Bill and Ted's Day of the Dead #1

I got this special last year. AFTER November 1st. I'm not really sure why publishers released holiday books after the event is over. It seems to defeat the purpose of celebrating, if you ask me. Though shipping delays could have something to do with it. But I'm really sure that I saw that release date for this book in Previews being for after Day of the Dead, 2022 had come and gone. At least I had it to read for the 2023 festivities!

The town of San Dimas really knows how to celebrate! It's the annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos and the Wyld Stallyns have been invited to perform a set during the festivities. Before their set, Bill and Ted enjoy some good food, make some decorations and meet a pair of beauties in calaveras make-up who have built an elaborate shrine for their ancestors. Inspired by the shrine, Bill and Ted go back in time to bring back several icons of Mexican history including acclaimed artist Frida Kahlo and Aztec Emperor Montezuma!

Then in the back-up story, longtime Bill and Ted antagonist Chuck De Nomolos escapes from his prison in the year 2721. It just happens that the day De Nomolos makes his prison break, it's also Day of the Dead. With everyone dressed like Death, De Nomolos has a tragic break from reality, fearing another melvin from the Grim Reaper.

I liked the first story except for the fact that Bill and Ted essentially cheat on their girlfriends in this story. Both acknowledge that they still are in love with their princess girlfriends but they also want to get to know those cute celebrants better too. That 'harmless flirting' was just beyond the pale for me.

I didn't really like the De Nomolos story. In fact, it's inclusion was a bit startlingly. I had forgotten all about the character who debuted in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Plus the image of a dead Chuck De Nomolos looked nothing like actor Joss Ackland. I had thought that some non-related back-up story had been added at first and was really puzzled as to why Opus Comics didn't add another Bill & Ted story to this book. Thankfully, by page 2, I understood what was going on. But it really felt like I was reading 2 different comics at first.

That second story had a touching tribute to the late George Carlin, who played Rufus, the time-travelling mentor to Bill and Ted. I hadn't realized he died all the way back in 2008. I would have said he had only been deceased since maybe 2019. 2018, at the most. 

Another thing that stunned me was the advertisement for the Bill & Ted's Excellent Holiday Special. How did I miss this? I really don't remember this and I am 99.8% certain that I didn't pick a copy of this up at my favorite LCS. I recently did a deep dive through my pile of new purchases that I have yet to bag or add to my collection and I didn't come across this book. So I might have something to add to my holiday comics wish list. 

This book is full of Day of the Dead festivities. But those two tales are as different as night and day. Also, I couldn't stand how Bill and Ted acted with their girlfriends away at space camp. No wonder they all had to go to a marriage counselor in Bill & Ted Face the Music. I'm very glad to see Dia de los Muertos getting some comic book love and the time travel antics of the guys was great. It just didn't feel true to the Bill & Ted franchise.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Blancaflor: The Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America (Family Comic Friday)

Family Comic Friday has a book for those young ones who are fans of Encanto! Most stories starring a prince have a damsel in distress. This time it's the young lady to the rescue! From Latin American folklore, I am pleased to present to you Blancaflor!

Blancaflor is the daughter of an ogre. This ogre has plans for having a prince for dinner. But not as a guest. As the meal! 

The ogre's plan is to have the prince attempt 3 challenges. Challenges that are quite impossible to complete. For the past few months, the ogre blessed the prince with a good luck spell. Now that spell has worn off. The prince doesn't know this and still thinks he'll be lucky enough to beat the ogre in order to win a major prize! Looks like filet of prince will be on the menu!

Well it turns out that Blancflor is smitten with this prince. In order to not hurt his pride, she will secretly help the prince complete his three challenges. But the prince isn't gonna make this easy. He's a real dimwit!

This amazing graphic novel was written by Nadja Spiegelman. Nadja is the daughter of Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, both characters in and creators of Maus II! It was just happenstance that I am reading works from the entire Spiegelman family this week!

I was also digging the artwork. It's by acclaimed Spanish experimental cartoonist Sergio Garcia Sanchez. It's a lovely mix native Mexican and European influences throughout. His double-page spreads are lively and fluid. There's so much movement despite not being part of an animated feature. Blancaflor is a family affair for Sergio Garcia Sanchez. His wife Lola Moral colored this book. And in a extra feature in the back of the book, Sergio and Lola's children, who are both professional artists, contributed stylized versions of the Blancaflor cast of characters. 

This isn't my first experience with Nadja Spiegelman or Sergio Garcia Sanchez. They were the creative duo behind another Family Comic Friday classic, the labyrinthine Lost in NYC. This is also not my first experience with publisher Toon Graphics. They continue to kill it with their multicultural stories by some amazing and somewhat legendary talent. And from the list of other titles available from Toon Graphics, it looks like Family Comic Friday won't be out of an assortment of amazing titles for weeks to come.

Now if only my local library has these books.

I mentioned Encanto earlier. I know that this book has zero connection to that film. This is a Mexican fairy tale. Encanto is based on Colombian lore and history. But if the young reader in your life is a big fan of that film and you're looking for similar works that could piggyback on that interest, this is a great family fun read! It can help spread interest in Latino culture and it promotes reading from a female heroine perspective which is rare in American/European folk lore; but a mainstay in Latin American storytelling.

I can't recommend Blancaflor enough! It's a quick but satisfying whimsical read that doesn't follow the stand rules of prince and princess fairy tales! We might not be allowed to talk about Bruno. But Blancaflor is going to be forever on my lips as a suggestion for great family read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Gasolina #1

Story by Sean Mackiewicz
Art by Niko Walter
Colors by Mat Lopes
Published by Image

Trouble South of the Border

I really wish I could tell you completely what Gasolina is about. However, the first issue of this new series from Image Comics has so many things rolled into one 32-page issue that there's not enough time to fully cover everything. If ever a comic book needed a 48 or 64-page giant sized first issue, Gasolina would be the one to need it.

Our story starts out in the sugar cane fields of Mexico. Two star-crossed lovers, each of questionable back-grounds, are struggling to make ends meet thanks to an infestation of beetles. The scene jumps and the lovers are in some sort of infirmary caring for two field workers who were supposedly shot. However, these don't look like entry wounds. It looks like something was trying to bite its way out!

If Gasolina would stick to this plot right here, I would be singing this book's praises. I'd also be demanding issue #2 right here, right now. But co-creator Sean Mackiewicz adds more elements to the mix. The woman in the affair, Mal, has a shadowy past as a killer of some sort. Randy is her lover and he seems to be doctor. But it's alluded that his past is just as complicated. At the issue's halfway point,  two are tasked with finding a missing boy from a cult of death worshipers. Thus, the whole parasitic bug angle from earlier in the book is seemingly forgotten.

On a Soap Box

In the afterword of issue #1, Mackiewicz explains that Gasolina is his way of bringing to light the evils of European colonialism on the Mexican people. The writer claims that the plunder of the indigenous peoples of the Aztecs have resulted in the rise of the drug cartels and rampant crime in Mexico. Thus this is why a kidnapping is added to the mix of this tale of scary-ass bugs. But making the cartels also be death worshipers adds a confusing layer to this story.

I understand that Sean Mackiewicz wants to make a horror story with a socially relevant theme. 1968's Night of the Living Dead is a brilliant example of using scares to express the underlying issue of racism and class warfare. There's been plenty of great horror and sci-fi films from all over the world that tackling important issues. But what makes them great stories is that they don't get too complex.

Let's go back to Night of the Living Dead- the whole film takes place basically in a farm house. Godzilla, which has long been a series devoted to the evils of nuclear weapons has a simple plot- giant lizard destroys Tokyo. To make things interesting, throw in an occasional evil monster to battle Godzilla. Speaking of things exploding from the inside out of a person, Alien, a film about corporate misconduct at the expense of workers, takes place on a spaceship!

My point is that you don't have to go all over the place to get your point across. I think Mackiewicz should have abandoned the kidnapping element for now. Issue one should have built up the suspense and maybe as a cliffhanger have the little boy discovered to have been kidnapped. Then in the next issue that death cult could have been introduced.

My Verdict

This is Sean Mackiewicz' first comic book. Like many new writers, they try to do too much too fast. I'm willing to give this series another try but not as a monthly. Sometime next year, when this is offered as a trade, I will return to Gasolina. These seems to me a series that has great potential. But a monthly format of 32-pages only is wrong for this series.

Co-creator and artist Niko Walter's artwork is very good. I didn't really have any issues with it. I didn't know who some of the characters are but that wasn't from bad art. Again, the author spends too much time trying to add extra plot-lines. As a result, he neglects to really give the reader an introduction to the cast. Some love also needs to be given to colorist Mat Lopes, whose muted palette and earth tones illicit both the Mexican settings and Gasolina's creepy undertone.

Gasolina is a series that is going somewhere. But in this first issue, it's going too fast to really make the story enjoyable. It's like a movie that flops in the theatres but becomes a smash on Pay-Per-View and DVD. I think Gasolina just wasn't meant for this medium. But as a graphic novel collection, it's going to be a phenomenal thriller. Just wait until 2018.

A Second Look

If you think I'm being harsh, remember my description of this issue and now look at the preview video from Image. The video seems to imply that Gasolina will be a story about a drug war fought with monsters. In no way did I get the idea that this was where the book is going. I didn't even know Randy and Mal were married until the trailer told me! I'm telling you, 32-pages was just not enough pages for Mackiewicz and crew to give the reader a good idea what direction this series is going in.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Review originally published on September 21, 2017 on outrightgeekery.com.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 125

 Hey Folks- Posting 2 days in a row! Must be my lucky week. 

   Today is May 5th, but if you are fluent in Spanish or have a Ph.D in partying then you know that today is Cinco de Mayo. 

   Many believe that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day. It isn't. But this day does celebrate a huge victory for the Mexican people against invading French armies at the Battle Of Puebla. 

   I thought it would be neat to take a look at Cinco de Mayo in the year I was born. So, grab a frosty margarita, put on a sombrero and let's get started.

I included these Mexican skeletons to
freak my sister-in-law out, just in case she was reading this...

    Cinco de Mayo in Mexico isn't as big of a deal in Mexico as it is in the US. As I mentioned before, this day in Mexican history is all about a military victory. Apparently, the Mexican Army wasn't expected to win. So, their underdog victory became a turning point in that war but it has nothing to do with Mexican Independence. That day is celebrated every September 16th and independence was won from the Spanish, not the French. In fact, it is rather hard to find much on Cinco de Mayo before the 1990s when beer companies and snack foods like Doritos turned it into a celebration of Mexican-American culture and a chance to drink and party. 

    What little I could find about Cinco de Mayo in '77 mostly involved demonstrations on college campuses. Advocates for Chicano-American rights took to the University of Chicago to protest the treatment of Mexicans in the workforce. They also asked for people to stop buying products that did not pay fair wages to migrant workers  (see above.)

     Some areas with heavy Mexican and Mexican-American populations such as Los Angeles and parts of Texas did have parades in 1977. Participants dressed in ornamental clothing and rode on floats advertising Hispanic businesses (See below.)

       Even the Lawrence Welk Show for the week of May 5 had a special Cinco de Mayo theme as shown from above. Everybody Cha-Cha!

Belt buckle from 1977
bearing the Jose Cuervo logo.

       Lastly, I thought I would examine the 2 'official beverages of Cinco de Mayo': Jose Cuervo and Corona. Interestingly enough, the tequila, Jose Cuervo was available nationwide in the US but Corona was not. Though the beer made famous with a slice of lime was crafted back in 1925, the beer didn't appear on store shelves in the US until 1979!

Pre-1979 items such as this 1977 mirror ad
are rare and highly collectible.

    Well, that's my look at 1977. Hopefully, I can try and make this 3 in a row. I hope everyone has a great Cinco de Mayo and please drink responsibly and drive safe.

     Until next time...

Sergio Aragones Funnies #8

 I found this comic in a bargain bin recently. Featuring the art and slightly skewed brain of MAD Magazine legend Sergio Aragones, each issue has a theme. The issue I found theme is in treasure. What, you couldn't figure that out from the cover? Actually- the cover reveals more about the theme than the stories do as really the treasures discovered in this issue lies in the heart of each character and doesn't necessarily represent a monetary value.

  Anyways, along with some great short stories and some one page gags, Aragones included some seek and find games where you have to find the list of missing objects. But those activities are harder than they appear! Magnifying glasses are a must!

   I think the best part of this issue is of a true story in which Aragones was tasked one year with arranging the annual MAD Magazine editors retreat to his childhood home of Mexico. It was a neat look at some of the behind the scenes antics of the late William Gaines and his bunch of beloved “idiots.” they seemed like a really fun bunch and I wish that there were more of such adventures in this book.

  Hey, Sergio Aragones should make a graphic novel of his exploits at MAD! I call dibs on a free autographed copy for my genius idea!

   If the trip to Mexico wasn't included in this issue, I would say that this publication from Bongo Comics was for readers of all ages. But that South of the Border adventure gets a little salty at times. so maybe some parental discretion is advised for those under the age of 11.

    Worth Consuming.

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Alamo All-Stars (Family Comic Friday)

Patriot Nathan Hale takes his captors back through his magic history book on another adventure through time. Joining him this time around is his Mexican counterpart Vincente Guerrero and a trio of guards to give a comprehensive account of the battle of the Alamo and the struggle for Texas Independence. Like the book’s title suggests, the cast of players is an all-star lineup of Old West history including Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and that untamed wild man Jim Bowie.

   I wish there was something like Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales when I was growing up. This series is funny, exciting, and just a little bit dangerous. But above all, these books are informative. What I thought I knew about the Alamo compared to what I discovered reading this graphic novel couldn't have filled a thimble respectively.

Though this book is about a terrible tragedy and lots of people die, it's not gory or overly graphic. There are a few swears, mostly mild and used in reference to quotes taken from actual documents- but they're there. Recommended for kids 10 and up. But this isn't a series just for kids. NHHT has a grown up following of readers as well like me.

   Alamo All-Stars was published just this year. So hopefully, there will be further adventures hosted by Nathan Hale ( and his squad of research babies) on the horizon. I vote for a book on the Titanic, Al Capone, and the Gunfight at the OK Corral as possible ideas to be explored next.

Worth Consuming

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars.