Sa Wala

by Renren Galeno

When Anding encounters a rooster all alone on the road, he believes his luck has changed for the better. With its uncanny strength, the mysterious rooster wins big at the cockpits and Anding is finally able to pay off his family's debts. But little do they know, this extraordinary chicken was far more than they bargained for, as its thirst for blood threatens everything Anding holds dear.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels

220 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Ren2x Galeno is a comic author and illustrator from Davao City, Philippines.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a degree in Fine Arts and currently works in comics and illustration.

She illustrated the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Searching for Maura for the Washington Post. Her first book, Sa Wala, was published in 2023 and won the 42nd National Book Awards Best Graphic Novel and Comics in English in 2024.

Ren2x likes animal-shaped ceramics and looking for fat frogs.

Reviews

[Urbon Adamsson]

PT Logo desde o início, percebe-se que estamos perante uma autora que compreende a importância do tempo na construção da narrativa. As primeiras páginas são habilmente usadas para criar uma atmosfera de tensão e desconforto, sem recorrer a uma única palavra.

Renren Galeno, autora filipina, oferece-nos uma história intensa de horror e suspense, onde um galo — de origens misteriosas — se revela um assassino nato, brutal e implacável. Encontrado por um homem que vê nele uma oportunidade, o animal é usado nas tradicionais lutas de galos filipinas, numa tentativa desesperada de garantir uma vida melhor para a sua família.

Uma obra obrigatória para qualquer fã de terror e suspense. O traço de Galeno é extraordinário, e a sua capacidade de narrar, ainda mais impressionante. Recomendo vivamente.

--

EN Right from the start, it’s clear we’re dealing with an author who understands the importance of timing in storytelling. The opening pages are skillfully used to build a sense of tension and unease — without uttering a single word.

Renren Galeno, a Filipino author, presents us with a gripping tale of horror and suspense, where a rooster — of mysterious origins — proves to be a natural-born killer: brutal and relentless. Found by a man who sees in him a chance for something more, the rooster is used in the traditional Filipino cockfights, as the man desperately tries to secure a better life for his family.

A must-read for any fan of horror and suspense. Galeno’s artwork is extraordinary, and his storytelling skills are even more impressive. Highly recommended.

[John Blacksad]

@bangcizgi nin bastığı bir başka Filipinler menşeli çizgi roman. Bu iki çizgi roman özelinde Filipinler çizgi romanlarını çizgi/kompozisyon olarak, görsel olarak beğendim. Hikayeler yine tam benlik değil maalesef.

Geceyarısı adamın biri bir horoza rastlar. Fakat bu horozda sıradışı şeyler vardır. Kumar ve şiddet eğiliminin evrenselliği enteresan. Filipinlerde de horoz dövüşleri varmış mesela. Horozun sıradışı gücünün ardında karanlık şeyler vardır.

Hikaye itibariyle öneriyorum klasmanında değil. Değişiklik arayanlar göz atabilir.

[Rocky Sunico]

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from another local comic featuring a rooster at the center of its story, but the art was enough to get me curious enough to give it a shot. And I'm super glad that I did as this was such a good read.

True horror is not easy to achieve in comic books. Many end up using a lot of dialogue to paint increasingly disturbing scenes for your mind to imagine. This book took a brave visual approach to really build up that sense of dread that one needs for good horror storytelling. And the level of detail in each page is rather mind-boggling and there are some very creative uses of alternative panel styles and other efforts to really create some standout scenes.

This is some serious Stephen King-level horror including characters rebelling against the strange - much to the detriment of many. It's that sort of horror movie logic that doesn't always make sense in real life but absolutely works within the internal logic of a story like this. And Galeno puts together a most disturbing tale that will make it harder to dismiss early morning rooster crows as something nothing to be worried about.

[Kobesbees]

One of my favorite horror books. I couldn’t drop the book until I finished it. The artwork is beautifully done. The book made me feel conscious of what I could encounter when walking or commuting by myself! I also liked how the origin of the Chicken wasn’t explained, it added more uneasiness for me when reading it.

[Andrea Peterson]

Very solid horror. I really appreciated how the author from the start created this aura of unknowable eldritch horror around the chicken and never offered even a hint of an explanation as to its origin or nature. Is it some kind of curse? A vengeful spirit? An aswang? A mutant? We never know. Imagine if in John Carpenter's The Thing, we're introduced to the mysterious dog from the destroyed Norwegian research station, but without the eventual explanation that it's a shapeshifting alien from a crashed spaceship. It's just a fucked-up dog with strange powers that starts eating other dogs and people. There's an unsettling ambiguity to the story that's very effective. This is one of the only horror media that has made me feel a little leery walking home at night on a dark and quiet street in my neighborhood, imagining what I might encounter by the roadside.

[Oliver]

Man, that was super dark and disturbing! A horror story through and through.

Ren Ren Galeno is such a great story tellerand her art does all the talking while her dialogue remains realistic and very human.

She made us fall in love with this typical Filipino family - filled with love but struggling at different fronts - from finances, their kids' school, and the eldest's relationship. They felt like a family that I would know and that made their decisions about the rooster very understandable. That also made the tragedies that followed even more horrific and painful.

A mystical murderous panabong is also a wild concept! So very pinoy and such a modern horror take.

I love how unapologetic the story is. There's no morals to preach, no 'pampalubag ng loob' ending, it's mad, it's horrendous, and it's so effective.

I wanna seethis get turned into a movie!

[Mark Anthony Salvador]

𝐒𝐚 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐚: 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐞 (2023)
ni Renren Galeno

Nakilala ko si Renren Galeno sa short graphic niyang 𝐼 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑌𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐺𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑠. Sa lahat ng akda sa antolohiyang 𝑇𝑒𝑛 𝑌𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑇𝑜 𝑆𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, ang akda niya ang pinakanaibigan ko. Matalas, malikhain, nakakatakot. Samantala, naibigan ko ang graphic novel na 𝐸𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑟 ni Gerry Alanguilan na tungkol sa pagkakapantay-pantay at ang primaryang tampok naman ay nagsasalitang mga manok.

Kaya nang malaman kong may graphic novel si Galeno--unang graphic novel niya--at ang primaryang tampok din ay manok, bumili agad ako ng kopya sa Philippine Book Festival.

Pasintabi sa mga spoiler.

Horror fiction ang 𝐒𝐚 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐚: 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐞. Hanga ako sa mga horror fiction na hindi lamang nananakot kundi nagpapaliwanag din sa usapin ng tunggalian ng uri--ang biktima ng karahasan ng aswang o anumang pumapaslang na nilalang ay biktima rin ng kahirapan.

Sa akda, pumapatay ang manok ng pusa... at kalaunan ay ng higit sa pusa. Ang pagyakap ng pamilya sa panganib na hatid ng manok sa kanilang pamilya at sa mga nilalang sa kanilang paligid, at sa usig ng konsensya, ay bunga ng karalitaan.

May kasalanan ba sila sa sasapitin nila? Ang masasabi ko lang: 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐝𝐮𝐠𝐨 𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐚 𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐤𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐲.

Hanggang dito na lang.

𝑇𝑖𝑘 𝑡𝑖𝑘 𝑡𝑖𝑘. 𝐵𝑜𝑘 𝑏𝑜𝑘 𝑏𝑜𝑘.

[Rexy Josh]

What is it about great Filipino komiks and chickens?

#SaWala is a gem by Ren Galeno, published by Komiket, that tells a quintessentially Filipino horror story with a sense of dread that recalls (for me, and this how it was pitched to me) the best of Junji Ito. And like that other Pinoy chicken story (prob my favorite piece of Filipino literature, Elmer) it builds on a setup that seems almost funny at face value to dive deep into a core part of being human. This time, it’s about how far people are willing to live with horror and absurdity in order to survive.

The short version: a family adopts a strange rooster with seemingly supernatural strength, which brings in $$$ from cockfighting… at the expense of possibly everything.

Renren has the kind of talent with sequential storytelling that feels almost destined to leave the world with at least one classic. Give this one a read! This is one of those stories that you really feel in your gut.

[Kael Molo]

Galeno's almost cute characters are heavily juxtaposed by how dark and terrifying Sa Wala's plot is. Definitely look out for more of their works because this is a masterclass of how to do horror right in the comic medium.

[Tess]

The premise sounds funny at first, but this is so, so good and unsettling. A+ horror and so much love for the details and the family dynamics.

[KC]

Ang galing! Yun lang.

[Jorsy]

Looovveed the art style for this! Difficult to put down, and one of the goofiest premises ever—contrasted by how well the artist translates dread.

[Paolo Tormon]

Awesome art style!!

[Ali Minaj]

O horoz anime, mangasi gibi bunda da horoz/tavuk var ama insan cizimlerini tam sevemedim gercekci tarzda ama tam yetenekli degil artist %100.. alinmaz gibi yani

[Gianged]

takot nako sa manok (this is one of the PEAKS💎) also, pleaseeee continue making horror comics based on animals or something ate renx2🙏🙏🙏

[Becciland]

Wilde Geschichte, gefällt mir

[Eva Q.]

Muy buen guión y genial el dibujo, me ha encantado. Muy interesante el anexo final en el que la autora explica ciertas cosas de la cultura filipina, para poner la historia en contexto. TW Ojo la gente muy sensible con los animales (a mí personalmente me afecta mas en el cine/series).

[Rafaela Cristina]

Uma das minha leituras preferidas do ano. Estava ansiosa porque a premissa já chamou muita atenção e ao ler pude ver que a execução não deixou nada a desejar.

A autora tem um talento artístico inegável. A arte é expressiva demais, o que faz com que não seja necessário muitas explicações escritas. Os personagens são poucos mas profundos e com motivações claras.

A história vai escalando e chega no seu ápice no final. Você jura que a autora não vai ir até onde foi e ela vai mesmo assim.

Nunca vi um galo tão maldito e uma história com uma premissa tão simples que entrega tanto. Preciso de mais obras dessa autora!

[Luis Henrique Marcondes]

Uma narrativa visual impactante, que vai unindo os conceitos sem pressa. Uma ótima descoberta, propiciada pela editor Pipoca & Nanquim que, mais uma vez, esbanja talento também no projeto gráfico.