Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tales from the 25¢ Bin: Mexican Comics Part II

Some of you may remember a while back when I had posted a little write up on a comic from Mexico that I found in the almighty 25¢ bin called Porky y sus Amigos. Well, it just so happens that I had found two Mexican comic books that day and thanks to the efforts of the blogging gods who guided me to look into a folder where I had placed the pics I took a while back and then promptly forgot about. Anyway, I thought I'd share.

This issue steers us away from the Looney Tunes characters in my previous post and takes a look at the classic characters of Disney. Cuentos de Walt Disney (Walt Disney Stories) looks a whole lot like those classic Whitman and Gladstone comics we could get back in the day which often featured reprints of classic Disney comics, usually with a new, somewhat lame cover.

I mean, look at this one below. Oh, haw haw haw. He's a got as moose blowing a horn! And what's with the eagle's head on the tree stump? It looks like it may be a logo or soemthing, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's a hidden symbol from the artist. I also have to point out that it took me a second to realize that the lump protruding from the side of the tent is more likely the third cousin's head, and not, as I originally thought, the second sleepy cousin's butt. But now that I look at it again, taken out of context... yikes.


May favorite part of these comics are the ads. What the heck could this add be for? Bongo drums?


I love the old "Tutsi" ads. Mostly I just love how they spell "Tutsi". I wonder if when Dustin Hoffman's gender-bending 1982 major motion picture came out in Mexico, was it called "Tutsi"?


Here we see Donald Duck being a litterbug. I'm not really sure what the text says, but it's probably something about not being a litterbug.


The comics themselves are pretty standard fare. Huey, Dewey and Louie having adventures...


Quasi-racist stereotypes of Native Americans...


And clear evidence that Goofy and Clarabelle Cow once had a thing going on...



I know it sounds like I'm making fun of this comic or the country it came from, but I swear I'm not. In truth, I love these comics, and truly love taking a look at a little slice of comic book culture from another land. It makes me realize that we really aren't too different. We all grew up loving the same characters and curling up wherever we could with a stack of comics about them.

If I've learned anything about the country of Mexico through this very small look at their pop culture, it's that they are far more accepting of an inter-species relationship between a female cow and whatever Goofy is. And I am now wiser for it.