Review by Ian Keogh

Filipino cartoonist Manix Abrera’s first collection of wordless strips needed no translation, and was published as 12. It mixed the bizarre, horrific and surreal in a dozen short stories. Abrera could easily have just supplied more of the same, but chooses to up the horror, dispense with the humour and add continuity. It makes 14 a different experience.

A framing sequence opens the proceedings, with what’s seemingly an ordinary guy returning home from work and disturbed by terrifying creatures entering the building’s lift. When he departs, though, it’s down a winding path to a massive congregation of supernatural types, and they start telling stories. Apparently like Japan, Filipino culture has a wealth of supernatural entities covering all types of situations, and readers familiar with them will find recognisable shudder-inducing favourites here.

There’s still considerable toying with form, leading assumptions visually, but then supplying something confounding expectations, like everyone being smaller than presumed and tumbling from a tree. While the drawing remains simple, these are more complicated stories than those in 12, and closer attention is required, while Abrera’s ambition means using more sophisticated visual signifiers. One story contrasts two different periods, the present day in greyscale with the past leading up to it in full colour. However, despite Abrera’s techniques it isn’t always obvious what’s happened, and sometimes there’s little more to a story than someone faced with a hellish environment for page after page, although that certainly makes the assorted demons chuckle.

At the end there’s a page of Abrera running through his sources, and knowing about the individual demons and their peculiarities offers new insight, while clarifying some aspects that hadn’t previously been clear. When the stories have the full intended impact, though, the horrors will be difficult to dislodge. Goodness knows where Abrera dredged up the story of the creature in the toilet from, even knowing it’s about a demon baby.

14 is a collection to be avoided before bedtime.