Right after the drivers saw her, they lost the control of their cars, hit the big balete tree and died. This was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed it quite a bit.īalete Drive was a street in Manila where there used to be a ghostly white lady showing herself to drunk drivers in the wee hours of the morning. Now, they did seem to be trying to explain more of Alexandra's background right away, so your mileage may vary.Īnyway. I'm personally looking forward to reading more and have already downloaded the next volume.Īs far as the Netflix anime? It looked like generic Netflix anime, the characters sounded wooden, couldn't make it through the first episode. I don't think color could have added anything to what Baldisimo created here and the black and white really sold the menace of some of these creatures for me.Įach issue was great but my advice would be to not go into it thinking you're going to get a big overreaching story arc. For once in my life, I'm going to say that I'm in love with a black and white comic. Kajo Baldisimo hits it out of the park with these gorgeous panels of art.

Not that I think it's a bad idea to try to pull things from other cultures, I just really enjoyed the authentic vibe I got from this. I love that this is a comic by a Filipino writer and illustrated by a Filipino artist who grew up with these tales, and not just someone who researched them. And that was actually a huge draw for me.

Mostly, you're going to discover Flipino monsters and folklore. Well, you're not going to find out a lot of her backstory in this volume.Įach issue is one case involving something supernatural, and each issue reveals a teeny-tiny bit more about who she is and what her family has done for generations. When a woman who was encircled by salt is hit and killed by a car, then found to have already died years beforehand, the officer in charge calls in Alexandra Trese.īecause it's not every day someone kills a ghost.

Murder on Balete Drive by Budjette Tan