Book Review: Lucha Libre: Heroing's a Full Time Job (Tips Appreciated)

I've no idea why this isn't the winner for 2008 Eisner Awards for humor publication - it's just a nominee. This book is hilarious. I enjoyed it tremendously.

The series was originally published in France. Now it's published in English by Image Comics - thanks, good choice. The series is written by Jerry Frissen and illustrated by five artists (for this volume), namely Bill, Tanquelle, Fabien M, Gobi and Nikola Witko.

There are four stories collected in the book. They are not connected but they feature a bunch of funny losers wearing masks which I thought were pretty cool - I feel like wearing one now. The characters are really wonderful, nicely designed and well developed, mocked as ladies everywhere they go because of their delusional dedication to fighting injustice.

The stories are interesting and fun. Dialogues are real funny and consist of bickering over mundane stuff. "Kidnapping? Great! Something's finally happening on this island!" is how one character puts it when the job comes knocking on the door. The storytelling was done so well that I didn't quite notice they were drawn by different artists. The art is very stylized and beautiful. It really brings out the mood of the place.

I really love the characters in the book, not just the mask-wearing ones. There are the were-wolves who are addicted to stealing car stereos, a French gang called Les Formidables with cheesy fight moves, a group of five ninja girls who looks tough but are actually quite useless and the fat one is always drawing attraction from guys, a monster that looks like someone at the circus dressing in a badly made dinosaur suit, and a party of other strange characters. Nothing is quite as it seems. Nothing is predictable.

This is a book of fun and adventure. Highly entertaining. Highly recommended.

5 out of 5 stars.

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