Indie Review Trifecta: Dra. Yap, Magiting and No Parking

I was at SkyCable's Gamer vs. Gamer event last Saturday to cover the event for Joystiko, read all about it here. I had the chance to rub elbows with the Komikon people most notably: Lyndon Gregorio, Hazel Manzano, Andrew Villar, Gio Paredes, Syeri Baet and hubbie Jon Zamar.

I was lucky enough to score copies of Hazel and Andrew's new stuff even before the Metrocon. Here's what I think about them (Don't worry, read on. Guaranteed spoiler free):

First up is Hazel's Dra. Yap. You might be familiar already with Hazel's Callwork comic strips and by far this is one of her first forays out of the series (the first I believe, was a story from the Komikero Anthology). The cover explicitly says: 'A true story about a doctor who unknowingly joined Satanism' and that alone is enough to get somebody's attention. I should know, I was reeled in, hook line and sinker into buying this. And I was not disappointed. I'm pretty sure there would be people who would think twice on reading a story about Satanism, but once a reader gets past through that,  Dra. Yap unfolds into a very real and solid eye-opening  story. Hazel gave her signature autobiographical style out on this one, which will have anyone who will read the comic something to relate into. Also, despite the subtitle, there's none of the morbid stuff associated with comics containing one of the Devil's names here. Give this one a spin, trust me.

Now here's two from Core Studios: Magiting and No Parking Comics. Let's have Magiting: Throwdown with Ado Aparentado doing the writing chores alongside Andrew 'Ambush' Villar's art and Gerry Alanguilan doing the first issue's cover.

Magiting: Throwdown's art is standard Andrew Villar with lots of action happening about page after page evident in his stand-alone series Ambush and Hari. The plot seems typical super hero fare though, too typical at times. The dialouge is an English/Tagalog mix which is awkward at some points in my humble opinion. Although, I have to say,  this is still the first issue and I can't say much up until the series progresses.

Also from Core studios comes No Parking Comics an anthology from Amos Villar (Andrew Villar's son) and about more than a dozen collaborators. No Parking has a lot of variety going through it, with each story presented in just a page or two which seems to be the limit for each artist or collaboration. That aspect makes it brilliant, as most of the stories presented were justified into whatever limited space they are allotted. And the cover's cool, slightly embossed if I'm not mistaken ( I forgot to ask Andrew about this one, maybe next time).

So the lowdown goes: Dra. Yap: must-read, Magiting: needs a little push, No Parking: good for a first effort.

Reading through these three just made me more impatient for Komikon 6. Don't forget, it's on November 13, 2010 at Starmall Mandaluyong. See you all there!