Original language: Japanese (wink)
Original title: Sherifu Gudmandu VS Pinheadoor something like that (wink, wink)
Translation: Juan de Madre Collective (wink, wink, wink)
Year of publication: 2023
Valuation: I like these kinds of things
I am elated. Because finding a book that seems written especially for you doesn’t happen often; And even less common is that this book delivers what was expected of it while far exceeding those expectations. Today I come to talk to you about Sheriff Goodman vs. Pinhead and Other Spooky Adventures in the Wild West (onwards El sheriff Goodman…).
Personally, I would have been satisfied with El sheriff Goodman… It was simply an entertaining and bizarre pastiche peppered with sex, scatology, gore and absurd humor. However, Takeshi-senpai offers us more, much more, than that.
Although don’t think that the author is trying to distance himself from the literature he pays homage to. On the contrary: he constantly alludes to her, more or less explicitly, and delights in her humble pretensions, her narrative self-confidence or his pleasant witticisms.
Goodman and Austen’s ways of combating such threats are quite ingenious. Sometimes they are graced by plot convenience, but in general their victories feel deserved, and the survival of the characters involved is satisfactory, unlike what happens in those power fantasies where a handsome, muscular guy rescues the damsel on duty. host base.
Ah, our sheriff is quite far from the simplicity of the archetypal protagonist of popular literature. To begin with, because he is a kind of trans man, or at least the equivalent of one for the time in which his stories are set. To this we must add that he has a complex characterization that evolves throughout the stories.
As you can imagine, there are many virtues to highlight in El sheriff Goodman… We have already talked about its crazy mix of genres, the crazy ideas it harbors and its grateful format (which, on the one hand, delivers highly entertaining self-contained stories and, on the other, gradually develops a world and characters). But on a personal basis I would also like to claim his hilarious sense of humor, his abundant doses of blood, certain scenes of picturesque deaths and extravagant sex or his design of three completely new cenobites.
As for the stories, I would say that they all maintain a surprisingly homogeneous level of quality. Even so, I think my favorites are, because they function at the same time as playful pranks and metaphorical trips, that of the dinosaurs and that of the resurrected philosophers. I also quite liked the Hollywood one, because of its psychological background.
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Below we attach a small questionnaire that Takeshi-senpai has answered very kindly:
STUFF: I have already read you in multiple registers, and I must say that you are a very versatile writer. However, it always ends up ending up in horror or pulp science fiction, the “splatter”, absurd or bizarre humor. What attracts you to these genres?
T.G.A.: The popular. How popular there is in them. You know, I grew up in the seats of a movie theater in LA, where my mother was in charge of cleaning. That’s why, despite my oriental and Mexican blood, popular US cinema was the story of my childhood. In reality, and this may sound strange, for me popular culture is the true avant-garde culture.
STUFF: Had you decided from the beginning that Sheriff Goodman vs. Pinhead and Other Spooky Adventures in the Wild West Was it a story cycle composed of stories with a certain continuity, or did you originally imagine a set that, although ordered chronologically, was episodic?
T.G.A.: In principle, neither one thing nor the other, but rather it was a single “splatter-western” story, exactly the one that gives the book its title. But the character conquered me in such a way that I couldn’t help but return to him, telling about his adventures in the town of Goldville throughout his life.
STUFF: Will he resume the adventures of Sheriff Goodman one day? I would read any sequel, “spin-off”, graphic adaptation or audiovisual version that you would like to give us.
T.G.A.: Ha ha ha. Well, the truth is that the idea of continuing the adventures of Goodman and his people continues to attract me. There may just be a “spin-off” out there, for a certain project that is being forged at the same publisher that published the anthology. So maybe one day Goodman will return with the full team. At the moment, I am immersed in writing a “slasher” that takes place on a retirement trip; In fact, lately the “slasher” genre has me hooked.
STUFF: Do you consider Sheriff Goodman a trans character? He never clarifies whether he is simply pretending to be a man or whether he truly feels that her sex does not match his gender.
T.G.A.: That’s what a reader told me, that Goodman is trans, or a drag king or something like that. The truth is that this is one of those cases in which the character receives his own will, and the writer is a simple amanuensis at his service. It’s true that I noticed something particular about the character, like his real name or the hot flashes in his fifties, but if I’m honest I couldn’t pinpoint where those particularities came from or where they went.
STUFF: In addition to pitting good Goodman against the Hulk, the suffragettes, a Death Note notebook, a sect that worships dinosaurs, Hollywood, the Cenobites and two resurrected philosophers of suspicion, it is mentioned in a couple of stories that he also fought against a gang of robbers who used voodoo dolls of bankers to rob, or ninjas from Japan. How does he select such diverse villains and antagonists for himself? Can he reveal to us, if there are any, others that he has left in his pipeline?
T.G.A.: Ha ha ha. It’s true that put it that way, it’s a very funny collection of opponents. The selection comes to me very naturally, usually because I am rereading comics or books whose villains I am passionate about, or because I have just watched a movie or series that inspires me to cross-over. There are many left in the pipeline, hence new spooky adventures in the Wild West may arrive. For a promotional story the family of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Over there I have notes of the villain of the Spanish series I am alive, which I saw on the recommendation of my previous Spanish editors; a good childhood friend told me that he should definitely give it to the company of the manga falcon Berserk.
STUFF: Aren’t you afraid of the legal reprisals that may result from the use of copyrighted characters and objects (some superheroes from Marvel comics, the Death Note or the Cenobites and their Lament Configuration)? And, more risky than challenging the possessiveness and greed of large corporations, it seems to me to mold certain elements of various franchises at will. Aren’t you afraid that fans will lynch you for it?
T.G.A.: I hope not! Hahaha. To fans I would say that everything that happens in the book is not “MCU” or anything like that; all a lie, and done with the utmost respect and admiration for the characters treated. To corporations, on the other hand, I would remind them that my maternal family suffered an atomic bombing, and that, as a family, you come out of such an experience with very little to lose and a lot to gain.
Source: https://unlibroaldia.blogspot.com/2023/11/resena-entrevista-el-sheriff-goodman.html
