Book chapter
Intertextuality: Superrealist Intertextualities in Max’s Bardín
Critical Approaches to Comics, pp.270-282
Routledge
2011
DOI: 10.4324/9780203839454-30
Abstract
What is the secret to understanding a complex comic book? Can we find certain ways to analyze a sophisticated work with cryptic allusions? This chapter travels through the artistic mind of Spanish artist Max and his character Bardín in an effort to show a way to perceive and connect cultural influences in a comic. Sometimes, reading a comic we discover allusions to other pieces of art or literature. I remember the 1985 story by Gilbert Hernández, entitled “Love Bites,” in which his character Heraclio, the teacher of Palomar, is trying to explain to his wife Carmen the importance of books. She is very jealous about him reading books all the time and not paying attention to her. She tries to throw one of the books Heraclio is reading into the sea. Heraclio stops her, begging for her understanding. Carmen asks him why this book, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is so great. Heraclio explains to her that the book is in some ways about them (Figure 18.1). For many scholars, the works of Gilbert Hernández are linked with the Magic Realism literary tradition, especially the works of Gabriel García Márquez. In “Love Bites,” Gilbert Hernández uses intertextuality to develop a personal homage to Marquez’s work.
There is an interesting element behind this allusion. Years ago, I asked Gilbert why he did this intertextual reference to Gabriel García Márquez. He told me that in the early 1980s, when he started publishing the stories of Palomar in Love and Rockets, many people commented about the similarities the stories of the village of Palomar had with Macondo, the village in Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Gilbert found this interesting because he had not read One Hundred Years of Solitude. Curious, Gilbert read the book in 1985. He realized his work and the work of Marquez are connected by a common understanding of their cultural her it age and the tradition of storytelling. The direct reference to and even visual representation of the book by Marquez in “Love Bites” is Gilbert Hernández’s personal homage to this connection.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Intertextuality: Superrealist Intertextualities in Max’s Bardín
- Creators
- Ana Merino - University of Iowa, Latin American Studies ProgramElizabeth Polli
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Critical Approaches to Comics, pp.270-282
- DOI
- 10.4324/9780203839454-30
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2011
- Academic Unit
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Record Identifier
- 9984398016302771
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