me this whole collaboration as far as I'm concerned from illustrator standpoint. I mean, when he sent you a page of a script. I mean, on your lunch hour, you would, you would do a page that that's what the legend is. Is it one of those things where, oh it was actually three hours and then it's like, and as a legend grows it's like no it was one minute. You know, I hear stories that you did these on your lunch break. I guess something I want to ask is what did you have for lunch? Red Bull or how many pots of coffee I mean how much candy bars I mean and can you send some over here, you know to help my productivity. It's just rice. It's rice on a cup. No, actually, actually it's even less than an hour because yeah I, I had to save myself about 10 minutes to eat. Because I need to. Yeah, usually I don't eat breakfast so that the 10 minute, 10 minute actual lunch break is essential for me to survive the day. But the thing about that one hour challenge is that now that I'm thinking about it is it actually made the storytelling real honest and I don't know, simple simple because I usually when you give me five hours or more to do a page, I'll just overthink it and put a lot of non essential things into the page that would, it would make the pages prettier. But not necessarily better in terms of telling the actual story. What happened was I had 50 minutes to finish that page so I'm pretty much going by instinct. That is, but that's from, I mean, from start to finish, inked, I mean from pencils to ink, you're not even doing thumbnails or anything like that prior you're just, I mean just go that is it. Actually, the thumbnails, the laying out of the story part takes most of the time. That takes about 30 minutes to do that to figure out how the story flows, or if the page reads or if I'm interpreting the script properly. It takes all of the big chunk of that time. And so the inking part, the pencil in the inking part, that's the, that's the, that takes about less than 30 minutes. And so if you've seen the original volume, especially the photocopied ones, it's very, very, very rough. But I was happy with it. And well, budget and I were happy with it because it's just for us. We're doing it for us. It's a hobby. We're just entertaining ourselves. So when the opportunity to present the material internationally, that's when I decided. It had to be polished a bit. For the audience, that's what he's doing, by the way. He's been doing, what, one to seven or redoing the issues? I had to spend more time on volume one because that I think was the roughest. Because when we started doing volume two, I had, I spent more time with it. That's when, that's when, yeah, I still do the pages during lunch break, but after office hours, that's when I inked the thing, the pages. But with the first volume, that first four stories, those were done, yeah, during lunch break. Now, I mean, you were, you come from a storyboarding background. And so when you're doing storyboards, obviously the frame is one is fixed. And the way that the Tracy pages are just all over the place, but you can follow them. I mean, that's what inspires those kinds of compositions. I mean, you'll do something where there is a series of panels and then, well, I mean, even this. You know, I mean, it's a series of panels. Well, here, sorry, camera. Where it's a series of panels, but then, but the, but yet the full, the figure takes up the whole page. I mean, what determines these types of compositions, when you're doing it, because I mean, you could easily just do square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square, square. Anyway, anyway, it would look really great. Will Leisner does that. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, you have the characters jumping out of frame, you have them in frame, and then maybe you'll, there was one story here, I'm not, not even sure it was here or in your bloodline story, but where you open up to page. And then there is no frame, it's like it's, it's like a spread, a full on spread like a, like a piece, like a, like an art. I mean, they're all art pieces, but I mean, like a, like a standalone poster. like a standalone poster. I mean, how does that work in your mind where you're thinking, okay, this should be in panels, but then when I get to this page, what is it about budgets writing that says, okay, this has to be a whole spread with no borders, per se, other than the actual dimensions of the spread itself? I mean, I know it's kind of a, it's a bit of an abstract question to answer, but this is probably the only time I'm gonna get to talk to you for a while. So, I mean, this as a fan and as just somebody who, I mean, as a fellow professional, I'm just curious, like what dictates your compositions? How do you decide when to go big, when to go small, you know? Okay, actually, yeah, the storyboarding, my job as a storyboard artist helped a lot in telling the story, the flow. And that's the first step in me composing the page. It's usually very simple six panel grids or even nine sometimes. That's when I execute the story in those simple traditional grids. And then when I see that the story is flowing or it's clear, that's when I, okay, now that the story is clear, how do I make the page interesting? Because the page needs to be interesting for the, because it's a visual medium, the audience had to be interested, had to be, had to have the desire to, okay, now that I like what I'm seeing, I want to, now let me read it. So I have to make the page not really dynamic, but at least not boring, you know? So that part, I was influenced by the Image Comics Revolution and those guys are known for their dynamic pages. Yeah, and what you said was, it looks like a poster. That's usually how they lay out their pages. There's usually one very interesting page and then the other pages are, okay. There's a very large face and then they'll put in the panels to tell the story. But then I'm okay with that, but then sometimes the problem with that is that sometimes you get too excited to make the page interesting and you lose the objective to tell the story. So I make sure that I create the proper balance to tell the story and then make it pretty. Yeah, I mean, it's a perfect balance between restraint and then just going for it. And then the secret, Carl, if I can jump in, the secret is because, because Cajun gets a very boring script from me and his job is to make it look exciting. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to do it. I don't think so. I don't think so. I feel it's almost exactly the opposite because reading your words, I mean, it's almost like thinking, how do I rise up to this level of script? You know, I mean, of trying to make the balance. That's why this thing hits, you know, you guys. I mean, this is just the, I also saw during your presentation budget, there was a hollerage of Tresa. What was that from? Because so far, everything I've seen is in black and white with the exception of that shot from the Netflix. Yes. I'll quick answer to that before Cajun jumps back in. We released the first three cases of Tresa in full color, but we released it in Filipino. I see. And then we asked Bob Ong to translate it because I can't trust my own. I am ashamed to say that my writing in Filipino is not, I'm not as confident as when I write in English. And we are fans, me and Cajun are fans of Bob Ong's work. So, and we're in the same publishing house. So we asked him if he wanted to, if he was willing to come into our playground and he said yes. So there, so that's why, and we just thought that instead of releasing the same story in English in color, yeah, we thought it would be great to release it in Filipino because one of the things that triggered it is one of the Tresa's stories was included by the Department of Education in their workbooks. So way back in, I think 2013 or 2012, they asked us if we could translate one Tresa case and they included it in the workbook. So the workbook is a PDF file emailed to all of the teachers in public schools in the Philippines. So the teachers can then download that and use it for lessons. Because of that, we started to get email from high school students and elementary students asking, well, we would get email saying, I have an assignment, can you answer that assignment? So they were asking us to interpret and analyze Tresa for them. But eventually, years later, we would get email from college students who said, dear sirs, I read your comics when I was in grade school and now I can afford to buy all of your books. So we thought, because of that one story, now we realized we had readers who were getting introduced to Tresa in Filipino. So that, and that was the whole reason to, we thought, okay, let's start releasing it in Filipino, but let's give it something special and it came out in color. Well, yeah, because it's so powerful in black and white. And of course it lends itself to the medium being another crime story. So I was, I mean, I'm looking forward to see how it translates in color. I can only imagine, I mean, just on composition alone, Adria, you're so, I mean, if you're lucky, this thing, just on composition alone, it's already got it covered. But with the addition of color, I can only imagine how much, how it might be, given the sort of strong dynamic of contrast that you have in your work. Who influenced you while you were growing up? I mean, besides image, but I mean, but when you were both of you actually, when you were growing up, I mean, what were, I mean, what budget you had the real life experience of that sort of thing happening to you, to kind of fuel your imagination. But Kajo, what about you? I mean, did you grow up with, I mean, obviously you grew up with the Boogeyman stories like we all did. But I mean, how much of that affected you in a way? I mean, was it just like, oh, that's cool? Or, you know, were you pop culture comics and then cartoons and that sort? Yeah. Personally, I never had any real supernatural experience in my life. There was none. But I was inundated with, well, in the Philippines, there's probably more than two horror shows on TV at a time. There were, I think, four channels, but two of the channels would show, yeah, horror shows every week. So that was a great inspiration. And then comics, in the 80s, there used to be Sari Sari Stores who would rent out comics, Tagalog, Filipino comic books every week. They would rent it out for, you can get probably for a dollar, you can get 10 comic books for that. So I did that every weekend. I would rent out maybe six to eight titles and most of those titles are horror. And those artworks inspired me because normally they will be in color, but the artworks are mostly, mostly splattered with black ink because the printing is not that good so that the artwork or the artist had to compensate. So that's, even before I was exposed to Marvel or DC Comics, I bought my first one when I was in high school, when I was 13. But at age probably six or seven, I was already exposed to Filipino comics. So I think I can name Néstor Redondo and Alex Mino as one of my inspirations. But then when I was in high school, that was when X-Men number one came out and then I saw Jim Lee's work and that's when I decided that I need to do this for life. I need to make this a career somehow. I don't think that happened yet, but yeah. So how much of this or early chance it was analog and versus digital in terms of your inking work, was it? I think the first seven stories were traditional, traditional inking, penciling, and then the story number eight or volume three, that's when I went digital. And now that I'm redrawing it or fixing it, I kind of went back to traditional. And how's that? I'm understanding old drawings back into the computer and then changing the backgrounds and stuff like that. I mean, has it made it easier for you? Does it sometimes with the advent of digital, there's so many choices that, again, you're talking about when you were doing things for just an hour, it was kind of spontaneous and there was more truth and spontaneity now that you have the access to digital and being able to make endless decisions. I mean, how is that affected? You're redoing the first three books. I mean, how's that, you look remarkably well for a guy under that kind of pressure. I mean, how has it helped you or? Yes, it just made me not afraid to make mistakes because even if you mess up the page with your traditionally inking it, messing it up, just fix it on the computer later. So that was great. That was great to add to the process. Yeah. I mean, I know that we're kind of, we'll cut to a Q and A. I know that there's a lot of people that have questions for you guys, but I just also want to also bring up also this too, led lines, incredible work by you guys and your friends. I mean, what was the origin of including collaborators into this world? How much, how long after your initial creation of Tresa did you decide, okay, we gotta expand this world, we're gonna bring in collaborators to do it? I guess the, it's just fun to bring in old friends. And these are the same guys I was hanging out with when the proto versions of Tresa came about. And then, yeah, along the way and Comic-Cons and all of that, we got to meet new artists as well. And by the time we hit book seven, we already introduced the rest of the Tresa family. So we just thought of, you know, inviting old friends over, teaming them up with new artists and giving them, you know, opening up the playground and letting them handle, you know, different members of the Tresa family. And, you know, it was just fun to, it just makes me go back to, you know, for me, it was like going back to high school again and just chatting with friends about, oh, let's do a really cool comic book story. But now it's in the Tresa sandbox. And yeah, it was fun to do. How much influence did you have on the stories? Did you just leave it up to them to write it? I mean, based on what they read from the previous books? Yeah, we, I, the, a lot of the characters I assigned to them have what do you call this? I mean, they, we've seen them in the Tresa books, but as far as their backstory is concerned, I left it open. So I acted more as editor to their works just to make sure it won't contradict anything that will happen later on in the Tresa books. And for Kajo, how about you? Did you have any say in terms of like, art directing the different illustrators that were on the different stories, or was it just take it and run? I think there's a mute. Commuted, Kajo? Sorry, sorry. I just get out of their way. I let them do what they wanted to do basically and hope that they read the books enough to not totally deviate from what was, what had been done before. But basically, yeah, I just, I just let them do what they feel like doing creatively. Conversely, does that affect any further books going on that you guys are creating, you know, in terms of the regular Tresa series? I mean, because Bloodlines comes out and then, I mean, did you already have an outline for the whole arc of this character? I mean, I know you guys are brilliant, you know? I mean, so, I mean. Here's the secret, Carl. Just don't tell anyone. We're making this up as we go along. I find that very hard to believe, just on the very hard way. You guys are drawing on way too many, you guys are hitting on way too many points, you know, like on cylinders in terms of just firing. I mean, for this to be like some fluke. It'll kill me if that's what is actually happening, you know, you guys have to be deliberate, at least in some manner, you know? I don't, I wanna go back to something Kajo said earlier about, that there's something honest and authentic about giving yourself that one hour or 30 minutes so that you're not overthinking yourself. And I think that's one of the reasons why we, I got delayed in writing, you know, everything after book three or book four was one of the guys, one of my friends said, so what's your plan for Treze? I said, I don't know. And he said, you gotta have a plan. And then when I sat down and started to think about it, then I started to like, yeah, maybe I should have a plan. And more often than not, it stops me from writing the next thing. But like, for example, in book seven, which was when suddenly we had a story for two of the brothers. And that came out because I was so frustrated trying to tell Treze's story. I said, I need a break. I wanna talk about that guy over there. And somehow that worked. And somehow it was like, when I didn't have to think about, you know, and we've talked about this in other places, but we did say that this will all come to an end on book 13, right? So in a weird way, we kind of have a target, but yeah, we're still figuring out how to get there. So in the same way, Kajo started this whole thing with a text message. We still send each other messages, you know, at three in the morning, my time, or six in the morning, his time. He'll suddenly say, Bunch, what did we do this? And I was like, okay, so yeah, I mean, and all of these messages just, I guess, end up in the back of my head. I write it down in a notebook. And the next time I come and sit down, it's like, some of it will fall into place. Some of it will be forgotten. And then we'll pick it back up. So it's a nice game. It's trying to figure out, it's really a juggling act of trying to figure out when is that other ball gonna fall? And how, and can we catch it if it falls? Yeah, so you can pick the through, you know. Okay, one quick question from me before we get to Q&A, because I really wanna get to everybody's question, but for you guys, how disciplined are you when it comes to, I guess I got my answer. I was about to say, how disciplined are you at like, budget, do you like have an hour like nobody bothered me, I'm close to the door. I got music on or I'm gonna listen to the birds chirp outside or, you know, whatever Denmark has to offer. And then, and I'm just gonna, here I'm writing, like you're actually gonna be doing this. But, you know, where you're just typing and you have like two or three hours that you devote to that. Or, and for you Kajo, how is it? I mean, it's the same thing where you're, you know, you have a wife and child. Do you, do they say, oh, this is daddy's time to kind of go off and do his thing. Don't bother him. I mean, what do you guys do in terms of, because you guys are on this schedule and especially you, Kajo, when you're like, you mastered in the first three books. I mean, how do you, what is your, what is your practice? I used to, what you described, Carl, you sounded exactly like how things were before, before Sarah came. And now that I have a little boy, I think that schedule has gone out the window. But yeah, I still try to carve out, you know, when he gets to sleep, then that's when I tried to do a bit of writing. I don't get, I just feel these days I don't get to write as much as before. I still love the days when I could sit down and finish a whole script in one night. But yeah, I think I need, that's, I need to build strength to do that again. How about you, Kajo? I mean, I just need to at least give four to five hours in a day to that page. It doesn't matter what, I can't really focus on a thing that I can't sit for. I used to do four hours straight during a page, but I can't do that, not because my back hurts and the dogs are barking, then you need to wash dishes or something. But at least I devote five hours for the whole day. It doesn't matter if I need, I spend one hour in the morning and then the rest of the four hours at night, if it's scattered 30 minutes here, 20 minutes there, but I make sure that the five hours for the day for that page is fulfilled. Okay. All right, Abe, like I talked in us, thanks for putting up with me guys. We have, I've seen that we can chime in and have some questions from the chat. Does anybody has any questions? Are we on the desert island here or something gonna? Okay. You're muted, pal. Muted, Abe, unmute. Oh, sorry. Oh, I'm back now, sorry, thank you. Still getting used to the Zoom world, but anyway, thank you all three for a great afternoon. It was a deep dive into Tresi. I'm just so amazed by all the different aspects of it. So yeah, let's get into our question Q&A from our attendees today. So let me start out with one from our friend, Christina Newhart. She says, some say our mythology holds keys to understanding Philippine identity was never there ever an aha moment where understanding a creature that gave you some new insight into Philippine history or culture. Thanks, Christina for the question. That's, I think the aha moment came after, I'm not so sure if anything fed into the stories and maybe, and when I hear, especially when I hear Carl talk about the stories you've written, it's like, oh, so that's what we did. So we're never conscious of how people are reacting to it or consuming it. I mean, like one of the things I just remember, reading your question, one of the things I remember back is a sociology class I taught back in college where we talked about how the aswang or the white lady or the manananggal was a form of social control, at least as far as the sociologists were concerned, that's how they were interpreting it, right? So that they were saying that these myths and these legends came about to essentially tell you, don't trust the new one that's living outside of the body. Don't trust the fair-skinned folk or don't trust the dark-skinned folk that are coming from the forest, right? So, I mean, as a kid, the stories are still essentially the same, they're meant to scare you. So I think in a way, that somehow it became what's the term, watered down. I mean, it just became the very general, oh, don't trust this person because he or she might be an aswang, right? But behind all of that, I guess by the time it hit our generation, it just became the scary lady that lives outside the body. But during that time and during that moment, there were maybe other things that were happening that built that legend of the dark-skinned tobacco-smoking tall man, right? That the message to everyone else's don't trust anyone who looks like that. So I think it somehow still comes into play into the stories we tell, but we're at me, I'm never that conscious, I think, when I tell those stories. Sorry, just one last example, I guess the Chanak story. I mean, we couldn't, the Chanak story for the longest time, at least for our generation is the Chanak was introduced to us by Teke Galliaga and we all knew it as the Anak Nujanis, right? But looking back into it, it was connected to, it was connected to either miscarriages or it was connected to abortions. It was connected to unwanted pregnancies, right? The stories of the Chanak revolved around these, and these are things that what, back then, and even now they're, these are topics you don't wanna talk about in the family, right? Or you tend to want to cover it up to certain generations. So yeah, in a way, when we tried to put that Chanak story in a modern day context, that's when I merged it with news about secret abortion clinics in Manila. So those two things just came together and eventually it became the Chanak story in breadth. Okay. Carl, do you wanna read the next one under Q&A or should, or do you want me to just go through them all? Oh, okay. All right. Christina Newhart says, Ask, when you started working on Tracey, did you sleep with the lights on or off? I knew it was a good story when I switched on the lights. Always a good barometer. Right, right. That's a new rating system. How about you, Kaja? When you worked on it, I mean, was it just a visual exercise or did you actually feel any chills or anything like that? Yeah. I think drawing Tracey is no different from drawing other superheroes for me. Yeah. Same feeling of excitement and fun. I'm not scared at all when I'm drawing Tracey. Okay, go ahead. Let me take on the next one. It's a serious question from Jody Blanco. It says, does the investigation of crimes by Tracey ever crossover into the world of EJKs under President Duterte, the imprisonment of his critics or the assassination of reporters and local politicians that were run against his cronies? That would be, I guess, more a comment. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's really interesting. I mean, how much of that stuff finds its how much of reality? I mean, you have your tabloid papers which give very fantastic stories. So I mean, I guess reality is kind of a blurred line or subjective, you know, but how much of some of these more actual incidents or reported incidents find a way in your stories, whether it be subconsciously or conscious? Yeah, a lot of them. I think I can probably pinpoint several treses stories that really came from the headlines. So, whoa. Is that a sign, Kajo? Is your house haunted? The poster behind you just fell. You're being buried in the buffer just fell. It's either ghosts or just bad scotch tape or something. So I don't know. I mean, to answer that question, I don't know. Obviously it's something that can't be ignored. It's in the headlines all the time, but it and so many comic book stories have been written about what is happening now in the Philippines. So if it ever gets, if a case like that ever comes up in treses universe, then yeah, it would have been us figuring out how to tell it from a different point of view. But yes, a lot, I think, a lot of the cases of treses were based on some real world headline or some historical footnote that we saw. And then it was a question of and it was like, it would be like an unsolved case. So then it became a question of, well, what if it happened because of, and then I would connect it to a creature from Philippine folklore. So maybe we don't know, we'll see. Carl, you wanna get the next one? Carl, you're muted. All right. Okay, from Sharice Del Rosario who asks, what made you decide on an animated show versus a live action series? That's not hard. That's because Netflix was looking for an animated series. I will try to tell the shortened version of this, but the reason why treses is going to be a Netflix is because of another dynamic duo, Tanya Yuson and Shanti Harmane are the producers of the treses animated series along of course with Jay Oliva who came on board as executive producer and showrunner. But we met Tanya 10 years ago. So Tanya and Shanti have been pitching treses for 10 years. And the original pitch was they were attempts to pitch it as a movie. There were attempts to pitch it as a live action TV show. All of them did not push through for many, many reasons. And then in 2018, they heard that Netflix Anime Division opened their doors and said, we wanna produce anime from other countries. They pitched treses and here we are now. And in a way, it kind of worked out. In a way, because of what treses is all about. I mean, one of the reasons why the live action stuff was so difficult to get through was because they wanted it to be produced in the best way possible. How can you bring to life a tikbala? How can you bring to life Amananangal in the best way possible? So there was, and now through anime, I think it's gonna be a great way to adapt it. Actually, and just another quick question that's sort of related. Kajo, in the design of treses, was there, did you have any like, because sometimes if I'm coming up with characters, something like that, I'm always thinking of actors and actresses just because I'm so connected to movies and TV, in addition to comic books. But was there anybody that you modeled the character after that it's in popular culture or like a relative or something? Oh, well, partially, I think I was really a fan of Ghost in the Shell at the time. So maybe there's a little bit of major Kusanagi in treses. And then there was a time when I was modeling her after my own girlfriend, because she was feisty. And then we broke up until we broke up. And now, but it's okay, we're married now. So all is well. Oh, okay, all right, so that, you guys, that's Chris. All right, anyone want to take the next one? No, yeah, I'll do the next one. Justin Umali asks, I noticed that the spells in the English versions are in Filipino, but the spells in the Filipino version are in bye-bye-in, just a guess. Oh, what's the reason for that? Because we messed up the bye-bye-in. So the original, in the first couple of treses stories, and you'll see it if you have the original 2008 book. I think the first issue, it was just a gibberish font that Kajo found. And then eventually we tried bye-bye-in, and during one of the comic-ons, one guy approached us in UP, so the guy studied bye-bye-in, and he like shows the comic book, I mean, malito. So you guys got it wrong. And then he said, okay, let's stop doing that. Which goes to show how lazy we are. It's like, you know, should we study bye-bye-in? No, let's just change the whole spell process. So we then changed it to Filipino. And one of the things I did to make it different, because, you know, in Harry Potter and all of these other magic users, usually the spell is very long, right, when you pass the spell. So one of the things we did with tresé was she just has one keyword to activate the spell. So like, when she activates the eyeball spell, she says, testigo. So it's trying to find that one keyword to activate the spell, just to make it different from all of the other spell casters out there. And that's the reason why we're not using bye-bye-in anymore. Oh, okay, that's something more sophisticated. Um, okay, are there, um, are there... I think, in case... There's quite a bit of questions out there. Yeah, are there plans for crossovers to other Filipino comics like Tabi Po, Ella, Archangel, and others? Those are made, of course, by Mervyn Malone. So enjoy your spelenueva. It would be great to have a team up with them sometime in the future, but I think we're, they're busy doing stuff and we're doing this now. I mean, this is one of the things we've started exploring bloodlines. So one of the bloodline storyline is a collaboration with David Honteveros who created the superhero, Dakila. So there, so we've opened that door, so something we can continue to explore, you know, in the future. Okay. Let me just go through some of the Q&A because actually, yeah, there's quite a bit. So I think you kind of answered it, but you don't have any clue. This is one question of when the Netflix series is going to be actually released, right? Soon. Soon. It's here. It will happen this year. Believe me, it will happen this year. Okay. Let me just go through it though. Any comics, Filipino comics you guys are excited to read or get in the near future, either for both you or Kajo? Yes. It's so hard to find time to read now. Okay. Let's see. How did you... I think a lot of the, sorry, sorry, Abe, just to answer that. I think a lot of the, there are now a couple of titles from, that are in Archipelago. So I think even the books of Mervyn Malonzo and his studio are available in Archipelago. So, yeah, Tabu Po and El Arc Angel, I think are the ones, especially if the readers are looking for more urban fantasy horror type stuff. Oh, and by the way, there is pen, please do visit penlab.com. So penlab is a website that started a year ago. They are uploading Filipino comic books for free. Thank you, Motsi. Penlab.ink. That thing. I don't know where penlab.com will bring you, maybe pens. Penlab.ink. So yeah, we've a lot of new and old Filipino comic books. You can read it for free there. They have started to put links where you can buy them. But yes, it's a great platform to see more, discover more Filipino comic book titles. And I think with the titles in penlab, I think my dream of those three little girls looking up at the shelf filled with stories, I think is already happening thanks to penlab. That's great. Okay. There's a, Philip Rusty. I saw that Tresay Volume Three is coming out July 13th. They say they don't see it, however, in the latest previews. Will it be listed late in the next previews? I'm not sure what that means. I don't know if our, I think if I remember correctly, Volume Three might be scheduled for September. Oh, okay, okay. All right, next one. If Tresay could be a crossover with any comic in the world, what would it be? God, you wanna answer that? Batman. Yeah. You guys did a great piece with a night at the museum with him and also Wolverine. Wolverine, yeah. Yeah, again, that was a Kajo idea who said, you know, so budge, if you just wanna scratch that itch of doing a Batman, Wolverine story, let's do it. And that's what happened. So yeah, it's all for fun. DC, Marvel, please don't sue us. But if you wanna publish it, if you wanna publish it, hey. Here's another one for... And Constantine, yes, yes, Mots. Constantine and Tresay would be great. Let's see. For budget, what is the process of writing the story? Do you follow a structure? Is there anyone you talk to when writing it? It just seems so intriguing. I wanted to understand what goes through your mind. Kajo, telling me to limit it to 20 pages was the biggest help ever. Because if it wasn't for that 20 page limit, I would not have had the discipline to stop. I also think that working in advertising was where we picked up the discipline of you need to tell a story in 30 seconds. If you break down the storyboards of a 30-second TVC, it's almost like what, a 12-page comic book, I think. Or like a 10-page comic book. So I think being in advertising was where I learned that I can tell a story in a short form. But yeah, so really quickly, the crime scene is what first usually comes to mind. And then I write down pages one to 20 on the side of a pad, and then I write down what happens on each page. Or it's like, they find the white lady at page one, page 20, presses on it. And then I just work my way down to 20. I then, from there, I write the script. I write the dialogue. And sometimes I write too much dialogue, which we have to cut out because of the 20-page limit. And that's the reason why a lot of Hank, the bartender got cut out, and eventually we put those stories into another book, which was stories from the diabolical. Wow, okay. But there, so really roughly, that's how a typical press story gets done. But lately, like in book seven, I sent Kajo like a Marvel-style script with not much page breakdowns. So I think Kajo had fun translating that script into the pages and panels. So we ended up with stories that were longer than 20 pages. Okay, we have another one from Rick Robin Kagnan. He says, for budget, your thoughts on Hell of a Boss. It's a web cartoon created by Vivian Medrano, AKA Visipop. These three remaining characters are reminding me of Tressie and the Kambal twins, except these demons, the main characters from Hell of a Boss were hired assassins. Are you familiar with it? No, but thank you for sharing that. Let me, I'll check them after this chat. Okay, all right. I'll then check with your lawyers afterwards. No, there were, it was so scary because when we first released Tressie, I think I found the book in the national bookstore about, I think, what was her name, Lilith Crowe. But I mean, she was like, I think she was a vampire that investigated crime. And then there was also, people were comparing it to the Dresden files. And he's a wizard, but also is a detective. So, I mean, there are, it's not, it's the template for the character has been done a lot of times, except no one's done it set in Manila. Yeah, yeah. There's one from John Carlo Pereras. He says, are there any Tressie characters that represent family or friends? Oh, not really. A lot of them are named after, a lot of them are named after family and friends. But as far as the looks are concerned, I don't know if Cazzo has based them on. Yeah, none. None. No, the creatures that were modeled after any acquaintances or anything like that, or. That's amazing. No, none. Okay. Not that they're aware of. Okay. Now I'm gonna go to some that were sent via email, just a few. One asks, how did you two get in contact with Jay Oliva? But I think you kind of answered that, the young man was saying, Kevin Incyong was saying, I was lucky to have him as a teacher while he started working on Tressie. And he got me excited about the project. I grew up watching American cartoons and never saw myself represented. And I'm happy it is coming to be in my lifetime, Tressie on board as a Netflix anime. So, yeah. It was Netflix who picked him. And it was a very, very conscious decision to make this, to make the anime team as Pinoy as possible. Great. So, yeah, from Jay and his team, the art director of Tressie is Pinoy. Jojo. Kajo got to meet him in Manila. The voice actors are mostly Phil Am for the US cast. And of course, they're now dubbing the Filipino version. So, yeah. I mean, Netflix was the one that said, you know, make this as Pinoy as you can. You know, make Pinoy culture and folklore shine with this project. So, they didn't hold back on that. So, just to follow up on that, do you have a lineup of all the characters that will be Phil Am, voice actors, or actors that will be doing the English version of Tressie? I only know some of them, but yeah, hopefully when they announce the, especially when the series goes on the platform, then I think we'll get the full list of that. But yes, I mean, from Tanya would slowly, you know, and so just to anticipate the next question, me and Kajo are our hands off with the production. Yeah, so me and Kajo spent a day with Jay and Jojo. I also did it via a Zoom call with his writing team. But, and that was at the beginning stage of the anime. But after that one day with them, it was completely up to them on what to do with it. So yeah, so Tanya has told me of some of the cast members. So very exciting to hear these actors and actresses be part of Tressie. So soon, we hope we can talk more about them. Okay, so you're not at liberty to reveal their names right now, correct? No, unless you want to Lupa suddenly come here and like drop it out. Okay, yeah, we'll leave it at that. Just quickly though, budget, how much of the Netflix stories that you've read, have they had any influence on what you're going to write for the remaining books? Did you think, oh, that's a good idea. I mean, because I know that you were looking past and you said that I read or I heard in interviews that they sort of taken what you've got, what you guys have done, and then sort of ran in their own direction. And you said it sort of surprised you in certain ways that they managed to keep the spirit of it. Now, have you sort of taken, oh, you read their script and like, oh, that's a good idea. Maybe I should go in this direction instead, or has it, do you think it's important to say things? I think I found it surprising that they echo a lot of stuff that me and Kajo have talked about. And these are the usual Kajo budge text messages happening at six in the morning, three in the morning, right? Or when I heard what they were planning to do, it's like, oh, so you're doing that. But I think I will try as much, we will try as much as we can to stick to, you know, what we've already planned. So yeah, let's see. I mean, they've, in any adaptation, you know, it's so, the surefire way for an adaptation to fail is if you try to adapt it, you know, frame by frame, panel by panel. It's a completely different medium. So I think what they've done with Trese is they've made it really work out as an anime storyline. So yeah, I mean, who knows if in the back of my head, some plot line or character will pop up. But again, I think we want to keep the two things very distinct. Kajo, have you drawn any visual inspiration from what you've seen from the arts? No. Actually, I haven't, what they released in the public so far is what I, that's the only thing I also saw. So yeah, yeah, we, like, but should we, we're hands off. Yeah. It's their thing. Okay. Well, that's great. I think we'll have to, we've got a lot, but we can, we have to kind of unfortunately end our, our time with you this afternoon. Typical Filipino, you know, talking story, just, you overstay our welcome. Well, it's never that way. It's, that's the Filipino way, but thank you. Hey, this is Ope to tackle one last question. Oh, go ahead. Because I remember because you shared with me some questions via email. And I think one of the guys now on chat, I think it's Rick. Okay. Sent a question to us. Asking about, you know, he's, I think Rick is, is an aspiring artist. Right. And he was just asking, you know, you know, what keeps us going? You know, any, any tips for him on his wanting to be. An artist. And, and I think, and so, so if to, to try and answer that question, I wish we had another hour. But I think it's, I mean, I just want to make a point to Rick and everyone out there, you know, me and Kajo still have day jobs. I mean, I just want to make a point to Rick and everyone out there, you know, me and Kajo still have day jobs. The dream, the dream is, you know, to be Jim Lee, to be Neil Gaiman and that we do this, you know, you know, as, as that we make a living doing, you know, that would be fantastic when that happens, you know, if ever you reach that, that, that status. But for now it's the, when we make, we're essentially making the photocopied comic back in 2005. We're just lucky enough that we now have people who support us and it's now being read by more and more people. So it is still a passion project. It's still a hobby in a way. And I think that's what this is. And but the, the, the, the knowledge and skill we use for making the comic book is the same knowledge and skill we use to make money, to make a living. Yeah. So if you are an artist, then please by all means try and find a way to use your art to make a living. One of my favorite comic book artists is a writer for that matter is Brian Michael Bendis. And his, his, you know, his success story is he used to draw caricatures at bar mitzvahs. That's how he made money. He would, you know, attend parties, people are drunk and he'd have to draw them. And he was doing that up to the point when he was already writing Spider-Man. And he said he stopped doing caricatures when finally Spider-Man reached, I think issue four or five, but he realized, oh, it looks like they didn't fire me. I have a job. But, you know, it, sometimes you might already have the dream project in front of you, but you still need to keep doing that's that, that gig that makes you money. I do advert, you know, in advertising, and I'm still in advertising, by the way. So my job every single day, my ideas get rejected. I have to pitch ideas to my partner, then to my boss, then to the client. And I get rejected at every single stop. Yeah. But the next day I have to come back with a new idea. So Tresa is the one project me and Kajo can do where nobody rejects us. Right? That's the deal me and Kajo have. I have a script. I send it to him. He'll draw it. He's not going to tell me much this sucks. And then he sends pages to me. And when he sends pages to me, I, you know, I don't tell him, but Kajo, this sucks, change this. You know, it's, we're doing it for fun. So, so I think that that would be my, you know, that's my take on it. It might not work for everyone. And yeah, so, so Rick says, I have a day job twice working on local government unit in entry level position. Stephen King, Stephen King was working at a laundry and he was typing his stories while he was at the laundry until eventually he, he got to, he sold the story. Yeah. It's a, it's part of the deal. I just want to, I just want to make a clarification, a misconception. Everybody thinks that Tracy is a success. It's not, it's not a success because if it is, that's, yeah, like Budge said, we won't be doing, we won't be having day jobs. We'll just do that. But we're not, but we just, you know, we just kept on doing it because we love it. So maybe, maybe that's, that's, that's the thing. Do it because you love it. Don't make a goal out of it, you know, and maybe you're doing it so much. You kept doing it. That someday you get lucky or you might not, but just keep doing it anyway. I'll do it because you were trying to rep Filipino comics and, and, and trying to bring it back up to where it was in the 60s and prior to that. No, we thank you for that being part of that movement. So that was a good one to end on. Yeah. No, that very good. Thank, thank you, Budge and Kajo. Thank you. Bringing us to the world of Tressie and beyond and giving people inspiration on trying to realize their careers. You know, like you said, though, sometimes you really do keep the day job for most of your life, but then you, you have this passionate hobby that, that makes an impact in so many people's lives. You know, you've got a, a long standing fan base that have, are waiting on pins and needles for the next story. And I can imagine just even the recent one where, where you, where you get Basileo knocked off. Oh my God. You know, so, you know, the combo split, you know, so anyway, it's spoilers. If you're following them on, on their Tressie page or on Facebook, the stories all over the place and people are bewailing the, the loss of Basileo, right? Well, the story is not finished yet. So anyway, thank you guys. Again for, for joining us this afternoon and morning and evening. Thank you again for coming up to us at four in the morning. Davao time. We are totally in your debt. We are not worth you to all of you guys. Good afternoon. Good evening and good morning. Thank you everyone for joining us. Have a great weekend. Yeah. Thanks again, folks. Thank you. Thank you. Honour, gentlemen. Honours all my.