2018 SUMMER KOMIKON 'VERSE RELEASES

Summer Kon is on April 14, just a little over a week to go, and yes, another new release! 
Yay!

DAKILA: Legado

Issue 1 (of 3)

By David Hontiveros and Michael Urbano

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?

True story: In 745 AD, church officials conducted a synod that resulted in the condemnation of 7 angels and their worshippers.

Now, after being missing for over a millennium, one of the 7 reprobated angels has returned, changed, and intent on carrying out his new mission.

Uh-oh...

And... the previously announced...

DAKILA: Lumilim

Issue 2 (of 3)

By David Hontiveros and Elmer Cantada

Having interrupted the geek festivities at ManilaCon, Mangilala shifts his sinister plans for Dakila (and his friends) into the next gear.

Dakila.
18 years old.
Cosmic champion.

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

And there you go.

Set the date: April 14, at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer.

#komikonph

Hope to see all you mighty fine folk at Summer Kon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #5

ANNIHILATION

(February 2018)

"Isn't self-destruction coded into us? Programmed into each cell?”

Alex Garland’s Annihilation (based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer) is heady, horror-tinged science fiction, the kind we need far more than the N^th iteration of some tired SF franchise.

And while some may wonder at its inclusion here, I think it’s quite clear to those who frequent the Iguana that my definition of “horror” has always been very broad, allowing for diverse moods and tastes, from quiet elegance to raucous bombast.

Think of Annihilation as the horror of science, of nature gone horribly awry.

And not in the ‘70’s “animals go wild, nature vs man” schlock cinema sense (though there are flitting shades of that sensibility here), but rather in the sense of the horror of chaos, of the terrible, maddening possibility of having everything we take for granted twisted into unnatural and terrifying shapes.

Garland captures a grotesque beauty here, the awful majesty of seeing the mundane transfigured into the bizarre and the alien, his vision helped along tremendously by the soundscape laid down by Ben Salisbury and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (the duo also scored Garland’s Ex Machina and Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire”).

Plus, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Natalie Portman.

Need I say more?

(Annihilation OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

2018 SUMMER KOMIKON 'VERSE RELEASE

Summer Kon is on April 14, a little over a month to go, and yes, new release! 
Singular!
We're all still hoping there'll be some more new issues to launch this April, but for now, let's work with what we've got...

DAKILA: Lumilim

Issue 2 (of 3)

By David Hontiveros and 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?

Having interrupted the geek festivities at ManilaCon, Mangilala shifts his sinister plans for Dakila (and his friends) into the next gear.

Dakila.
18 years old.
Cosmic champion.

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

[Click to embiggen!]

And there you go.

Set the date: April 14, at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer.

#komikonph

Hope to see all you mighty fine folk at Summer Kon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #4

TRAGEDY GIRLS

(March 2017)

"I'm not a CSI person, but it looked like he was murdered."

This was a tricky one, in that for the most part, Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls is a biting satire of today’s social media-obsessed youth.

But what convinced me that the film deserved a candidate’s spot on this year’s ¡Qué horror! list, is the persistent streak of vicious, vicious Vantablack humour that rushes with gleeful malice through its runtime.

For its initial three and a half minutes, Tragedy Girls plays like your standard slasher piece, as we bear witness to a teen couple making out in a car in a lonely isolated locale.

But just before we’re treated to the oh-so-elegantly-‘80’s title card, Tragedy Girls lifts its mask and reveals its subversive, blackly comedic self.

This is a world where the only things that truly matter are hashtags, retweets, and Followers, where the monsters can be found in classrooms, on the football field, and on the screens of your laptops and phones.

Where the adults are incompetent and oblivious, and the youth are at best, callow, self-involved sheep and at worst, sociopathic, narcissistic murderers.

It’s telling that the households of the titular Tragedy Girls aren’t run by abusive parental units from Hell, but rather, well-meaning adults who nonetheless have no idea what their kids are really up to.

It’s like the film is saying, it doesn’t matter how a child is raised anymore; they will be exactly what they choose to be, paving the road to their own personal damnation, one retweet at a time.

"Okay. Well... ummm... if, if Sadie needs like an alibi or, or something just to get her out of a jam, just tell her she can say she was with me watching some Dario Argento movie, okay?"
"Dario DiGiorno."
"Da... Dario Argen... Argento."
"Dario Arpeggio. Mario Wario. I don't know. I don't care. Byezies."

Parting Shot:

There’s a bunch of genre faces in this one, among them: Brianna Hildebrand, Kevin Durand, and an uncredited Josh Hutcherson.

(Tragedy Girls OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #3

THE RITUAL

(September 2017)

"Makes you feel insignificant, right?"

"Speak for yourself.”

“Come on, man, where’s your soul? These mountains were smashed out by Nordic gods with big bastard hammers!”

David Bruckner’s The Ritual is the latest in the long and (un)hallowed line of horror films that warn us that man was not meant to traipse through the deep, dark woods.

You may recognize Bruckner as a ¡Qué horror! regular, having been on the rundown three previous times--in 2008, on the inaugural online ¡Qué horror! list (for his “transmission” in The Signal); in 2012 (for his contribution to V/H/S, “Amateur Night”); and in 2016 (for his contribution to Southbound, “The Accident”*).

So if you’re keeping tabs, then it becomes quite clear that The Ritual is Bruckner’s first feature film that’s in the running for a ¡Qué horror! slot, and a solid title it is.

Working with a script by Joe Barton (who’s written for Humans), based in turn on the novel by Adam Nevill, Bruckner gives us a tense nailbiter that follows four friends from university, as they hike Kungsleden (“King’s Trail”), running between Sweden and Norway, a vacation that turns out to be a terrible decision, as indicated by the tagline displayed on the quad above.

Bruckner and company** kill it with this one…

“Well, this is clearly the house we get murdered in.”

* Or, alternately, “Accident”. (Even on the official Dark Sky Films website, it’s referred to by both titles…)

** Amongst the film’s executive producers, the one and only Andy Serkis.

(The Ritual UK quad courtesy of empireonline.com.)

SILVER LIKE DUST - Digital

Yes, indeed.
The mighty fine Reno Maniquis has made the Maskarado / Dakila crossover we cooked up to celebrate Maskarado's 25th anniversary, Silver Like Dust, available in digital format on gumroad.

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.)

So if you haven't checked it out yet, please feel free to do so!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #2

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

(May 2017)

While Yorgos Lanthimos' Kynodontas (Dogtooth) was a ¡Qué horror! Auxiliary in 2011, his latest, The Killing of a Sacred Deer (again co-written with Efthimis Filippou) pointedly veers into psychological horror territory, as we bear disquieting witness to all the horrible things we are capable of doing, not just behind the backs of the ones we love, but to the ones we love as well.

As with Kynodontas, there is an odd sense of absurd logic and terrible inevitability to the proceedings, as the privileged Murphys, led by Steven and Anna (Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman) become prey to machinations that threaten to tear their family apart.

There is much here that is uncomfortable and disturbing to watch, but if your horror veers away from your standard Hollywood creepy set pieces and jump scares, then The Killing of a Sacred Deer comes with a sparkling ¡Qué horror! recommendation.

 

XS: For any Clueless fans out there, a borderline unrecognizable Alicia Silverstone is excellent here in her brief appearance.

(The Killing of a Sacred Deer OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)