Made In Mexico: Anne Rice turned this guy down for a good reason

[foxhack]

Apologies for the oft-delayed second entry in this series, but things have been hectic and I procrastinate a lot.

Anwyay! Today I have a special treat for you. Especially if you're Canadian. This is Sensacional De Luchas #446, published in April, 1994.

Sensacional De Luchas was a long-running comic book series published by Editorial Ejea in the 80's and 90's - Mexico's had wrestling comics of various kinds over the years, either drawn, or with still pictures of the wrestlers themselves. The book featured whatever wrestlers were popular at the time, either in solo adventures, team-ups, or a book-long story detailing a feud between wrestlers. This particular one stars El Vampiro Canadiense (The Canadian Vampire) as the good guy, and Pierroth as the bad guy.

Yes, El Vampiro Canadiense. He's a real wrestler. (He recently broke some vertebrae in his back, though, so he's currently out of commission.)

Anyway! Comic. Yeah. Behind the cut are around 20-odd pages from a 95 page comic book. Much of it was filler, so you're not missing much. This scan is not mine, so I apologize for the blurry pictures.

But first, the cover!



Funnily enough, even though Pierroth is given top billing, he is the bad guy in this book. In case the picture isn't clear, Pierroth is pulling Vampiro Canadiense's hair, twisting his arm, and he's also kicking a movie poster. Wrestlers know multitasking!

We begin the story with Vampiro leaping towards Pierroth, who is approaching him on a motorcycle.



However, he notices something's wrong!



That's a dummy, you dummy!



Pierroth comes at him on another motorcycle and wraps a chain around him. And he kicks him. And keeps beating him. "Howl in pain, you damned bloodsucker!" "What's going on?! AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" But just then --



"Cut!" Yes, this is a movie set. And the director isn't happy -- see, Pierroth really doesn't like Vampiro. At all. I suppose he's jealous that he doesn't have to hide his face behind a mask or something. So even though the director tells them to stop, they don't. Vampiro has to defend himself, see!



Once the movie crew breaks up the fight, Pierroth demands that the movie's ending be changed so he'll be the good guy. Yeah. He then storms off, and the director asks Pierroth's stunt double to fill in for him. Once Vampiro beats the snot outta the stunt double, the director asks for two girls to ah, comfort the stuntman.

Not kidding here.

But guess what? The real Pierroth took them with him, saying that the director changed the location, but...



Yep.

The next day, a wrestling promoter pitches an idea to Vampiro - Why don't he and Pierroth fight as tag team partners against "Los Explosivos?"



He doesn't take it well. He refuses, but just then, Pierroth comes in with the two girls from last night, and so...


"That idiot... Well, I'm off, and I accept your offer!" Pierroth has no idea what's going on. He asks the girls to wait for him outside, and Vampiro takes this chance to take the girls away. The promoter tells Pierroth about the proposed matchup, he refuses, and storms off. But where are the girls?



He asks A RANDOM GUY WITH A PLUNGER FOR INFORMATION. He tells him that they left with Vampiro, "Oh, they looked very happy to be with him, Vampiro IS young and good looking, you know!" And so he beats the crap outta him for saying that. (I have a feeling plunger guy might have been someone who worked at the comic book company, Mexican publishers had a habit of inserting artists and writers.)

So, the match is set, there's advertisements everywhere, and the public is expecting a great fight. The night of the match, Pierroth is in the lockers when he spots the two girls from the beginning of the story.


"So, there you are! Where were you?" "What?!"


"Well, no matter! Come on, how about you girls give me a massage?" "What are you doing?"
"Get off of there!" "What's wrong with you?"

Well, obviously, they're with Vampiro now, who takes this opportunity to rub it in his face.


"Do you want to borrow one of these girls so she can give you a massage?"
"No thanks, I can do it myself."
(Thinly veiled masturbation joke? Maybe.)

So, the match begins, and Vampiro goes out first. And since the other team is made out of heels, well, they start beating him up. Badly. Meanwhile, Pierroth is chilling outside the ring, making up excuses to not go in and help.


"Hm... looks like we're winning!" "Help him, Pierroth!"
"Don't be like that, he's your partner!" "Don't scream at me, I can't hear a thing!" (?!)

So eventually he finally goes in to help...



... the other team. And so, even the poor ref was powerless to stop him.

"Stay outta this!"

So naturally, Vampiro loses and wakes up in a hospital. Pierroth visits him to make fun of him (he brings some crotchescrutches!) and we cut to the movie director, who is not happy about this. Meanwhile, Pierroth is rewriting the movie on his own.


"And in this scene, I'll poke his eyes out and bite his ear!"

Naturally the director does not like this, but he plays along, planning to reshoot around his... changes.

Meanwhile, Pierroth's got a new girlfriend, and look, he's been invited to his own movie premiere!

"Hey, I've been invited to my own movie premiere!" "Will you take me to see it?"


"That scene where I beat Vampiro up was AWESOME! I'm sure you'll love it, since I wrote it!" "I can't wait to see it."

Vampiro takes his two girlfriends, but Pierroth has to outstage him:


And so the movie starts, and everything's fine for the first hour or so, until...

-- Pierroth was getting the beating of his life!
"You're getting beat up!" "I don't know what happened!"
"You tricked me! You're not the hero, the Vampire is!" "Wait!"

Naturally Pierroth throws a fit and he hops onto the stage, ripping the screen, saying that Vampiro's never been a match for him.

And they fight.



Meanwhile, sleazeball director ponders "I wish I had a camera with me. Oh well."

There's one more page of fighting, but I'm not bothering with it. This is just one example, there's hundreds of different stories (some of 'em recycled, either partially redrawn or just completely remade), and I wanted to post more, but several of these ah, uploaded comics have huge "Scanned By" watermarks... :(

I'll see if I can find sore more.

tags: series: made in mexico

Comments

[legba]

Well that's just epic.

[foxhack]

And totally not demeaning to females, amirite?

[legba]

I'm not even sure that's applicable. It's demeaning to women, sure, but it's a story about two guys trying to out-macho each other in the most extreme ways, over and over. I'm not sure it could ever not be demeaning to women.

The women in this story are basically barometers for Pierroth's manliness. I can't even get myself to call them "female characters", because there's no personality on display, they just act as a gauge for the wrestlers' macho aura, flowing back and forth with the tide of the story; when Pierroth is on top, he's got the girls. When Vampiro is in the lead, they're in his camp - so much so that Vampiro doesn't even have to be present to administer a beat-down, they do it for him.

Anyway, because this is a macho story, Pierroth's real undoing comes when he steps away from the manly way of resolving conflict - kicking the other guy while he's down - and tries to be sneaky. You can tell because he's wearing a polo shirt; it's the only time in the story where he's covering up.

Sure, it gives him a temporary advantage - he's got a new girl, and a fabulous new cape - but by betraying the macho credo - and wearing a shirt - he's basically cut his own hair and thus both loses the girl and receives a fist to the face from the still-macho Vampiro.

This comic is demeaning to women in the same way Conan is. That's to say, it's completely true, but it's only because the female characters are props used to show off how masculine they are.

[foxhack]

Actually, no, they are demeaning to women because that's nothing but an accessory in these books. A prize, a trophy, a one night stand. And the women are written like brainless girls that fall for anyone who goes into the ring.

[legba]

I agree. Like I said, they're props, used to show how macho the wrestlers are. You'll find prop characters in any sort of story, and in the macho power-fantasy that this is, the prop of choice is women. Other props include motorcycles, chains and adoring fans.

Is it sexist? Yes it is. This type of story demeans anyone who doesn't conform to the macho creed; Pierroth deserves the beating he gets at the end not because he was an asshole - because he's clearly the protagonist of this story, and we've cheered him on every step of his douchey way way - but because he tried to win in an underhanded, non-macho way, i.e. by writing.

Anyway, my point is simply that it's not the story that's sexist, it's the genre itself. I mean, have you read Battle Pope? It's the same thing.

[foxhack]

Well, Pierroth didn't get the beating he deserved. Nobody won that fight. :p

He just got humiliated in public, but that's about it. :p

Also, Battle Pope was well aware of its own... whatever it was. So you can't take that too seriously. These comics, well...

[thandrak]

Got any with real vampires, or werewolves, or anything? I'm trying to blow someone's mind, and I need to prove to them that luchadores fighting monsters is perfectly normal.

Either that, or luchadores walking around wearing normal clothes and their mask and nobody noticing.

[foxhack]

Actually, I DO have a book which deals with werewolves.

Also, you don't need my help for that! There's movies!

"Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankestein (1973)" / Santo and Blue Demon against Dr. Frankenstein
"Santo vs. las lobas (1972)" / Santo Vs The She-Wolves
Santo en el tesoro de Drácula (1968) / Santo in Dracula's Treasure

And so on. :)

[thandrak]

Oh, I know there's movies. And I do believe I'll watch your recommendation. Especially Santo y Blue Demon. But there's nothing like single page WTFs frozen in action to wave at people.

[midnightvoyager]

MST3K did Samson vs. The Vampire Women (They Anglicized his name into Samson because... well. Strong. Samson. Yanno. Still, odd to change a name.) It is possibly one of the funniest things in the universe. I always rupture something upon Samson's entry.

[dalf]

Éste es el cómic más MEXICANO que he leído en mi vida.

No seas gacho, está de pelos!

[autumn_lily]

The vampire guy looks like Nightwing....alternate universe anybody?

[icon_uk]

I was thinking Nightwing too, or else vampires are insanely huge KISS fans.

[autumn_lily]

Can't both be true?

[sir_razorback]

"Vampiro loses and wakes up in a hospital. Pierroth visits him to make fun of him (he brings some crotches!) "

owowowowowW!! My ribs hurt! I know it was a type-o (at least I assume it was, or did this book get truly wierd betwen the scans) but I think I split something when I read that.

[foxhack]

God damnit I knew I had a typo somewhere.

And to think I was about to delete this icon due to lack of use

[darkblade]

THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR SUPPORTS PIERROTH IN HIS ENDEVERS TO RID SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT OF TWO OF IT'S GREATEST THREATS...VAMPIRES...AND...CANADIANS!

TO BRING THE UNNATURAL ARTS OF NECROMANCY INTO THE HONOURABLE RING OF...DESTRUCITY IS AN ABOMNINTABLE TASK OF UNPARRELLED EVIL AND SGOULD BE PUNISHED IN FULL FORCE BY A JURY OF HIS UNDEAD PEERS!

Re: And to think I was about to delete this icon due to lack of use

[leikomgwtfbbq]

DESTRUCITY! SKROOOOOOOONK!

Re: And to think I was about to delete this icon due to lack of use

[badficwriter]

Meditates on this wisdom.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

The look of the wrestling guys made me LOL.

[aeolos_sakya]

¡Ja, ja, ja!

Estos comics si que eran populares en esos días, ¿no?

Que genial xD

[proteus_lives]

Daken? Is that you?

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm always fascinated at how luchadores are automatically assigned these epic lives outside the ring. You'd think that, after a hard day of training and a hard night of bodyslamming and takedowns, they'd want to shuck the mask, crack open a brew and relax - but noooooooo. No time for that! Can't take off the mask now! There are mad scientists that must be dealt with! And vampires! And supervillains! And midgets in funny costumes! And even when THEY'RE dealt with, they STILL don't get a break - because there are OTHER wrestlers who still have it in for them, in or outside of the ring! I mean, I know that American wrestlers also get comics and so forth written around their in-ring personas on occasion, but the Mexican versions just take it all so SERIOUSLY. They're WRESTLERS, dammit! And there is no referee when you're fighting evil!