Today's pulpy page-turner is a bit of an oddity. It's a comic that I found in my usual trusty local 25¢ bin, and while most people would have passed this gem up, I just couldn't resist a comic called Porky y sus Amigos.
Many of you may know that I'm a sucker for comics in another language, and when I spotted this comic written completely in Spanish, I snatched it up quicker than a fat kid under a busted piñata full of cupcakes.
This particular comic appears to have been printed in Mexico and is along the lines of those classic Gold Key comics that you'd see sold in three packs in highway rest stops back in the day.
The stories, although I can't read them are the typical fare; Porky hanging out in the desert with his clone, Daffy Duck in a Sherlock Holmes hat riding around in a wheeled easy chair. You know, the usual.
There's one story where Porky is a lifeguard, and it was weird seeing these classic Looney Tunes characters interacting with humans. That seemed off to me. Could the writers have made the humans other animals? Maybe they could all be pigs that also live in Porky's Pig City or whatever.
The final story teams Yosemite Sam and Daffy hanging out with a lion and stealing a pirate ship. Oooooookay.
The best thing about these comics are not the stories, but the ads. I love comic book ads and seeing them in another language was a real treat.
Here we have Bugs Bunny hocking Kool-Aid.
Here we have one for Tootsie Pops... excuse me, Tutsi Pops...
And no comic book would be complete without a Charles Atlas ad. It's nice to know that even Mexican kids got the chance to experience the awesome body building technique of dynamic tension.
But the best ad of them all appears on the back cover. It's an ad for some very stylish shoes (DEM SOLES) that declare to the entire world that they are at the forefront of the punk rock movement. This comic was printed in 1982, long after the first wave of punk had died out, but maybe it was still going strong in Mexico. And apparently in Mexico, to be punk is to wear sensible footwear.
That's it for this installment. I did find another Mexican comic along the same lines, but I'll save it for another post.
Until next time kiddies, necesito comida para mis gatos. (That's all I know in Spanish.)
Cute little gem. Enjoy it sir. Now you have a good excuse to venture into a Spanish course.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I took two years of Spanish in high school, and remembered none of it. I stayed in Ixtapa for 10 days a few years ago and learned way more during that time.
ReplyDeleteVery cool Reis!Y muy interesante :)
ReplyDeleteA fun comic and easy to figure out most of the action too and if not you can make up your own stories to go along with the pictures. : )
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part? The fact that Lifeguard Porky wears MORE clothes than every-day Porky!
ReplyDeleteHola Reis!! Did you know that I learned english basically for (and from)reading comics? But these, I lerned to read because of these.
ReplyDeleteI remember that my uncles had boxes and boxes of these mexican reprint comics by "EN" or Editora Novarro. They printed them in three different sizes. This one here is a "Sere Aguila" as you can hardly see on the cover's lower right corner.
The other two editions were "Serie Avestruz" (Ostrich Series)which were printed the size of regular american comics and then there was the very rare "Serie Colibrí" (Hummingbird Series) that were smaller in size than the "Serie Aguila" ones.
If this comic was printed in '82 it is probably one of the last ones of a regularly published bunch that was available every week. I could tell you lots and lots of stories around those comics, bro!
This is a good find. Do try to read it! You might learn some spanish from it. Really!
Wow! Thanks for the input, Liko! I love how the different sizes are named after birds. Is "aguila" eagle?
DeleteYeah. And about those comics, there was also a very, VERY popular series published by Editora Novarro that my young uncles loved that was called "KID ACERO". I loved those comics because I found some similar traits in Kid Acero and his pals with what was one of my favorites toys when I was a kid: BIG JIM. Many years later, not so long ago, I kind of learned that BIG JIM and 'Kid Acero' were one an the same.
DeleteI'm still investigating but if you hear something about it let me know.
Will do, Liko!
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