Dead in Desemboque is a bilingual, graphic-novel tribute to Mexican border commix, complete with eye-popping illustrations. Sold at every corner newsstand and in every village bodega, pocket-sized comic books called historietas have been wildly popular for many decades among readers of all ages in Mexico, whose comic book industry produces dozens of pulp titles with circulations in the tens of millions every month. Dead in Desemboque, written by New Mexico-resident and IAIA/UNM professor Eddy Robert Arellano, continues in this rich tradition, becoming the first historieta to be published north of the border.
America’s 1st historieta, a bawdy border comic in the Mexican pulp fiction tradition.
Sold at every corner newsstand and in every village bodega, pocket-sized comic books called historietas have been wildly popular for many decades among readers of all ages in Mexico, whose comic book industry produces dozens of pulp titles with circulations in the tens of millions every month.
In 2008, Soft Skull announces a (New) Mexican comic, the first historieta ever to be published north of the border.
In Dead in Desemboque, Hispanic novelist and indie musician Eddy Robert Arellano, collaborating with three gritty American artists, has also written the first historieta in Spanglish – accessible to all ages and all cultures.
“When a dama named Juanita calls him down to Sonora, Eddy rides across the Rio Bravo and never looks back. He expects to come up against brawls, rustlers of his dogs, and even the sadistic Amazon. But on his first day in Mexico, with the cacti in flower and the snakes far away in their summer bowers, nobody could have convinced Eddy that, at the end of many ugly and erotic encounters along dusty roads full perils, he would end up … ”
Eddy Robert Arellano lives in Dixon, New Mexico. As Bobby Rabyd, he created the internet’s first interactive novel, Sunshine ’69. Robert is the head of the Academy of Literacy & Cultural Studies at the University of Mexico – Taos. He produces tracks and tours with his freak Latino music project Havanarama.
Advance praise for Dead in Desemboque:
“Dead in Desemboque seems infused by the type of fear that invades the U.S.-Mexico border these days. Arellano is an artist with cojones. Nothing is too sacred for him. Think José Guadalupe Posada and Ambrose Bierce in dialogue, sharing Tequila shots, while a border-patrol helicopter hovers over the sky. Ay cabrón!” --Ilan Stavans, author of Latino U.S.A.: A Cartoon History
Praise for Eddy Robert Arellano:
...for Don Dimaio of La Plata (Akashic Books, 2004): “Robert Arellano’s new book is one of the bawdiest, dirtiest, rowdiest and raunchiest novels I've come across in a long time. And it is also one of the funniest.” —Sam Coale, Providence Journal
“Arellano has created a brilliant novel of political satire. Never lets the reader down.” —Library Journal
...for Fast Eddie, King of the Bees (Akashic Books, 2001): “An epic hip hop sci-fi fantasy. One of the most wonderfully improbable narrators since Tom Robbins’s red-haired rebel in Still Life with Woodpecker.” —The American Book Review
“A lively and imaginative 21st-century parody of the Victorian novel of the foundling in search of his true parents, complete with comically elaborate twists and turns of lot, broad social satire, and a rich cast of characters. Fast Eddie’s a lot of fun.” —Robert Coover
