A pedestrian walkway. A SIM card. A beauty clinic.|

These and other ordinary things become more than what they seem in “Underpass”, a full-color graphic novel recently launched by Summit Media.

“Underpass” brings together such established names in the local comic book industry like Gerry Alanguilan, David Hontiveros, Oliver Pulumbarit, Ian Sta. Maria, Budjette Tan, and Kajo Baldisimo, who come up with urban legend for a new generation in stories like “The Sim”, “Katumbas”, “Judas Kiss”, and “The Clinic”.

The idea for “Underpass” came from Tan, who had started pitching comic book projects to Summit ever since the publishing group came out with the tween series “WITCH”.

“I thought it was great that a big publishing company like Summit was getting into comic books. Last year, I sent them copies of ‘Trese’, which they really liked, and Summit said if we ever have any new titles in the works, they’d like to take a look at it. I pitched to them three different ideas for a graphic novel anthology and they liked ‘Underpass’!” recalls Tan.

IN LIVING COLOR

It would take a year of work from the collaborators to bring “Underpass” to fruition.

“All of us having day jobs and all, we had to make do with losing sleep for something we love doing,” recalls Sta. Maria, who illustrated the story “Katumbas”. “It took David Hontiveros a couple of weeks to spin a story for me to execute. I think it took me one page a day from line art to coloring, and another whole two days for lettering, all that sporadically in a span of two months, maybe a bit longer.”

“While the art was being done, I asked the guys to submit cover designs,” adds Tan. “Carlo Vergara was the one who designed the masthead and cover of Underpass and gave us that very creepy descent into this darker version of Manila.”

The contributors also had the luxury of working with colors for the graphic novel anthology, something which they were unable to do in their previous works.

“The last time I wrote for a colored comic was also my comic book debut, ‘Flashpoint’. Since then, all my comic work has been in black and white, which is really more an indication of just how expensive color publishing can be in the Philippines,” says Hontiveros. “It’s a different aesthetic when you’re working in color, and this also affects the way I mentally envision the narrative and how I write the script.”

“I’ve been printing in black and white for so long that I practically leaped at this opportunity. There’s a lot you can do with a colored page and I’m still just learning at the same time. It’s a fun art direction,” adds Sta. Maria.

RELEVANT URBAN LEGENDS

But beyond the physical challenges in publishing a full-color graphic novel, the writers of Underpass say that the biggest challenge in coming up with the anthology was making the country’s urban legends become relevant once more to a very different audience.

“I think the challenge was to make certain narrative elements vibrant and fresh in the readers’ eyes, despite the fact that these elements have been around far longer than any of the creative team,” explains Palanca-winning writer David Hontiveros, who wrote the stories “Katumbas” and “Judas Kiss”. “The idea was to revitalize these old horror staples for the 21st century, for an audience that may not even be that familiar with them in this day and age of mall living and wireless communication.”

Tan agrees. “I was once asked what I thought about urban legends these days, about how harder it is to come across urban legends compared to 25 years ago. These days, the Internet makes it easy to check and verify certain information. We focused on things that we take for granted and showed you the darker side of it: an ordinary cellphone SIM, the typical pedestrian underpass, and the somewhat harmless beauty clinic endorsed by a popular celebrity.”

Through “Underpass”, the contributors hope that to reawaken the sense of awe and terror that they used to feel when they would hear urban legends like the White Lady of Balete Drive, as well as highlight the rich tradition of horror writing in the country.

“I think we’d just like the readers to realize that horror isn’t simply confined to the movies or television, and that we’ve had a very long and established tradition of horror comics in the country.

‘Underpass’ is our way of upholding this tradition and moving it forward into the 21st century,” says Hontiveros.

“In a strange and twisted way, I hope it’ll bring back some wonder and sense of the fantastic in their lives,” Tan adds. “Technology has made the stuff of science fiction a reality. It’s not fantastic anymore. It’s just common place. We don’t see haunted-looking houses these days. We are surrounded by condos and high rises. Maybe we can take such things and make them mysterious.”