Trese Book 4: Last Seen After Midnight (a review)

TL; DR version: I’ve read this thrice now, and I can’t get enough. GET. IT. NOW.

After a year thereabouts, the dynamic duo of Philippine komiks Budgette Tan and KaJo Baldisimo released the next collection of cases that took a turn (or four) to the weird and supernatural.

Trese Book 4 - Last Seen After Midnight was launched amidst hundreds of loyal fans, soda and pizza yesterday Oct. 8 2011 in National Bookstore Bestsellers, Robinsons Galleria.  Do check out Brandie Tan’s pics of the event. Also, read the pre-launch interviews of Budgette and KaJo over at Rocket Kapre for more insights on what to expect in this installment.

Four stand-alone cases, two of which are more-or-less spin-offs of two stories we’ve seen before. One was about a mangled manananggal, the other about the bangungot. Not that they’re bad; it’s actually nice to see the seeds of these stories more fleshed out and seen in a different light. The former now deals with the other half of the manananggal and a different monster in human skin, while the latter deals on how a bangungot can affect people other than the one she er, take cares of.

‘Cadena De Amor’ is a good first story.  A balanced mix of dialogue, action and justice eases the first-timer in the world of Trese and its concept of ‘balance’ and reintroduces an old Trese junkie to what he/she has missed for almost a year. The last page gives the reader a curious emotion made of equal parts terror (imagine a malevolent wood spirit rampaging INSIDE a ship in the middle of the ocean. IKR), schadenfreude (serves those bastards right) and justice.

‘A Private Collection’ is a tight, fast-paced and action-packed story better seen as a 45-minute episode of a TV series than a ~25-page comic. KaJo’s clean lines and execution of the fight scenes (especially the last one) will make the reader yearn for an animated/live adaptation. The introduction is also a winner; just imagine the audience reaction if Trese was a TV series. The last line in page 45 sounded rather off though; maybe it’s just a personal preference to not use exclamation points in a narration?

The execution, twists and resolution of ‘Wanted: Bedspacer’ really grabbed my attention. The first page gave readers a sense of foreboding by incremental zooms towards something. See how the red herring was used as a segue to the resolution of the case? Oh yes. KaJo pulled out all the stops in this chapter. What panels? The entire page is a freakin’ cross-section of the dorm. Good. Job. *slow clap* The way KaJo drew Trese’s description of the bangungot’s modus operandi and the way Budgette worded it is inspiring and poignant at the same time. See how the lonely man’s shadow looks like? WOW. And the last panel begs a lot of questions that I hope will be answered in the next installments. Worst case, someone do a fanfic LOL XD

‘The Fight of The Year’ is an interesting and plausible take on a contemporary Philippine phenomenon and his motivations. I’d really love to see an all-out melee between Alexandra and the monsters and demons in this chapter. True; lementals, zombies and aswangs are rather passe. But Shark dude? Wow. The cousin of Cthulhu? SOLD. It’s a good last (for now) story with it’s dash of humor, hope and selflessness in the epilogue. Side note: the certain phenomenon usually trains somewhere high up north, supposedly for endurance. I’d like to see Budgette’s take on the real reason why the phenomenon regularly goes there for training.

From details (how the manananggal’s eye and Alexandra’s face was reflected off the Sinag to the intricately-drawn Luneta, LRT and Katipunan) to the excellent layout of the action scenes, KaJo’s art in Book 4 jumped a couple of levels. Trese deserves a large-format, hardbound trade paperback release. A lot of the art goes unnoticed because of the limitations of the current size and a hardbound can withstand the abuse of multiple readings. For us lowly mortals who use his works as a peg for awesomeness, we despair some more with the impossibility of catching up with him.

Budgette’s writing, as always, is top-notch in terms of wit, narration and insight. For some reason, Chinese names lend well to the supernatural. Assu Ang? Check. Sy Tan? Check. There are two nods to Ely Buendia and the inimitable Eraserheads. There’s also that good take on how lost some of our countrymen are and how they won’t hesitate to grab at opportunities for a better life despite the possible dangers, obvious or otherwise. The juxtaposition of the innate selflessness and good in some of us with the monsters lurking inside the others is brilliant. For a guy whose ideas keep on mutating for the worse, I’m still amazed on how he manages to grab an idea, old or otherwise, and weave a totally different tale from it.

Whether you’re a new reader or an old fan, Trese Book 4 will satisfy and leave you asking for more. Get it.