Muros: Within Magical Walls

Muros is an urban fantasy set in an alternate Manila which has been sealed off from the rest of the world for decades. In this fast-paced graphic novel the walled city of Manila, recently freed from a dictator's iron-fisted rule, is a magical metropolis where monsters flit and feed along neon-lit streets. The city, now governed by mysterious Societies, faces rising tensions between the human and nonhuman inhabitants that are nearing a breaking point.

The story's hero, Carlos "Caloy" Loyzaga, a "Taga-Sagot" (literally translated to Person Who Answers), is tasked with finding the runaway daughter of a small town Mayor. Caloy knows that there's more to the story -- but in a world where magic and modernity make for uneasy bedfellows, there are some secrets you simply can't prepare for. Especially secrets that involve a cast of nonhuman characters, such as one-eyed Yomaws (hybrid human-canines), Asu-Gamis (half Aswang, half Inugami) and slinky Silat immortals--the hated weapons of the tyrant God.

Readers looking for a different take on magic, or those interested in seeing an alternative history set in the Philippines, will find plenty to sink their teeth into here. Fans of Tan & Baldisimo's Trese or Jim Butcher's Dresden Files will also find a heady mix of the familiar and the strange.