Made In Mexico: Kaliman

[foxhack]

Well, here's one of those projects I've been thinking of doing for quite a while now.

As the majority of everyone who reads this community knows, I'm Mexican. And Mexico has had a LOT of good... and bad... and obvious ripoff... comics over the past 75 years (or more).

And I want to show many of them here. I still have to dig up many of my old comics from storage... most of my comics were Mexican Spanish reprints by Editorial Vid, but I still managed to get some rare and uncommon comics from the late 90's / early 00s (before I stopped buying comics altogether in 2002-2003). Sadly, my collection does not include most of the truly landmark comics that were from before my time, but I hope to find some issues of those books in the future so I can post about them. :)

That said, welcome to...



I'm going to talk a bit about Kaliman: El Hombre Increíble. It began as a radio drama which first aired on September 16, 1963 and continues to be broadcast to this day. It became so popular that the creators decided to expand upon it and create a WEEKLY comic book that was printed every week for 26 years.

But who is Kaliman? He is a man who has chosen to spend his time fighting evil and injustice in the world. Adoptive heir to a Hindu king, he was abducted and abandoned in the wilderness by a jealous relative who wanted to take the throne for himself. He spent 21 years living on his own, through the wilderness, a Llama monastery, Mongolia, a pirate ship, and Africa - where he finally decides to go back and reclaim what is rightfully his.

When he returns, the relative that abducted him kills his adoptive mother - but then HE is killed by a cobra. Kaliman then gives away all his riches to his fellow countrymen, and turns the castle into a temple of sorts. He returns to the Llama monastery and spends four years learning the secrets of mind control over other people and his own body.

Some of his powers include telepathy, telekinesis, incredible body flexibility (contortion), "actus mortis" (fake death) and many others. While he prefers to try and reason with evil, he will not hesitate to lay the smackdown on anyone who won't listen to reason.

He also has a sidekick, Solín, a young boy who is descended from Egyptian Pharaohs.

And now, the obligatory scan: Any similarity to any existing character is pure coincidence, really.


(The text bubble reads: "Tremble, Kaliman, for you face Crazy Red.")

Yeah, remember when I said there were lots of ripoffs in Mexico? I wasn't kidding. I have no idea who made this particular cover, I found it on the internet, but it's not photoshopped. This is an actual cover. WTF.

These days, the classic issues are reprinted and sold on newsstands... or at least somewhere, because almost nobody sells Mexican comic books in my hometown anymore. :( I'm keeping my eyes open to see if I can find some of these reprints and post about 'em here.

(Special thanks go to Ricardo Jimenez Todd D., the owner of Kaliman.net, the character's official website, for most of the information posted here.)

Suggested tags: medium: cover, series: made in mexico

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deft_o_k/]

Rojo Loco forever esse!

Yeah, I'm gonna be slapped later for that...

[foxhack]

Remind me to slap you when you come pick up your game later in the week.

[sherkahn]

Got that image tattooed in my mind.

And oh boy, do I have a stack of old 70's Mexican comics of people with yoga powers of the body and mind taking out criminals. I'd scan them but I'm afraid they might crumble.

[foxhack]

GIMME.

NAO.

[foxhack]

Hell I live south of California, I'll take good care of 'em :p

[leikomgwtfbbq]

I look forward to seeing more of your Made in Mexico series. :D I always like finding out about comics from countries other than Japan and America.

Also, I'm taking Spanish, so I need the practice. XD I've been trying to track down Spanish-language comics and Spanish-language heavy metal (hey, it worked when I took German).

[ficticons]

I always like finding out about comics from countries other than Japan and America.
Me too! I'm also always willing to share the Franco-Belgian comic love. :)

I have some scans of a comic from India. Our next theme week should totally be "international comics" or something like that.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

I would LOVE an international comics week. :D That'd be pretty awesome.

[jelly_ace]

That would be great! I've been wanting to scan some local comics and sharing it with the great people of S_D.

[glprime]

As the majority of everyone who reads this community knows, I'm Mexican.

QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?????

¡Gravemente, más súper héroes españoles!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deft_o_k/]

¿Mexicanos en Scans_Daily?

¡Más probable de lo que crees!

[aeolos_sakya]

¡Exacto!

[foxhack]

Antes habíamos muchos más, pero muchos se quedaron en Livejournal. :(

[aeolos_sakya]

Recuerdo que había leído unos posts en español ahí de un tema de Saint Seiya. Pero cuando por fin me iba a unir a Scans_Daily, ocurrió el cierre.

Por lo menos me uní tiempo despues, je.

[schala_kid]

Estoy de acuerdo (Y te juro que hablo el espanol mejor de lo que lo escribo!)

[pepperspray101]

¿Verdad que si? (aunque siempre llego tarde a la fiesta... T-T )

[foxhack]

¿¡ESPAÑOLES?!

SAQUESE

[glprime]

Lo siento, the intent was Spanish language heroes, but somebody on the internetz cut off the idioma.

[glprime]

I wouldn't expect good Spanish skills from a graduate of the Texas public school system.

Texas Board of Education Rep: Tecks-us, leest wer higher'n Aluh-bamuh!
Alabama: Hey!

[pepperspray101]

I laughed...XD

[majingojira]

Man, I love reading up/reading of foreign takes on the superhero genre. They're always so fascinating and Kaliman is a prime example of that.

Mexico is definitely in my top countries that produce supers/comics--probably the top 10, jockeying for 3rd with the Philippines.

So feel free to gush about the heroes/comics Mexico has produced!

[taggerung301]

That is hilarious
I would love to see some more cracktastic Mexican ripoffs, and some good original Mexican comics too

[aeolos_sakya]

Oh, yeah, my dad used to read and listen it.
I wonder where he put those comics.

Por alguna razón, ver algo como esto, no me sorprende...

[foxhack]

I've uh... found some other rather... amazing ripoffs while looking into Loco Rojo.

I'll post them later. XP

[tacobob]

Oooh. Like those Mexican Spider-Man comics, where's they'd just slap a pretty woman in front of Spider-Man on each cover.

http://www.againwiththecomics.com/2008/01/mexican-spider-mans-super-sexy-bikini.html

[foxhack]

Sorta, but not exactly. XP

I remember seeing many covers were just made out of random panels from different issues... But all the ones on that page were from way before my time.

[lamashtar]

Dude..I'd pay money for translations of those homegrown stories. Probably illegal to republish them, though.

[joasakura]

And Galactus is thinking "No one will realise it's MEEEE! Moooahahahah!"

[mynondw]

This cracked me up. :D

[greenmask]

Wowww, aces!

[ficticons]

Wow.

Colour me extremely impressed that there's a comic produced in Mexico about the heir to a Hindu king. His life sounds really epic! :D

Like I said above to leikomgwtfbbq above, we totally need an International Comics week.

(Once again reposted for major HTML fail. Sorry!)

[dimwit90]

I remember when I was little my brother used to get comics like these where they would rip off characters and then when I came to America and saw all the same characters with different names my mind was blown lol

[dalf]

Recuerdo que aparte había una portada con un montón de clones de Ben Grimm, y otra en la que Kalimán peleaba contra Doctor Doom.

Kalimán necesita un revamp por Grant Morrison :P

[foxhack]

Sí, vi la portada con Doom cuando estaba buscando el origen de Kaliman Vs Galactus, pero no encontré mas que una sola imagen de la de Ben Grimm.

¡Ya encontré la revista de la que provino esta portada! Y no tiene a Galactus adentro. :(

[dalf]

Por supuesto que no sale Galactus. Es el Loco Rojo!

[foxhack]

ES UN TIPO CON TRAJE DE SALIR Y UNA MASCARA DE LUCHADOR.

[skjam]

I have an issue of "Andanzas de Aniceto" from !987, and might post some of that. (Wish I'd noticed it in time for gratuitous buttshot week.)

[foxhack]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. GODDAMN.

I googled the name and that was published by the same company that also did Hermelinda Linda - a book I REMEMBER buying a few times back in 1985-87!

[rhythmbandit]

Ha! Well, anything that starts off as a radio drama has to be good.

[psychopathicus_rex]

They all tend to have a certain distinct... FLAVOR to them, yes. I'm guessing that Kaliman comes off something like a superpowered royal Hindu version of 'the Green Hornet'.

[foxhack]

Kiiiiiiiiiiiinda.

It's more along the lines of "rich king goes around the world fighting crime and injustice." Although he does go to Mexico in at least one storyline.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So more like a superpowered royal Hindu version of 'Mandrake the Magician', then.

[pepperspray101]

holy shit! My dad mentioned this series some time ago (he's got Alzheimer's but he still remembers things from his youth) . Cool! so that's the story of Kaliman. Thanks for sharing and yes, YIKE! on the ripping off things. ^^;;