Comic book fiction has produced superheroes of all kinds: from ant man to human torch, today in a fun kids comic I found a super potato and couldn’t stop talking about it on the Orto Da Coltivare blog.
Publishing the adventures of the formidable tuber in Italy is Bao Editor publisher of the black vegetable Vivi e Vegeta and many other high quality comics.
Super Patata is the work of Catalan author Artur Laperla and was published in the BaBao series, aimed at young readers. The staging is clearly that of a comic book for children: a simple layout with a few large drawings, dry, simple, often didactic dialogues, very clear drawings, and a solid coloring.
The Super Potato Cartoon
We’ve read the subject of superpowers countless times, here he is re-reading it in an ironic and amusing way. The beginning is one of the most classic stories: we have Super Max who is the typical strong and gypsy hero, who contrasts with the mad scientist, Dr. Malevolo, who endangers the city with his inventions.
However, Super Max is not the typical positive character: he is an egocentric and conceited superhero, who does not act for an ideal but to show off and satisfy his vanity. The young reader will find him unpleasant from the first cartoon, he is certainly not a model to imitate and deserves the annoyances he will find in the story. The voiceover between subtitles comments, with pointed arrows pointing out the characters’ flaws and grotesque sides.
In the first pages of the comic, Dr. Malevolo records an unexpected success: he manages to transform the superhero into a potato thanks to a ray of his own creation.
Super Max in potato version retains the powers and the use of the word but not only: it also retains all the defects. The potato superhero will try to force the evil scientist back into a man, but he’ll mostly spend his time strutting around and trying to keep a toupee on his head.
Like any self-respecting children’s book in Superpotato, there is an educational message, which does not go through an expected positive evolution of the main character or through boring moral judgments. Arrogant and conceited attitudes are punished with “patatizador” lightning and taken with the biting irony of satire. A fun and smart read that can be a great way to introduce kids to comics and is sure to put a smile on even the grown-ups.