Review by C.J. Bunce
If you’re a fan of the black-inked drawings of Edward Gorey and Shel Silverstein, and you’re nostalgic for the wonder you felt when you first read Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, get ready for a collection of illustrated stories that might just evoke A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh in the way his stories transcended space and time. Cartoonist Bong Redila introduced readers in his native Phillipines to his fantasy world of Meläg in 2022, and now it’s coming to English-speaking readers next month, translated by Victor Barnuevo Velasco. Nocturnal Whispers: Phantasmagoric Fables from the Town of Meläg is available for pre-order now here at Amazon from publisher Fantagraphics Books. In part it’s an autobiographical journey of snippets from Redila’s vivid childhood memories, while it’s also filled with inspiring, fable-like stories about the journey of life, about using your imagination to deal with fear and the unknown, about being a misfit and watching over other misfits you may encounter. In short, it’s a collection worthy of the kind of acclaim given your favorite classic books from childhood.
Something about Redila’s style recounts woodcuts. The author is only 55 and yet his work feels like could have been created in the Victorian era. His sometimes intricate, sometimes sparse use of the page also brings an air of darkness to the stories. A little Tim Burton maybe? He introduces his world first via a simple trip by a boy on a train. From the boy’s perspective it’s a big new world of potentially frightening things. But he arrives safely to his destination. That’s after the reader is treated to imagery of a giant train that might conjure Georges Méliès. A simple journey to get medicine for a girl’s grandmother is charming and joyous as she’s accompanied by her best pal puppy. And in another story we follow Redila as he learned the differences between the wealthy and the poor.
These stories may be from the past of a man from the Phillipines, but they will all touch readers anywhere, because the commonality of the experiences Redila captures are steps most people go through in some way. In “The Dance” Redila uses a visual trick to tell the story of a father and daughter, and her experience as she gets ready for her wedding. The author looks back on his work from the perspective of a father, a role that permeates many of his stories. For anyone who love the animated Disney movie Up, Redila captures a lifetime in a similar way in his story “Fetch,” which could also be its own classic touching episode from The Twilight Zone.
But it’s his stories of the differences in people, and his handling of outcasts and orphans and those who take them under their wings, as in “Carnival,” “Before the Rain Drops,” and “The Second Hush of Aurora Dante” that will probably stick with readers long after they’ve finished the last page. Redila accompanies each of his stories with a page recounting what inspired him to create the story. It’s the kind of clarity that every book like this should include, eliminating any uncertainty readers may have of how they should be feeling in each story. His artwork and writing doesn’t ever need it, but it’s a great window into his creative vision. Maybe this story is exactly as it seems, or maybe it sprouted out of a real-life event that was something else entirely.
Along with “Fetch,” the other masterwork in the book has Redila leaning into the macabre. “The Bitter and Brief Life of Marisol Dolores through a Horrifying Filipino Alphabet” could have been a standalone book in itself. Each page of the story from letter A to letter Y tells an ever darker event in the life of poor Marisol Dolores. Redila tells us it’s inspired from a real story, but he cracks though each page at the same time with enough dark humor and cleverness to make his tale one that belongs among Aesop’s Fables, your favorite book of classic Mother Goose rhymes, or the original versions of a hundred classic fairy tales.
A storybook for adults? Nocturnal Whispers: Phantasmagoric Fables from the Town of Meläg should be a contender for awards both inside and outside the comics world. The illustrations are stunning. The stories are poignant, vivid, and real. Don’t miss this great collection of memorable tales. Nocturnal Whispers: Phantasmagoric Fables from the Town of Meläg is available in an English translation in a hardcover edition with copper foil, for pre-order now here at Amazon. It’s in stores November 17, 2026.
