When I was 19 years old, I wrote three outlines for three animation series.
One, is set in the past. It is about dreams, ambition and aspirations. Something like Dragonlance + Heroes of Might and Magic + The Sandman Comics + Raja Wira.
Another, is set in the present. It's a normal superhero story which spans an epic space opera, urban action and teenage angst.
The third, is set in the distant future, and it starts with the last spaceship to leave earth. That one is about choices we make, individually, as a people and as a species.
Four years later, I gave up on having any of them produced and, following in the path of Neil Gaiman, joined journalism.
I dedicated my life in trying to see what he sees. I read voraciously as a child, filled up with as many mythologies and folklores as I could find, and in adulthood, gambled everything on a discipline I knew nothing about.
Neil Gaiman, chaos be upon him, failed to publish his comics at an early age, so he became a journalist for eight years.
"Best training I ever got," he said.
Nowadays, the man's a multi-millionaire and his schedule is booked for up to three years ahead.
Gaiman has always been my target. I wanted to do for Asian folklore what he has done for world mythology. This has been my first real dream.
I managed somewhat of that, when KRU asked me to do Magika. And then, there was Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa which parallels Gaiman's work on Beowulf.
Mow, if Karen Berger would just call me up and ask me to do a story for Vertigo or something. I have just the thing. If Clark Kent was never Superman, and had to defeat multi-billionaire Lex Luthor with just the powers of journalism.
Or Moby Dick in reverse, in eight pages.
Oh well. I guess next year, my following of Gaiman's path will finally diverge. I'd have to find a really cool, super kick-ass project like his Sandman in order to keep up with his legacy.
