TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 2

A message has just emerged from the aether, informing me that the second volume of TRESE: BLOODLINES is expected to release at the upcoming Philippine Book Festival 2026, to be held at the Mega Trade Hall at SM Megamall on March 12-15.

Volume 2 contains "A Higher Decision of Instinct" (AKA SANCTUS Issue 2), with art by the mighty fine Brian Balondo.

I believe I've mentioned this elsewhere in the past: this was actually the first "Solo Fr Matt" script that I wrote ("Solo" in that it wasn't, like IUNCTURA and the subsequent scripts along that particular narrative throughline, a crossover/team-up with Dakila).

But Budjette wanted a more Fr. Matt-centric story as my first SANCTUS salvo, so "Instinct" was pushed to this volume.

In it, we get to see how the Hilasterion operates, as Fr. Matt and company go up against a colony of black ant demons!

Oh, my!

So show up at the Book Festival and snag a copy, why don't you?

Let me leave you with the cover art by the mighty fine Brian Balondo...

... and a massive shoutout to Laurent Keller and Élisabeth Gordon, for The Lives of Ants, which helped inform not just this particular issue, but my overall approach to the ant Malevari...

you can't drink just six,

Dave

 

 ALAMAT: ORIGINS

[Addendum 2] (1 of 3)

In prepping ALAMAT: ORIGINS, Budjette Tan conducted a trio of Q&A's with me covering AVATAR, HORUS, and DHAMPYR.

Some of the Q&A content made it into the story Intros in ORIGINS.

Most, did not.

So I'll be posting the Q&A's here, uncut, so you can all see what was left on the cutting room floor.

First up: DHAMPYR.

1 For new readers, what’s your pitch that would get them interested In DHAMPYR?

 

You’re a half-human, half-vampire hybrid, who’s become quite adept at hunting down those blood-sucking freaks.

But you’re really looking for one freak in particular: your father…

Family reunions can be such a pain in the neck.

 

2 Aside from Vampire: The Masquerade, what inspired you to create these characters and that world of vampires?

 

As you’ve noted, Vampire: The Masquerade (and by extension, White Wolf’s World of Darkness RPG universe) was the main inspiration for DHAMPYR.

A key inspirational element here was the Vampire campaign I ran with a group of players that included none other than Carlo Vergara himself. DHAMPYR’s setting (that very particular Goth-drenched San Francisco spectacularly brought to (un)life by Oliver) was also influenced by that Vampire campaign.

 

Beyond that RPG inspiration, I also wanted to write about family dysfunction, and I felt that if I could write something fantastic, where you could actually strip away all the genre markers (the vampire/occult stuff) and still have a functional narrative (a son trying to come to terms with an absentee father and the wreckage of his family caused by that person), then I could possibly have a story worth telling.

 

3 If you created Dhampyr today in 2024, do you think you would end up with a different set of characters, a different layout for the world?

 

Interesting question.

Two ways to answer that.

 

One: if, for whatever reason, the specific idea for what eventually turned out to be DHAMPYR came to me today, it would then be a period piece, in that, there’s something very particular about the Goth scene in the ‘90’s, when the ‘80’s (and Goth’s “birth” in the late 70’s) were still a recent memory, before the drift of certain elements of the subculture towards the mainstream (see: emo).

 

So I can’t quite see that DHAMPYR narrative set in the present day, without having its, ahem, fangs filed down, certainly from a visual/aesthetic standpoint.

So the story we told in DHAMPYR, characters and all, would still probably be set in that time frame.

 

The other way to answer your question: if a general idea came to me to write about a half-human, half-vampire hybrid in the year 2024, that story would definitely not be the story we told in DHAMPYR, but another beast entirely…

I highly doubt that it would have that Goth aesthetic, either… so, at the very least, the characters wouldn’t look the same…

 

4 What do you remember from the night the book was launched in Synergy, during Halloween?

 

That sea of PDBs (People Dressed in Black).

So awesome.

:D

So there you go.

After all this time, I am still extremely proud of what Oliver and I were able to achieve with DHAMPYR.

The fact that DHAMPYR was the title that made the Manila Critics Circle establish a Comics Category is still both mind-blowing and humbling for me. Sure, we didn't win, because the Circle has a rule that the voting of the judges needs to be unanimous for a book to be considered a "winner", but that doesn't take anything away from the reality that DHAMPYR was the inaugural title for the Circle's Comics Category.

It broke through the ceiling.

Boom. 

The next Q&A (probably HORUS) should hopefully go live over the weekend?

If you have any questions about DHAMPYR, please feel free to leave them in the Comments section and I'll see what I can do to answer them.

you can't drink just six,

Dave

 TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1

TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1 is now available to order on Shopee.

I had originally intended to make that announcement in a new Out of the Gutter post where I was going to talk a bit more about one of my contributions, but alas, some Personal Life Upheaval stuff raging, so I'll try and get around to that particular OotG at some point.

For now, my contributions are as follows:

The Fr. Matthias Trese case, “That Kind of Hunger” (art by the mighty fine Brian Balondo) and

the Fr. Trese and Dakila Deviation, “Iunctura” (AKA DEVIATIONS Issue 1; art by the mighty fine Marvin del Mundo).

If "Iunctura" makes you want to see more Dakila (and I really hope it does), then kindly click on down to the Indies section of the Avenida website, where you'll find these 'Verse goodies...

Support independently published local comics!

In the meantime, let's continue to trudge through this liminal space, leaving the massive dumpster fire that was TFNY 2020...

Hopefully, 2021 will be kinder to the human race...

With that said:

 

Stay safe.

Stay sane.

 

you can’t drink just six,

 

Dave

OUT OF THE GUTTER (4) “Iunctura”

OUT OF THE GUTTER (4)

“Iunctura”

David Hontiveros / Marvin del Mundo

[Contained in TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1]

This piece originally appeared in the DEVIATIONS issue 1 “Iunctura” floppy release.

It appears here at the Iguana for any readers who will be reading the story in BLOODLINES Volume 1 for the first time.

 

When Budjette asked me if I was interested in writing Fr. Matt, I very quickly landed on having my first script be a team-up between Fr. Matt and Dakila.

There are a number of reasons for that, and these are two of them.

One:

The only established foundation for the character of Fr. Matt was the “Linda Blasco” story; I was given free rein in terms of not just his personal backstory, but also the finer details of the type of demons he faces as well as the further specifics of the organization he’s a part of.

 

And while the relatively open slate I was presented with eased away some of the pressure on one end (there wasn’t much I could possibly contradict, given the single issue worth of story that was my, ahem, Bible for Fr. Matt), it also compounded the pressure on the other (because in the final analysis, this was going to be all me).

 

So I felt I needed to ease into the character of Fr. Matt, and having another character there, someone I’ve been actively thinking about and writing for a whole slew of scripts and issues and years, was sort of my security blanket.

If I knew exactly what Dakila would say and how he’d react to any given situation, that would free me up to focus on Fr. Matt, so I could discover who he is as a person and an individual, and I would then, in turn, eventually know what Fr. Matt would say and how he’d react to any given situation.

I wasn’t just discovering Fr. Matt from my viewpoint as the writer; I was also discovering Fr. Matt through Dakila’s eyes, and that helped the process tremendously.

Two:

The thought of chronicling how a priest would react to meeting a superhero who happens to be “the champion of God”...

That was a no-brainer and too, heh, tempting an opportunity to pass up.

So I opted to have IUNCTURA be the first Fr. Matt script I wrote.

 

And yes, for those of you who super-parsed that sentence, there are more Fr. Matt scripts that have already been written, some focusing more on Fr. Matt (and which lean more towards the horror end of the spectrum) and some featuring the further adventures of the Divinely Dynamic Duo, Dakila and Fr. Matt, both types of stories working in tandem to help build out the world of the Mercy Seat and the Malevari.

 

So we all hope you enjoy this first step that takes us deeper into the world of Fr. Matt, where demons buzz and shriek with the voices of the once-possessed, and where priests can be trusted to kick Evil’s ass for the Lord...

--dave (Space Monkey)

October 2019

And with that dispatch from the Long Ago sent out into the wilds of the Interwebz, let me leave you with:

 

Stay safe.

Stay sane.

 

you can’t drink just six,

 

Dave

TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1 contains both

“Iunctura” (AKA DEVIATIONS Issue 1; art by the mighty fine Marvin del Mundo), and

“That Kind of Hunger” (art by the mighty fine Brian Balondo).

TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1 is now available for preorder at the Avenida website.

There's still time to preorder (20% off cover price), so long as payment is made by December 17, 2020, which is tomorrow, so chop chop!

Shipping starts on December 21, 2020, Monday next week.

And while you're down Avenida way to preorder, it would be greatly appreciated if you also check out the Indies section, where you'll find more Dakila in these 'Verse goodies...

OUT OF THE GUTTER (3) “That Kind of Hunger”

OUT OF THE GUTTER (3)

“That Kind of Hunger”

David Hontiveros / Brian Balondo

[Contained in TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1]

For the record: while “That Kind of Hunger” may be the first Solo Fr. Matt story penned by me that you’ll be reading, this isn’t the first Solo Fr. Matt (SFM, as opposed to a DEVIATIONS X-Over/team up) script that I wrote.

When DEVIATIONS launched at last year’s NovKon (in the Far, Far Away Time of the Long Ago), I had already completed first drafts of “Congrego” (aka DEVIATIONS issue 2) and “A Higher Decision of Instinct,” my first crack at a SFM tale, and a closer look at the ways in which the Mercy Seat operates.

But shortly after the Secret HQ event (thanx so much to all you mighty fine folk who dropped by for that), Budjette asked if we could launch the FATHER TRESE title with a more Fr. Matt-focused story.

I had a number of other SFM story ideas bubbling under the surface, and the one that rose to the top was “That Kind of Hunger.” (Or, as I referred to it in the script, the one with Fr. Matt, a couple of demons, and a bunch of rich A-holes.)

Under the “more Fr. Matt-focused” directive from On High, the rest of his Trinity are mentioned, but are firmly kept off-panel.

So, for those of you who may want to see more of Frs. Bronze and Alloy, as well as some other fresh Hilasterion faces, you’ll need to wait for whenever the originally-issue 1-but-now-going-to-be-issue 2 SFM script gets drawn and scheduled for release.

And any dangling plot threads visible at the end of “That Kind of Hunger” will likewise need to wait to resurface sometime in the hopefully foreseeable future...

(Thus are the wages of one of the other directives from On High, the “each issue needs to be a one-and-done.”)

And while the main bulk of the pages were drawn during lockdown by the mighty fine Brian Balondo, the “Hunger” script was indeed written back in the Long Ago, before all this tragic insanity descended upon us…

In a related aside, a first draft of DEVIATIONS issue 3 (“Liberatio”) is also already in Budjette’s Inbox, and DEVIATIONS issues 4 (“Deviatus”) and 5 (the double-length “Pestis”) are very nearly at the “first draft good to go” stage.

Meanwhile, on the SFM front, a particularly angry script, the bulk of which was written during the depths of lockdown (working title: “No Such Thing”), is also nearly at “first draft good to go,” and a script that picks up where “That Kind of Hunger” leaves off (working title: “Beyond the Rivers of Cush”), where we see the fallout of that bloody night at Olazo Elementary School, is gradually formulating at the back of my mind…

All these scripts of course, subject to scheduling based on the release plans from On High…

(Pssssttt… if you want to see these sooner rather than later, then bug Budjette on that newfangled thing called… “social media”? Did I get that right?)

I should also probably mention that the current working title for the SFM book is SANCTUS, and though it’s technically the “Solo Fr. Matt” book, it’s also meant to be a guided tour of the much wider stage upon which the Mercy Seat and the Malevari wage their ongoing war, so we also get to meet a whole lot of other Mercy Seaters in SANCTUS, as well as a host of other characters who color Fr. Matt’s life.

Okay.

I should be posting another OotG text piece soon (what was originally meant to be included along with “That Kind of Hunger”, if its initial release had been in floppy form).

In the meantime though, I’d like to acknowledge the following, for soundtracking the lettering process of “That Kind of Hunger”:

BAUMUSIK

808 State, Best Coast, Depeche Mode, Electric Owls, Propaganda, Rammstein, Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Visage, and Xmal Deutschland

And with that said:

Stay safe.

Stay sane.

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1 contains both

“That Kind of Hunger” (art by the mighty fine Brian Balondo) and

“Iunctura” (AKA DEVIATIONS Issue 1; art by the mighty fine Marvin del Mundo).

TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1 is now available for preorder at the Avenida website.

And while you're down Avenida way to preorder, it would be greatly appreciated if you also check out the Indies section, where you'll find more Dakila in these 'Verse goodies...

TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1

The anthology title TRESE: BLOODLINES Volume 1 is now available for preorder at the Avenida website.

It's 20% off for preorders, which should be paid by December 17, 2020 (that's this coming Thursday).

Shipping will start on December 21, 2020 (next Monday, a week from now).

There's a complete rundown of the contents of Volume 1 at the Avenida preorder link.

My contributions are as follows:

The Fr. Matthias Trese case, “That Kind of Hunger” (art by the mighty fine Brian Balondo) and

the Fr. Trese and Dakila Deviation, “Iunctura” (AKA DEVIATIONS Issue 1; art by the mighty fine Marvin del Mundo).

There should be an Out of the Gutter post or two about "That Kind of Hunger" that will hopefully go live here soon-ish...

In the meantime, while you're down Avenida way to preorder, it would be greatly appreciated if you also click on down to the Indies section, where you'll find these 'Verse goodies...

With that said:

 

Stay safe.

Stay sane.

 

you can’t drink just six,

 

Dave

TRESE DEVIATIONS: IUNCTURA 
ADDENDUM (3)

“CREEPY HOST DUDE IS BACK”

Grand Pontiff Elberith here again with yet another announcement, which also happens to be one of those "good news, bad news" situations you mortals seem to delight/despair in...

Good news (and once more, this is pre-written promotional drivel, so gird your loins)...

Join us for the launch of the TRESE LITE POSTCARD book!

December 13 at Secret HQ, Poblacion, Makati

1 to 6pm

TRESE LITE Postcard Book 1

Art by Kajo Baldisimo

Stories by Budjette Tan

A collection of artwork by Kajo Baldisimo featuring the cast of TRESE. Each card depicts a “light day” – those in between moments when they are not fighting aswang or investigating some crime. Each card comes with a short story – in the form of a letter from one of the characters – giving us a glimpse of Trese during her most personal moments, during her younger days and during those summers of many years past.

Aside from TRESE LITE POSTCARD BOOK, Secret HQ will also be selling TRESE books 1 to 7 and TRESE DEVIATIONS: Iunctura.

There.
So for those of you who were unable to purchase Trese Deviations: Iunctura at the Komikon Grande 2019 due to the "2 days' worth of stocks selling out in 4 hours and 43 minutes" situation we all found ourselves in on Day 1, this is your chance...

And now, the bad news...
I must break your tender hearts, mortals, and tell you that I, the Mighty, Great, and Terrible Duke Elberith, will not be your host for this little soirée.
So manage your expectations accordingly and try to enjoy the festivities, even without my magnetic, one-of-a-kind presence.

And, as always, please keep me in mind for any of your hosting or notary public needs.

Unlike the organizers of this event, you must never forget… Grand Pontiff Elberith, at your service… for a price…

Enjoy…

TRESE DEVIATIONS: IUNCTURA 
ADDENDUM (2)

“SO THERE'S SOMEONE HERE WHO'D LIKE TO SAY A FEW WORDS”

I am Grand Pontiff Elberith--or the Mighty, Great, and Terrible Duke Elberith, if you prefer--and I’ve been told that some of you mortals are asking about the reading order of the titular comics of that superheroic hooligan who disrupted the Tiangge festivities.

Though I daresay I don’t quite see the appeal of reading illustrated stories of that impudent ruffian, this is a paying gig for me, so…

And these are the DAKILA issues currently available to order online here, at the Indie Komiks Market section of mervstore.com.

You’ll note that the Kapalaran story arc--which is the most ideal jumping on point for new readers--is not currently available on mervstore.com though.

Regardless, any of the other choices are as good as the other, and they’re all complete stories, whether one-and-dones, or two-parters, or entire story arcs.

So feel free to order any (or all) of them, in whichever order you choose.

You humans are all about Free Will, after all…

And if you must know something about the issues, then I hope you survive this pre-written promotional drivel prepared by some random, underpaid Word Monkey, I suspect...

The 12 'Verse issues currently available through mervstore are (in alphabetical order):

DAKILA: Lumilim

Issues 1 & 2

David Hontiveros / Elmer Cantada

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?

It’s been almost 3 months since 18-year old Brandon Ramirez first became Dakila.

And right now, he just wants to cosplay.

But a day at ManilaCon with his barkada turns super weird (and super dangerous!) when creepy urban legend Mr. Alikabok--actually one of Mangilala’s many guises (dude’s a cosplayer too! Who knew?)--shows up with some, err… “friends,” to spoil everybody’s geekery.

Boooo! Hissssss!

Dakila. 18 years old. Cosmic champion.

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

DAKILA: Makadaot

Issue 2

David Hontiveros / Carl Corilla

Dakila has to face rains that are gradually sapping his strength to find a missing child.

AND his kitten!

But a bunch of saitans are about to make things a LOT more complicated...

DAKILA: Makadaot

Issue 3

David Hontiveros / Carl Corilla

Where we see exactly what Grundle... errrr, Kasuko’s “sweet itsusiak deal” was all about...

DAKILA: Metronom

Issues 2 & 3

David Hontiveros / Romnick Magbanua

There’s been an angel murder, and an attempted angel murder.

Who’s on the case?

Gil Grissom? Mac Taylor? Or (Heaven help us!) Horatio Caine?

Nuh-uh!

Dakila’s on the case!

DAKILA / KADASIG: Balat

Issues 1 to 4

David Hontiveros / Romnick Magbanua

While just trying to do the right thing, Dakila runs afoul of the Yokusuru crime family, the same bunch of drilo Kadasig also happens to be looking into.
High flying, fist to jaw, tsinelas to face action follows!

DAKILA / MASKARADO: Silver Like Dust

David Hontiveros / 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.

KADASIG Volume One: "The Skeleton at the Feast"

Issue 2

David Hontiveros / Rafael Gumboc

Kadasig has served the Lady Ibu for centuries.

He was human, once. But today, he is a living, breathing kutummu, his skin now merely the scabbard for the seemingly infinite array of weapons he draws from inside himself, weapons he shapes from his own flesh and bone, to best serve the Lady in the only way he truly knows how.

He is the Lady’s kallaapu; her knight, her enforcer.

He is her beet tilli; her arsenal.

He is her kak daami; her bloodstained weapon.

And she is about to use him to finally lay her enemies low…

Kadasig's memories of his violent past are disturbed in the wake of an aswang attack on the heir to the enkanto throne...

So there you are.
You even got an extra KADASIG issue description for your troubles...

Let's see...
Anything else?

Oh…

Though I do not appear in it (and the narrative is all the poorer for that tragic oversight), you might be interested in the Dakila / Kadasig: Balat 4-part crossover, which chronicles the event that I mention in my Tiangge spiel, involving poor Gaap… (who, as it turns out, owes so many demons so much money… such a sad state of affairs!)

There are also more legions of infernal spirits here, as well as Dakila’s first brush with the “powering up via possession” phenomenon…


Now, whilst you go about your day, perhaps by reading more of Dakila’s adventures, please keep me in mind for any of your hosting or notary public needs.

Don’t forget… Grand Pontiff Elberith, at your service… for a price…

Enjoy…