mababang langit

i'm very impressed with andoyman 's development as an artist and storyteller, from his journeymanish debut work, " foodcourt ," to the charming " palimos ng kulangot " (writtten by ronibats), to the considerably more sophisticated series he is currently collaborating with SuperGi on, " ang sumpa ." the protagonist, arman darte, has senators and the president of the philippines for childhood buddies, yet is "merely" an NBI investigator, so you know he's a man of honor. issues 1 and 2 establish a central mystery: the president of the philippines is found dead under strange circumstances. a birthday party held by senator edgardo hernandez introduces the rest of the barkada and the president's ostensibly loving wife (presumably the suspects), and gives darte the opportunity to show off his powers of deduction and observation. andoyman's visual storytelling is deft, confident, and well- paced. i love his semi-realisti...

i just finished listening to the random house-produced audiobook of andy mulligan's novel trash ,  a YA crime caper about three young boys living in a smokey mountain-type giant dumpsite in a thinly veiled fictional version of the philippines, and the very important thing they find one day while  sorting the endless piles of trash. the audiobook itself was a bit of a disaster: one of the voice talents actually managed to sound reasonably like a filipino speaking english, but another, who voiced a major character and narrated many of the climactic scenes, sounded like a ten year-old attempting a borat impression. no, really, it was that bad. the story itself was highly enjoyable and reasonably well-plotted (if you don't look too closely, and a local would scrutinize the heck out of it), if a bit fanciful and heavy on the exoticism at times. i liked the nice little set pieces mulligan lines up, and i came to really care for the three protagonists, dumb accent and all. bu...

so the family and i watched enteng ng ina mo the other night, and you know what? it wasn't that horrible.  while it's true that everything falls apart by the third act, the intial premise was actually quite promising: enteng kabisote, ordinary juan and butingtingero by trade, is growing weary of having to save encantadia, homeland of his fairy wife faye, all the time. he just wants an ordinary life with his family. this yearning, plus the latest magical crisis in encantadia (they happen about once a year, around december), causes a falling-out between man and wife. to drive them even further apart, the obviously-named villain satanna then tails enteng to a drinking session and sneaks a love potion into his drink, causing him to forsake his wife and pursue ai-ai's character, ina montecillo. now that isn't a bad setup, but sotto is clever enough to know that moviegoers won't be going to the cinema to watch enteng's character resolve his heroic dliemmas. wh...

one thing you should know about this book: very little actual crimefighting takes place in it. second: the fact that the protagonists (sandra, charlie, "double-taking" koontz and "chopped liver" noel) all work at the same call center doesn't really affect the story much. third: it is awesome. writer noel pascual 's sendup of the scream -type horror formula is pitch-perfect in its sardonic glee. it begins with the standard setup: friends on a road trip pick up a gruesome-looking hitchhiker, the hitchhiker turns out to be a psycho killer, he chases them into an abandoned house, they are trapped and must find a way to escape and/or defeat him. in one of my favorite moments, the heroes pile every available piece of furniture in front the door to make a barricade to keep the killer out. suddenly one of them has a burst of inspiration, reaches into the pile, and locks the doorknob. the book is littered with random,occasionally surreal, comedic gems like th...

josel nicolas ' windmills is a multi-volume collection of autobiographical vignettes detailing the life and thoughts of the author's anthropomorphic alter-ego, simply named "bear". this fourth and latest issue, i'm gonna be-ar , opens with a touching farewell at NAIA, setting up a bittersweet romantic separation between bear and his girlfriend mimi that informs the rest of the book. on the visual side, i'd say nicolas' stuff has never looked better. he's taken to mangastudio like a duck to water, and his excellent use of screentones and varying line widths has given his art a new richness and tonal depth. plus, the digital prints photocopy very well--a crucial factor in making good-looking indie comics. my favorite bits in the book are the slice-of-life stuff: bear on his daily commute; bear rubbing his smelly feet at the end of a tiring day; bear staring at the stringy potted plants he's placed just under the outdoor faucet for maximum wa...

i'll be going through my indie stack slowly over the next few days, but here are some of the ones i've really liked so far: skin art - a strong debut from kay aranzanso , where she adapts a short story by angela pasion into a wordless comic. it's bittersweet, touching and very well-told visually. plague - writer fidelis tan headlines this mini-anthology about the human toll of a mysterious plague that turns people into brittle shells (it's not a zombie plague). especially loved sunday morning and the title story plague for their succinct, lyrical storytelling. bellboy and the hotel universe: pie in the sky - the little prince meets classic hanna-barbera cartoons in this wonderfully-drawn comic about an outer-space bellhop and his t-rex pal. some storytelling wrinkles could use some ironing out, but i'm definitely watching out for the next issue. kubori kikiam 7 - a contender for best kubori kikiam story ever. it's the kikiams vs. survival re...

you know that scene in rocky 2 where rocky's swimming all these laps and apollo creed says to adrien, "he's using muscles he never thought he had"? apol sta. maria's ang alamat ng panget & many other does the same thing, only to your brain. specifically, that part of your brain that processes weird . the panget reading experience is equal parts laughing, recoiling in horror, and scratching your head in utter confusion. often you find yourself doing all three things at once. i loved it. one of the best comics of 2009, as far as i'm concerned. of course, the best parts of the book aren't fit to be posted on this blog. sta. maria finds that "absurd" button and mashes down on it so hard and so often it's not even funny (but it almost always is). i was blown away by the sheer manic inventiveness of his situations and characters, and the ruthless, morbid eye he casts on the human race--source of all stupidity. part of wh...

the Great Komiks Comeback sure has its work cut out for it. case in point: i asked the saleslady at national bookstore for the new lapu-lapu graphic novel republished by atlas, and she led me to an obscure corner of the textbook section, where coching's masterwork sat beside the elementary school newsprint editions of ibong adarna, florante at laura, etc. makes sense, yeah? graphic classics in filipino. but placing lapu-lapu in that section may well prove a death sentence, because no one browses those shelves . school curriculi keep balagtas in print, but coching is not similarly blessed by academia. so please, please someone ask national bookstore to display this book where it belongs, in the comics section, beside pugad baboy, kikomachine, underpass and other graphic novels! sigh. pictures: as you can see, atlas' lapu-lapu (6.2"x8.75") is significantly smaller than vibal's el indio (7.75"x11"). the smaller size means it's cheaper (a gr...

ammathorn makes enigmatic, surreal comics in this scratchy, kinetic style that i can't keep my eyes off of. check out his deviantart here . barrio manifesto #2 is the only title of his i could find in comics stores. at P100 for 21 pages it is the priciest b&w indie out there i think, but man, this stuff looks awesome (click to embiggen): this metaphysical dream-tale unfolds as idiosyncratically as ammathorn's drawing style. it takes some getting used to, but part of the fun is putting the seemingly random bits together into a narrative whole. ammathorn's highly anticipated (by me) next book will feature agent knuckle, his supercool bullet-headed secret agent from heaven, going up against ol' jolly saint nick. he better watch out!