One Night in Purgatory
Carlo Vergara
Alamat Comics, Quest Ventures, 2001
By Alex Lapa
March 2001
http://www16.brinkster.com/load10/

Deio and Casey have been best friends since childhood. When Deio 'came out' in college, Casey was very supportive despite his oft-times brash attitude. Soon after a turning point in their friendship, Deio and Casey parted ways and strived to get on with their lives. Two years later, Casey contacts Deio with the hopes of picking up from where they left off. On that reunion night, they exorcise the demons bred by their two-year separation, and learn valuable lessons about friendship, forgiveness, acceptance, and love.

A commendable short story dealing with a very mature theme. This being, One Night in Purgatory is there for the realistically liberal and broad-minded individual ("untainted" with the restrictive laws of ill-defined morality, so to speak).

Adult issues aside, the story takes on another snip at present time romance. Although it takes on typical love-affair elements such as pain, angst and confusion (those that usually make up a romance story’s entirety) a twist on characterization placed it all on a different angle. Not only does it delve on amatory depth as far as love is concerned, but on the platonic one as well, leaving readers with questions answerable mostly to their own perceptions. Most importantly, the story is quite sincere and tangible—nice setting for the underrated emotional rollercoaster that is inevitably appreciated.