Early birthday presents- The Demon Dungeon, Underpass, Artwork, Charles & Keith

Note: This is not a review of the books, just a brag post about newly acquired material possessions. Bwahahaha. The reviews are to follow. But read along if you shall.

Ha! I've got meself some early birthday presents this year, thanks to RJ and RJ- one of my closest girlfriends, Raisa Joy, and RareJob, the online English tutorial school where I'm working at part-time. So the picture above is of me being boastful of my early gifts-- geek stuff (which I will discuss with 100% elation later in this post), two Artwork shirts (not able to take pictures except for the packaging, which is kinda cool, as all Artwork paper packaging were), and a Charles & Keith clutch, which was pricey for my standards. Yehey! Thank you, gifters!

But hey, maybe Raisa probably got her bonus or maybe she's just feeling generous lately that she bought me this Charles & Keith clutch with wristlet whateveryoucallit. I didn't really ask since she insisted. LOL.

Canary? I don't know. Basta, it's yellow.

Yellow has never been my type ever since, but lately I am liking yellow a lot. I have this mustard purse right now, and also the shoes (canvas flats) I bought recently were denim blue with yellow polka dots. I don't know why I'm suddenly loving yellow shades nowadays. So, thanks much, Raisa dear for the yellow clutch/wallet! Hmm.. This probably means that I need to think of an equally awesome gift for her birthday. Hmmm3x...

As for my unable-to-define-priority-when-faced-with-books/comics self, I bought myself these gems that I have been reading and hearing about: 

First is Underpass, which I think I saw mentioned by somebody in the Trese Group in FB, but I'm not so sure.

I was actually rooting for David Hontiveros' Seroks Iteration 1: Mirror Man, and not so much for Underpass, but then it was just there on the shelves amidst Skyworld and Trese and other Eros Atalia-type churva, looking so terribly lonely by itself and its plastic sheeting. Oh, and despite the plastic sheeting-- which should have sealed the book from curious, careless hands but didn't because the top and bottom edges were torn open-- the corners of the pages were forlornly dog-eared, and the edges frayed:

Sad, right? Good thing I'm not looking to preserve this in mint condition
to sell at a ridiculous price when I'm 60 years old, anyway. I just want to read it.

So I rescued it. If it wasn't alone and has several other crisp copies standing tall beside it, I probably wouldn't buy it until my next visit. And by then, if it was sold out, I probably also wouldn't mind.
I'm not that die hard comic book fanatic, you see. Well, not until I've read it, or at least had a background about the author.

I have David Hontiveros' Parman, Takod, and Craving, so I was really stoked to read Seroks, which was originally a short story that won the Palanca. And it was illustrated by Alan Navarra, whose illustrations look sci-fi sort of cool, but whose own Dumot I wouldn't buy yet. Sorry. I might give it a shot after I've bought other stuff.

So, anyway, word about Seroks had been going around, and I really, really wanted to acquire the damn book, but when I went to NBS this weekend, I thought Php200 (Seroks) was kind of too much for one purchase. So I just got  Underpass which turned out to have two David Hontiveros stories! Win-win! And two other stories written by Gerry Alanguilan (who also illustrated his work) and Budjette Tan! Not to mention artworks by Ian Sta. Maria, Kajo Baldisimo, and Oliver Palumbarit! Yay!

So I went to look for another book of a cheaper price to complete my purchase budget. I fumbled around in the one shelf in NBS SM City Iloilo allocated for Philippine fiction, and found Mikey Recio & The Secret of The Demon Dungeon among the newer-looking stocks. I saw this being advertised by Sir Budjette Tan himself in the Trese Group page, and so, when I saw that it was just Php120, it was a "Yes!" moment. Much like killing my first demon, and gouging its eye out kind of a "Yes" moment. But I really had to express the "Yes" in a silent way, lest I scare the yayas next to me in the Philippine Romance section (yes, Precious Hearts Romances are just on the same lane as F. Sionil Jose, with only Bob Ong's Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin separating them). So anyway, here it is:

I'd be lying if I say I haven't read it yet, because I did right after my third-year college student nephew who read through the illustrated panels like a breeze and had diligently finished the "Clasificado" files part, most likely the longest prose he's ever read since the required summaries of Florante at Laura and Noli and Fili in high school. I almost cried looking at him making tiyaga with the plain text material just so he can discover the back story, so much so that I just smiled when he finally finished and muttered, "Asteeg!"

First layer: The part showcasing awesome art of fast-paced action.
Second: The proof that comics will indeed re-teach all Pinoy kids
 to discover the joy of reading.  

So, I did finish reading both books, despite my previous ultimatum to myself that I'll only read one story (of the Underpass anthology) per night, like what I have been doing with the Trese series because I didn't want to miss Alexandra so much before the next "season." I got carried away, I read both books in one sitting. Tsk. But I'll read them again for sure. And then I'll review them and talk about each of them again in future blog posts. But for now, this blog post is simply about the sheer joy of me getting my hands on them:

Yes, this is a purely hedonistic (and Messianic?) post of me rescuing the last copy of a comic book from the desolate shelves of a bookstore.

Oh, and about them sealed plastic packages not allowed by bookstores to be opened, I think bookstores should at least allow the customer to peek into the quality of the printing, the artwork/illustrations, the colors, etc. Right? We'll just ask for assistance from the sales persons, of course. Bookstores should not make liars and vandals out of honest and impossibly curious book lovers. Seriously. Whatchuthink?