Customer Reviews:
 Ax-to-Grind Rius December 3, 2006
B. Butler (Boulder, CO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I know about Los Sumpermachos from having been born and raised in Mexico, living there during the sixties and seventies. Imagine 'Doonesbury' and in Mexico, forty - fifty years ago. Due to the realtively low literacy rate among Mexican adults, one of the main mediums for adult reading in Mexico is comic books. They even print comic books with photographs as a soap opera genre.
Some of these can get quite sophisticated and abstract.
'Los Supermachos' was created by Rius. His drawings are excellent, and his writing is brilliant, acerbic, and ruthless against the insanities of Life in Mexico: corruption, the hypcricies and joys of the culture. One of my favorite characters is 'Calzoncn' (Underpants-Guy), who walks around his town clothed in an electric blanket (with the electric cord and plug trailing behind him) donated by some drifter gringo. There is a corrupt cop that looks like a cross between Jos Feliciano and Pancho Villa.
I am not certain of Rius' history, but I believe that somehow 'Someone Official' took over Los Supermachos. It became a very tame cute publication and I am pretty sure Rius was forced into exile in Cuba. He's since written many more volumes, such as Cuba for Beginners, Uncle O(USA)MA, The Unending Conquest of Mexico, 500 Years Screwed, but Christian, Mashed Potatoes, the History of the Papacy, (the words for potato and pope are homonyms) etc... Just to give you an idea of his themes.
However, I have found those books to be much more on the preachy, didactic, tirading side of writing. I miss the bite of the carefully-crafted stinging humor. Because of the high level of language play (puns and slang abound), I recommend these comic books only to those who have a high literacy level in vernacular Mexican Spanish. Be prepared to howl with laughter and rage. if I weren't an overworked, but satisfied teacher, I would try to get these translated. Rius is right up there with Aristophenes, and the world should know about him.
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