Underpass (A Summit Media Graphic Anthology)

Source: http://www.planetmarkus.com

If we're going to base it on covers alone, Underpass seems worth its price enough.

But we have to check if there's really light at the end of the tunnel, don't we?

No. No there's none.

Well, okay, a flicker of something that probably came from a small candle. Thanks to Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo. But other than that, it's not really a path worth walking into.

Spoilers. Because really, I don't even have to *spoil* this comic book.

1. "The Sim" by Gerry Alanguilan

A horny guy finds a SIM card and he's hoping to see what he thinks would be a hot SIM card owner. Since this is a sort of horror comic book, we all know it won't go well. There'd probably be supernatural deaths in it. But, the thing is, it wasn't even "well" to begin with. I think it was meant to be a mix of old-school and camp. If it is, it still─wait for it─yes, sucked. "B-but, it's Alanguilan!" you say. Yeah, that's what I kind of said, too.

0/10

2. "Judas Kiss" by David Hontiveros, Budjette Tan, and Oliver Pulumbarit

If you're a homophobe, and you're afraid of incest, and your ghost brother (that you killed because your wife cheated on you with him) is having sex with you and you unwittingly enjoy it─this is the perfect horror story for you. Fortunately, I'm not, and all I could do was laugh at the character's idiocy. This was the twist? I was supposed to be creeped out by this? What decade is this? The nineties? Wait, wait, that's an insult to the nineties!

3/10. Just because I liked the drawing. And I actually thought it was a good story. Until I got to the end.

3. "Katumbas" by David Hontiveros and Ian Sta. Maria

Does anyone here remember Culture Crash? The short lived comic book/magazine at the height of anime popularity? There's this section where fans of any age (and by that, I mean probably grade school or high school) submit short comics of their own. "Katumbas" seemed like something you find in that section.

4/10. Because I read better comics in the Culture Crash section. But also, because I liked the sword coming from his bare spiny macho back.

4. "The Clinic" by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldismo

Almost saved the entire collection of the Underpass. Though, it's not "The Clinic's" fault. The entire collection was just too much to override. But on its own, "The Clinic" reeks of pure greatness that makes me want to read the rest of Trese. The art is great, how the story started was funny as hell, and the treatment of abortion and the twist on local monsters were executed so perfectly I was grinning like an idiot after I read it.

10/10

But of course, overall: 4/10. Thanks to "The Clinic".