BOOM! Studios or Archaia releases a graphic novel memoir about a Puerto Rican mother and her child who lived their lives abusively in the U.S, which soon to be fallen into a curse in Happiness Will Follow.
So, there’s a comic that focuses a memoir of a person’s life by making this graphic novel to describe his fate and the fate of his mother, which torments both with its unforgiving nature of the city by things that occurred in real life which is almost everything. However, there are a few consequences that happened to his family throughout the years. The memoir story is created by Mike Hawthrone, and he’s one of the victims who fell to a death curse that could never escape his destiny in life, but he also began to discover that his love of art and passion helped him become who he truly is right now just to escape his heritage and the curse.
The front cover shows a number of ripped photos of himself and his family, but one thing occurred to me that one of the pictures, the author’s face was cross marked on the picture as if that he’s the target or something. There are more pictures on the start of the few pages, right until the pictures that took in real life is revealed at the end of the novel. And this graphic novel is dedicated to her mom because, after all these years for living with her, he would soon forever remember her and her fate. From the start of the story, Mike reminisces his childhood with his mother living somewhere in the US walking back home to their apartment until he discovered an old shoe that is placed outside the door. That actually scared her whenever she saw the shoe on her doorstep and realized that is the sign of witchcraft. Now to understand that kind of urban legend, my mother told me stories about it, and its actually a taboo which makes humans so unbearable to summit that curse. This comic shows that the urban legend made them into a terrible taboo and fell into the same fate that the citizens of Puerto Rico have experienced. After a few years later, Mike was born in New York, and then later his father divorced because he has another family. They moved to Pennsylvania, which on the first panel you’ll see Dracula’s castle and he starts mentioning that because he described that Pennsylvania might sound like “Transylvania” by getting that idea. But I think that Wallacia would be able to resist a modern country which can ward off evil monsters and vampires, or else the townspeople and the Belmonts would change its state’s name to Castlevania. The most favorite part of the page is when Mike saw the bat hanging at the wire, scared like a pussy, and the bat said in swearing that he would want to suck his blood, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. Hahahaha…. funny.
When Mike spent his time in his new home, there are some consequences relating to the neighbors around him and treated him very abusive just like the rest, I wouldn’t say that any other place will be safe for him. I rather go to the church to pray got and repent everything that I’ve done to become a better person, casting aside from my selfishness and toxic behavior, and yet I didn’t even care anymore, about my father, Ecuador, everything. But I’m an adult now, I just outgrew over the past and went on to do my assumptions and my ambitions very seriously.
When he grew up, he was being slapped and punched by his mother for her abusive behavior. He didn’t have a normal childhood since then after one of her family died before her, and then he became a troublemaker because of his abusive family and the corruption over the people and the authorities. The cursed shoe clouds his judgment and makes him more of a thug than a normal Hispanic kid. This is more than just seeing any other Puerto Rican playing dominoes on the streets in Bushwick. Later on, you’ll recognize how racism goes over by the police when they scoured the whole town for Spanish kids to arrest them, am I going to go over and make Spanish Lives Matter a thing? The whole neighborhood of York city made the Latino community as the “Crack Epidemic” as if humans led to the disorder of their heritage. This graphic novel is created by such a sin that his family just brought in. With all these years of abuse and such, he grew and found his voice in art, and then he claims that he “gradually drifted away from the island” which is her mom who just her precious time nothing, but sitting here and selling drugs, and all that child supported she offered to her and her son. I didn’t believe at first, but with all the power that he had, this actually made him so powerful that he became a cartoonist for making this memoir, even in her death, he claimed that all his past stories were meant to remember her, and that’s how this story ends as he draws another comic standing there beside the Puerto Rican flag.
Now I didn’t think that his mom was that of a villain of the story but she actually took care of her son with her life back then. Mike claimed that she’s a proud woman cashing in her pride so have her son sleep in a bed for the night. The story is interesting rather than the fact that every Hispanic heritage focuses on having every artist in their childhood to have what it means growing up in a Hispanic household. At the end of the story, Mike places a few pictures of his mother and his family making this something to remember for what is growing up to him for the readers to realize what his life is like. His storytelling shows how tragic his life went through until he discovered art and a passion to help him to go forward with his life. His art styles show somewhat similar to the M.A.Y.O.: Tata Ramo graphic novel on Dark Horse comics but this art style is describing how real their family was, even though he drew his own character and made it too real to describe his childhood to adulthood. Not just that, but he’s also best known to illustrate Deadpool and his more current work on Spider-Man on Marvel Comics. It’s no surprise that a person like him would publish his memoir to know his struggles with his family and such. But how does this whole memoir relate to the old shoe curse caused him to become what he is? Will, he fall the same fate as his mother from that witchcraft? This memoir is more of a legacy to share his family’s fate as every other Hispanic that went through such a horrifying experience. If you rather want to read a memoir about a boy who is being abused by Hispanic parents then this is for you.
Anthony Andujar Jr. 
Newsdesk