Doorkeeper

Summit Books, 2017 (1st ed.)

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Cover page of Doorkeeper fifth anniversary edition written by Ethan Chua and Scott Lee Chua. Above the title is a review quote Masterful wordbuilding, a bewitching tale that spans millennia end quote by Anri Ichimura, Esquire Philippines. Surnames of artists from left to right. Duran, Felizmenio, Geneta, Guerrero, Lesaca, Mikel, Sabas. Next line. Foreword by Budjette Tan. The cover is a painting of a robed entity with a door for a head. Inside its robe is dark space, the earth, and a red dragon circling the earth. Behind the entity are four windows with characters peeking through them. From left to right. Muscular man. Old woman. Man with bloody forehead. Orange haired girl. In front of the entity, sketch papers fly across the page.
Cover page of Doorkeeper written by Ethan Chua and Scott Lee Chua. Next line. Surnames of artists, from left to right. Duran, Felizmenio, Geneta, Guerrero, Lesaca, Mikel, Sabas. Next line. Foreword by Budjette Tan. The cover is a painting of a robed entity with a door for a head grabbing a thin red dragon that is swallowing the moon. Within the robes are five characters standing side by side. From left to right. Man in priest robes holding book. Woman holding electric guitar. Strong man holding spear. Woman in armor holding a sword. Woman with glasses looking at her phone.
Left: 5th anniversary edition cover by Dominique Duran (2022). Right: first edition cover by Jap Mikel (2017).

An immortal being. Six individuals, trapped by fate. All of time and space.

Doorkeeper has lived for an eternity and more, the unyielding guardian of the Ways of time and space. His task: to reveal to mortals the consequences of their choices. He does not interfere.

But then he meets a doomed warrior. A boy with an imaginary friend. A would-be king. A world-weary musician. A priest with a crisis of faith. A scientist faced with the ultimate choice.

And Doorkeeper travels with them, from prehistory to dictatorship, from World War II to the frontiers of the far future. Through colonial Intranuros, alleyway bars, and half-imagined queendoms.

Doorkeeper watches, listens, and learns. He maintains the Ways. He does his duty.

But perhaps even the oldest of beings can change.

Praise for Doorkeeper

  • “Masterful worldbuilding…a bewitching tale that spans millennia.” – Anri Ichimura, Esquire Philippines
  • “A wonderland.” – Jade Castro, CNN Philippines
  • “Compelling…accessible…timeless.” - Jedd Ong, Young Star
  • “An amazing collection of stories.” – Budjette Tan, author of Trese
  • “A complex weaving [that] finds a home for the reader.” – Erik Cheski, Fanbase Press

Doorkeeper in the press

  • Local artists, publishers share freebies amid the quarantine – Philippine Star
  • 5 Filipino graphic novels that deserve their own Netflix show – This Is Hype
  • After Trese, these Filipino komiks deserve their own animated adaptation – Metroscene Mag
  • Pinay illustrators talk about their experiences working on comics – Cosmopolitan
  • The Komikon report: Madly into the mainstream – Philippine Inquirer
  • Let’s Talk Komiks: Ethan Chua and Scott Lee Chua on creating Doorkeeper – Flipgeeks

Doorkeeper in the community

  • In 2020 during the community quarantine, we put Doorkeeper up online for free, with the gracious support of Summit Books.
  • We were humbled to learn that teachers have been using Doorkeeper in their history and literature classes. If you are reading Doorkeeper in your class, library program, or book club, we’d love to support you and your community — please reach out!

The Doorkeeper team

Rectangular montage of six illustrations. Images from left to right are as follows. A woman in armor riding a horse in a forest, seen from the back. A crouched, muscular man holding a lit torch. A priest entering an empty church with a stained glass window. Taxi boats on a river in a flooded city. Three young people chatting over a drink. A boy holding his breath underwater.

I created Doorkeeper together with my coauthor, Ethan Chua, as well as a team of fantastic Filipino artists. Their portfolios are linked here — please follow them, commission them, and make art with them!