Mr. Komikero

Personally speaking, we didn't have that much interaction with Sir Gerry in our formative years.

We even intentionally avoided interactions with him due to his "at the time" views about anime-manga artists.

Which in hindsight was both a challenge and sort of beneficial to our growth as an artist.

We eventually outgrew our manga influences and eventually developed and honed our own art style and storytelling.

We weren't lucky enough to read his magnum opus: Wasted.

But was fortunate enough to catch his later works like Johnny Balbona in Mwahaha (Mango Comics),

Lastikman (which

was an epic Alanguilan-Arre-Tadeo collab),

Crest Hutt Butt Shop

and the Eisner nominee, Elmer.

We became fans then eventually friends around Komikon 2007 (Our very first Komikon).

Where we had a few discussions about Carlo J. Caparas' Komiks.

He'd buy our books and in return, we'd feature him in our strips, articles, segments.

We'd meet him more often from 2011 onwards as we'd travel to more and more provincial conventions at the time. He'd share his dream to archive all of the Komik groups and Komik titles in the country. A rather daunting task but a task he was able to complete.

Hence, our sorry asses were eventually featured in Komikero Dot Com. We felt mighty proud of that, actually. 

We were also fortunate enough to have a very short conversation with him back when we've decided to Redesign Elmer.

http://silentsanctummanga.blogspot.com/2012/11/ssm-redesigns-elmer.html

Komiket 2015 would be the last time we'd see each other.

This would also be the time that I'd release even fewer books and appear even less at conventions.

We've noticed that he had gotten a lot thinner. Not knowing the information

I know now (courtesy of Crest Hutt Butt Shop Volume 4).

I was under the impression that he was simply on a diet or living a more healthy lifestyle.

He left us at age 51. Leaving behind a legacy on an art medium he loved so dearly. 

The rest of the world might know him as Mr. Hey Baby.

But for everyone else that really knew him, he will always be Manong and Sir Gerry. 

Thank you and rest easy. 
Until we meet again.