Review: Bordertown #2

If there are comic book fans who have been wondering about why there has been such a pointed (mostly positive) critical response to DC/Vertigo“s Border Town, then the second installment in the story has arrived to make it plain: Border Town is a dope ass comic book. Maybe it bothered some readers that a Nazi got his face punched in the very first issue, or maybe it was the MAGA guys at the border that spooked readers who don“t want to think about the intense, often unnecessary conflict at and about our borders in real life. Either way, Border Town, crafted by Eric Esquivel, Ramon Villalobos, and Tamra Bonvillain, is unashamed about the social justice terrain it is claiming as its territory.

Border Town #2 gives us a bit of background on Quinteh ”“ one of the weirder characters in a cast of teens and otherworldly monsters. Quinteh isn“t a wrestler per se, but he does wear a luchador mask to school ”“ and everywhere apparently ”“ every day. The flashback in issue two gives readers some insight, but the backstory only opens the door to more lore for the series and for this character. Wearing a mask, literally in this case, is how Quinteh is able to get through his days in Devil“s Fork, Arizona ”“ the setting of Border Town and a character unto itself. But like all else in Esquivel“s wonderful world, “wearing masks”“ is also a figurative activity through which the wearer invites people to see what they want to see. Famous poet, Paul L. Dunbar once wrote: “we wear the mask that grins and lies . . .”“

There is much more to say about figuration in Border Town. The border between Arizona and Mexico is simply a fence – sorry folks no wall here yet. But that fence is a barrier that people are willing to kill over and/or die to get over. It“s a piece of our zeitgeist framed as teen high school horror, and it works. Each panel of the series is vivid, rendered beautifully by Ramon Villalobos and Tamra Bonvillain. The fenced border is also at a particular point a border/portal between the world of Devil“s Fork and the subterrestrial world of Mictlan. And this otherworldly border seems to have some uncanny themes and things in common with our own. As we learn more about why the lizard-looking monster, in question, has decided to escape to the reality that is more like our own, we might begin to understand why so many of the characters in this story only see what they fear most whenever they look at it. 4.5/5.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Eric M Esquivel (A/CA) Ramon Villalobos