Comics: 14

Illustration and Story by: Manix Abrera

VISPRINT

(5/5 ★★★★★)

The Plot:

It begins on one rainy night. The best thing to do, during this weather, is by sharing stories. Fourteen (14) stories filled with different themes to match the rain are told by different Philippine mythological creatures that ends with a story told by a human being.

The book begins with a guy arriving at his apartment during a heavy rainfall. Upon his ascent inside the elevator, towards the 14th floor, different mythological creatures began entering from different floors. They all exited at the 13th floor, a floor that wasn't on the elevator's button to begin with. Exiting the elevator at this floor is where all the stories began.

Eight (8) different mythological creatures namely; a mananangal, diwata, doppelganger, kapre, white lady, tikbalang, duwende and a tiyanak, told the first 13 stories. The last story was told by a human to complete the 14 stories.

The Good
In comparison to 12, Manix's first published silent comics, there were a lot of changes that was done to 14. First is the nice binding of the pages in contrast to 12 whose pages easily comes off. Then, there's the manner how all 14 stories were told to appear to be interconnected to one another. It sure does feel great to see that each story fits perfectly in the bigger picture.

The best story for me is the one told by the tiyanak. It has a sad and a nice way of reasoning out their incessant crying that will surely terrify anyone who hears it.

The Bad:

I guess the only bad thing in here is the abrupt and short confusion that may be experienced in reading the Tiyanak story. It would be seen that the illustrations were suddenly rotated upside down. It would give a slight confusion if this page was wrongly printed by the publisher.

The Verdict:

This 14 silent comics made by Manix gives a representation of the type of stories that we tend to talk during a rainy weather. Stories about our local mythology, mystery and love are just some of those.

When one expects Manix to have done all that he could in his 12 silent comics, he comes back showing to us that he can still raise the bar even though he has already raised it up so high.

Manix never disappoints his fans, all those crazy guys (including myself) who suddenly appears out of nowhere and begin the absurd line formation in order to get the ink (of whatever he is holding) be splattered out unto our most cared and regarded as sacred Kikomachine Komik books. His fans will often be comforted knowing that almost always they are going to have a great time reading his works.

14 lands nicely on a sweet spot on my bookshelf that holds the best works that could be read, even after the rain has stopped falling.

More of the creator's works can be seen at:

Facebook Page: "Kikomachine Komix!"

Twitter: @kikomachinekmx, @manix_abrera