ONI INTRODUCES LOLA THIS AUGUST
By The Editor
June 8, 2005 - 17:24
Jesse’s family has always told stories about his grandmother and her visions of haunted farmhouses, man-eating ogres, and pigs possessed by the devil. For years his grandmother has used those visions to help the people living in her community in the Philippine countryside, but to Jesse the stories are just scary. When his family travels to her home for her funeral, Jesse has no choice but to face the monsters, demons, and ghosts from his grandmother’s stories, because he can see them too.
“LOLA combines family stories about my maternal grandmother and various Filipino folk tales with a little magic realism and good old fashioned campfire storytelling,” explained Torres. “I love seeing parts of my childhood illustrated in a comic. It's a lot of fun seeing this mix of fact and fiction blurred on the comic page like this.”
Torres is joined by a relative newcomer to comics, R’John Bernales (FOUR LETTER WORLDS). “I fell in love with his art from sketch one,” commented Torres. “I love his take on different Filipino monsters and creatures and things that go bump in the night.”
Bernales found the process a pleasure. “J. is a really talented writer, and for the most part allows me to have a lot of freedom in the drawing process.”
Torres hopes that the book will be something different than he’s created so far. “ I'm going for creepy and spooky in parts of this book, and I don't think I've ever played that stuff "straight" before. I don't think you can call this a horror story, but if we're successful, people will view it as horror or suspense in a "Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock" sense.”
LOLA is a 72 page trade paperback, featuring sepia-and-white story and art. It ships to comic stores in August, and retails for $5.95 with an ISBN of 1-932664-24-6.