An ugly American looks at Mexican comics.

§ June 4th, 2007 § Filed under Uncategorized § 1 Comment


So a while back, my girlfriend made one of her regular visits to Mexico to visit family, and before she left I sez to her, I sez: “Say, could you, perchance, acquire for me some superheroic adventure pamphlets, in color, and in the mellifluous tongue of your native people, for my perusal and possible edification?” After she punched me, she agreed, and a few short weeks later, lo, there was a bounty of Mexican superhero funnybooks delivered unto me, and it was good.

The first one pictured up there is an issue of Hellboy: Wake the Devil, which I haven’t removed from its protective shrinkwrap yet because 1) as we all know, leaving it sealed in the plastic bag automatically means it’s protected from any and every kind of damage caused by nature, man, or God, and thus will remain mint for all eternity*; and 2) I wanted to leave it in the shrinkwrap until I could scan it and show all of you, the faithful banner-ad clicking**, Progressive Ruin-reading audience, that Hellboy is sold pre-shrinkwrapped by the publisher with a warning stating that it’s for teens and adults. Just thought that was interesting.

A few more of the funnybooks I acquired:


One of the “War Games” issues of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, published under the blanket title of Batman. I wonder if all the parts of this crossover were published in Mexico just under the single Batman title. That would have made things easier.


You know, “Los Cuatro Fantasticos” just sounds so much better than “Fantastic Four.” “Los Cuatro Fantasticos” sounds like they’re out at parties all the time, going to fancy dinners and makin’ time with the ladies (or men). “Fantastic Four” sounds like something you’d see in Vegas if Frank Sinatra, Jr. is sold out.


Here’s the 40th anniversary edition of Daredevil and, again, it just sounds so much cooler in Spanish: “El Hombre Sin Miedo” has it all over “The Man Without Fear.” Okay, “Man Without Fear” isn’t bad, per se, but it doesn’t sing. …Going overboard a bit? Yeah, probably. Sorry about that.


I realize that “UN MUNDO SIN LA LIGA DE LA JUSTICIA” sounds like it’d be interesting, but I read this in English, and it’s really not.


I also received an X-Men (or “Los Hombres X”) comic (and it made as much sense to me in Spanish as it does in English), as well as a Spanish-language edition of All-Star Superman #1, which is cool because…hey, it’s All-Star Superman #1, it’s cool in any language. I didn’t scan the cover, though, because it’s virtually the same as the English-language edition, but I did scan this panel because Clark shouting “STOP THE PRESSES” in Spanish is fantastic:


The paper quality of these comics is quite nice…all have slick, thick cover stock, and the pages inside are bright and cleanly printed as well. The DC interior pages are slicker than the Marvel pages, and I haven’t checked the Hellboy yet, because, you know, that whole “mint in the bag” thing. You understand.

There are also very few ads. On the inside and back covers, maybe a house ad in the middle of the book, and that’s pretty much it. The Daredevil anniversary issue had a couple more ads, but given the book’s extra size, that’s not too surprising. On the whole, it’s a lot fewer pages of ads than the 1/3rd or so of the U.S. editions taken up by advertising. The back cover ads of all the comics are for a cell phone ringtone/wallpaper company.

So there you go…Mike and his funnybooks from Mexico. The hope was that these would help me brush up on my Spanish, and so far…well, I’m not sure what use knowing “Good Lord (choke)! How can something so big move so fast?” in Spanish would be, should I ever find myself stranded in Mexico, but, hey, you never know.

* This may be sarcasm.

**This may be entirely shameless.***

***No…no, it is entirely shameless.

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