15.02.2013 Views

Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

makes it easier for the reader to deal with despicable situations. I will discuss this<br />

further during the analysis of the comic.<br />

Occasionally, Hermelinda appears on the last page finishing the story as a moral,<br />

but in a funny way. 12 Since the stories are more related to crime and low passions, there<br />

is no happy ending. However, a sharp comment from Hermelinda or a punch line will<br />

break the stress, although also inviting reflection. Either case, at the end, the only one<br />

who enjoys the results of the witchcraft, and the problems which unleash it, is<br />

Hermelinda, the omnipresent observer, and of course the reader.<br />

El Callejón del Cuajo número chorrocientos: La Familia Burrón and the<br />

representation of Mexico City<br />

Gabriel Vargas was a gifted child who, from an early age, proved that he had a natural<br />

talent for drawing. His talent was openly recognised for the first time when he<br />

participated in an international drawing competition when he was only fifteen years old,<br />

and was awarded second place. 13 Afterwards, he began working for the Mexican<br />

newspaper Excélsior as an illustrator. In 1938, the owner of one of the most important<br />

publishing houses (the Revolutionary General José García Valseca), asked Vargas to<br />

create a comic book to compete against another successful Mexican comic: Los<br />

Supersabios. Thus, the artist created one of his most iconic comic books: Los<br />

Superlocos, 14 a comic that lasted for almost fifteen years. It was in Los Superlocos that<br />

some of the most famous characters in Mexican popular culture appeared for the first<br />

12<br />

For example, when Hermelinda creates magic chewing gum which make people tell the truth, she<br />

comments at the end: ‘No es siempre agradable conocer la verdad. A veces, más vale hacerse el tarugo’.<br />

Afterwards she invites the reader to have a piece of gum, but reassuring them that they are ‘inoffensive’.<br />

13<br />

Maira Mayola Benítez Carrillo, Gabriel Vargas. Cronista gráfico (Mexico: Universidad Autónoma del<br />

Estado de Hidalgo, 2010), p. 13.<br />

14<br />

Juan Manuel Aurrecochea Hernández. ‘Los Superlocos – Pepín’<br />

[accessed 16 May 2011]<br />

82

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!