Supernatural Detective 24/7: Alexandra Trese

Growing up from my nanny's stories about Philippine mythical creatures both scared and fascinated me.  When I grew up, I realised she just used them to put me to sleep.  No one ever took it seriously.  Even popular culture cannot give them justice.  Movies about tianak and undin wont do more than give you tummy spasms from laughing.

But from someone who have grown to like and crave these stories, I wish to see more of the sigben, santelmo and laman lupas then countless derivatives of the vampire-warewolf genre.

Good thing I stumbled upon one comic book that does just that.  Enter the world of Alexandra Trese.  Club owner by night and supernatural detective 24/7.  She is the go to person when police cases go for the "weird" turn.  With her assortment of her "uncanny" contacts and her trusted "kambal," she battles the supernatural.  Much like how the Winchester brothers does it, only kick ass.

[caption id="attachment_193" align="aligncenter" width="610"] Photo credit goes to Jay Tablante[/caption]

After reading the first book, I'm hooked.  Each book has about 4 episodes that are in anyway connected with each other.  So if you happened to start with book 2, you dont need to worry as each episode is stand alone and you wont get lost.

Who would have though that in modern times, the nuno sa punso are no longer found near old trees but inside manholes.  The tikbalangs were also given a makeover here as members of the countries wealthiest clans.  Even the urban legend of the Snake-like man who snatches ladies in the dressing rooms of a famous mall were reference in Trese.

[caption id="attachment_194" align="aligncenter" width="429"] Photo credit goes to ComicsCube.com[/caption]

I just finished Book 2 today, and finished the whole thing in like 30 minutes.  I'm having a hard time looking for the rest of the series.  So in the coming weeks, my goal is to get the remaining three.  In the last episode, there is a hint of something big coming and from what I heard that in book three, the authors Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo will take a different turn and make episodes that are related to each other in order to build Trese's character.  I cant wait to get my hands on them.

It is a shame that the rest of the world do not know of the of tikbalangs, aswangs and kapres.  When you say asian folklore, most of what you can dig up are the yokai's and kitsune's of Japan and the dragons of China.  Its time Philippine folklore gets known and I hope more artists take their creativity to this route.