Pah

Panel Loco: El Macho et La Mujer

So much happens in Seaguy (vol 2) #2, that it is easy to think very little happens. We are shown the first post-Dad Age use of superpowers. We have the first proof that the Eyes are something other than men in suits.

I want to focus on the story of El Macho and El Monstro. Do I agree with Greg Burgas that their relationship “is the most real thing in this book of artifice”? I do not! Let’s see how it’s embedded in the story of Seaguy.

And now, brother bull… kneel.

The quote is from page 17, after the bulldresser El Macho has subdued the bull El Monstro by dressing him like a human.

The image (Cameron Stewart’s art, stripped [by me] of Dave Stewart’s painterly colours) is from page 29, after the retiring El Macho crowns El Monstro king of bulls.

I find it interesting that El Macho has done the same thing twice: got El Monstro on his knees, with human clothes on. Truly he is king of the bulldressers.

The man is a consummate actor, able to play any role as readily as he does the disenchanted consumer Seaguy. A weaker actor might have ended up dead or dying in the bullring. He not only survives (even when the odds are stacked against him) he takes his name seriously and, in the selection of his trademark, puts his finger on the heart of his sport. Bullfighting constructs a pre-modern masculinity based on killing or being killed. Bulldressing constructs a modern masculinity where killing has been replaced by the ability to dress others (that is, give them roles) as you see fit, but the stakes for the bulldresser are no lower. To be the king of the bulldressers, El Macho sees it is not enough to dress the bull in any clothes, but to dress it in a construction of weak femininity.

Of course we also see in the panel that El Monstro is no sentimental instinctual-noble animal. He is every bit as civilised as the horse in Seaguy (vol 1) and every bit as complicit as El Macho. He chooses whether to kill or not, and seeks public acclaim.

The most real thing in this book is the artifice. The most artificial is the real.

Apologies! I promised Filthy thoughts, but got distracted. How about this for now: Ned Slade, meet El Macho—and eat your heart out!

Item! Andrew Hickey wonders about possible misogyny. Of course any masculinist project like Los Huevos is going to be misogynist.

Next month! Adventure and courage or riches and power? Let’s escape together!