Comics - Calvario Hills

CRIME/POLITICS

This is actually the 16th of Fantagraphics’ Ignatz imprints, which collects cartooning from around the globe in handsome over-sized, two-colour, jacketed editions. The first issue of Calvario Hills revives Spanish cartoonist Marti’s hard-boiled fiction style character The Cabbie from the mid-80s in a new story about the disgraced president of America, who’s on the run from the law, and his pal the next pope who likes to conduct medical experiments on baby foetuses.

A second and similarly provocative satirical storyline introduces the all-American city of Calvario Hills, where the white supremacists of the National Rifle Association go head-to-head with the local black crime kingpin and his crack-smoking hordes who are backing an African-American frontrunner for mayor who wants to outlaw the second amendment. It’s hilariously irreverent stuff.

(Miles Fielder)