TALK about synergy. Back in the 1980s, Hasbro hired an advertising agency to create an animated TV series centering on its line of rock star dolls, aimed at tween girls. The plot revolved around a young music company owner named Jerrica Benton who, through an advanced machine nicknamed Synergy, created a holographic image over herself to create a rock band frontwoman named Jem. The band, known as the Holograms, was comprised of her younger biological sister Kimber and a pair foster sisters, Aja and Shana.
THE MARKETING of fine French wine usually involves making potential customers want to taste it. They’re supposed to anticipate experiencing in the bottle what the combination of the winemaker and the vineyard’s terroir has produced.
LONDON — Thumbing through guide books for restaurant and shopping tips while on holiday could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to mobile travel technology that knows where you are and what you like and can ping you personalized recommendations.
IN THE 62 YEARS since James Bond first appeared in print, there’s no doubt he has helped boost the reputations of his real-life counterparts in British intelligence.
THE ONLINE advertising industry is taking another shot at tamping out the fraud that costs it more than $6 billion a year. The four biggest US ad agencies and huge advertising technology companies, such as Google and AOL, announced support last Thursday for a program to certify legitimate publishers and advertisers.
A YEAR FROM NOW, a recently published comics anthology, exists online as an answer to a question Lyra Garcellano and Merv Espina asked themselves while stuck in traffic: “Are people still willing to work for free?” This question, on the other hand, was posed in answer to yet another question asked by Salcedo Auctions, which hosted a talk in 2014 titled “Who determines the value of art?” (The very reason Ms. Garcellano and Mr. Espina were stuck in traffic: they were on the way to Makati City to listen to the talk.)
“Everything was serendipitous,” said Mr. Espina, the day before A Year From Now went live on the Internet. Fifteen illustrators from all over the world are gathered in this collection, which features both old and new work that run anywhere from two pages to 37. It’s an impressive roster that includes both well-known and emerging names. You have Tommi Musturi of Finland, who has been in the business for more than 20 years and whose work is regularly published by Fantagraphics, and Kwon Yong-Deuk of South Korea, who just had a book translated into French.
“It was great that people were kind enough to share their stuff for free since half of them are professional comic artists who have their own deadlines,” said Ms. Garcellano. “Guys like Tommi Musturi and Kwon Yong-Deuk are big in their own countries. Let’s put it this way: they have fan bases there.” You also have the likes of Luna Beller-Tadiar, a Yale student who posts her comic strips on Tumblr, an online blogging platform. Ms. Garcellano saw Ms. Beller-Tadiar’s reflections on queer identity, which are told in a manner reminiscent of Joe Sacco’s graphic reportage, and asked her to develop a story for A Year From Now.
Samuel by Tommi Musturi of Finland
Those who know Ms. Garcellano for her installations and paintings should also know that she created Atomo and Weboy, a comic strip that ran in the Philippine Daily Inquirer for almost a decade. Many of the contributors to A Year From Now are people she met in 2006 through the Asia-Europe Comics Project, a residency in Singapore organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation. “We kept in touch. There was no Facebook then but we had e-mail,” she said. “When Facebook popped up, we all got together online.”
A panel from Setagaya Drifter by Cozacana of Tokyo
A Year From Now is the second anthology to spring from that residency. The first was Go Home: 12 Moving Stories, an actual print publication released in 2008 that was published and organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation in 2006. “This is a reunion of sorts,” said Ms. Garcellano, who added that the decision to shift the distribution of A Year From Now online was easy. “We don’t have money for an actual print publication and it would entail too much work. Besides, how else would somebody from Europe get to read a comic by somebody from Cambodia or from Indonesia. If it were a book, it could still happen but it would be harder.”
Available in different formats and different resolutions, A Year From Now is composed mostly of travelogues with an existential edge (as Ms. Garcellano put it) and autobiographical stories. Shieko Reto, a transgender artist from Malaysia, a country that has an anti-transgender law, tackled issues within her community with levity and humor.
Toilet tips courtesy of Shieko Reto of Malaysia
“I have a lot of friends who do not read comics but who are intrigued because of A Year From Now,” said Ms. Garcellano. “Their concept of comics is Marvel and that’s it. A Year From Now is not Marvel. There are no superheroes but there are stories and narratives. I hope people see the possibilities of comics in terms of art, writing and narration.”
The fate of the project is up in the air. Neither Ms. Garcellano nor Mr. Espina know if there will be a follow-up. Despite the personal costs — time, effort, energy and money spent on beer and food — they both agree that putting together the first (and perhaps only) edition of A Year From Now was a valuable experience. “It’s worth it,” said Ms. Garcellano. “I’d be the first one to say ‘forget it’ if it weren’t.”
(For more information and download links visit A Year From Now‘s Facebook page, or peruse the entire anthology below.)
ETSY, INC. reported third-quarter revenue that fell short of analysts’ estimates, signaling that the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods is struggling to accelerate growth amid increased competition.
MIAMI — Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class.
WITH THE HOLIDAYS and the long weekends coming, now is the best time to book a staycation at InterContinental Manila hotel — after all, it is offering a 50% discount until December on its flexible weekend room rates for MasterCard cardholders.
CHEFS don’t have time to pop out and see a movie in the middle of the day, Don Draper-style, but Elise Kornack’s restaurant, Take Root, happened to be closed for renovations recently. So she agreed to join me at a screening of Burnt, a new film directed by John Wells (August: Osage County).
