Five-Legged Iguana

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PELICULA


An ebook of Pelicula is now available on Amazon.
Look! Product description!!

Luis Conrado exists in two worlds, the fictional reality of Habagat-- the brave and all-powerful superhero he plays on television-- and the madcap realm of the Philippine showbiz industry.

In many ways, it’s the latter world that’s more bizarre. It’s a world that has its own unnatural powers and principalities, a dangerous and dazzling world of secrets, intrigue, and lies.

A world where fame can exact a terrible price, and love can be the most dangerous thing of all.

This international edition contains several "special features": endnotes, a glossary of Filipino words retained in the text, and a Habagat script excerpt.

The first four chapters of the international edition can be found at davidhontiveros.com, and if you find them to your liking, then mosey on over to www.amazon.com/Pelicula-ebook/.

So, yeah, just to clarify, if you happened to have read Pelicula in its entirety when it was online before, the ebook is an English-language edition, the lines of Taglish dialogue and much of the colloquialisms translated for the global audience. If you prefer the original version though, fret not, as there are plans to ebook it as well.

BATHALA: APOKALYPSIS


The third issue takes flight this Saturday, May 7, at the MetroComic Con, at the Megatrade Hall, SM Megamall.
Hope to see you there. Look! Convenient recap!!

Previously in Bathala:

1999.

Andrew Carreon, reporter, is secretly the mighty superhero, Bathala.

Among the many people Andrew has chosen to keep in the dark about his dual identity, is fellow reporter Isabel Ignacio, the friendship they share a relationship that always seems on the verge of becoming something deeper, though never quite taking that last and fateful step.
Andrew fears exposing Isabel to the dangers of his other life, for over the many years, Bathala has clashed with numerous enemies, like the alien artificial intelligence from the Andromeda Galaxy, Cerebellax, or the hero’s own dark clone, ThaBa’al.
But the most dangerous and relentless foe he has is his arch-enemy, Harold Hernandez, who knows Andrew’s secret, and whose latest scheme to destroy the hero has caused the death of Andrew’s twin brother, environmentalist Leonardo Carreon.
Following the groundbreaking procedure that digitally mapped and encoded Leo’s entire personality-- producing an exact copy of Leo as an UP, an Uploaded Personality-- a gunman hired by Hernandez assassinates the environmentalist.

Enraged and grief-stricken, Bathala overpowers his clone, and demands of Hernandez that Leo’s UP be downloaded into the body of ThaBa’al.
It is Leo’s UP though that intercedes, explaining to Bathala-- to whom he shows the digital realm he now exists in-- that he no longer wishes to be encased in flesh and blood.
Reluctantly, Bathala accedes to the wishes of all that is apparently left of his dead twin, and leaves the unconscious ThaBa’al in Hernandez’s penthouse office, where the clone’s recovery is interrupted by the UP’s machinations.
Apparently, the UP has its own sinister agenda…

Meanwhile, seemingly isolated events are taking place all over the cosmos:
In Iraq, four ancient entities struggle against massive chains at the bottom of a river. One of the entities sheds a pair of tears, which are swallowed by Syrian siblings, who then seem to fall into epileptic fits.
In Scotland, a handsome stranger walks, expectantly waiting for a pivotal moment in history.
In Los Angeles, the autopsy of a charred, apparently human corpse reveals a host of eyes covering its interiors. When the coroner Paul Walsh brings in a colleague for consultation, it is discovered that the corpse has vanished from the morgue.
In the Andromeda Galaxy, Cerebellax prepares for his next encounter with Earth’s champion, Bathala.

And, despite having been killed by that gunman, Leo awakens from darkness, and not only does he encounter the charred corpse from Los Angeles, seemingly reanimated now, but he is also told that he has an “important” and “pivotal” role to play in the coming days, and is handed a scroll with seven seals…

(Pelicula ebook cover by Bow Guerrero; Bathala: Apokalypsis cover by Ace Enriquez.)