This "Where's Wally"-style image was commissioned by DC's social media team as an end-of-summer post full of superheroic nods to several 2024 pop-cultural moments. It was posted to DC's official Instagram on September 6 and garnered over 50k likes and 300 coments.

The deadline was tight but I couldn't resist the chance to officially draw so many characters in one go (including some lesser-loved ones like Sideways, Bunker, Teen Lantern, and Beast Girl.) I built the whole image on a two-page spread and filled it with as many little nods and Easter eggs as I could, including references to:

1. Chappell Roan (Pink Pony Club + HOT TO GO)

2. The Challengers movie

3. Megan Thee Stallion's "Watashi Wa Star"

4. 2024 Olympic athletes (at least 4!)

5. Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero"

6. John Cena at the Oscars

7. Akira Toriyama tribute

See if you can find them all in this image! There's a bunch more but I'll leave it to your sharp eyes! The one thing I'll point out that no one noticed is that I included oft-forgetten DC character Breach, a Captain Atom stand-in from a brilliant 2005 series written by Bob Harras and illustrated by Marcos Martin.

“Maybe we could do a redesign?” said writer Josh Trujillo as we were discussing our second collaboration featuring one of the newer characters in the DCU, Bunker.

A gay Mexican Teen Titan with the power to generate psionic bricks, Bunker was introduced in 2011 as part of the line-wide New52 relaunch and had appeared in very few comics since then.

It was my first time redesigning an established character, so I took the job quite seriously. I chronicled the entire design process in this YouTube video.

I pencilled, inked, and colored this while moving apartments and in 3 different countries (USA, Singapore, Japan). I also tweaked my process a bit, shifting over to using Clip Studio for inks (previously, I’d done everything in Procreate.)

“It’s a Bunkerful Life” was published in the 2023 holiday special, DC’s ’Twas the ‘Mite Before Christmas, and reunites me with writer Josh Trujillo, letterer Lucas Gattoni, and editor Michael McCalister. Of the three DC projects I did in 2023, I think this was the most refined.

I pencilled, inked and colored an 8-page story for DC Pride 2023, featuring a team-up between Batwoman and Spirit World star, Xanthe Zhou. The story is by Jeremy Holt with letters by Lucas Gattoni. This oversized one-shot special released May 30, 2023.

Editor Jessica Chen brought me onto the project with the script ready to go. The whole thing took me about 3 weeks to complete, and I chronicled the process in this YouTube video.

It’s such a huge thrill to be in the same book as creators like Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Jen Bartel, Travis Moore, Phil Jimenez, Bruka Jones, Babs Tarr, Nicole Maines and more. These are amazing creators and I’m humbled to be in the same book as them.

It was so much fun drawing a beloved legacy character teaming up with a new Asian character (who is nonbinary in more ways than one, as Xanthi is both dead and alive at the same time!)

A few pages from a 10-page story I pencilled, inked and colored for DC Comics’ anthology SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods Special: Shazamily Matters. This released in March 2023 to coincide with the movie. The story was by actor Ross Butler and writer Josh Trujillo.

I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my only chance to work with DC so I did my best to cram a ton of easter eggs and references into the background.

Trujillo’s script specifically called out Calvin & Hobbes as a reference, and as I’m a diehard Bill Watterson fan it was fun to infuse the art with that imaginative glee. The VR helmet in particular is a nod to Calvin’s “Yukon Ho!” storyline where he decides to secede from his family (a nice parallel with our titular Eugene character, who uses the helmet to escape his own.)

I made a few videos talking about this project on YouTube, including a vlog and a look through the book (with one more process-oriented video on the way!)

Preview of my new book, Secret Heart Attack, created completely on the iPad using Procreate. It’s a mix between a cartoonist autobiography and an epic superhero crossover, the most personal and ambitious comic story I’ve ever attempted.

The complete first issue is available in my shop in both print and digital editions.

If you’re in NYC, it’s also available at The League’s Fine Art Supply Shop, Desert Island and Anyone Comics in Brooklyn.

This comic was first published in “Taller Tales: A Hometown Heroes Anthology” in 2017. It’s based on an old Filipino folk story about diwata (fairies) kidnapping children and taking them to live in beautiful magical mansions. I thought of setting it firmly in the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines, when Catholicism defined reality and all the old stories were being demonized.

This story will be on view in the upcoming We Fancy exhibition at The Art Students League of New York.

Here are a few paintings that I’ve done over the years. I got into oil painting and watercolors for purely academic reasons, in order to bring whatever lessons I learned back into comics. I quickly fell in love with the form. There’s nothing quite as relaxing as sitting down and painting for three or four hours.

This was first published in the 2019 superhero-themed comics anthology, “Extraordinary”. I had a lot of fun drawing tributes to classic Superman covers by Curt Swan, John Byrne and Frank Quitely. This is also the first full-color comics I’ve done using Procreate on the iPad.

From October 2019-January 2020, I decided to do 33 X-men drawings as a personal challenge and a love letter to these comics. Here are some of my favorites, all done digitally using Procreate on the iPad.

These were all done as standalone pieces using digital software. Some of them have accompanying text pieces or poetry, which you can find paired with the images on my Instagram. Whenever possible, I try to avoid automated digital effects, because I like to let the imperfection of the human hand shine through in my artwork.

This humorous short comic was first published in my book, Kare-Kare Komiks (Anino Comics, 2016). Like all my comics, it’s based on a true story.

First published in “Slaying the Dragon” (2015), this comic was done on bristol board with a mix of Pigma Microns, india ink and classic crow quills. The prompt was to do a story about dragons, and somehow I ended up with this tale about spirituality, and the stories we tell ourselves.

Here is a loose collection of comics-themed illustrations I did recently. Most of these were done for fun or to express my love for comics that I was reading at the time.

Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune to collaborate with some truly inspiring creative people, from writers and filmmakers to musicians and more. Here’s a selection of art I’ve done to support their projects.