DVD Giveaway - Add Santo to your collection!

Damas y Caballeros! I have a wonderful announcement for you all–I am doing a giveaway for the month of May! I have an extra copy of the DVD Santo En La Venganza De La Momia!

87 minutes of Santo action!

This DVD is new, unused, unopened. It's from the Zima Entertainment Santo Colección. The DVD is region 1 AND 4, so anyone with a DVD player from the US or México can watch it! According to the sticker on the box, it says that there are English subtitles as well, with of course a Spanish audio track.

Santo, el enmascarado de plata, joins an archaeological expedition with a mission to explore the ruins of Aztec origin. After reaching a nearby village, the villagers try to stop them "from desecrating the dreams of the dead. " The group continues, within the ancient ruins they discover the tomb of a priest who was buried alive and cursed. From then on, one by one, the members of the expedition start disappearing...

How do you win this awesome DVD? First, the offer is only valid to the US. I'm sorry but the shipping is coming out of my pocket–and my pockets are very shallow. Other than that, entry is a breeze: just email me at jesse.acosta@gmail.com. Be sure to mark the subject as "Santo DVD Giveaway." (That's it…easy, eh?)

Would you like to increase your odds? When you write me that e-mail, also include your Twitter username. Tweet the following message and I'll add your name a second time into the hat:

#SantoDVDGiveaway in May! Win a copy of Santo en La Venganaza de la Momia! http://ow.ly/4KWVz for details

On May 31st, a random drawing will be held and you just might be the lucky winner! Check your inbox for an e-mail from me. Whoever wins the giveaway will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address. If no response is made, someone else will be chosen, at random.

This will be a fun month for Santo fans!

Santo en Las Momias de Guanajuato

This is probably my favorite of the films I have seen thus far in the lucha-libre genre–probably due to the Holy Trinity star in this film: Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Máscaras. I also like the fact that in this film (and others) they suggest that Santo comes from a long lineage of Enmascarados de Plata. Imagine Hernán Cortés arriving in México, and seeing a wrestling ring constructed of jungle vine and wood set within an ancient Aztec temple; two tribal brutes duke it out with masks…too bad real lucha history doesn't extend much further than than the early 20th century!

Guanajuato is very beautiful

This isn't a real mummy...

The film is set in the beautiful colonial city of Guanajuato, known for it's bizarre collection of mummies. Pinguino, the midget tour guide, explains to a group of curious visitors: the unique chemical makeup of the earth in Guanajuato only lets the human body break down to a point, then it begins to harden, turning corpses into twisted looking mummies. He goes on to say that one of the mummies is called Satan, and was once a luchador. (He's even still wearing his one-hundred year old tights). It is revealed that this 7' monster had made a pact with the Lord of shadows to return to life to avenge a humiliating loss in the ring against Santo's ancestor. Pinguino remembers that the curse foretells that our villain should return this very day! Well, the curse is true–the lucha mummy and his cohorts set forth causing all sorts of havoc until they find Santo to settle an ancient score.

This is the real museum of the mummies of Guanajuato

And this is what a true mummy of Guanajuato looks like.

Stats
Length: 95 minutes
Year: 1971


Favorite Quote
Blue Demon: How about we celebrate our meeting?
Mil Máscaras: That sounds like a great idea! How about I make us some big steaks, and a Roquefort salad, and a Valencian paella, and a nice vegetable soup, and...
Lina (Mil's girlfriend): Remember, you're on a diet!
Mil Máscaras looks down and whimpers in disappointment


The Ratings:
My rating system is out of five stars, and consists of six categories, then an overall score.

• Story: This is a pretty basic story, like most lucha films. We have the trope of the adopted child (This time Blue Demon has Julio as an adopted son). We have a midget (Pinguino the mummy tour guide). We have monsters (Guanajuato mummies that look more like zombies). I also like how Santo plays as the Deux ex Machina in this film, coming in out of the blue to save the day. I also like that there was only one tag-team wrestling scene in this film. Most of these lucha films have two to three matches that you have to sit through. Depending on whose wrestling, I sometimes watch. Mil is definitely more skilled, and has some impressive movies in the ring in this film.
• Bizarre Factor:   Honestly, this isn't all that weird compared to others. I do like that the police don't seem to terribly distraught over shooting a mummy disguised as Blue Demon with no effect. They are also pretty chummy with Blue Demon when they apologize for accusing him of the murders without any real clues. Also, the one way to survive a mummy attack is to go to sleep. Lina and Julio always are sleeping, yet Mil and Blue Demon don't seem too afraid they might be eaten or kidnapped by the living dead walking the streets of Guanajuato.

• Horror: These mummies are pretty cool looking, but not ragged enough for being 100+ years old. I also like the ring leader's droopy eyeball. Too bad they couldn't be a little more rotten, or even hungry for flesh. They were only good for snapping necks. 

• Action: As per usual lucha film, lots of fights, matches, and throw downs. My favorite scene is when Blue chucks a mummy out of the second story window. I am curious though, are the undead forced to watch Bruce Lee films in the afterlife? I ask because these mummies have only one battle tactic: karate chop. No closed fist punches, no kicks, just hand chops. Not even biting! I guess not all zombies were created equal. 
• Camp: Oh man are there some plot holes in this film. My favorite plot hole is the scene where the mummies knock out Blue Demon and steal his clothes to impersonate him and cause chaos downtown. For one, how did Blue get home? They don't even mention it, and he never tells anyone what happened. Perhaps he was too ashamed to have been stripped by a 7' mummy? Also, why are these mummies only interested in knocking out the heroes? You'd think they would just feast on them instead. 
• Nudity: No nudity, or even suggestion of real sex. Well, Pinguino does ask one of the night club girls to stay the night in her room, but that might be 50% because the little guy is scared of the mummy murders. 
• Overall: This is a really great introduction into the lucha genre of films for anyone. There is only one lucha match to undergo (or fastforward for the weak), the action is pretty quick, not many slow dialogue moments, there are scenes of comedy, and it has all the fun tropes. I would go to this film for new recruits.
  
  

Experiences with the Son of El Santo

I found this really great documentary hosted by Hijo del Santo. He speaks about how he wishes for a museum, and how he has a private home museum of his father's legendary life. Then he talks shop with Mil Máscaras.

Sorry, it's Spanish only. If anything, fast forward the first clip to about 6 minutes 30 seconds to see Santo's first mask.

Santo Sketchcard on Etsy

I feel weird tooting my own horn, but what the heck, this is my blog, right? Well, for those that don't know, I have an Etsy Shop. I sell a lot of my artwork on there, and currently I'm doing a series of horror sketch cards. But villains and monsters aren't anything without their heroic counterparts. So today I produced this Santo ACEO sketch card:

ACEOs (Artist Card Editions or Originals) are small originals created by artists. Perfect for collecting or trading! This is a 2½" × 3½" PSC ACEO Sketch Card of world famous luchador El Santo enmascarado de plata aka Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (September 23, 1917 - February 5, 1984).

El Santo has been in over 52 films, and has been featured in comic book and cartoon adaptations. He started his lucha libre career in the early 1930s, only to start slowing down by 1980. His son, Hijo del Santo, continues to wrestle and dons his father's mask.

Drawn in pencil, inked, then colored with prismacolor markers. On Canson heavyweight sketch cardstock.
ACEO sketch cards are shipped with archival sleeve, plus protected with cardboard.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming... I just received Mondo Lucha A Go Go in the mail today, and last week I received Lucha Noir by Rafael Navarro and From Parts Unknown. Lastly, after being borrowed for what seemed like half an eternity, I finally got Santo y Blue Demon Contra Dracula y Hombre Lobo back from a friend. One of these will be reviewed within the next few days. I'll keep you posted!

Strongman Volume 1 - Review

Next up on the docket for review is STRONGMAN Volume 1, by Charles Soule & Allen Gladfelter, published by Slave Labor Graphics (SLG):

Cover to Strongman Volume 1

This book is just something I happened to discover while googling (I find using Google as a verb still odd, how about you?) comics based on lucha libre. It was published not too long ago either, I'm surprised it snuck passed my radar.

El Tigre is essentially a has-been Santo. Once famous, hailed as a hero in México, but now resides in New York, alone, drunk, and bloated, with a horrible anger management issue with his apartment door. But someone who knows his stories find him, in need of help, and this plea reinvigorates his motivation to get back in action and feel needed again by his people.

Panel layouts are clear and concise. El Tigre packs a wallop!

El Tigre sporting a collared '70s tee.

Stats:
Page Count: 120
Year: March 2009



Favorite Quote: My favorite quote is actually an entire scene: Maria: He told me you took your liver, Now you will take his. Tigre: But you are not a doctor. How will you know which it is? Maria: Yes.. Then I will take it all.


The Ratings:
My rating system is out of five stars, and consists of six categories, then an overall score.

• Story:
  The story has it's high points and low points. I really had a gut feeling that this wasn't researched well enough, from the Spanish littered throughout to the lucha libre genre. Some of the dialogue felt as though they thumbed through a Spanish dictionary, or found a "Spanish Curse Word Bible" to litter the word balloons. Also, what is Bujo supposed to be? Is he supposed to be an owl? Well, that word is búho, pronounced (Boo-O). There's a certain feeling to the lucha genre that is moralistic and wholesome, while this story gets heavy with the profanity, nudity, and other mature themes. I like the overall overall arch with the hero, but I wish he stood on his own without being a cookie cutter luchadore in the shadow of Santo.
• Art:
  The art is clean, tight, well rendered, and easy to follow. But it also feels a bit stiff from time to time, I think this is because of the artist's photo reference technique. In the last pages of the graphic novel, they show that he would spend the time making mock-up scenes out of foam-core boards and shoot the angles. While this is kind of neat, I feel like it's taking time away from just drawing. I listened to an interview once with an artist on the Side Bar Nation podcast, who used a 3D modeler to render simple backgrounds for his pages to give the scene more depth, then he'd redraw it. After a while, he was spending more time at the computer modeling ridiculous scenes, and not enough time just behind the art table drawing. It was Jim Lee who told him "Why do all that effort, don't you just like to draw?" So I feel as though this model making scene can be useful, if it gets too tedious then it might turn the art a little dry. Also, I noticed in the scenes where Tigre would go to wrestling matches and play rudos for income, one panel shows him wearing and incorrect mask. His rudo (bad guy) mask covers his chin like a traditional luchador mascara. But on page 17, you see a side shot where his chin is open, like his técnico mask.
• Bizarre Factor:
  This is relatively a straight forward story with one bizarre factor: The rich villain feeds his rich guests organs of poor Mexicans from the streets. WTF? Very weird, and out of left field. Normally I don't mind that, but this is sort of gross.
  
• Horror:
  Again, the cannibalism and organ stealing is a bit much.
  
• Action:
  Like any good lucha story, there is a good amount of rumbling.
  
• Camp:
  Some of characters feel cookie cutter, from our hero El Tigre, to the villains. Then the end scene where I get my favorite quote from is really cheesy. Maria snags all the villain's organs because she can't distinguish the liver from the rest? Really? You have two lungs, a heart, two kidneys, a stomach, and... a liver. It's not terribly difficult to find. Also, you can't just show up at a hospital with an improperly retrieved organ on ice, and ask to have it put back in. I should know, I work at a hospital, and deal with organ donors quite a bit.
• Nudity:
  There is quite a bit of sex, nudity, and one of the minor villains runs a strip club. The profanity is pretty high as well. Not suitable for younger readers.
  
• Overall:
  Again, I enjoyed the overall story of El Tigre in Strongman volume 1, but there are some quibbles I had to pick at. I know I'll be picking up volume two, which is currently available as well on Amazon. If this sounds like your cup of tea, definitely make an order at Amazon, links below!