The last we saw of Gerry Alanguilan’s WASTED was a serialization in the pages of Pulp’s June-July 2001 issue. Before that, Alamat Comics printed a mere 500 of the angry mini-comic in 1998, forcing a lot of awestruck readers to steal their friend’s copies. Two year later Pulp finally took pity on us thieving morons and printed 2000 new and improved copies of the Pinoy cult classic. I first read WASTED in college in the mid-90s, and despite now having a steady job and rosier love life, its raw power and cutthroat intensity still blows my mind all these years later.

It also helps that it’s better packaged now. Reincarnated as WASTED: FINAL EDITION, this new P100 version is bigger than its Alamat predecessor, has a new full-color cover by Mr. Alanguilan, several amazing black-and-white pin-ups by Filipino komikeros Leinel Yu, Arnold Arre, Roy Allan Martinez, Whilce Portacio, Edgar Tadeo, and Marissa Nepumaceno, an intro by Barbie Almalbis, who was actually inspired to write Barbie’s Cradle hit, “The Dance” after reading WASTED, and an enlightening three-page interview with the artist by Gabriel Banaag. If you’ve ever wondered about what drove Gerry to write WASTED, deliberated whether his love life really sucked, and shared Gabriel’s opinion that the art is raw, and, well, somewhat ugly, then you’d definitely love this partial interview (the complete and lengthy one can be found on www.alanguilan.com/sanpablo).

As Gerry explains, it’s more the story than the art that drives WASTED. It’s a fast and furious emotional journey fueled by rage and passion, a medium through which one talented artist and renowned Marvel, DC, and Image comic book inker can vent his angst and frustrations. WASTED is every fed-up citizen’s ultimate vigilante fantasy, and it’s superb that Gerry’s work could make us live it and then leave it, unless you do take crime-fighting in your own hands and end up being portrayed by Ronnie Rickets or Ian Veneracion in a sucky true-to-sensationalized Pinoy action flick. Now that’s truly wasted. (We also hear that a movie version of WASTED is in the works, and although we’re quite sure that Gerry will be showing some skin, we can’t confirm if Maui or Katya will).