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Monday, January 10, 2005
"Human Diastrophism"
Let us continue with the series of close looks at my favorite books. This is the graphic novel that, as part of the Poison River trade, remains the first Love & Rockets work I have ever read. It’s a doozy of an introduction.
Gilbert Hernandez, along with his brother Jaime, have taken the tropes of romance comics and brought them along to mean something more. Instead of just going along with the exploits of some maudlin drama queens, however entertaining that might be, the stories Hernandez weaves about the South American town of Palomar are the rare but wonderful comics that force us to think differently of ourselves and our world. “Human Diastrophism” is the culmination of all that came before it with its wide cast of characters, each one as unique and fascinating as the next. Since Hernandez’s stories of Palomar took a leap in time after this story “Diastrophism” is a last hurrah in way. It has a message which cannot be ignored, either for what it is or for how it is presented.
The most wonderful thing about Hernandez’s comics is the excellent realization of Palomar. Every character in the book is as complex and interesting as real humans. The stories arise out of the townspeople’s foibles and follies, from the serious to the humorous. Hernandez creates this beautiful Latin American township with his textural backgrounds and humans with their Dan DeCarlo by way of Hank Ketcham look. The history of Palomar has been created over the years with these characters and when they are experienced as one long read as they are in the book Palomar it’s quite an experience. Every single truth about the human experience can probably be concluded within the world Hernandez has made.
“Diastrophism” is a story about change happening to a closely-knit community and various members of that community’s reaction to it. Hernandez makes a point of the tragedy that springs from when members of the community decide to labor over the trivial when real change, and sometimes real danger, is happening. One of the biggest happenings of the book is that a serial killer has struck in Palomar. Not unlike Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell, Hernandez decides to make the killer’s identity clear. This way the story doesn’t become a simple whodunit, the concept of this criminal is used to say something about the characters in the book. Many citizens suspect that the murder is part of the archeological team that has come to Palomar’s area. That’s only half-right. Killer Tomaso is a member of the team that was actually born and raised in Palomar. The townspeople are quick to blame outside forces when they need something to blame but so many of the time these people don’t realize that many of their problems originate from inside themselves.
That ignorance proves to change many of the characters and the community forever. “Diastrophism” is when we see younger members of the community begin to realize their own individuality. Town gossips Carmen and Pipo are obsessed with the young babosa saleswoman Tonantzin finding a political conciseness. Humberto is becoming an artist much to the dissatisfaction of Sherrif Chelo. What would scandalize Palomar the most, if they ever knew, would be that Luba’s eldest daughter Maricela has a budding lesbian relationship with another girl in town.
Maricela’s relationship with her mother is already pretty bad. Hernandez can create wonderfully complex characters better than almost all current creators and there’s no better example than Luba. She is a woman who makes no apologies when it comes to her mind, her body or the fact that she is a single mother with daughters from different men. In many ways she is an inspiration but she is not without human failings. We find that she is prone to horrific acts of physical abuse against her daughters. Luba represents both the new guard and the old guard of Palomar. She is disapproved by many but still comes down hard on those she doesn’t approve of.
As Humberto progresses as an artist we find that he is the one takes the most notice of the murders that are happening in town. All the while Chelo and others are stumped at who to bring to justice. We find that it is the artist himself who allows him to see more truth than the rest of Palomar.
One of the few who are asking questions of society is jailhouse resident Pecueca, who is sending letter out to Tonantzin. Pecueca might talk a good game but his ego and smarminess, not to mention his futile infatuation with Tontatzin, makes him more of a huckster than a revolutionary. He does not seek to challenge himself, just the society that has jailed him. Tontatzin’s seeks no reason to question Pecueca either and follows him along. She might be the object of Palomar’s obsession but her own obsession no healthier. It produces the saddest of all conclusions in the story.
Luba’s daughter Guadalupe might be the most sensible one of the story, the one who is not even asking questions but is simply seeking for things to go right for her family and her town. She doesn’t waste her time accusing or being suspicious of anybody. It’s because of her age, she is Luba’s second oldest as in grade school, that she doesn’t hold much power and unfortunately does sway anybody to her way of thinking. Guadalupe’s father and Carmen’s husband Heraclio is probably the most intelligent member of society but never uses those gifts for much outside of encouraging Humberto’s art. He takes little action against Carmen and Pipo’s scheming and can never get past a sense of arrogance he has to do much action.
Villagers of Palomar are more concerned with the monkeys that have gathered in town, and captured the imagination of Luba’s daughter Casimira, than the killer in their very midst. One horrific scene has mob rule in all its glory bashing the monkeys’ brains in the middle town for all to see. It’s an easy thing for the townspeople to target on and do something about. The monkeys are clearly alien and therefore are a nuisance, right? Hernandez tells us that just because a problem is the most visible doesn’t make the most urgent. The villagers’ monkey-bashing is a way for them to get out their neuroses about Palomar being invaded or destroy, and one that leads to a tragedy for both Casimira and Sherrif Chelo. For the people to ask themselves if they are the ones destroying Palomar would be a lot harder to do.
At the end of “Diastrophism” Palomar realizes that change has occurred, the most obvious being the loss of life due to Tomaso as well as Tontatzin’s suicide. Some citizens realize that they have been wrong, need to be humble and admit it’s time to change. Luba reveals the fathers of all her daughters but still bears no shame in having this family, nor should she. Maricela leaves town for the United States, knowing that Palomar has a long way until they accept someone like her. The biggest change for Palomar has to be the fact Luba takes over as mayor, the previous a victim of Tomaso. When a lover tells Luba that it is her “huge whopping jugs of yours running this town” it is an observation about the fact that she is an object for so many in Palomar to gossip and obsess about. Luba, with encouragement from Chelo, turns this into real power and proves she will not be told what to do because of somebody else’s image of her. It is a sign for the better for Palomar because it a sign of empowerment for others to embrace freedom from deadly groupthink. It’s just that the people of Palomar, even when later on when many of them they leave for the U.S., still have a long way to go.
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