FILIPINO HELLBOY

CREATED BY: SNAKEBITE CORTEZ & JOSHUA ORTEGA

MASTER MASK BY: DIGGER T. MESCH

MASK BY: GABRIEL GARCIA

STORY BY: JOSHUA ORTEGA

PICS BY: RJ LAMENDOLA

Filipino Hellboy

The setting is the Philippines, the dawn of the Philippine-American War.

In some ways, it's a little known war, rarely spoken about by historians, but a war that had powerful implications for both countries…and their people.

Following the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898) and the Spanish-American War (1898), the Filipino people rebelled against the occuping American forces in 1899. Though the American forces initially spoke of liberation and autonomy, the Filipinos quickly learned that they had simply traded one authority for the other.

Spanish colonialism became American colonialism.

The Filipino people–and the duwende–were not pleased.

Duwendes (roughly translated as "goblin of the house"), were known to plague the Americans at every opportunity. Described as "devilish" or "hell-sent" by their victims, duwende's were not only mischievous and cruel, they could also be quite deadly.

Many Filipinos would leave food or offerings for the duwendes, in order to protect their homes from the duwende's mischief. The occupying American forces, however, never did such a thing.

And so they drew the duwende's wrath.

The most famous incident occurred in 1901, following the massacre of countless unarmed citizens on the island of Samar. At least ten troops reported nightmares of "demons" and "goblins" the previous night of the incident, and on the actual day, over 50 American troops wandered into the jungles of Samar, chanting strange songs as they left in the night.

To this day, the soldiers' bodies have never been recovered, though the strange chanting is still reportedly heard from time to time.