This is the final volume of Dr. Slump. I have to say, it’s a bitter sweet moment. I’m glad that
the series is ending because there is no way to make an open ended humour
series work. It will eventually grow stale and if I’m being perfectly honest
with myself and with Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball,
some of the stories in the later volumes demonstrated that things had indeed
started to slow down. Part of this could be that while ending Dr. Slump, Toriyama was also working on
the early chapters of Dragon Ball
which as well all know became and international phenomenon. Maybe he was
getting a bit distracted by his new series. It’s not surprising to thing that
after four years of non-stop hilarity in Penguin Village, a new series with new
characters and a different setting would have its appeal. Why wouldn’t Toriyama
want to focus on a different project? I’m not saying this to complain or to
rationalize a depressive decrease in quality in the 18th volume of Dr. Slump. The opposite is closer to the
truth.
It’s impressive that Toriyama still manages to write
funny stories about the townspeople who live in Penguin Village. If there’s one
thing you need to understand about Dr.
Slump is that there is a rotating cast of villagers that regularly pop up
in stories. Some only appear one or just a handful of times but others appear
at least once or twice a volume. Even after 18 volumes Toriyama is still
creating new characters. The most notable in this volume is Biker Boy which
should come at no real surprise considering the focus of this volume. Toriyama
didn’t shy away from infusing Dr. Slump
with his hobbies and all the other things he enjoys in life. Toriyama loves
science fiction movies, building models, motorized vehicles and animals. He
didn’t just incorporate this in the bonus feature pages in-between the chapters
in the collections, he also incorporate these elements to the title pages and
the stories themselves.
If there is one predominant theme to the final volume
it’s advertising his new series, Dragon
Ball. Seriously, if you haven’t read it, go out and buy a copy. It’s great
stuff! I actually enjoy Dr. Slump far
more than I ever liked Dragon Ball (and
I really like it!). It’s one of the most overlooked manga series I know of.
Sorry, I lost focus there. If there is one predominant theme to this volume its
setting up stories in which Toriyama gets to draw vehicles of all sorts but
specifically motorcycles. The standout new character of this volume is Biker
Boy. A boy who has a rare and complicated (and entirely real) disease: he will
die if he is not riding his motorcycle. He lives his life riding around the
island never stopping for anything. A truck has to drive next to him so he can
refill. He radios his favourite food truck to toss food at him while he drives
by. Biker Boy’s condition is so serious he can’t even stop to use the bathroom.
He wears a biking suit which is cut out at the back allowing him to poo in a
special compartment of his bike which then flings it out onto the side of the
road. This solves one of the great mysteries of Dr. Slump: just where do all the little piles of poo come from? Now
we know where Arale finds it all. Thanks Toriyama, fans around the world also
thank you for finally revealing the greatest secret in all of manga history.
Maria M. Book
One review:
Gilbert Hernandez is a genius. He’s been hard at work on
one of the best long form comic works of all time. Along with his brothers,
Jaime and Mario, they’ve been regularly releasing Love and Rockets for over thirty years. Gilbert been pushing his
work and bringing it to very interesting places since the Luba in America stories have been published. The most notable of
these comics is the “Fritz B-movie” sub-series. Half-sister of Luba, Rosalba
“Fritz” Martinez gave up her job as a psychotherapist to take up acting and Maria M. is her long lost masterpiece.
All of the Fritz B-movies are low-grade sexploitation
films taking advantage of and displaying her unique physique. Maria M. is based on a true story and it
has Fritz playing her own mother. The true story on which this “movie” is based
is Gilbert’s incredibly dense Poison
River, a huge and complex comic book opus. Already without looking at the
story itself, Maria M. is a complex
work simply based on its origins, both metatextual and real. The story though
is pretty impressive for a 135 page comic that averages four panels per page.
Maria Martinez has recently arrived in America (having run away from her home
country in South America after an affair with her father’s gardener which
resulted in the birth of her first daughter, Luba – that is if my memory serves
me well, I haven’t read Poison River
in quite some time). She finds a few “modelling” jobs and finally gets a few
acting jobs as well. An influential gangster helps to produce one of those
films, falls in love and marries Maria. The inconsistencies, or specifically,
the artistic liberties being taken by Beto (a widely used nickname for
Hernandez) with one of his previous stories is fascinating. In part because of
how it contrasts with the earlier story and also on how it reflects more of
Fritz’s character than it does on her mother. That makes sense of course since
she’s had her story told in Poison River.
But details such as Maria’s husband actually loving her or Gorgo having a
brother and being Maria’s step-son bodyguard all feel kind of off but it makes
for an engrossing read due to the depth of meaning these seemingly minor
changes could have on the larger story of Fritz found in Beto’s work.
The Fritz B-movies has varied in complexity and quality
but this latest one is pretty damn good. I feel like I’m missing some of the
nuances the comic has to offer because it’s been such a long time since I’ve
read the stories in my hardcover collection of Luba as well as Poison River
that I’m certain I’m missing quite a bit. This comic, like most of the Fritz
B-movies can only truly be appreciated by fans of Beto’s previous work. Still,
I’m convinced Maria M. is a very good
read because it’s a fast paced, haphardously paced crime comic. There is sex
and violence to be found on nearly every page and the paranoia filled lives of
Senor Cienfuegos (Maria’s husband), Gorgo and even Maria herself will delight
even the most biased and critical fans of crime comics. I can’t believe Beto
and Fantagraphics decided to split this story in two because the wait might
just make me lose my mind but I shouldn’t complain too much since it gives me
time to revisit earlier stories with Fritz and refresh my memory on just how
big an impact making this movie had on her as well as her family.
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