DUM DUM, JAIME INFANTE AND JAVIER MARQUINA

Javier Marquina, a prolific screenwriter and a fertile vine in the world of independent comics. Jaime Infante, master of shadows and light in his drawings, masses of black, and meticulous compositions. They take as their basis Dum Dum Pacheco's "Mear Sangre" (Pissing Blood)—an autobiography the boxer began writing in prison at age 19, after already serving three years in Carabanchel—and some other documents and testimonies from the boxer, to construct this DUM DUM. If Pacheco's original account is already one of brutal, unspeakable violence, putting all of this into images grounds it in the chilling barbarity that it is. Pacheco is raised on beatings, hardened by that same pedagogical system, delinquency, and prison. Plenty of beatings to emerge more or less unscathed from his time in jail. And his ever-present temper, which doesn't help. The Legion, boxing, and daily life, where violence is completely internalized, are also ever-present.

Infante and Marquina, emulating to some extent the chaotic style of Mear Sangre – where memories come rushing to Pacheco's head – put together a story in which will, destiny and character are the screenwriters in the shadows of the life of Dum Dum, a pioneer of juvenile delinquency, one of the youngest prisoners to hold the record for period in punishment cell (one year isolated) and six-time Spanish welterweight champion.

A raw book suitable for sensitive stomachs. If you're looking for books to project yourself onto, guides and role models to emulate, skip this one.

• Number of Pages: 164
• Binding: Hardcover
• Approximate dimensions: 20 x 28 cm