There are no limits to the ways in which Latinos can be represented and imagined in the world of comics. However, until now this area has been relatively understudied. Graphic Borders: Latino Comic Books Past, Present, and Future presents the most thorough exploration of comics by and about Latinos currently available. This exciting graphic genre conveys the distinctive and wide-ranging experiences of Latinos in the United States, from Latino superheroes in mainstream comics to subcultures on the indie spectrum like Love & Rockets.
The World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction series includes monographs and edited volumes that focus on the analysis and interpretation of comic books and graphic nonfiction from around the world. The books published in the series will bring analytical approaches from such fields as literature, art history, cultural studies, communication studies, media studies, and film studies, among others to help define the comic book studies field at a time of great vitality and growth. To celebrate Graphic Borders as the first book in the World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction series, we asked co-editors Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher González a few questions about their new book.
What drew you both to pursue this project?
While scholarship on comics has come into its own of late, it’s largely been focused on white (usually male) creators and creations—and this in all the different styles, from the superhero to those of the Underground and Alternative scenes. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. And, we completely understand the scholarly compulsion; this has been the reading diet of most scholars working on comics in this country. And, we understand the significance of this work: to move forcefully comic book studies into centers of Ivory Tower knowledge making.
However, there’s much more to this story. There’s much more that needs our scholarly excavation and attention. Comic books by and about Latinos is a vital living, breathing archive of extraordinary creativity in need of our careful scholarly attention. It demands this.
Today, we as Latinos in the US are the majority minority. We’re seeing more and more Latinos pushing through the gates—and this in spite of the persistence of a push-out/lock-out education system. With pencil and paper and access to comics and any other cultural art forms, Latino comic book creators have been using this format to tell our stories and histories—and also to take us to places as yet unimagined. With access to the Internet with its funding and distribution platforms, these creators have been creating comics that reach readers across the country—the planet.
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For us, to bring together these extraordinary scholars to enrich our understanding of comics by key shapers in our planetary republic of comics is a no brainer. It’s this sense of inclusivity and attention to the verbal-visual storytelling margins that led us to undertake the herculean work to edit the 350,000 double volume, Encyclopedia of World Comics.
At one point, it was Shakespeare’s moment and at another, Gabriel García Márquez. Today, it’s our moment. It’s the moment of extraordinary creation of comics by and about Latinos—and we’re here along with our scholarly hermanos and hermanas to shout this from rooftops.
What makes Latina/o-created comics unique?
There are two levels of comics creation to keep in mind here: the content and the form. Not surprisingly, some (most) Latino comic book creators have chosen to recreate experiences, stories, histories that have otherwise been swept to the side in mainstream culture. But the shape given to this content—this very varied Latino-ness, if you will—is extraordinarily diverse. Someone like Lalo Alcaraz (the subject of Juan Poblete’s work in this volume) chooses to reproduce our experience, giving it the form of satirical political cartoon; others like Los Bros Hernandez choose to recreate our experience by fleshing out huge storyworlds overflowing with an abundance of characters from all walks of life—and each (Gilbert and Jaime) with their own unique aesthetic style. Those like Wilfred Santiago (the subject of González’s scholarship herein) gravitate toward biography: Robeto Clemente’s breaking of color and linguistic barriers as one of the first Afrolatino players to make it in baseball’s major leagues. Yet others like Javier Hernandez (El Muerto) and Rafa Navarro (Sonambulo) breath new life into Marvel/DC narrative conventions with their creation of ancestrally rooted Latino superheroes.
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| Clemente experiences racism in the American South, from 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago |
How do some of the works examined in your book speak to Latina/o and Chicana/o audiences?
Whether it’s an analysis of Gilbert Hernandez’s stand-alone graphic novels, Alcaraz’s La Cucaracha, Wilfred Santiago’s 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente or Marvel’s Latina Spider-Girl or Blatino Spider-Man, DC’s Latino Blue Beetle or gay Latino Bunker, each shows the world of comics and its readers that we too can be agents transformation; in the many comics by and about Latinos that are explored in this volume we not only experience complex characters, but we see ourselves in their pages. We are also made aware of not only the skill and expertise of the creators, but the new generations of Latino scholars see that this can be an area for serious, committed scholarship.
How have some Latino creators sought to correct misrepresentations of Latino history?
The very fact of having a Latino creator on the cover of a comic is a correction to comic book history. Of course, Latino creators infuse their comics with greater or less degrees of Latinoness, from characterization to recovery of our histories and mythologies. No matter how visible this Latino content is, the very fact that Latinos are creating visual-verbal storyworlds is a sea change.
The floodgates have opened!
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| Critique of multiculturalism, from Migra Mouse |
Los Bros Hernandez were the first out of the gate with Love & Rockets. It’s this comic’s success that singlehandedly grew Fantagraphics Press into the alternative comics publisher it is today. That said, not all experienced such good fortune. Many other Latinos that were coming up in the 80s and especially the 90s knocked heads against publisher and distribution. Those like Javier Hernandez, Rafael Navarro, Richard Dominguez, and Laura Molina (some studied in Graphic Borders) had an especially difficult time; while they continue to create and distribute their work, it’s largely through grass-roots means. They all have day jobs to support their art.
While Latino comic book creators are relatively legion today as compared to yesterday, they still face all sorts of closed doors when it comes to the big publishers and distributors. Some have tried to work with the big guns, but found that they were being asked to compromise too much their creativity, so they cut.
It continues to be a struggle—and especially so for Latina creators. To help tip scales, Aldama just launched his Latinographix series that publishes actual comics created by Latinos.
As they say in our community, sí se puede!
Where would you recommend a reader start with Latino comics?
Take the weekend off and dive into, well, all of them!
Here are some of our fav. creators: Lalo Alcaraz, José Cabrera, Hector Cantú (with Carlos Castellanos), Jaime Crespo, Richard Dominguez, Frank Espinosa, Eric J. Garcia, Marisa Garcia, Crystal González, Jason “JGonzo” González, John González, Raúl Gonzalez the Third, Gilbert Hernandez, Mario Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Javier Hernandez, Andrew Huerta, Alberto Ledesma, Liz Mayorga, Laura Molina, Rhode Montijo, Rafael Navarro, Alex Olivas, Daniel Parada, Jimmy Portillo, Jules Rivera, Cristy C. Road, Fernando Rodriguez, Grasiela Rodriguez, Hector Rodriguez, Jason Rodriguez, Octavio Rodriguez, Rafael Rosado, Carlos Saldaña, Wilfred Santiago, Serenity Sersecion, and Lila Quintero Weaver.
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