When the sun sets in the city of Manila,
don’t you dare make a wrong turn and
end up in that dimly-lit side of the metro,
where aswang run the most-wanted kidnapping rings,
where kapre are the kingpins of crime,
and engkantos slip through the cracks
and steal your most precious possessions.
When crime takes a turn for the weird,
the police call Alexandra Trese.
I was at the bookstore this morning and I was happily surprised to see the Trese books on display. My first run in with Trese was at a local comic convention way back in 2005. The comic book is the brainchild of writer Budgette Tan and illustrator Kajo Baldisimo and fuses modern urban fantasy tropes with elements of Filipino of folklore. Alexandra Trese reminds me a lot of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden as well as Kevin Hearne's Atticus Sullivan but the girl has a far meaner and more serious demeanor. And the world Trese inhabits is also the book's big draw. The creators have populated their Manila with imaginative and fascinating characters ranging from a pair of supernatural twin bodyguards, flirtatious wind spirits, clans of speed freak and mafia-like Tikbalangs to a long line of monster hunting uncles. The stories are also short morality plays on love, lust, vengeance and greed. Check out these books at the nearest National Bookstore.
Although the creators have day jobs and are not doing the book full-time, the first three books I've read clearly display their love for the genre. The writing is in English with some Filipino words thrown in for flavor and comes out fast and easily understood. Baldisimo's illustrations give a certain East/West vibe and makes use of large negative spaces, a little bit like Frank Miller's Sin City. I understand the creators are currently working in the advertising industry and the books were made as a side project. It's a pity that the local comic book scene can't seem to support full-time careers yet for these two talented creators to churn out Trese on a more regular basis. Nevertheless, kudos to them for their efforts and hopefully their books start something positive in the local comicbook creation and publication scene. 
Some criticism though -- the language misses out a lot on the quirks of the setting, especially in a melting pot like Manila where not only race but also social class and provincial descent lend tons of flavor to personal interaction. I sometimes gt the feel that I'm reading an English-translated manga. Illustration-wise, I like how Baldisimo frames the story but some of the panels seem hurriedly done with the negative space sometimes working against the composition. In addition, some of the drawings suffer from inconsistencies in rendering style and technique.
I hope those issues would soon be addressed in future Trese books but even then, count me a fan of Tan, Baldisimo and Alexandra Trese.