Tabi Po Volume 2 – review

Author/artist: Mervin Malonzo

English Adaptation: Adam David

First Published: 2012

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: A young man wakes inside the hollow of a tree in the middle of a forest with no memory of who he is or where he's from or even how to speak. The only things he knows are the image of the young woman he sees every time he closes his eyes, and the maddeningly painful hunger that grows inside his navel-less belly—a hunger for flesh... and blood.

And as this hunger overwhelms the young man, two personages walk in out of the wilderness and into the young man's life bearing vital knowledge about the hunger he's feeling, leading him to take the first few steps towards understanding his origin...

The Review: I adored the First Volume of Tabi Po. The artwork alone made it a must have work and the fact that it was a piece of Philippine literature about aswang made it so very desirable.

detail

This is the second volume and, like the first, I have the kindle edition. It has to be said that, again, the beauty of the art demands that it is viewed in colour (e-ink is great for novels but for this just doesn’t cut it).

Story wise we begin were we left off, following the birth of Elias (who is unnamed in the timeframe this volume is set in) and his first tentative steps into the world, the meeting of others of his kind, the discovery that the flesh and blood of bovines is not palatable but that of a human is a revelation in itself. If I had to complain it is the same complaint as I had for volume 1: I wanted more. Patience, they say, is a virtue and I will have to patiently wait for volume 3.

Mervin Malonzo’s art, again, is beautiful the beauty belying the violence that bursts from the page and these are fast becoming some of my favourite graphic pieces. 8 out of 10.