Santos Sisters is a comic precision-targeted at a particular type of comics fan of a specific age. Born in the 1980s, obsessed with media, and so addicted to comics that any comic would do, that theoretical comic fan might dream of the type of comic Santos Sisters is: Archie-coded, nostalgia-driven, flippantly “adult”. It’s a funny comic imagined by a nine-year-old in 1992, produced in the 2020s.
Fantagraphics
Much of the book’s charm lies in its stylistic juxtaposition: these are Latina Betty and Veronica types with superpowers, but they’re often fighting their baddies while hungover or horny. A story might begin with a prostitute luring a man into a motel before scamming him; there will certainly be an LSD strip with hints of 1970s underground comix stylings.
Fantagraphics
Nostalgia – and a sense of humor about being nostalgic – colors the whole book. The characters dress up as 1990s Psylocke, while a local newscaster’s name is Robert Liefeldteeth. There is a love of – and mocking disdain for – the comics of a certain era, played off for laughs.
Fantagraphics
The trouble is, these comics aren’t just aping a style – they live and die by that style and its narrative formula. No matter how sexual, drunk, or druggy the jokes happen to be, they still read as if they were run through an Archie style guide and thus made toothless. There isn’t a lot to laugh out loud about: these comics are smirk-worthy and feel-good.
Santos Sisters is a book crafted to be a sort of prototypical comic book experience by people who love comics, who love that experience, and who have fond (if sarcastic) memories of being a child reading every comic they could get. It’s filled with funny animals, zombies, and all the tropes of a medium meant to be warmly regarded and easily disposed of, and as a result it feels a little disposable itself.
At its best, Santos Sisters is a celebratory send up of whimsy and nostalgia; at its worst, the book feels trite. It might best be taken as an art object, a coffee table book, enjoyed in short sittings.
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