They're Graphic Novels!

Something of interest to fellow comic book geeks in South Texas:

Although most superheroes dwell in large urban areas like New York City or Metropolis, at least one comic book character calls the Rio Grande Valley home.

The costumed hero El Gato Negro, created by Richard Dominguez and published by Azteca Productions, hails from Edinburg. El Gato, of course, recently guest-starred in the newspaper comic strip Baldo.

According to the International Catalogue of Superheroes, "[s]ocial worker Francisco Guerrero grew tired of watching the way criminals preyed on the weak and innocent. ... Francisco adopted the costumed identity of el Gato Negro, the Black Cat, ... who was to become the scourge of drug smugglers and coyotes. ..."

Another South Texas artist might not draw any comics that I know of, but former Monitor cartoonist Ramon Ramirez created a lot of political cartoons pertaining to the Valley. He's also a big Superman fan.

Speaking of the Big S, if you want to debate vital issues such as who would win in a fight, Superman or Mighty Mouse*, Valley comics fans have created an email discussion group, The South Texas Comic Book Reader, and a weblog of comics reviews called Slugfest.

My thanks to owner Chris Salazar of Hobbies and Heroes in McAllen for pointing me to that listserve and that blog.

*Superman, of course. Mighty Mouse is just a cartoon character.