MIBF 2026 | Discovering Nordlys

This past Friday, the only reason I went to this year’s Manila International Book Fair was to meet a good friend who recently launched his latest book, and it's been four years since he came back from living in Denmark. It was good to see him, but before I got to see him, a bit of confusion cleared up. Amidst the miscommunication making me think I missed his signing session, I decided to spend time exploring the second-level halls of this year’s MIBF. I actually stumbled upon the Norwegian Embassy, which is kind of out of place for a booth that promotes interesting books. But I was sorely mistaken to think that caught my attention...

PH Book Festival 2025 | Meeting Tablay Creators

This year’s Philippine Book Festival has made changes, and not only the venue, but the way the floor plan is getting used to. The last day was bustling with last-minute activities, book sales, and something you’d expect in a book expo or anything that a large event would do during its last few minutes before everyone had packed their stuff and dismantled their booth. Heading to the venue, my initial thoughts were just to pick up the preview comic book of Tablay and just go as planned. I didn’t expect that the author and artist would still be there. I’ve been supportive of Komiket from afar and have been to their last event in February. But this was just too good to see both Kat Olan and Paul Medalla.

DC Black Label | Superman Year One

Superman has more than just a thousand stories from the first time he debuted in Action Comics #1. Most of his stories and adventures is about his powers are punching the bad guys. But over time the narrative expands and slowly grounds the character to be a relatable hero to most readers growing up and its understandable how challenging to craft a narrative around an archetype character. There are already a lot of interpretations of how he came to Earth, and the diverse stories about his origins with each one interpreted through the writer’s perspectives. But one that really redefined a modern Superman was the story told by John Byrne in The Man of Steel, but DC Comics did not stop there in crafting his other origins. Over the years, there are writers taking Superman’s origin to great heights, and a fresh take that would also be considered canon. This is due to the multiple earths that DC Comics would bring back in their major events like Crisis on Infinite Earths. Fans would debate and discuss these stories that gives clarity, which all of these interpretations are part of the wide DC Multiverse. The most recent origin of Kal-El back in the mid-2000s was written by Mark Waid with art by Leinil Francis Yu that have masterful inks by the Great Komikero, Gerry Alanguilan that was the maxi-series, Superman Birthright.

Digital Library Reads | Star Wars (2015): Vol. 1

Star Wars changes the way we see science fiction films. It was a game changer that defined what we see about this theme about space adventures and battles not only showed explosions, but also well- written narratives about an ordinary farm boy who would become the savior of the galaxy. In three films it happened and with that popularity many tried and failed to emulate. Lucasfilms expanded not only producing merchandise and toys, but also expanded the stories in other forms of media like in the comicbooks. Originally, Marvel published a series that follows the template of what happened in the films despite the inaccuracy of the characters appearance in the films. It expanded stories unrelated to what transpired in that trifecta that popularized the franchise. By the time the 1990s rolled in Lucasfilms moved the publishing rights to Dark Horse to streamline and expanded what would be the Star Wars Universe introducing new characters and seeing what really happened off-screen as a definitive canon. But those things won’t stay permanent forever. George Lucas, the patriarch of Lucasfilms sold the company to Disney in 2012 and with that major changes happened dramatically. Dark Horse ceased its very last publication of what everyone knew was canon connecting the movies and its comicbooks sometime in 2013/2014.

Digital Library Reads | Batman: I Am Gotham

There have been well-written and drawn graphic novels about Batman over the years. Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns certainly sits up top of the heap for most books being bought as a collection or borrowed several times in a library. Of course, that counts for digital formats that has become part of the norm since the pandemic it is the only way you can find time to acquire them unless you’re nearby library to be able to physically borrow a copy or two. But a good digital read in the form that tells the tales of a modern Batman gives you something to look forward to now that today is Batman Day. Sure, there won’t be gatherings this year due to COVID-19 though to celebrate this year is sharing a good read of anything related to the cape crusader as the character is 81 years young after appearing in Detective Comics #27 seems a stretch for saying it was just yesterday. Currently, Detective Comics is now on issue no. 1027 and its timely to have the opportunity to reads six-issue run of the Batman series from 2016, which was compiled as Batman Vol. 1: I Am Gotham, which feature Tom King with Scott Snyder and also features David Finch artwork that also includes Mikel Janin, Ivan Reis, Matt Banning, Danny Miki, Sandra Hope, Scott Hana, Joe Prado, and Oclair Albert as the creative team for the duration of the first six issue of the series.

Digital Library Reads | The Last Days of Magic

Doctor Strange’s return to the Marvel Universe was not celebrated with a red carpet or a firework. But through a major crisis that is building up from behind the scenes of the first story arc from the 2015 series, which would be relatable to what world is facing now in 2020. This is certainly was something to delve deep in the world of Stephen Strange’s realm that is rarely seen in the Marvel Universe. The Last Days of Magic was brewing from the page of the first issue of Doctor Strange when Marvel revived the series five years ago, which brought a refreshing perspective of the character and new adventures that would take him to worlds readers have not seen in such a long time. Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo put together what would be one of the best partnerships in bringing back Doctor Strange to the mainstream with this second volume compiling issues #6-10 and Dr. Strange: The Last Days of Magic #1 that also previews Civil War 2. But the entirety of the narrative focuses on the supernatural and magical side of the Marvel Universe that has not been fully explored in this modern era that is populated by technology and science fiction. The Last Days of Magic can be relatable to the real world crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic happening all over the planet with countless deaths with the incurable virus that disguises itself as a ‘common flu’ that fatally has claimed a lot of lives and putting everyone out of work.

Digital Library Reads | The Goddess of Thunder

When it was originally published as single issues the anticipation for the new Thor was shrouded in mystery that was behind the mask. At the age of modern heroes hiding identities are not the thing nowadays, but Jason Aaron made sure the readers would stick around to find out who was the ‘New’ Thor. It only took a few issues but most of the longtime readers were sticking to their guns and trying to wrap around their head in this endeavor that the new Thor was a woman and fans were on board guessing who she really was until the revelation that it was none other than Jane Foster. It was also a series that put Thor Odinson in his difficult time as the unworthy Thunder God, but it puts him further down to the path that changes are coming for the character not that he has experienced the most challenging moment of his life. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have the most powerful Marvel character for its time originally appearing first in Journey into Mystery. But Jason Aaron puts a spin on the Thor series that new readers would catch their curiosity with the changes on the character and its mythology. Though not everyone was onboard with the concept there are those are not impressed, but it had one of the longest runs in modern comics history that not only tells the narrative of the ever evolving characters and developments of all that made the series refreshing. But this time around it focuses on the life journey of Jane Foster whose battling cancer despite being worthy of the power of Mjolnir that made her the Goddess of Thunder.

Digital Library Reads | The Immortal Hulk

A monster creature that comes out and terrorizes the night is a recipe for a horror genre. When you talk about The Hulk it takes you back how popular character based from the creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, which first appeared in its landmark issue back in 1962. For so many years the jade giant is both hero and menace at the same time a founding member of the Avengers. There have been many depictions and stories about Dr Bruce Banner and the ginormous creature that was created from a Gamma Bomb accident. There’s too many iterations and representation about the character, but one thing that takes me back to my childhood was the TV series that featured Bill Bixby as Banner and when ‘he gets angry’ turns into Lou Ferrigno as The Hulk. Similar stories in the classic television series inspired the movies and even the comicbooks. But Al Ewing who wrote the Immortal Hulk series certainly grew up watching the show adapts the concept of Bruce Banner being on the run to new heights while adding horror story elements that propelled this series to new heights of refreshing take why Banner is The Immortal Hulk and defines the character’s refreshing status quo not a superhero element, but also brings back the nostalgic creatures from the old comicbook anthologies of the past.

Malate | A Slice of Life & Relationships

Malate is a place in the City of Manila, where the stories of two people meet-up and through 54 pages of black and white images the narrative features the district part that mirrors the real world written and drawn by Andrew Villar, which was originally published in 2017. This was an original concept that put his artistry to new heights and put a spin on how “slice of Life” stories are told. Andrew was known before for being a cartoonist who created the “Ambush” series published as a comic strip on Manila Bulletin newspaper. The character named Ambush was inspired from Lara Croft of Tomb Raider and features some characters from Star Wars notably the Stormtroopers. For a while that was Andrew’s work in the local self-publishing industry in the Philippines until he put out Malate, which is entirely different from what he used to publish in the local scene.

Digital Library Reads | Black Widow (2016)

If you’re now branded as S.H.I.E.LD.’s Most Wanted what are you gonna do? Black Widow gets a series of her own published in 2016 with the Eisner Award-winning team of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee that wowed readers during their run on Daredevil followed up with their collaboration with this series. Natasha Romanova takes front and center going up against SHIELD and Iron Man while trying to track down the Weeping Lion and her past connections to the Red Room is no easy feat as going up against anything that throws at her in this action packed six-issue story arc that you’re watching a live-action film full of no dialogues and features how Chris Samnee elevate his artistry with an impressive visual narrative of what he continues to do since Daredevil and now with Black Widow. There are some serious repercussions for Natasha to face and as they say “you reap what you sow” that delves into her past as well as dealing with being chased, blown, and knife through the got in the awesome spread pages of action that define super spy genres for the modern times. Truly, it can be adapted into film, but as a graphic novel there’s nothing like great art, impressive silent issues, and a good narrative to boot!

Digital Library Reads | Doctor Strange (2015)

In the past years prior to Marvel producing a live-action film adaptation of Doctor Strange (2016) most of the roles Stephen Strange has been reduced to a background character or supporting roles to heavy hitters like the Avengers or changing the roster of Defenders where he was a founding member along with Silver Surfer, The Hulk, and Namor in the original comicbooks. But after Marvel announced that they have finally bringing the character to the cinematic universe they revive the comicbook series in 2015 that has a new creative team with Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo. Of the two artists I’ve only knew of Bachalo from his previous works highlighting Death: A High Cost of Living that was written by Neil Gaiman. It is there I’ve known the artist for his fantasy and supernatural elements as his art style can be part of Doctor Strange’s aesthetics. For someone who reads well-grounded and realistic graphic novel genre the only supernatural comicbook I’ve ever followed was Ghost Rider and it is not even Johnny Blaze, but it was Dan Ketch and basically that’s how fantastically supernatural I can get with this genre. But Doctor Strange got me into appreciating the character through Chris Bachalo and going back to seeing how progressive the concept of his abilities was first seen through Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s earlier works and introduction.

Digital Library Reads | Captain Marvel

Before Captain Marvel presented herself in the big screen as portrayed by Brie Larson in the 2019 film she was first introduced six year before through a new series by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy’s debut as its newest artist that was discovered by CB Cebulski on social media. At that time everything was new and refreshing that Carol Danvers is taking the mantle of what would be a plethora of stories to come that would also launch a new artist’s career. 2012 was like yesterday but that was almost eight years ago and Captain Marvel is still soaring from what could be a genesis that began with DeConnick and Soy’s collaboration with its first six issues collected into a trade paperback titled “Pursuit of Flight.” These days Dexter Soy is the regular writer for DC Comics’ Batman and the Outsiders while Kelly Sue DeConnick recent work was the regular writer for Aquaman where she started in issue #43 back in 2018. But both creative artists re-branded Captain Marvel to what everyone has known today. If that wasn’t enough to take the pursuit of flight a reality some elements of the book made it to the films. “Pursuit of Flight” may be a little dated but this is where it all began. Carol Danvers takes centered stage and owning the mantle was a game changer eight years ago rebranding the character and bringing forward what she meant to be.

Dr. Strange #19 | A Matter of "The Choice"

Doctor Strange is quite an oddball character for a superhero comicbook, but Marvel seemed to get everyone on board for someone who wields magic and sorcery. Honestly, I’m not a fan even though I’ve seen the live-action film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as I’m more into the street level type of superhero. But the oddness of Doctor Strange still draws curiosity since it also covers supernatural. Recently I picked up a copy of the latest series with Dr. Strange: Surgeon Supreme as the status quo of the character has changed more aptly a perfect storm for new stories due to the change on the dynamic as his hands were finally healed that was told in the previous series. This got me more curious on that story as I went to hunt down that back issue and finally found one at Comic Odyssey in Robinsons Galleria. Actually, it was the very last one that I have to get it. Though numerous online outlets has finally reviewed the comicbook sometime last year it is worth noting this issue is sort of a ‘game changer’ for the character since Stephen Strange’s origin in becoming the Sorcerer Supreme was the result of a car accident that destroyed both his hands to seek a cure for it, which ended in becoming the protector and the last line of defence against all manner of dark sorcery.

Dr Strange: Surgeon Supreme | No More Jazz Hands

01.03.2020 - There have been so many great graphic novels out there it is challenging pick the best ones and invest in its first story arc. Of course, there also the pitfalls of missing out what happened in the previous story that you tend to backtrack and sometimes there’s no way to get them back unless a trade paperback gets released. But oddly enough big publications like Marvel and DC try their best to keep old readers still like to read at the same time welcome new readers to the fold with a starting point. Both have contradicting ways to make it happen Marvel starts all over again with an issue #1 like what they did with Dr Strange for its new narrative.

Trese 7: Shadow Witness | Masterful Adventures

09.27.2019 – There locally self-published original comicbooks out there and then there’s Trese that started out being produced in photocopied pages made into ashcans that were stapled together and that was more than a decade ago. Fast forward from today it is considered as one of the very few and rare success stories that broke the mold and has accumulated a huge cult following that continues to multiply with each success of the book's releases. The steady hands of co-creator Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo has produced one of the best partnerships in comicbook fandom in the Philippines not only presented their original series for the local scene, but also gained a following in the international community that has a diverse culture for its original creations. You can argue that their ideas are not original as anyone thought, but they put together what inspired these two masterful gentlemen into crafting one of the most interesting characters from a country that thrives in Filipino Supernatural Mythology. Alexandra Trese is her name and she’s the star of “Trese,” one of the most consistent series that has finally released its seventh volume since its last in 2014.

The New DI-13 | Mysteries Unsolved

05.23.2019 – It has been a while since the follow-up to the debut issue of “The New DI-13” was released with the challenges of delay almost caught up with the writer and artist team of Ian Velasquez and Rico Rival. This is due to something more good news when the New Year had started to come together to celebrate Tony Velasquez’s Kenkoy Komiks the 90th Anniversary that sees a series of events happening. But more with “The New DI-13” taking a slow process on the narrative as it takes form on its own. Ian has his hands full not only to continue his Grandfather’s Legacy but also help promote his Grand Uncle’s creation that is also hitting a milestone. There’s so much moving parts that keep things a mystery for “The New DI-13” and Ian is keeping things to the chest as the character’s journey kicks off the second issue trying to find his missing grandfather and what is the connection of its major big bad, The Black Dragon to all of this as one of the major players that might be connected to a string of narratives that gives you the “who dun it” kind of vibe. Plus! A Kenkoy backstory which is a reprint of the original comic strip from ninety years ago that defines Tony Velasquez as the Grandfather of Filipino Komiks...

Werewolf Hunter Prokopyo | Full Moon Junction

02.21.2019 – There have been several folklores told about blood sucking vampires, but rarely a werewolf or occasionally lycanthrope have been in discussion or have become part of the Filipino folklore. Most of the stories about the creatures known as “Aswang” derived from the concept of vampires than shape shifting wolves which came from the European folklore. But the Aswang” are another form of werebeast that can be related to a werewolf type of creature although entirely different. When you think about werewolves in the modern times there’s that pop culture connection from the Lycans in “Underworld” film series, Michael J Fox’s original Teen Wolf movie, and Taylor Lautner’s portrayal of a buff werewolf in the “Twilight Trilogy.” There are other adaptations about these shape shifting hairy creatures in various medium, but these films that adapted this creatures stands out to having adapted them that are largely known for. In Philippine Komiks rarely the werewolves tend to be the spotlight, but due to the popularity of the Filipino folklore other mythologies take a back seat. But recently the creators of Crime-Fighting Call Center Agents and Patay Kung Patay have produced another one-shot short story with elements of horror and comedy that turn out to be “Werewolf Hunter Prokopyo!”

The Merchant of Oltrarno | Mysterious Wine

02.14.2019 – Fairytales do tell wonderful stories without the need to use what most people are familiar with namely comic book style layouts. It’s rare nowadays that attract a lot of people to this concept because more have gravitated to the idea as a current trend. Most would be turned off to this old-style concept reading words while the illustration is just the other side of the page. Recent graphic novels that have found success in their first stories find the challenge to find the same organic narrative in their works that it takes years even decades to find the same groove. They say ‘you can’t rush art’ is truly an understatement and it still holds true to most talented creators out there. But for first-time authors it is a challenge to present them with new material for people to ‘get the hook’ and find inspiration, not in the usual graphic novel format is something more than just taking it to the next level. It’s about telling their own stories the way they envisioned their work for the very first time. With Jay Ignacio’s latest book “The Merchant of Oltrarno” his very first work that he authored wasn’t that kind of grand announcement to the local comic book community. However, it was the power of ‘word of mouth’ and social media that had everyone found the curiosity of this book. For those who haven’t heard of Jay Ignacio, there’s an air of mystery for this gentleman with the passion for artistry in the Philippine scene. If you heard the name that sound familiar he’s been an artist in a different type of medium namely in the music scene.

Tamodern Times | Unapologetic Madness

02.07.2019 – In the Philippines independent publishing when it comes to comics has no limitation. Unlike in western countries like the US, they follow a strict rule about restriction when it comes to content. Even before the abolishment the Comics Code Authority that police and governs that regulates all manner of published content there’s going to be a warning as not all readers have the same age group. Well, there are still self-published materials that get away with the content they produce without literal saying this is only for “mature readers” case in point with the works by Noel Pascual and AJ Bernardo. This same duo who created a cult following about Crime-Fightings Call Center Agents has just discretely released their most recent comics at the Komikon Grande last November 2018. You can’t find this book at any local comic shop but through events happening in Manila where the creators participate. Unless you’re friends with them on social media particularly on Facebook you’ll be able to acquire this book. “A modern Times: Super Futuristic Philippines” sounds like a promising work written by Noel Pascual but when you browse through the pages you’ll probably have an opposite reaction to the ‘what the effect’ even with AJ Bernardo’s ever-improving art style this short story does not apologize for its crass, befuddled, and unrelated content that simply screams to be a nonsense at the same time quite impressive that for some unfunny.

P*CHA, E `Di Komiks | Pinoy Culture in a Nutshell

01.31.2019 – Filipino Komiks have so many stories to tell from Supernatural Folklore to localized inspirations from Japanese Manga to Western Comics namely the Superhero genre that has been the most interesting part of why most people connect and get into this medium. But one sign that most of these things connect to is the slice of life and what mirrors reality from everyday life. You’ve probably read more material from this because it relates to the greater populace in the Philippines how the culture from social media that satirizes that’s been happening before and now. Toto Madayag’s “P*CHA, E `Di Komiks” is more than just a graphic novel that would encompass all that’s happening in this country through social media. In general, it’s something worth noting how everything mirrors reality and most people who got to read this book won’t even realize it until it hits them. From subtle political commentaries that most people try to avoid from to simple dad jokes that are sublime, that gravitates how Madayag was ahead of the curve to think this small idea that he started posting on social media would become a word of mouth that some creators would find inspiration from.