Lowriders Blast from the Past: 11/08/18

Lowriders Blast from the Past by Cathy Camper and Raúl III is the third of the Lowriders graphic novels. Given that we've had a trip to outer space and a trip to the underworld, I expected this one to be a time travel story. If Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can be a time machine, so can a lowrider!

But it's not.

Instead, it's an origin story. It's how Lupe, Flapjack, and Elirio first met and got into fixing up lowriders. Elirio loves making graffiti from indigenous words his traveling salesman father teaches him. Flapjack has a new bike and loves to keep it clean. Lupe is proud of her two mothers and their beautiful lowrider.

But there's a gang the Matamoscas, messing everything up. They graffiti over Elirio's words. They wreck Flapjack's bike. And they won't let las madres enter the lowrider show unless they can pass a bunch of impossible sounding tasks.

Come on, though, with Lupe, Flapjack and Elirio, we know anything is possible. These tasks are how they become the awesome lowrider builders that we know and love.

In terms of the road narrative project, this one comes in at a 663333: marginalized rural blue highway. The trio of heroes are marginalized because they are young and because they are being bullied by the gang. The goal of the book is the car rally which is held in a rural location. The route there is via a blue highway, since they will be driving their creations low and slow.

Five stars

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