The saga concludes!!! The end of the “El Loco”  preview is here!!!

You can also check out the rest of the 5 pager now at your local comic book store here in Tucson.

Heroes and Villains

4533 E Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ (520) 321-4376

website: http://www.facebook.com/HeroesandVillainsTucson

Owner: Mike Camp

Charlie’s Comic Books

5470 E. Speedway Boulevard Suite A-107, Tucson, AZ, 85712 (520) 320-0279

website: http://www.popshoponline.com

Owner: Charlie Harris

Fantasy Comics

2595 N. 1st Ave, Tucson, AZ (520) 670-0100

website: http://www.fantasycomics2595.com/

Owner: Tom Struck

Arnie Bermudez

“That dog is a killer. She will corner you and  lick your face off.”- Me

It’s  with a heavy heart that I write this blog. It’s not funny and it’s not a witty post. Today is a horrible day. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to meet many civic leaders through my job as a cartoonist and  member of the Tucson Citizen Editorial Board.  Although, I disagreed with many I was always very gracious for the opportunity I had to meet with them and the ability to question them over the issues concerning our society. One of those civic leaders is Gabrielle Giffords.  Gabby, however, stood out from the rest of them. The quality that stuck with me about her was sincerity. Gabby, shot from the hip and was very direct, which is unusual for a politician and extremely courageous in my opinion, most politicians can’t give you a straight answer to save their lives.  She was also extremely accessible. Often times she would stay after the edit board meetings and talk with the staff. Many times she joked around with me about the cartoons I drew and the caricatures I made of her. After meeting her once she remembered my name and would always call me out and greet me whenever she ran into me at a restaurant or even jogging around the park. She saw me at the Shanty once and asked if I had landed on my feet after the closing of the print edition of The Citizen. I disagreed with her political views on many aspects and I supported her a lot in others, but she was always willing to take the time and discuss them with me one on one no matter how busy she was.  Other times we would just talk about random things, she gave me dating advice and I would ask her if she could ask her husband about what it was like to pee in space. When I finally summed up the courage to take a picture with her she happily obliged with one condition, that she take it arm wrestling me. I was astonished, I thought I would get the usual standing next to me pose, but Gabby’s other outstanding quality is her incredible sense of humor. Godspeed to your recovery, Gabby.

Arm wrestling the congresswoman

The current political environment in Arizona is partly to blame, as of late it has been fueled by fear and hate. Today, that pot boiled over. Today, we lost many members of our community to that fervor. Today, a woman I looked up to and admired was almost killed, her life hangs by a thread at the moment I write this.

Our legislature has made a political strategy out of targeting people, the Russell Pearces and Jan Brewers in our state have decided to not only make laws espousing fear and hatred, but a whole campaign, a movement was created and it is taking hold of our citizens. People are listening to our leaders, as misguided as their intentions may be or as untrue as their statements are, their constituency is listening. There is a rise in prominence, as of late, of hate groups and demonstrations of fear and no one is taking action and today we experienced the results. I recently saw a truck on the road between Nogales and Tucson with a Swastika on their rear windshield.  JT Ready and his Neo-Nazi friends are frequently demonstrating near the capitol in Phoenix and our new President of the Arizona Senate is a close personal friend of that guy! No one is concerned!?  He’s making the laws that govern our lives!! The Chicano center at the U of A was also vandalized today. Yet we have people like Sara Palin putting cross hairs on her opponents, knowing full well what that implies. The maniac that shot Gabby and killed the 9 year old girl was afraid and paranoid of his government, this was obvious from his online rants.

So am I blaming the Republicans for today’s tragedy? Yes, in part I am, mostly just the ones in our state. I’m going to take a page out of the Gabrielle Giffords play-book and be very direct. Your recent movement of ”fear the Muslims, don’t give the gays rights, persecute the Mexicans and exploit the poor” has yielded these results. Every election cycle you promote a campaign strategy of fear and hatred to win elections and get voters to the polls, well here’s proof that people are listening. You see, these people, the ones responsible for these tragic acts don’t have to be your constituents to listen to your hate speech, all they need are ears. They could be nonvoting individuals, but if they are listening to the inflammatory “news casts” of Fox “News” or the extreme right wing radio stations that you use as platforms then thats all the motivation they need. It’s rare when fear and hatred yield positive results. Maybe it’s time to rethink your strategy.

Arnie Bermudez

With all these laws being made to target specific groups of people I thought I would join in as well. Why should I let Russell Pearce and
Jan Brewer

Jan Brewer

 have all the fun? So I decided,  you know what? We should deport some folks and actually start cleaning this place up. So, without further ado here are the people I think we should deport, yes I realize some of these people might be legal citizens, but I’m only crafting my legislature in the same style that Mr. Pearce is. First off, on the chopping block is:

Anyone that sags their pants: That look only works in prison when you are keistering your lifeline or your method of currency. Plus, word on the streets is that the inmates find the sagging pants look extremely sexy.

Cholos:Whats a “cholo”  you say? Basically, its a Mexican-American hoodlum. They usually belong to a gang represented by basic colors like blue or red and they are not Republicans or Democrats.   Why should we deport them? Well, first of all they sag their pants and I already covered that. More importantly they are a walking stereotype. Thanks to these people, laws like SB 1070 get made and I get deported by mistake.  Moreover, Impalas and all kinds of trucks are getting desecrated with tiny wheels and hydraulics that make cars hop for no reason. Just get regular sized rims. Engineers go through several years of training to design these cars, they know what size tires you’re supposed to have on your car. Besides, jumping cars should have a purpose, like KITT in Knightrider. Also, hairnets are for the restaurant industry. Cholos will usually use the words “orale,” ”ese,” ”vato,” or “loco.” In fact, that was a sentence. Deportation would help them fully comprehend the Spanish language.

The KKK:Yes, the Klan. I don’t care if  they consider themselves separatists,  white civil rights leaders, white nationalists or ethnic purists, they’re still racist.  The Klan is just as bad as the Taliban only with less melanin.  My reasoning for deporting them is not their bigoted beliefs. No, the folks in bed sheets get deported for the simple fact that they are stupid. That’s right, when you tout your superiority over others, but can’t spell the word “clan” correctly you need to be shown the exit as well as a spelling book. Seriously, how hard is it to update your name to the KKC? That’s probably how it’s spelled in “Uh-merican.”

Religious Fundamentalists/ Extremists: Bible thumpers, Quran thumpers, Torah thumpers, and any other big book thumpers need to go. Don’t get this confused with religious folk. I have no problem with people worshipping, do as you wish. The problem arises when those beliefs are forced upon the rest of society.  It gets even more troublesome when fundamentalists try to claim it as science or try to make legislature based on their faith. Look, I understand you don’t believe in evolution, or that you have 72 virgins waiting for you, but most of us believe other things, otherwise you would see us on Sunday, so just let us be. Extremists hold humanity back, so aside from deporting them to another country I would say how about deporting them to another world? Maybe we can find a world where evolution, physics, temptation, and common sense don’t exist. Sounds like  heaven huh?

Homophobes:  Aside from the fact that they promote discrimination, homophobes should be deported because they caused my home state lots of money. Yes, I’m still peeved that we blew a huge money making opportunity and Mexico jumped on it. It’s almost like we don’t like tourism here. We had  a chance to have an exclusive revenue stream and the homophobes came out in droves to the polls and voted it down. Had we approved gay marriage, gay couples from every corner of the U.S. and world would be traveling here and honeymooning in the Grand Canyon or Sedona leaving their hard earned cash in our state. Instead, homophobes stood against capitalism and further contributed to our debt. Anyone who doesn’t want to move us forward economically needs to be shown the door. We are in a recession people.

Stephenie Meyer: She is a resident of Arizona. Why should she be deported? Well, for coming up with this steaming pile of crap.  

Another great gift from the state of Arizona.

Arnie Bermudez  

“I need to practice being old, so that when old age sets in, I’m good at it.” -Me

Disclaimer: This is a humor blog please don’t go hunting down KKK members, cholos or Stephanie Meyer they tend to be violent types and could probably hurt you.

In 1999, I used to space-out in Ms. Stadler’s first period algebra class and stare at this hokey educational poster that read “Stand up for what is right, even if you’re standing alone.” I used to picture Superman in his iconic stance with his hands on his hips.

The last son of Krypton protecting the weak and fighting for justice. That image and saying stayed with me till this day. It’s very hard doing what is right and its even harder to do it alone because our society lives by “majority rules.”  In fact, thats how we make our laws and elect our presidents. However, just because the majority agrees that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. At one point the majority agreed that black people should be slaves, in another time in our history it was ok to persecute and kill people that the majority believed to be witches. The point being, it’s hard to go against the majority when you are the only one that is right. No wonder Superman keeps a secret identity. I’ve tried doing the right thing when I am the only one and I usually get crap for it.  So it’s really, really, really hard to be altruisitic sometimes.  It’s even harder to be Superman, yes, I’ve tried.

Recently, however, I got the chance to meet a guy that gets pretty close. A real guy, not an actor or a nut trying to fly, but a man trying to do the right thing. His job is to protect those that need protecting and to fight for justice.  However, he doesn’t stop when he clocks out, no this guy keeps it going even off duty.  In fact, he kinda looks like Superman too.  Big, strong boy scout that dresses in blue, police blue that is. The man I am referring to is Officer Martin Escobar. Police officer by day, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master by night and a 24/7 defender of justice.

He even stands like Superman.

Unlike, the man of steel though, he is not taking on Lex Luthor. No this gentleman is taking on a far more nefarious nemesis… the state of Arizona. When the whole SB1070 fiasco came about, people rallied and protested, others left, an even larger majority said “what are we going to do?’  Martin Escobar DID something.  At the risk of losing friends, akin to brothers in the police force, and becoming an outcast in his own profession, he decided to stand up for what is right even if it meant he would be doing it alone. His plan: to sue the state of Arizona.  He’s probably going to get loads if money if he wins, that should be motivation enough, after all he is suing a state, right?  Sadly, no, Mr. Escobar will not recieve any monetary compensation if he wins, the only reward will be that this law gets repealed. In fact he will probably lose lots of money since he is doing this out of pocket. His main reason is that as a police officer this law forces him and other officers to use racial profiling in order to enforce it.  Many, have criticized his efforts and even mocked the humble policeman for his plight, but despite this he carried on. Can you imagine what his life would be like if he wore a cape and his undies over his pants? No respect whatsoever.  His efforts garnered so much attention that CNN decided to interview him.  So much has this man achieved on his own that the city of Tucson has now decided to be a co-plaintiff on his law suit. He’s not so alone now, Lex Brewer.

As a result, I could not help but track this man down and intrview him myself, I must admit the man made me nervous. It was like meeting, well, your hero.  And since The Citizen can now handle the cutting edge of video tech known as YouTube I decided to do it on video.

And because I am an equal opportunity blogger and believe that our non-English speaking citizens (yes, Sheriff Arpaio and Senator Pierce, we have Spanish only citizens) should understand this man’s opinion here it is in Español.

Officer Escobar did an english version of this video too but it was too large to upload. I will add it as soon as I can find a way to compress it and post it up on here.

Arnie Bermudez

“I don’t need offspring, just clones, that way the margin of error is non-existant.” -me

“Fear mongering and misinformation are opponents’ only tool against this common sense legislation” stated Senator Russell Pearce in his current blog in response to Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s blog.  Well I for one agree with the senator, he is absolutely right, fear mongering and misinformation are tools against common sense, and he would know since persecuting a group of people based on their culture and race is exactly that.  Oh, wait, this law isn’t racist and Mr. Pearce isn’t racist he’s just protecting Arizonans best interests. But this guy is:

Necks are for sissies Photo The Arizona Republic

“Who is this amazingly rotund neckless wonder?” you ask, meet J.T Ready.  Big (no pun intended) time supporter of Russell Pearce, former Maricopa County Republican precinct committeeman and all around civil rights activist… for white supremacists. Well Neo-Nazis to be precise. Well, National Socialists to be more precise.

We heard someone needed a "truffle shuffle." Photo The Arizona Republic

The below image shows Ready in his costume…er… riot gear, ready to defend America, swastika and all.  Senator Pearce’s buddy takes it upon himself to enlighten the masses about the “excellent white civil rights leader,” Adolf Hitler, you may have heard of him.  That’s his quote by the way, just go to 4:33 of this video. Mr. Pearce has attended Ready’s speaking engagements and there was even a photo of the two circulating the interwebs just last year.  Might this be the gentleman that was responsible for the white supremacist e-mail Mr. Pearce “accidentally” forwarded a couple of years ago? It’s not a big deal, I too, have accidentally forwarded many emails. I mean, you have to “accidentally” read it, “accidentally” put in the addresses of all the recipients and “accidentally” press “send”, it could happen to anyone. I’m sure that’s how the penis enlargement emails started, good ol’ Russ probably hit “send” on those by accident as well.

We shouldn’t judge the Senator by his friends, though, because that would be, well, judgmental.  Besides , friends are just a reflection of who we are. As for misinformation, well that’s just a dirty tactic, it’s like pots calling kettles black without acknowledging that they are black also. It’s like condemning a scumbag guy who beats women, when you yourself are a scumbag guy who beats women (LuAnne Pearce, according to the Phoenix New Times). Senator Pearce is right we should definitely make a law that punishes this type of behavior severely, oh wait he was the lone “no” vote on such a bill in in 2002.   It’s like using current events (Robert Krentz) to pull at the heartstrings of your constituency. Good looking out, what would we do without you. The good senator forgot to mention another tactic we should definitely be weary of, hypocrisy. He was probably too busy saving the state from the crafty illegal invaders that hide in our crappy jobs.

Arnie Bermudez

Me talking about a friend to a friend- “How is he doing? He got institutionalized.”

My buddy-”Crap! Did he go crazy?”

Me- “No, worse. He got married, marriage is an institution.”

After a week of hearing, seeing and talking about how my state of birth has become an embarrassment to the nation and most of humanity I was looking forward to some good news. Fortunately, that came in the red and yellow pages of Invincible Ironman #25. Ironman has always been a pleasure to read and I was hooked ever since the Extremis story line, which not only debuted Adi Granov’s amazing art, but revamped the character in a significant way. Moreover, the armor from Extremis was used as the basis for the costume design in the Robert Downey Jr. movie. So when it was announced that in issue #25 that Tony Stark was getting another upgrade I was stoked and I had to check it out. Aside form all the new twists in the story and the sick new way his armor comes on, the suit just looks awesome!!!  It took some time to get used to the look due to the fact that I was a big fan of the more mechanical look of Adi Granov’s design. This went away real quick after reading issue 25. So for the uninitiated here is what that looks like:

In other news:

Not only did SB1070 tic  lots of people off, it has also prompted one local cop to file a lawsuit against the state on the basis that this law can not be enforced with police neutrality.  The police officer involved is one Martin H. Escobar, who aside from being one bad mutha on the streets of Tucson is also one bad mutha on the mat or ring or whatever place jiu-jitsu guys fight.

Now its obvious he’s Hispanic, but before any Minutemen or Jon Justice fans start accusing him of protecting illegals lets consider the fact that not only can this guy beat you senseless, but in every picture he’s in there’s an American flag behind him, I can’t think of anyone more patriotic than him. Well, except for maybe this guy:

Arnie Bermudez

“I don’t go to church too often because I was told he is a jealous god and I don’t want to cause any problems if he’s that insecure when I’m around.” –me

Recently Arizona has been making some pretty bonehead moves when it comes to law-making.  First, was the the ban on gay marriage. Why was it stupid? Well, aside from the fact that it was a total wedge issue, a violation of equal rights and heavily reliant on Judeo-Christian views of marriage; we also lost a lot of revenue and Mexico was smart enough to jump on that. So now, all those gay and lesbian couples from around the U.S. are not travelling here and spending

Just say "no," right?

their money here to get married, but instead they are going to Mexico and spending their money in that country. Awesome move Az. Ignorance has never been a big money maker, but fortunately being 49th in the country in education we don’t really care, in fact “ignorance” is very much our middle name. So making money is not a real concern, as is reflected by our budget.

Next, we allow people to have guns in bars. That’s right, guns in a place where people get intoxicated. What the heck?!?!?! Who thought this was a good idea? I know, I know, the gun toting patrons are allowed to do this so long as they

Yipee kay yay! The next round's on me.

don’t drink. Okay fine, but how many people (aside from myself and the DDs) go to bars and night clubs to not drink? More importantly we already have laws about drinking and driving and we see how many people follow those. If this type of law were effective we would have no DUI’s and no drunk driving deaths. Do we honestly think there will be no shooting under the influence? Remember, 49th in education.

The most recent offense, though, was Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 on immigration reform. Why is it a bone head move? Because it’s flipping racist. Seriously, how many Canadians do you think are going to get deported over this? Nothing against the polite Canucks, but they are the ones coming down in droves in the winter and taking not only the good jobs, but the good land. God knows Arizonans can’t afford to buy real estate in our own state, so, Canadians are.  However, police officers will be asking Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and yes, Middle Eastern folk. You know

She's definitely an "illegal". Get the Minute Men!

why? Because they all have one thing in common: They are not White. This law isn’t meant to protect Americans from foreigners it’s made to protect White people from non-Whites.  Now, this may sound paranoid and conspiratorial and I’m fine with that, but if you really want to test yourself and this law and claim its not racist do the following exercise: Close your eyes and picture an “illegal immigrant”.  Did you see a blonde haired and blue -eyed, polite Canadian? Exactly.  Also, we need illegal immigrants, yes, need. “Hogwash” you say? Okay then, you pick our lettuce and clean your house for substandard wages and no benefits. You can’t even get teenagers to do those jobs. Like it or not, illegal immigrants contribute to our way of life.

Can’t wait for the next round of bills. Yay.

On a positive note Kick Ass was an awesome film go see it if you haven’t and if you have, see it again. Furthermore, go buy the comic its just as great as the movie.

Arnie Bermudez

“I like you for who you are and if I don’t like you its probably for the same reason.” – me