¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #1

CHANNEL ZERO: NO-END HOUSE

(September 2017)

"God! I keep... waiting for one of you to understand how magnificent this place is!
"All the gifts that it can give you! Because memory is a disease!

“And then this house is the cure! How can you not see that?!”

One of the most amazing things about Channel Zero’s sophomore season is that, though it still fundamentally feels like a Channel Zero story (in so much as the Channel Zero logo doesn’t look out of place in the opening credits), it does so despite the fact that it has a different kind of horror at its core, compared to the horror of Candle Cove.

With its central themes of memory and loss and instinct and co-dependency, No-End House is also surprisingly moving, balancing out the horror with genuine emotion, thanks in no small part to a commendable cast, which includes the excellent John Carroll Lynch.

Probably the only drawback here is, the bar is now subsequently so much higher for the third season, Butcher’s Block (airing next year), which counts among its cast, It Follows’ Olivia Luccardi, Teen Wolf’s Holland Roden, and the one and only Rutger Hauer.

(Channel Zero: No-End House OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

2017 NOVEMBER KOMIKON POST-KON POST

A huge round of thanx for all you mighty fine folk who dropped by the Capsule-Alamat table over the weekend to show your deeply appreciated support by picking up the latest 'Verse releases:

The wrap-up to the Dakila / Kadasig crossover, Balat (art by Romnick Magbanua; colored cover by Kadasig co-creator Ian Sta. Maria):

The wrap-up to the Makadaot story arc (art by Carl Corilla):

And for helping us celebrate the 25^th anniversary of Reno Maniquis’ Maskarado with Silver Like Dust (art and colored covers by Reno)…

Thanx so much again.
Your continued and enthusiastic support means the world to us, and we hope to see you all at next year's Summer Kon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

2017 NOVEMBER KOMIKON MAP

Three more days till NovKon; this coming weekend, Saturday and Sunday, November 11 & 12, at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer.

Details on the new 'Verse releases can be found here.

And more details about the Maskarado / Dakila crossover, Silver Like Dust, can be found here.

Plus, Reno will have all sorts of goodies available as well, details for which you can find at the Maskarado FB page.

Just look for us at the Capsule-Alamat table here:

 

 

Set the dates: November 11 & 12, at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer.

#komikonph

Hope to see all you mighty fine folk at NovKon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

2017 NOVEMBER KOMIKON RELEASES

Some more details about the Maskarado / Dakila crossover, Silver Like Dust.

It’s a 26 page one-shot, at P130, and it’s releasing with 2 different colored covers.

(See the complete sneak preview pack--including 2 lettered pages--at the Maskarado FBpage, here.)

In keeping with Maskarado’s 25^th anniversary celebration, we’re offering the Silver Discount.

Here’s how that works:

You can opt to pick up both covers of Silver Like Dust, at P250, and that will get you a further P25 off any additional single Maskarado purchase AND any additional single Dakila purchase.

So buy both covers, and then buy another Maskarado title at P25 off, and then another Dakila title at P25 off.

(Note that the P25 off a Dakila title can also be applied to any single Dakila pack, instead of a single issue.)

And keep in mind, even if you just want one cover, if you're a Dakila fan you might know someone who's a Maskarado fan (or the other way around).
If that's the case, then you two/too can team up and avail of the offer.
Just look for us at the Capsule / Alamat table at this year’s November Komikon, and ask about the Silver Discount.

Set the dates: November 11 & 12, at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer.

#komikonph

Hope to see all you mighty fine folk at NovKon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

2017 NOVEMBER KOMIKON RELEASES

One month to go till this year's NovKon, and yes! 
New releases!

DAKILA / KADASIG: Balat

Issue 4 (of 4)

By David Hontiveros and Romnick Magbanua

Our heroes’ grueling encounter with the savage Yokusuru wraps up here, with a colored cover by Kadasig co-creator, Ian Sta. Maria.

DAKILA: Makadaot

Issue 3 (of 3)

By David Hontiveros and Carl Corilla

Your name is Brandon Ramirez and you’ve been a geek your whole life: comics, movies, RPGs, cosplay.

And now you’re officially the world’s first superhero, as evidenced by the cape, the mask, the totally ripped physique, and those crazy-awesome powers.

Higher agencies seem to have conspired to steer you right into that skintight outfit.

We have only one question:

How’s that working out for you?

The Makadaot arc wraps up here, as we see exactly what Kasuko’s “sweet itsusiak deal” was all about.

Dakila. 18 years old. Cosmic champion.

All of a sudden, acne and getting a driver’s license are so not a big deal anymore.

Aaaaand…

To help celebrate the 25^th anniversary of Reno Maniquis’ Maskarado…

Silver Like Dust

By David Hontiveros and Reno Maniquis

Two kick-ass heroes.

One awesome team-up.

Dakila finds himself in another dimension, in another Philippines, where he meets “Manila’s Masked Marvel,” Maskarado.

Together, the heroes face an enemy driven by madness and greed.

An enemy who hungers for all the power in the world.

Including theirs.

(See the complete sneak preview pack--including 2 lettered pages--at the Maskarado FBpage, here.)

And there you go.

Set the dates: November 11 & 12, at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer.

#komikonph

Hope to see all you mighty fine folk at NovKon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[13 of 13]

IT COMES AT NIGHT

(April 2017)

Writer/director Trey Edward Shults' second feature film, It Comes at Night, sets us down in the middle of yet another post-apocalyptic scenario. To the film’s benefit, the narrative doesn’t play out as per your usual post-apocalypse de rigueur.

We don’t witness the catastrophe that triggers the collapse (and specific details are never really offered). All we really know is the unfortunate can become sick, and when that happens, drastic measures need to be taken.
Instead, the story’s focus is Paul (Joel Edgerton, also the film’s Executive Producer) and his family (wife, teen-aged son, and father-in-law’s dog, Stanley) living far away from the city.

Shults tells his story at a very slow and deliberate pace, and some may even wonder if this is actually a “horror movie.”
Since it’s found a comfortable home on the ¡Qué Horror! 2017 rundown, it’s safe to assume I believe it qualifies. Because, while the journey is a slow, low-key one, the ultimate destination is a harrowingly brutal gut punch, the horror, the kind that underscores the tragic hollowness of that most banal and grotesque of platitudes uttered in the face of mind-numbing, soul-crushing disaster: “Everything’s gonna be okay.”

Parting Shot:
And so there we are.
Another October, another ¡Qué Horror! rundown.
If you're in the mood for a horror movie marathon to celebrate the season, try and check this year's titles out (if you haven't already).
Here's to a Happy (and safe) Halloween for all of us!

(It Comes at Night OS’ courtesy of aintitcool.com & bloody-disgusting.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[12 of 13]

GET OUT

(January 2017)

"Fairer skin has been in favor for the past, what, couple of hundreds of years? But now the pendulum has swung back.
"Black is in fashion.”

Anyone who’s passingly familiar with my writing or has been to the Iguana more than once would, in all likelihood, have noticed my preference for genre pieces that have something to say.

That’s the kind of genre material I’m deeply interested in, the ones that use the tropes and the conventions and the form as a platform to delve into important, vital matters. The kind of material that says something to its audience about the world they live in.

And if you’ve seen the trailer for Jordan Peele’s feature directorial debut, Get Out (which Peele also wrote the screenplay for), it should be fairly obvious that the film is about race, and its ugly, bigoted offspring, racism.

“Chris, you gotta get the f*ck up outta there, man! You in some Eyes Wide Shut situation. Leave, motherfu--”

The Fades’ and Black Mirror’s Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris Washington, who is being introduced to--and spending the weekend with--his girlfriend’s parents (played by the always marvelous Catherine Keener and a vaguely unrecognizable Bradley Whitford).

And when that happens in a Blumhouse film, you just know things are gonna get ug-leeee…

To say anything more is not really my style here at the Iguana; it would also be a frank disservice to the extraordinary piece Peele and company have brought to the screen.

Suffice it to say that if you, like me, have a taste for horror with a brain, then Get Out.

Now!

“I mean, I told you not to go in that house…”

Parting Shot:

For those who know Jordan Peele as half of the comedy sketch duo Key & Peele, note that at the age of 13, he knew he wanted to be a horror film director.

Apparently, the whole comedy thing was a huge detour, but he’s managed to find his way back to the dream.

A few more things to look forward to from Peele:

The 4 other “social thrillers” (his term) that he plans to work on, of which he has this to say: “The best and scariest monsters in the world are human beings and what we are capable of especially when we get together. I’ve been working on these premises about these different social demons, these innately human monsters that are woven into the fabric of how we think and how we interact, and each one of my movies is going to be about a different one of these social demons.”

He’s also teamed up with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot to adapt Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country for HBO (it’s been given a straight-to-series order).

Amazon.com has this to say about Lovecraft Country: [Ruff] makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.

Yes, please. Some more of that…

(Get Out OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[11 of 13]

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL

(October 2016)

There's something to be said for well-crafted traditional horror cinema and Mike Flanagan’s Ouija: Origin of Evil, is certainly that.

A prequel to Stiles White’s Ouija--the 2014 film based on the Hasbro game (which I never got to watch)--Origin of Evil follows the Zander women, mother Alice (Elizabeth Reaser), her high school daughter Lina (Annalise Basso, who also featured in Flanagan’s Oculus), and 9-year-old Doris (Lulu Wilson), as they try and get by in Los Angeles, 1967, after the loss of their husband and father.

Alice’s business name is “Madame Zander,” and she and her daughters perform a community service by giving their clients closure through faux séances, or at least, that’s what Alice tells herself and her children.

Things go awry of course (because let’s face it, they have to, given that this is a horror movie) when Alice purchases a (gasp!) Ouija board.

The premise sounds dopey as hell, but Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard (who also tag teamed on the screenplays for Flanagan’s Oculus and Before I Wake) wring it for all the creeptasticness they can muster.

Parting Shot:

Oh, and look! Doug Jones and Elliott, errr, I mean Henry Thomas, are in it too!

(Ouija: Origin of Evil OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year
[10 of 13]

THE MONSTER

(October 2016)

Right out of the gate, writer/director Bryan Bertino carved out a slot for himself on the 2008 ¡Qué horror! rundown with his feature debut, The Strangers.
Though circumstances have thus far prevented me from checking out his 2014 follow-up, Mockingbird, he is back ‘round these parts with The Monster.

As with The Strangers, Bertino balances character with the tense thrills produced by a horrific set-up; in this case, it’s a mother and daughter stranded on a lonely road, at night, in the rain, with the titular (and savagely hungry) beast lurking in the woods.

There are strong performances here from Zoe Kazan and Ella Ballentine, and Chief Tyrol himself, BSG’s Aaron Douglas, also shows up for the fun.

If you’re in the mood for some suspenseful and moving horror, then hunt down The Monster.

(The Monster OS courtesy of screenanarchy.com.)