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A review by togidemi
Mythspace, Volume 1 by Jules Gregorio, Paolo Chikiamco, Cristina Rose Chua, Mico Dimagiba, Paul Quiroga, Borg Sinaban, Koi Carreon
3.0
man i feel like such a traitor to the komik community with this rating HDJSJHDK TRUST ME I WANTED SO MUCH TO LIKE IT MORE THAN I DID
First, what I liked: the concept is super fucking cool. PH mythology but sci-fi? YES PLEASE. The worldbuilding is clever and creative; the reinterpretations of folklore creatures to make them more alien and sci-fi were so smart. Just... really, really solid ideas. Also, all the artists are top-notch. (A bunch of pages in "Dark Mark", though, seem to have been printed with the sketch layer still visible.) Wild that my favorite stories, "Lift Off" and "Unfurling of Wings", also had my favorite art and ALSO were drawn by Koi Carreon and Borg Sinaban, both artists I was already familiar with.
But.
The exposition... was not handled well. It would either come in unnatural info dumps or terms and concepts and names being thrown around without pause. I already have passing knowledge of PH engkantos, and I was still super confused throughout the entire volume; I can't imagine how the experience will be for someone who doesn't know engkantos at all. So, if you don't understand the worldbuilding, you won't understand the stories; if you don't understand the story, you'll drop it. That's why it took me almost a whole year to finish it, and really it was just the thought of checking this off on Goodreads that made me do it. And I'm SO disappointed because all six stories are pretty solid and tackle a cool different angle, but YEAH the exposition's THAT confusing it kind of dragged all of them down. (Which made "Devourers of Light" the least compelling story; the others at least had character relationships to latch onto amidst the confusion, while this was almost entirely just COUNCIL and KAPRE PLANET[??] and GENOCIDE because HUH??? WHAT?? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?? WHO??¿) I nearly kicked a wall when I discovered the folklore glossary in the back because IF ONLY all of it was explained better IN-STORY, this would very easily be a 4- or even 5-star volume I'd highly recommend!
First, what I liked: the concept is super fucking cool. PH mythology but sci-fi? YES PLEASE. The worldbuilding is clever and creative; the reinterpretations of folklore creatures to make them more alien and sci-fi were so smart. Just... really, really solid ideas. Also, all the artists are top-notch. (A bunch of pages in "Dark Mark", though, seem to have been printed with the sketch layer still visible.) Wild that my favorite stories, "Lift Off" and "Unfurling of Wings", also had my favorite art and ALSO were drawn by Koi Carreon and Borg Sinaban, both artists I was already familiar with.
But.
The exposition... was not handled well. It would either come in unnatural info dumps or terms and concepts and names being thrown around without pause. I already have passing knowledge of PH engkantos, and I was still super confused throughout the entire volume; I can't imagine how the experience will be for someone who doesn't know engkantos at all. So, if you don't understand the worldbuilding, you won't understand the stories; if you don't understand the story, you'll drop it. That's why it took me almost a whole year to finish it, and really it was just the thought of checking this off on Goodreads that made me do it. And I'm SO disappointed because all six stories are pretty solid and tackle a cool different angle, but YEAH the exposition's THAT confusing it kind of dragged all of them down. (Which made "Devourers of Light" the least compelling story; the others at least had character relationships to latch onto amidst the confusion, while this was almost entirely just COUNCIL and KAPRE PLANET[??] and GENOCIDE because HUH??? WHAT?? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?? WHO??¿) I nearly kicked a wall when I discovered the folklore glossary in the back because IF ONLY all of it was explained better IN-STORY, this would very easily be a 4- or even 5-star volume I'd highly recommend!