DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

expologoTomorrow and Sunday the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach hosts the fifth annual Latino Comics Expo.

Featured artists include POCHO contributor Eric J. Garcia, POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz, New York’s Stephanie Rodriguez and more.

Javier Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame, is the ringleader.

KCET’s Matt Stromberg explains the cultural significance of Latino cartoonistas and the political history they pioneered:

As box office figures can attest, comic books are big business, with successful cinematic adaptations proving that superheroes have made the leap from pop cultural niche to mainstream entertainment. Despite their wide appeal, however, comic books, at least the established titles that usually become big screens franchises, are still predominantly filled with white, male characters, especially in leading roles.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, “Artists Assemble! Empowerment and Inspiration in Contemporary Comics,” aims to challenge that narrative by focusing on mainly Latino artists who are using the medium to explore cultural and political issues that have meaning for them.

Mas…DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

Welcome to 2040 and life on ‘The Other Side’ (video)


Exterior, day: Destitute desert town in the year 2040. Audio: Spanish newsradio tells the story — unemployment is 86%, gangs are everywhere and food and water are getting scarce.

There’s only one thing a father can do — smuggle his family across the border to the prosperous country on The Other Side.

A woman in the White House is just the start: ‘Madam President’


Democrat Hillary Clinton is already making history. And come November, she could achieve another milestone: Becoming America’s first Madam President. Yet behind the groundbreaking nature of her candidacy lies an absence of women in elected office. The U.S. lags behind the rest of the world in female representation at the national level,

From the Library of Congress: The sky is now her limit (1920 toon)

skythelimitIn August of 1920, American women finally got the right to vote. Cartoonist Elmer Andrews “E.A.” Bushnell used the occasion to predict that a woman could/would/should become President of the United States. [Click on the image to enlarge.]

Here’s the Library of Congress listing for this image:

Title: [The sky is now her limit] / Bushnell 20.
Other Title: Enfranchisement now means the sky’s the limit, in woman’s sphere
Creator(s): Bushnell, Elmer Andrews, 1872-1939, artist
Date Created/Published: [1920 Aug.] Medium: 1 photomechanical print : line photoengraving.
Summary: Cartoon shows a young woman carrying buckets on a yoke, looking up at ladder ascending up to the sky, bottom rungs labeled “Slavery,” “House Drudgery,” and “Shop Work.” Top rungs labeled “Equal Suffrage,” “Wage Equity,” and “Presidency.”

WATCH: Betty Boop for President: ¡Competent and sane!

Made of pen and ink, she can win you with a wink. Ain’t she cute? Boop-Boop-a-Doop. Sweet Betty!

Betty Boop for President is a musical Fleischer Studios cartoon from 1932. Betty’s campaign promises a better, caring tomorrow, while her evil opponent Mr. Nobody blatantly offers a mess of malarkey to potential voters. Make sure to listen for FDR’s famous 1932 campaign song and don’t miss the miracle of the convict in the electric chair. Betty Boop for President! Also, beer.

Wikipedia sums up the plot:

Mas…WATCH: Betty Boop for President: ¡Competent and sane!

The Krayolas election-inspired ranchera: Piñata Trump (video)


San Antonio’s The Krayolas — known to their screaming fans as THE TEX-MEX BEATLES — crank up the accordion, tuba, and more cowbell for the ranchera-style Piñata Trump.

Santiago Jimenez Jr. (Flaco Jimenez’s younger brother) guest stars on button accordion.

Mas…The Krayolas election-inspired ranchera: Piñata Trump (video)