About the Book

On June 23rd, 1914, the legendary División del Norte, commanded by General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, defeated the forces of then-president Victoriano Huerta and took the city of Zacatecas. After the decisive battle, the federales were unable to recover. The path to Mexico City—and ultimate victory—was clear for Villa and the revolutionaries.

In this remarkable graphic novel, Paco Ignacio Taibo II (a.k.a. PIT)—the prolific historian, biographer of Che Guevara and Pancho Villa, as well as the founder of Mexican neopolicial fiction—brings his tremendous storytelling skills to bear, united with stunning illustrations by the artist Eko that evoke traditional Day of the Dead imagery. An unforgettable window onto the Mexican Revolution and portrait of one of the country’s most beloved heroes, Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas will fascinate history buffs, avid readers, and graphic novel enthusiasts alike.

Read an Excerpt

Reviews

"Like never before, maverick Mexican novelist, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and visual virtuoso, Eko, bring to kinetic life a pivotal moment in Villa’s against-the-odds, David-Goliath battles with sitting oppressors—one that returned the power to the Mexican people.  Extraordinarily energetic woodcut-art and a nimble narrative voice make this history showing and telling at its best!"

—Frederick Luis Aldama, author of Your Brain on Latino Comics

“It’s impossible to review [Taibo II’s] literary work without painting an ideological portrait. He’s probably the writer on the left with the proudest lineage of all those I’ve read.”

—Christopher Domínguez Michael, Letras Libres

“Eko is in many ways a Renaissance artist who through archetypical characters and his work showing them to us recovers the essence (and drives) of humanity, and he shows them without objection.”

—Jorge Rueda, Replicante

About the Authors

Paco Ignacio Taibo II (left), or PIT, was born in Gijón, Spain in 1949, before fleeing Franco’s dictatorship with his family in 1958. He has resided in Mexico City ever since, where he’s built a career as a writer, journalist, historian, and perhaps most crucially, a founder of the neopolicial genre in Latin America. His books have been published in twenty-nine countries and translated into nearly as many languages. In addition to being a prolific writer, he is an active member of the international crime writing community and organizes Semana Negra or “Noir Week” in his native Gijón. He has won the Latin American Dashiell Hammett Prize three times, as well as the Mexican Premio Planeta, and several other awards for international crime fiction.

Eko (right), born in Mexico in 1958, is an engraver and painter. His wood etchings, often erotic in nature and the focus of controversial discussion, are part of a broader tradition in Mexican folk art popularized by José Guadalupe Posada. He has collaborated on projects for The New York Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Spanish daily El País, in addition to having published numerous books in Mexico and Spain.

BOOK DETAILS

eBook: $9.99
ISBN: 9781632060051
Publication date: Jun 23, 2014
164 pages

Books by Paco Ignacio Taibo II