Our friends are alive!!!

After six agonizing days, we finally heard from +Jay Acosta! At 6:13 a.m. today, he sent this message via sms, "Ate Rob, me, my bro and my cousins are alive but my house is gone. Tacloban is in chaos. Please pray for my city :("

We immediately called him up, and what followed was a long conversation that alternated between sobs and rambling expressions of relief. He spoke of the moment the storm shattered their windows and it felt like their house "exploded from inside." He spoke of the nightmare days that followed, searching on foot for supplies in the city he grew up in but now lay in ruins all around him. He told us about how, in the debris-strewn streets, complete strangers would greet each other, asking "kamusta," "how are you, did you lose your house too?"

It was in one of these sorties to their former downtown that he saw another friend, Nico Medroso, whom we had also been worried about. Jay said Nico and his family, including his little baby, survived as their neighborhood was farther away from the areas battered by the storm surge. They may be planning to leave Tacloban soon and we've updated the Google Person Finder record we created for Nico with this new information. We're hoping we'll also get to hear from Nico himself once his family is settled and safe.

Jay is on his way now to Manila, with his brother and his brave younger sister who traveled all the way back to their former home, stopping at nothing until she found her brothers. We have to say we're immensely thankful she succeeded in finding them and that all three siblings are well.

Before we said goodbye, Jay told us he would like to join our old gang at this Saturday's +Komikon. We said everyone would be beyond happy to see him again. We'll spend the day talking about all things geek, browsing through new comics, and laughing about BK boybands (long story) among other things. Not because we want Jay to forget what he has been through, no one possibly could; but because we would like Jay to know, even for just a few hours, that it's all right to heal.

Pinoy Komiks Assemble: Local, Int'l Artists Contribute to Charity Auction

FILIPINO HEROES,
11.69 X 16.54, by Carlo Vergara

BIDS have started to come in for the artworks included in the Pinoy Komiks Assemble charity auction we wrote about in our last post. One of the early favorites is this inked original by Zsazsa Zaturnnah creator Carlo Vergara. Running bid as of this writing is PhP5,500 and the final bid could be much higher during the live auction on Saturday, the 16th of November, at the KOMIKON.

POLGAS, 9 X 12, by Pol Medina Jr.

Another potential favorite is cartoonist Pol Medina Jr.'s take on a local rite of passage. Pol is among the major crowd-drawers at the Komikon and we've seen his readers lining up to have their books signed even after the official close of the Kon. With a starting bid of PhP1,000, we expect a number of fans to 'outpig' each other for a chance to own this piece.

Original X-TREME X-MEN Issue 7, page 8

We're also seeing artwork being created or donated by Filipino artists who are presently working on international comic book titles. Among the early contributors was Stephen Segovia who donated at least two pages from his run on X-Treme X-Men. 

Joining Stephen is our good friend, Ed Tadeo, whose work recently appeared in Dynamite Entertainment's The Bionic Man. He created two watercolor paintings for this auction and the 9x12 Batman/Superman tribute we're showing here is a steal at the current bid of PhP500.

Original water color by Ed Tadeo

Other artists, including Marvel superstars Mico Suayan, Harvey Tolibao, and Leinil Francis Yu, have pledged their participation, and many more original pieces will be auctioned off on the day of the Komikon itself.
This is heartening news as, now more than ever, every peso counts for the beneficiaries of this fundraiser.

1K Buys Verge a Day, Bohol Quake Victims Not Spared by Supertyphoon

   Last August, Vergil Espinosa's cousin, Etey Buendia, informed us that Verge's supply of dialysis fluids was running low, and from Verge himself we learned that he uses up about PhP1,000 worth of dialysis fluids daily. So quite literally, every thousand buys Verge another day until he is able to get a kidney transplant.

"He is recovering well but still needs a donor for a kidney transplant," according to Etey, "Malaki pa din ang medical bills nya kaya this fundraising project will be such a big help for daVerge. Thank you again for all your support." 

As previously announced, part of the proceeds of the auction will also be going to the victims of the Oct. 15 earthquake in Bohol. The ravages of Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) last Friday have undone a good part of the previous relief efforts as the entire island is once again without power and the number of homeless has risen. We would like to plead with everyone to please continue to contribute to all relief efforts. A quick round-up of donation centers and a guide to donating via SMS can be found on Johnny Danganan's blog and donations can also be made to Gawad Kalinga's Operation Walang Iwanan.

 Waiting to hear from friends in Leyte 

At the same time, we're anxiously awaiting word from friends in Leyte, especially after seeing how the typhoon has just about obliterated Tacloban City. As another friend pointed out, "It's like Armageddon down there."

Jaybhoi at one of the earliest Bayan Knights meetings.

 We hope and pray that Jay Acosta and Nico Medroso along with all their loved ones are all right. We know that cell sites are still down and it may take days before communication lines are restored, but we would like to believe that we will hear from both of them again soon. 
These young, incredibly talented artists are family to us. Please join us in praying for their safety, and for all of the thousands affected by this new calamity.