Editors Dean Alfar and Kenneth Yu have announced the table of contents for their upcoming young adult horror anthology:

Honesty Hour – Gabriela Lee
Eat Me – Kally Hiromi R. Arsua
Mommy Agnes – Vince Torres
The Running Girl – Elyss Punsalan
Education By Ate Flora – Renelaine Bontol
The New Teacher – Alexander Osias
Gago’s Got Your Back – Andrew Drilon
Dan’s Dreams – Eliza Victoria
Itching To Get Home – Joseph Montecillo
Lola’s House – Fidelis Tan
A Yellow Brick Road Valentine – Charles Tan
Lucia, The Nightmare Hunter – Kate Osias
Frozen Delight – EK Gonzales
Misty – Isabel Yap

Congratulations to all the contributors, and the editors as well!

As is their usual practice, Fully Booked will be celebrating FCBD a few weeks later than everyone else, and this year that date is May 19. There will be free comics available at many Fully Booked branches, but the place is their flagship store at Bonifacio High Street, where a new Comic Odyssey branch is set to open within the Fully Booked premises itself. You can go to the Comics Cube for the details.

A bit late to this, but over at The Cogsmith,  Djibril Alayad and Fabio Fernandes (you may remember them from the “We See A Different Frontier” project) have compiled comments made in an online discussion about diversity in speculative fiction. As one might imagine, that’s a subject of particular relevance to me, and to readers of the site, not the least of which because Charles Tan was one of those who weighed in. Check it out here, and make sure to read the comments too (Filipino author and Alternative Alamat contributor Rochita Loenen Ruiz weighs in there)!

Part 2 of my article on the Philippine fantastic for the “World Tour of Wonderment“ feature of Fantasy Faction is now up. (You can find part one here.) In this post, I give a brief primer on the fantastic in prose fiction and comics, by talking about prominent creators/projects in these fields. Check it out!

Click for larger version

The Mind Museum is celebrating International Museum Day on May 18 with a cool little promo, with all day passes going at a discounted price of PHP500, and several special science events (some are free with the day pass, but for others you need to purchase access separately). The special all-day passes are limited in quantity, and they just went on sale today, so make haste if you want to reserve your tickets.

Art by Rommel "Omeng" Estanislao, from http://www.comicscube.com

It’s time for the annual Free Comic Book Day, which this year falls on the 5th of May, this Saturday. This year is extra special, because Andrew Villar has marshaled two groups of Philippine comics creators (including my High Society collaborator Hannah Buena) for a pair of FCBD issues featuring local talent, one for Comic Odyssey, and one for ComicXHub (you can check up the lineup for each here). Comic Odyssey will also have a limited edition Electromagnetic Tentacle FCBD shirt for sale.

From http://flipgeeks.com/pinoy-komiks-dc-marvel-etc/local-komiks-creators-release-two-fcbd-comics-for-2012/

Other comic stores that are likely to participate are Druid’s Keep, and Planet X Comic Book Shop. Don’t forget that Fully Booked (Metro Manila branches), as is their usual practice, will celebrate FCBD on a separate day, this year May 19.

Another reason to troop down to your local comic book shop this Saturday is that both Comic Odyssey and ComicXHub will be holding sketch drives for the benefit of Filipino comics legend Tony de Zuñiga.

For further information about FCBD, here’s the official Philippine FCBD Facebook Page.

For those who don’t know, I’m a contributor over at the U.K. site Fantasy Faction, and the editors graciously allowed me to handle the Philippine stop of their “World Tour of Wonderment“, a regular feature where the site focuses on a particular country and its contributions to, and traditions of, the fantastic. This is the first part of the article, and gives an overview of our varied mythologies, as well as some of our folklore creatures. The article is meant to be a basic primer for non-Filipinos, but it may be an interesting read for anyone interested in the Philippine fantastic. In the second part of the article, coming next week, I’ll mention specific works and creators to check out.

Jaymee Goh has a great interview with Fabio Fernandes (Brazilian SFF writer/translator) about colonialism, translation, and the “We See a Different Frontier” anthology. Very relevant to the interests of Filipino writers and readers. Check it out!

Filipino comics legend Tony de Zuñiga (co-creator of Jonah Hex) suffered a stroke a few days ago, and he is in dire need of financial assistance. You can read the details here, and donate  via Paypal at tonydezuniga@yahoo.com. If you’re unfamiliar with de Zuñiga’s work and the debt owed to him by many Filipino artists, you can check out his entry at The Philippine Comics Art Museum here.

EDIT: A new site, http://fansfortonydezuniga.com/, has been set up as another avenue for those who want to help.

[Image via The Philippine Comics Art Museum]