“Tarantadong Kalbo” is both an extremely accurate and deceptive description for Kevin Eric Raymundo’s cartoon strips. On one hand, it features a protagonist who is bald, a bit of a wiseacre and is drawn in a simple, somewhat silly style that makes you expect that it’s just nonsensical humor. But then it gets pretty dark, heartbreaking and tender. There’s religion. There’s profanity. There’s social commentary above all else. All this makes it the best strip to emerge from the pandemic-era Philippine web—and now in a print collection, and cited as one of the best books, period, of the year.

2021/208pp
bookpaper/paperback