Lowriders in Space
Cathy Camper, illustrations by Raul the Third
ISBN: 9781452121550
Read February 15, 2015
Graphic Novel, bilingual (English/Spanish)
Tri-tone ball-point-pen illustrations wind crazily through the pages of a mythic "lowrider" origin story.
This was super-cute. A trio of mechanics toils away in a shop, dreaming of the day when they can labor for themselves (and not get yelled at by the big boss). Lupe Impala (yes, she's a girl, yes, she's a deer, yes she's a mechanic) is the leader of this tiny pack, and she's joined by a mosquito auto-detailer (he uses his schozz to paint the fine lines) and a washing-and-buffing master octopus (who is frankly just adorable).
The trio enter a contest for trick cars that promises a prize of the car filled with cash, and they start work on their ancient rust-bucket Chevy (yes, it's an Impala, how did you guess?), raiding the local abandoned air-field for useful bits and pieces. After the car is kitted out, their first test drive shoots them out into space, where really loose mythology and astronomy bedeck and gift their car with beautiful stellar flourishes and details.
Between the totally mesmerizing art (really - everything is drawn with a ballpoint pen in blue, black, or red, on old paper-bag-colored paper) and the sheer joy of the madcap narrative, this really is a great cultural intro for just about anyone.
Really stunning, and I'm glad to have it in our collection!
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