Beyond

by Mervin Malonzo, Adam David, Manix Abrera

Beyond is a creative collaboration between Dan Matutina, graphic designer and co-founder of branding and design agency, Plus63 Design Co., and Charles Paw, CEO of Digits Trading Inc.

The project brings together the country's foremost comic artists, namely Harvey Tolibao, Manix Abrera, and Mervin Malonzo, to create a comic book compilation drawn and illustrated solely through the use of the Apple iPad Pro.

The theme of the project revolves around "Beyond," an ode to Beyond the Box's mission to inspire Filipinos to push their creativity through the use of modern technology.

80 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2016

About the author

Mervin Malonzo wrote and drew the National Book Award-winning comic TABI PO. He also worked with writer Adam David on another title called ANG SUBERSIBO, a comic adaptation of Rizal’s NOLI and FILI. He graduated magna cum laude in UP Fine Arts. When he is not creating comics, he is creating websites, animations, and illustrations for other people and entities.

Reviews

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 3 out of 5]

At best, Beyond is a collaborative project by different people, mainly composed of Filipino artists and writers. It is a collection of three different stories seemingly tied with one unifying theme: traversing the unknown. While the cover seems very promising and the premise interesting, Beyond (at worst) is an incomplete work, a compendium of tales which are hardly memorable at all. Perhaps it is because the pages are not enough to tell the complete story, or perhaps the stories themselves aren't interesting at all.

Beyond starts with Terrorium, set in a post-apocalyptic world that is conquered by carnivorous plants. If not with its terrible writing and unnecessary gibberish dialogue, this would have been a total blast to read. Its saving grace is the excellent illustrations by Mervin Malonzo, whose other works I have consistently given five stars. His artistic choices in this graphic short story clearly reflects Jeff Lemire's Trillium, and I love that.

Manix Abrera's "Tunguhin" (Filipino for Destination) is the weakest among the three. It is a silent comics that is close to being just random illustrations of two people walking in maze-like paths. I just don't like these "the interpretation is left to the readers" gimmick when in fact there is scarcely nothing left to imagine. Don't get me wrong please. Abrera's Kikomachine Komix are one of the best out there in this era of Filipino graphic literature, and I find his two volumes of silent comics legitimately amusing, but his work here in Beyond is simply not worth what I paid for.

The last story could have been the most realized work among the three, but Harvey Tolibao's Grimmer Trance clearly needed colors (or just like manga, it wasn't meant to be colored in the first place). The details in his illustrations are fantastic, the dialogue is not the best but also not that bad but Grimmer Trance really felt like an incomplete work.

Collaborative efforts like these come and go. Though I sincerely hope that Beyond will have a follow-up issue, my hopes aren't that high. I've seen it before (Summit Media comics collaboration) where all they got is just one issue.

[Mang Kimok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maganda yung kina Mervin/Adam, interesting yung storya at oks yung color palette at style ng art, sarap sa mata. Ganda rin nung conceit na pag-magnify ng ibang detail ng imahe.

Yung ke Manix, simple na pwede iinterpret to the extent na lumalim. Sa kanya yung mas nangingibabaw na piece sa tatlo kasi b&w tas parang penciled-style lang.

Nakakaumay yung mga detalye at kulay sa gawa ng HM studios. Halata mong pinagtulungan ng maraming tao kaya ang redundant ng composition ng page at exposition ng scenes, parang cheap Dark Horse title na dinaan lang sa maraming detalye pero walang dating yung designs. Not bad yung kwento though, pero pinagulo ng art eh. Di coherent at in harmony ang kwento sa art, sinasapawan ng pagpapakitang gilas ni Harvey sa drawing niya ang kwento, di naman kailangan every panel e ganon kadetalyado.

Ganda ng project na 'to though, over all.

[elsewhere · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of the three stories from "Beyond", my favorite story had been "Tunguhin" by Manix Abrera which was a silent graphic novel with a simple yet beautiful message. As for the illustrations, my favorite, of course, was the art of "Terrorium" by Mervin Malonzo, which was vibrant and stunning as always.

However, the entirety was not as satisfying as the tiny parts that I liked from the book. But still, recommended for readers who want to read some comics!