#GrailReads
14
by Manix Abrera

There are no words for and in Manix Abrera’s 14. Being a silent comic, 14 is purely driven by Manix’s simple but effective signature art style. The whole book is an elaborately wonderful exercise on storytelling, since a lot of stories are told within a framing story.

14 starts off with a person stumbling into a hidden 13th floor full of creatures from Philippine Mythology, who apparently likes telling stories to each other. There have been an awful lot of komix derived from Philippine Mythology; but Abrera’s 14 is one of the most intimate and pure. From a lonely mananggal, to a fearful tiyanak, to a frustrated white lady, these stories form the bulk of the book. The creatures take turns in impressing each other with mundane narratives that evolve into something whimsical, but in other cases, it goes the opposite way. All of these unfold without a single word. Dialogues, when present, are shown in images and symbols. Thus, leaving it up to the reader to understand each panel and story from their own perspectives.

Though supernatural by nature, 14 presents us with these creatures, and the stories that they tell are awfully human: they feel pain, loneliness, fear, and even boredom. It shows us and makes us feel that all these stories about duwendes, kapres, and white ladies aren’t just their stories — but ours as well. It is also a means for us to connect with each other, as creatures from our own whimsical worlds or maybe bring us back to the time when stories were enough to pass some time while it’s raining.

Review by Drei Cortez

14 is published by Visprint, Inc. (@visprint) and is sold in bookstores and comic shops nationwide.

This post originally appeared in the UP Grail Instagram Account @upgrail
#GrailReads is an initiative that had UP Grail members review comics.