WIP #1 and Trese: Last Seen After Midnight

Hey, I finally read some komiks this year! Good for me. Now on to the reviews.

WIP (Work in Progress) #1
by Hub Pacheco and Teddy Pavon

WIP first began as a webcomic before seeing print as a mini. Its first ten pages introduce the reader to the main protagonist Eli, a twenty-something slacker and principal narrator who often addresses the reader directly. In the beginning, he's rendezvousing with an attractive girl in front of a comic book store. This opening is the best part of the comic. But the story suddenly breaks away in order for Eli to talk more about his background.

While I wanted to to sympathize with his plight, Eli comes across as more ingratiating than interesting. This is because he's a fairly generic character. His constant patter of fanish in-jokes gets tiresome after awhile. And much of the comic's content can be described as him and his circle of friends rambling on about various geeky topics with little in the way of a strong connecting thread. One moment they're reminiscing about their failed comic book from their college days, next they're praising the Philippine comic industry while mocking mainstream crossover events. Did I mention that in addition to being an underemployed man-child, Eli complains a lot about his inability to hook a girlfriend?

The loose, gag-filled structure isn't compensated for by the anime-inspired art though. It isn't adroit enough to make the gags more compelling, or versatile enough with the characters' expressions to make them more varied and charming. And the story never quite returns to address the opening scene of the comic. Some judicious editing could have helped a lot to tighten the narrative.

Trese: Last Seen After Midnight
by Budjette Tan and KaJo Baldisimo

I believe it's been two years since the last volume featuring Alexandra Trese, Manila's renowned supernatural crime-fighter. Given how that book contained a story arc which engaged in some serious world-building, it's slightly disappointing that the series creators have gone back to the "corpse of the week" format. But the riffs on popular culture are entertaining in their own right. Their preferred mode is to blend well-known Manila landmarks with various local folklore and superstitions. The first story "Cadena de Amor" about elemental spirits haunting the darker recesses of Luneta Park is the most typical entry. "A Private Collection" is jarring in that the main antagonist is patterned after the stereotypical big game hunter who hunts more unusual creatures just for the thrill of it. This makes it feel more like a conventional superhero story. The more hip "Wanted: Bedspacer" in which a rash of student deaths taking place close to several college campuses is connected with another kind of spirit, seems derived from contemporary Asian horror cinema. This is the book's best-paced story and is the only one in which Alexandra doesn't come up with the right answer on her first guess, or resolve the problem with violence. That's countered with "The Fight of the Year", a rousing patriotic tale in which an analog of the famous boxer and local hero Manny Pacquiao battles the underworld on behalf of the nation. For once, Alexandra is a spectator and supporting character.

While the book doesn't break new ground, the level of skill and artistry on display shows significant improvement from earlier efforts. The stories themselves aren't particularly terrifying, although they can be creepy and oppressive at times. There are a few references made to past events to keep readers guessing about continuity. So it's a no-brainer for fans of Trese. But the stories are also self-contained enough that new readers could probably use them as a jumping on point, which might be the reason for the return to this format.

Trese: Mass Murders

A weakness of the first two volumes of Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo's popular series Trese was the lack of any particularly clear direction in the comic. Sure the confluence of traditional Filipino legends with modern urban settings might sound clever at first. But despite the Filipino setting, Trese conceptually and visually still stuck a little too close to its Hollywood and mainstream roots to feel original. Its creators seemed to be randomly tossing ideas left and right from zombies to drag racing tikbalang to test what worked. And the character designs were a bit empty and cliched: Whether it was the wisecracking sidekicks the Kambal or the unflappable hero Alexandra Trese (This became something of a personal pet peeve: Who the f#@k wears a dark trench coat in Manila?) There was energy and potential, but for the most part the stories felt a little erratic.

Still, some very successful and long-lived serials began from similarly tentative beginnings. And if Trese turns out to be one of these, then the first eight stories will be looked back as early fan-pleasing efforts necessary to build the audience for the comic's survival. Much of this latest volume focuses on the laying the foundations for future world building. A great deal is revealed about the history of the Trese clan and Alexandra's own personal background. While not adding any depth to the character, this provides much needed context missing in the previous stories. The arc that introduces the nearly unstoppable ancient war god Talagbusao produces not only the series first truly compelling villain, but is also the first time that Trese effectively conveys a sense that there is a complex universe full of interconnected beings and interdependent relationships instead of just a haphazard menagerie of monsters for Alexandra to fight.

This is also the first volume where Kajo is fully comfortable with his black and white style. It can take awhile before an artist settles into a reliable shorthand for portraying his or her cast. His figures are less clumsily staged, and while backgrounds are not his forte, the former rough cross-hatching is replaced by fluid line work which is far better in evoking a setting and a particular mood:

And the choreographing of action scenes has become a lot more dynamic and economical:

All of this is a good start for a healthy run. Whether Trese becomes the Pinoy equivalent of Hellboy or just another also-ran will depend on how well its co-creators can build on the work found inside this volume.

Trese Book 1-2

Trese: Murder on Balete Drive
Trese: Unreported Murders

Trese is the kind of conventional high concept series that could have come out of the nineties: A police procedural blended with a supernatural thriller. What it has going for it is the novelty of drawing from a completely different and, for Western readers, unknown collection of myths and superstitions. That's a lot of source material for writer Budjette Tan and artist KaJo Baldisimo to mine. With the possible exception of a homage to a certain local super-hero, these story references should not pose an insurmountable obstacle for unfamiliar readers. A lot of the fun comes from trying to figure out the rules of the game. These tales are packaged in a noir comic that would not look out of place in the contemporary Direct Market.

A limitation with the series is found in the protagonist Alexandra Trese. She's called in as a consultant by Manila's police force whenever the supernatural is suspected to be involved in a murder case. Little is revealed to the reader other than that she inherited this role from her father. Precious little information is added as the series progresses. And almost nothing about her inner life is divulged, including the slightest hint of what personally motivates her. She remains a cipher: A stoic and tough pose wrapped in a trench coat. All attitude, but devoid of personality. This works well enough in its original incarnation as an occasionally consumed episodic adventure. But it gets repetitious when read in trade paperback form. What gets particularly tiresome is how often she or some other character keeps name dropping her dad as a justification for her own magical expertise or as a substitute to explaining her numerous supernatural connections.

Baldisimo's art is pretty slick, but can't completely hide his stylistic weaknesses. For an urban fantasy that hops all over Manila, his backgrounds and cityscapes are often disappointingly nondescript, and strangely lacking in individual character in a comic drawn with chiaroscuro. Working with a limited palette is extremely difficult, and many times Baldisimo resorts to augmenting his inky shadows with line hatching in order to prevent the panels from becoming too muddy. But the results can look a bit disjointed. It feels sometimes like a mash-up between the styles of Frank Miller and Jim Lee.

Only towards the end of the last story in these two volumes does Tan begin to move the story forward, by implying that Trese's actions will have consequences down the line that may result in all-out conflict between the various supernatural factions. Cool, but that's a very long set-up for the first and possibly last story arc.