Introduction to Luis Fernando's Comixtlán

Abstract

An introduction to Mexican comic book artist's Luis Fernando's Comixtlán comics compilation first published in 2010. Luis Fernando (Mexico City, 1950), a pioneer of graphic storytelling in his country, perhaps best represents the feel and ethos of the alternative Mexican comics scene in the late twentieth century. His black-and-white comics combine Mexican folkloric iconography and myths with a visual tradition that is deeply rooted in the U.S. and European experimental comics scenes. His human and animal characters, like Edward Gorey’s, are deceptively cute but reveal a darkness infused with the bloodiness of Catholic martyrdom. With its combination of modernity and enlightenment and tragicomic, barbaric violence and injustice, Comixtlán “provides a graphic synthesis of what it is to be Mexican