YOUR INDY WEEKLY: A SELF-PORTRAIT COMIC #2

[MattBrady]

by Ryan McLelland

Carlos Mangual’s A Self Portrait Comic #2
Social Myth Studios – May 2006 - $2.00
Written by Carlos Mangual and Angel Fuentes
Art by; Carlos Mangual
Website: http://www.myspace.com/socialmyth

Rating: 3 and 1/2 stars (out of 4).

When I go out with my friends we usually end up drinking copious amounts of alcohol, talking about sex, and making fun of each other so harshly that we’ll usually get random people we’ve never met to join in. Of course reading a comic book about Ryan McLelland and his friends drinking and talking sex doesn’t seem that appealing (even to me) but reading Carlos Mangual’s A Self Portrait Comic #2, in which Carlos and those around him are converted from their everyday lives into a comic a la Harvey Pekar, is a refreshing change of pace. It’s a comic about how me and my friends would act would we be comic book characters and no topic is left uncovered by Carlos and his own friends when they are out at the bar drinking up a storm and mocking each other incessantly.

Carlos himself is a guy with glasses, perhaps just a tad overweight, and holding strong to his high ideals – especially when it comes to women. The man is a sexual camel and the issue starts off with Carlos describing to his friends how his blind date with a girl named Samira was truly the blind date from hell. Samira was a bit too drunk and just a little too eager for Carlos, the horny girl in a top perhaps a bit too tight for her body asking him, “Have you ever had a hot dog?” Everyone, of course, gets the double entandre and as Samira starts shouting out to the restaurant “I want a f*$king hot dog!” Carlos finds himself asking “Why me?”

I can relate directly to Carlos after these first three pages because my best friend Dan is just like him. Dan, like Carlos, holds his ideals and standards very high when it comes to women and he’d rather go for no one then go for the ‘eh-looking’ drunk girl who continues to lament, “If I’m not getting any hot dogs here, I’ll get them somewhere else!” And when we join Carlos and his friends at the bar the next day, right after Carlos caught us up on what happened with his blind date, it is just like what my friends and I would do would we be out with Dan after he told that story. We would mock him incessantly. It’s a rarity when a comic speaks out this much to me, but A Self Portrait Comic truly sucked me in from the start because of how out of real life it could be.



There isn’t much of a plot to speak of in the book as issue 2 is more of a slice-of-life featuring Carlos’s crew at one bar while his bestest friend-girl Beba is a few blocks away with her friends drinking at another. I have no clue what girls actually talk about when they aren’t with guys but Carlos nails down exactly what I at least think girls do which is talk about sex as well. As the night goes on and the drinking more intense we read as the two groups expose themselves fully, leaving no sexual topic unturned. However the dialogue never feels forced - it’s almost as if the real-life Carlos and co-writer Angel Fuentes brought a tape recorder out into the real world, caught real conversations, and converted it into this book.

A Self Portrait Comic is an earnest look at the world of one man and I enjoyed the book so much not only because of the great dialogue but also because I could relate so well to Carlos and his gang. The book is meant for mature readers so if frank discussions on sex, the opposite sex, and sexual appendages bother you then this is really not the book for you. If you are looking for a great read about a guy who really puts himself out there as the star of his own comic book then this book really is for you. You really want to root for Carlos, not the guy who writes or draws the comic, but the guy you are reading about on the page and while we can hope he finally lands the girl of his dreams it should be at least ten issues from now so we can feel and learn from Carlos’s fun times and mishaps.

Have an indy comic you’d like reviewed? Contact Ryan at rdmclelland@hotmail.com

[Kolimar]

The art looks good with a fun vibe. I liked the anatomy of the characters, particulary the women which I think is kinda important to represent attractively in this story. Nicely done.