Sunday Splash Page #176

 

"Knock Before Entering," in El Diablo #2, by Gerard Jones (writer), Mike Parobeck (penciler), John Nyberg (inker), Lovern Kindzierski (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer)

I picked this up in a dollar bin search a few years back. About the time series writer Gerard Jones was being sentenced to six years in jail for possession and distribution of child pornography. I tend to assume the comic fans who read this blog are more aware of stuff like that than me (I hadn't heard probably a year after I bought this), but if you weren't, and it's a deal-breaker on having interest in this book, figured I should mention it up front.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to segue from that to talking about the book itself, but it felt weird to put that at the end, like "oh yeah, by the way. . ." Start with the bare facts, then. El Diablo ran 16 issues from fall of 1989 until the end of 1990. DC had an earlier character with the name, a Western hero created in the early 1970s, possessed by a vengeful spirit. And there's the later, pyrokinetic one that was in the Suicide Squad movie.

This version is non-powered city councilman named Rafael Sandoval, who uses his experience boxing to become a vigilante when he grows frustrated with the lack of help investigating some fires. Which probably explains why he's gotten the least traction outside his own series of the three. "Frustrated, civic-minded politician" doesn't quite stoke the imagination like "possessed gunslinger" or "remorseful firebug gang leader". Even if the energetic young politician being waylaid by the older, more comfortable members of his own party is depressingly relevant today.

Jones writes Sandoval as idealistic, but aware of the compromises and need for support that come with politics. The series takes place in a town called Dos Rios, close to the Texas/Mexico border. So racial tensions come into play a lot, especially during a multi-issue story about a series of child abductions. Everybody loves pointing fingers! Sandoval sometimes feels he's just a pawn in the mayor's (a good-old boy Democrat) attempts to court Hispanic votes. Sounds too intelligent for Democrats to me, but maybe.

We're still a few years away from Parobeck working as an artist on the Batman Adventures comics, or The Fly series for Impact!, or even his Justice Society work. His art isn't quite to that streamlined, very clean look we'd see on those books yet. That might be due to Nyberg's inks, although you see hints of the future look here and there. In the more exaggerated expressions, or sometimes the characters in the background, where there isn't going to be as much detail. (The mayor, who spends a lot of time with a big "aw shucks" smile definitely would have fit in Parobeck's later work.) Or it might be Parobeck feeling the book needs a somewhat more realistic look. The colors on El Diablo also aren't nearly as bright as they were on those books, but this is a different kind of book.

The series remains decidedly street-level. Other than El Diablo, the only other costumed type that shows up is the version of Vigilante that was a movie cowboy, not the owner of a chain of fried chicken restaurants. It's the late '80s, so drugs crop up a lot. Not just moving them across the border or selling them, but the crime that arises from addicts looking for money to buy more drugs. Immigration comes up in a string of dead workers not entering the borders through official channels. 

The series comes back repeatedly to the notion of community. El Diablo ends up with a small group of teenagers that agree to help for one reason or another, and the series deals with the fact they aren't always going to agree amongst themselves about what to do.