What's scarier, global warming or zombies?

Alexandra Trese, the graphic novel series written by Budjette Tan and illustrated by Kajo Baldisimo, is set in that other Manila, the one on the fringes of your consciousness, where the criminal underworld really is from the underworld. Aswang run kidnapping rings, kapre are crime kingpins, and tikbalang drink and drive. When crime takes a turn for the weird, the police call supernatural detective Alexandra Trese. When we ponder the undying popularity of the horror genre, we talk to our friend Budjette Tan. 

YOUNG STAR: In Alexandra Trese you offer an alternative explanation for the crime rate: supernatural creatures. What’s scarier, ghosts and ghouls or corrupt politicians?

BUDJETTE TAN: I think corrupt politicians are scarier. At least with ghosts we can exorcise them and make them leave this plane of existence. With some politicians, there’s just no getting rid of them, no matter what kind of exorcism you perform.

Do you believe in ghosts and other unseen creatures? Ever witnessed or experienced supernatural phenomena?

I have not really seen any supernatural creature or being, but my mother has told me enough stories to make me believe that they are real.

In the summer of ‘74, when I was around five months old, we supposedly lived in a haunted house in Merville. Strange things were seen by my relatives, the maids, and the driver. They talked about lights being switched on and off, getting calls on the intercom from rooms where there were no people, a young lady seen in the backseat of the car as the driver was backing out of the driveway, angry voices heard in the hallways at three in the morning. My mom and dad didn’t believe in such things.

One afternoon, after my mom gave me a bath, she noticed that the right side of my face wrinkled up like that of an old man. My right eye stared at her in defiance. She slapped my right cheek and commanded the spirit to leave me. And even though she slapped me hard, I did not cry but just stared back at her. She ended up praying the entire rosary before my face returned to normal.

A séance was held in the house and the medium discovered there were two spirits, a father and a daughter, who died believing that the house still belonged to them. The medium explained to them that they were already dead and that they needed to move on.

At first, the father resisted the idea of leaving the house. He got angry! He took over the body of one of the psychics and tried to make everyone leave. After the struggle, he and his daughter were convinced about their state and were asked to finally depart. Supposedly, after the séance, the weirdness stopped. (I’ve been planning to turn this story into a novel or a graphic novel. I hope to get to write it this year.)

If you were to make a film version of Alexandra Trese, who would direct, and who would star?

Instead of trying to make everything look stylized like in Constantine or every episode of CSI: Miami, it might be interesting to make everything look very real, like a documentary. So, it would be great to get Neill Blomkamp, the director of District 9, and see how he would treat the story.

Maybe Olivia Wilde, who played Doctor Thirteen in House, could be Trese. Kajo Baldisimo, Trese’s artist and co-creator, once thought Maja Salvador could play the part, but she’s changed her hairstyle, so Kajo’s not sure anymore.

Given the chance, I’d get a complete unknown to play Trese and then surround her with big-name actors to play the supporting cast and the villains.

Horror is always a popular genre. Even people who don’t read read horror stories and comics. Why is horror an eternal obsession?

Maybe people like the thrill of it. Same reason they ride roller coasters or those horrible “horror train rides” in school fairs and at the perya. There’s the cheap thrill of getting scared and screaming out loud and getting your blood pumping. 

Then there’s the allure of the unknown, the attempt to put a face and a name on those things that go bump in the night, the hope that maybe if we know them by name, we won’t be scared of them anymore.

Who are your favorite horror novelists? Besides Neil Gaiman.

Warren Ellis, who’s not really a horror novelist, but has written stories that would make anyone paranoid about living in the city. 

Stephen King. I grew up reading his short stories and his novels. I loved his audiobook version of Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I had cassette tapes of all those stories. I should really track down the podcast version of that book.

Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son. Last year, I discovered his Heart-Shaped Box and 20th-Century Ghosts.

And yes, Neil Gaiman!

What TV shows are you watching now?

Fringe gives me my X-Files fix. I’d love to see a Mulder/Dunham team-up (but Scully might not like that). 

I like Criminal Minds but it makes me think everyone around me is a serial killer.

House, M.D. because it’s great to see how they’ve evolved from the “medical mystery of the week” to developing House’s character. But it makes me think everything around me will make me sick.

Lie to Me is my latest discovery! Tim Roth is great there, but now he makes me think that everyone else is lying to me.

What’s scarier, a zombie plague or global warming? A vampire attack or marriage and children?

We can outrun a zombie plague assuming we’re all physically fit and we’re not surrounded by a thousand zombies, but we can’t outrun global warming. Recycle! Recycle! The end is nigh! 

When I’m attacked by the vampire, does it suck me dry and leave me to die or does it suck my blood and turn me into its slave for all eternity? Kinda like marriage!

If you were to do a mash-up like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, what classic novel would you take on?

Siege Malvar’s already doing his take on Noli Me Tangere with zombies in Wag Mong Salingin Ang Mga Patay, coming from Visprint this year.

So, how about… Catcher in the Rye: Field of Zombies or The Importance of Being Ernest’s Evil Clone from Another Dimension?

Since there’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, how about Andres Bonifacio: International Man of Mysticism?

Do you think there are extraterrestrial aliens amongst us, in human form? (Besides me.)

I have a feeling you annihilated any competing alien race before you came to earth.

Good answer. Your friends never see you because you’re always in the office. When do you have time to write your graphic novels?

I write my graphic novels when the boss isn’t looking. I write it when I work overtime (OT) at the office. So, I OT writing comics after I OT writing ads.

When I go to the coffee shop to think about ads, my mind wanders and I end up thinking about comics. I always bring around this Mead spiral notebook. If you open up the cover and flip through the pages, you’ll read all my notes and doodles about the ads that I’m working on. If you flip it and open it from the back cover, you’ll read all my notes and scripts about comic books. (This is our little secret, okay?)

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Alexandra Trese graphic novels are available at Powerbooks.