Mexican Satire Comic "Los Supermachos", with Themes of Political Corruption and Gender Politics, Archive 1971-1973

Los Supermachos

Periodical

Post Rius Los Supermachos comic archive, 1971 to 1973, documenting Editorial Meridiano’s use of the commercially established series to interpret political violence, university conflict, political imprisonment, censorship, religion, sexuality, mental health, nationalism, and crime during the opening years of Luis Echeverría’s presidency. Rius had left Los Supermachos after No. 100 following disputes with Editorial Meridiano over censorship; the publisher continued the title without him, retaining the characters and didactic comic structure of the original series. Tebeosfera records Los Supermachos as a weekly publication after No. 25 and confirms that Meridiano continued it following Rius’s departure, while the Hemeroteca Nacional de México describes the later series as an unauthorized continuation that reproduced his characters while adopting a different political orientation. The central issue in this group is No. 289, Mil Halcones, published five weeks after the June 10, 1971 Corpus Christi massacre. Its cover reconstructs the afternoon of the attack with a minute by minute narrative beginning “JUEVES 10 DE JUNIO DE 1971... SON LAS 17:17 HRS.,” placing a contemporary mass market comic directly within the public struggle over how the attack on student demonstrators would be narrated. The massacre followed a march organized partly in solidarity with students defending university autonomy in Nuevo León, and Los Halcones attacked demonstrators along the Calzada México Tacuba; official and historical accounts identify the group as a paramilitary force involved in the repression.

Los Supermachos. Mexico City: Editorial Meridiano, 1971 to 1973. Eleven stapled issues, each 9.5" x 7", with color illustrated wrappers; Tebeosfera records the standard series format as 28 pages, stapled, with color cover and interior printing.

[1] Los Supermachos No. 286. June 24, 1971. La mentira organizada. Published two weeks after the Halconazo, the cover links “La mentira organizada” with “La ley orgánica de la Universidad de Nuevo León” and “La no intervención en los sindicatos,” directly invoking the university autonomy and labor questions surrounding the June student mobilizations. The Nueva León dispute was among the immediate causes of the June 10 demonstration in Mexico City.

[2] Los Supermachos No. 289. July 15, 1971. Mil Halcones. The cover reconstructs June 10 with a pink newspaper style panel describing the arrival of young men armed with clubs and firearms and their movement toward demonstrators. A surviving bibliographic record independently identifies No. 289 as Mil Halcones and dates it Thursday, July 15, 1971.

[3] Los Supermachos No. 311. December 16, 1971. Triunfo de la momiza. The cover announces “24 desveladas” beneath a caricature of an elderly television personality and exchanges about “los tres Pablos,” using the slang “momiza” to satirize age, broadcasting, and entertainment culture.

[4] Los Supermachos No. 312. December 23, 1971. The Christmas issue asks “¿Qué estamos festejando? Porque... CRISTO NO NACIÓ EL 24 DE DICIEMBRE,” followed by “DE TODOS MODOS FELIZ NAVIDAD.”

[5] Los Supermachos No. 325. March 23, 1972. Los presos políticos. A prisoner appears behind vertical bars beside the announcement “SE PROHIBEN VISITAS CON HELICÓPTERO,” making political detention the cover subject during a period in which imprisonment remained one of the principal consequences of state repression against student and opposition movements.

[6] Los Supermachos No. 335. June 1, 1972. Sexo y fantasía. Subtitled “¡La revolución sexual!,” the cover depicts an embracing couple and turns from institutional politics toward changing sexual attitudes and the vocabulary of sexual liberation.

[7] Los Supermachos No. 344. August 3, 1972. Los tarados mentales. A PRI tricolor emblem appears behind the principal caricature, while another figure remarks “Gracias querido PRI...”; the issue employs terminology now recognized as derogatory in a treatment joining mental capacity, social behavior, and political satire.

[8] Los Supermachos No. 356. October 26, 1972. La libertad de expresión. A character reads from a printed sheet while the large title makes freedom of expression the explicit subject, placing censorship and permissible political speech at the center of an issue published by a magazine whose own history had been shaped by an earlier dispute over editorial censorship.

[9] Los Supermachos No. 362. December 7, 1972. ¿Se apareció o no la Guadalupana? A reproduction of the Virgin of Guadalupe occupies the center of the cover between the opposing responses “Nones...” and “Que sí...,” framing one of Mexico’s central religious traditions as a question for popular debate.

[10] Los Supermachos No. 372. February 15, 1973. Como México no hay dos. The title adapts a familiar nationalist expression while caricaturing competing attitudes toward the country, turning Mexican exceptionalism and civic self perception into the issue’s comic premise.

[11] Los Supermachos No. 374. March 1, 1973. La guerra de los gangsters. A gunman carrying a machine pistol and revolver dominates the cover beside the subjects “VIOLENCIA / DROGAS / SEXO / ALCOHOL / CRIMEN,” presenting organized crime through the sensational vocabulary of contemporary urban anxiety.

The sequence begins within fourteen days of the June 10, 1971 attack and follows the post Rius magazine for nearly two years as it moved between the immediate politics of repression and broader arguments about Mexican public life. The first two issues follow the June 10 demonstration which had been called in support of the Nuevo León university movement and broader demands including political freedom, release of political prisoners, and university and union democracy, subjects that reappear almost verbatim across Nos. 286, 289, and 325. No. 289 is especially direct in its proximity to the event. Contemporary authorities initially denied the existence of Los Halcones, while later documentary research established the deployment of Halcones alongside police and other security forces against the demonstration. Later issues reveal how Meridiano broadened the inherited didactic format into discussions of sexual liberation, mental health, religious belief, censorship, nationalism, and criminal violence. The Hemeroteca Nacional’s catalogue specifically distinguishes this post No. 100 publication from Rius’s work, noting that it continued the familiar characters while altering the ideological character of the original comic. Moderate toning and edge wear to wrappers, with occasional staining, rubbing, small edge losses, and scattered contemporary ink markings; staples intact in the issues examined. Overall good condition. A two year run of the contested post Rius Los Supermachos in which the June 1971 student massacre and the crisis over university autonomy sit beside political imprisonment, freedom of expression, religion, sexuality, and crime as subjects of Mexican popular political culture under the early Echeverría administration.

Item #23732

Price: $750.00