How an ad executive wrote a comic book on his coffee break, then sold it to Netflix
9 tactics for keeping a creative project alive despite a demanding day job
This story is a sample from Foolish Careers, the newsletter and podcast that unpacks actionable insights from creators, artists and creative entrepreneurs in Asia who are thriving in career and business. One deep-dive interview a week. Zero generic fluff. Subscribe here for access to all the interviews and connect with the community.
While working long hours at an ad agency in Manila, Budjette Tan and his co-creator, artist Kajo Baldisimo, started writing the graphic novel Trese, featuring detective Alexandra Trese who solves crimes with the help of Filipino mythical creatures.
From its first print run of 30 copies, Trese found a fan base. Budjette and Kajo became fixtures at Komikon Philippines and Trese broke convention as the first graphic novel to win the country’s prestigious National Book Award.
Netflix acquired Trese in 2018, which led to the real dream fulfilled: the comic book now has an American publisher and is available to a US audience.
All this took “only” 15 years.
In this interview, we learn about the attitudes and systems Budjette and Kajo devised so they could make time for creative work. Budjette also shares tactics for balancing creative work with a thriving advertising career as Executive Creative Director at MRM/McCann and now as Senior Brand Creative at LEGO.
During our interview, Budjette’s generous nature and sense of humour came through. Listen to Budjette tell his story here 🎧
9 tactics to keep a creative project alive despite a demanding day job
- One creative project, one hour a day, for one month.
If it’s unrealistic to block out big chunks of time, find shorter, more manageable blocks. Budjette’s collaborator, Kajo Baldisimo, figured he could draw one page in one hour, so he blocked out his lunch breaks for a month. That’s 20 days to draw the story plus 10 days to add the word bubbles. The first Alexandra Trese detective case was completed a month later.