On David Cantero’s Boxing Julián
This time in spanishgayfiction.blogspot.com we
present quite a disturbing experience: a 2008 comic book dealing with the most
ultra-violent homophobia.
In the first pages we find Julián, a promising small town boxer achieving
an easy victory in a fight; when in the locker room, he is praised by Paco, his boxing trainer, and Lola, his sexy fiancée. When they leave
Julián alone, he cannot help jacking off by looking his magnificent nakedness over
closely; after this, Julián punches the wall furiously: it means the first
indication for the reader that there is something about Julián.
Paco decides to hire the
services of Benjamín, Ben; a hot, blond, angel-faced physical
therapist. All of a sudden, Julián shows an unexpected rough-and-tumble towards
the boy, trying to hide (or should I say making
clear instead?) a powerful sexual attraction. From the very beginning
Julián wants to leave proof of his discomfort: he likes neither queer nor sassy
people who would ever dare to contradict him. Paco will need to mediate so that
Ben does not quit promptly after an abrupt, vehement outburst from his protegé.
. .resulting in Ben exhibiting his mouth-watering chest after Julián stretched the
gorgeous therapist’s tank top.
Lola pays a visit to her man at
the gym; the moment she lays her eyes on Ben she openly claims that the cutie is
really stunning. Immediately afterwards, Julián calls her bitch and menaces her. After this, he pushes Lola to the restroom,
and there he fiercely attempts anal sex ― vainly: Ben is in his mind, so Julián
loses his erection. Lola meekly tries to give him a blowjob, but Julián’s reaction
is hitting her hard.
After a massage session,
Julián asks Ben whether he is a fag; Ben avoids the question. (As a matter of
fact, Ben’s sexuality may be the biggest mystery of the comic book.) Later, Julián
jokingly encourages Ben to give him a blowjob, but Ben leaves the room all annoyed
― has Ben got tempted to do it, at least for one second?
During a fight, our cocky
boxer remembers how his father used to attack him physically and verbally when
he was a weepy child; his father justified himself by saying that he hated pussies, and he told his harassed sonny to
have big balls to face life. At the
end, Julián gives his opponent a cruel beating, and Paco threatens to leave: Julián
has to stop fighting that dirty in the ring, since he has been about to finish
his rival off.
In the middle of the
subsequent massage, Julián bitterly tells Ben to go away: he does not want Ben
to see that he has cummed all over himself while Ben was squeezing him.
Through another journey to the
past, we see that Julián was witness to his mother’s dying at his father’s
hands. Young Julián took hold of his savage daddy’s gun ― he was a policeman
―and shot him. This memory heavily seizes Julián while having sex with Lola, to
the point of almost choking her to death. When Lola gets over, Julián apologizes
groaningly and tearfully; Lola, mad about her macho, forgives his bad manners.
The time of the final combat
is coming, and the prize money will do Julián good for the upcoming wedding ceremony.
He keeps teasing Ben with insults such as queer.
Like Lola, Ben also forgives and keeps a submissive attitude towards the ferocious
fighter.
Julián eventually wins the
fight, and they all go out partying. In the disco, Lola asks the psyched-up
victor to stop drinking, as it turns him aggressive. Julián tells her to leave
with Paco, and Ben promises Lola that he will help Julián be back home safe and
sound. At the wee hours of the night, on their way out, Julián gets audacious
sneakily and lewdly: he beats and assaults Ben in a dark, lonely place.
The ending of this dreadful
story is just terrible. Lola, oblivious to what is happening around her, is making
the guest list for their wedding, and she suggests her betrothed to invite Ben.
Julián flatly refuses, basing his resolution on Ben’s ultimately leaving him
high and dry. The image of a bruised, wounded Ben walking down the street and
exchanging glances from a distance with a sinister (and defiant) Julián puts a terrifying
end to this troubling story.
No doubt this is a significant
story about homophobia and violence, depicted by Cantero in a brutally visceral
way. His illustrations are as attractive as disgusting, leading to a flawless
portrait of Julián’s double identity: a bewitching object of desire on the
outside / a frightening demon on the inside. We find particularly worthy of the
most enthusiastic praise the pages concerning Julián’s recalls about his shady past
(his monstrous father; his miserable, dummy-like mother); there, red, black and
a blazing white are the cardinal, over-suggestive colors to show the ultimate
horror.
The design of the main
characters is also creditable; the contrast between the pair of hot men, the shiny
Ben and the shadowy Julián, smoothly reveals the central conflict of the story.
Regarding the details, the tattoo that Julián shows on his arm ― the name of
his girl on a bleeding heart pierced by a sword ― is too meaningful about Julián’s
darkest instinct, Lola’s cursed fate, and the comic book’s overwhelming lesson:
Violence begets violence. In sum, a provocative work of art.
