Created by Carlos Trillo & Eduardo Risso
“There is something worse than gringos… and that is rich Mexicans who look at you as if you were garbage.”
Chicanos follows the misadventures (it’s hard to call them “cases”) of ALEJANDRINA “A.Y.” JALISCO, a short, stout, top-heavy (and, we’re constantly told, unattractive) Mexican woman who follows her dream of becoming a private eye in the U.S., all while trying to stay one step ahead of immigration–and the astonishingly bad luck which seems to dog her.
Now calling New York City home, A.Y.’s beat is far from the gleaming spires of Manhattan, but then so is A.Y. Â In fact, it’s her conspicuous lack of glamour that helps her pass through much of life without drawing attention either personally or professionally, with one of her favourite disguises being that of a cleaning lady. Because, after all, who notices them?
Not that the ex-pat eye is necessarily moving on up in the world. Mostly she works out of her one-room apartment, and hangs out at Mommies Bar, a local hangout (where her bad luck and disastrous love life is an ongoing source of amusement and pity among the regulars), and drives borrowed cars.
Alternately dark, humorous and occasionally pointedly political about the American immigration experience, her own Mexican childhood and sometimes far-reaching effects A.Y.’s work has on her friends and family, this black-and-white title was the work of the longtime creative Argentinian duo of Carlos (The Big Hoax) Trillo and Eisner winner Eduardo (100 Bullets) Risso, and was written and drawn in decidedly broad strokes. They may have overdone the “unattractiveness” schtick occasionally, A.Y’s “bad luck” sometimes came off as just mean-spirited (does every boyfriend have to be such an asshole–or worse?), and there was a faint glaze of misogyny about some of the crap they put her through.
Still, wouldn’t it be nice if more American comics tolerated more females who are something other than ersatz Penthouse pets in spandex, push-up bras, fuck-me heels and other fetish gear?
COMICS
- CHICANOS
(1993-94)
Black & white
16 issues
32 pages
Written by Carlos Trillo
Art by Eduardo Risso
First published in Italian and French - CHICANOS
(2006-06)
Black & white
16 issues
32 pages
Written by Carlos Trillo
Art by Eduardo Risso
Translated into English by Gretzel Rivero Ivanek.
COLLECTIONS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
- CHICANOS: VOLUME 1 |Â Buy this book
(2006, IDW)
B&W
192 pages
Written by Carlos Trillo
Art by Eduardo Risso
Translated into English by Gretzel Rivero Ivanek
Collects first eight issues.
- CHICANOS: VOLUME 2 |Â Buy this book
(2006, IDW)
B&W
192 pages
Written by Carlos Trillo
Art by Eduardo Risso
Translated into English by Gretzel Rivero Ivanek
Collects issues 9-16.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Drawn That Way
Lady Eyes from the Comics
THE DICK OF THE DAY
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
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