Review by C.J. Bunce
What comic book series would you like see adapted to film that hasn’t yet been tried? The big superheroes–and many small ones–have now made their marks, along with the likes of stories from independent or creator-owned origins like From Hell, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Cowboys and Aliens, Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, Hellboy, RED, R.I.P.D., Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and even small screen shows like The Walking Dead, iZombie, and now Wynonna Earp. Ask me what comic book series I would like to see translated to film the most and I won’t flinch: It’s Portuguese writer/musician Felipe Melo and Argentinian artist/designer Juan Cavia’s The Incredible Adventures of Dog Mendonça and PizzaBoy. (I’d invest in that film right now). It’s the most humorous and satisfying series since Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows. Rich in pop culture references like you’d find in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Leverage, fanboys and fangirls of any franchise will find some all-out fun here. Now the creators are concluding their series with the final act of an epic trilogy, The Incredible Adventures of Dog Mendonça and PizzaBoy III –Requiem, available now from Dark Horse Comics.
Melo and Cavia (and colorist Santiago R. Villa) are the real deal. Each of their three volumes has a foreword by a legendary film director fan: John Landis, George A. Romero, and now Tobe Hooper. Dog Mendonça (pronounced men-dōn’-sah) and PizzaBoy originally appeared in serial form in the pages of Dark Horse Presents. João Vicente “Dog” Mendonça is an overweight, Portuguese werewolf operating out of a noir era private investigator’s office. Mendonça has a lanky unpaid pizza delivery boy who becomes a client he calls PizzaBoy. And he has an assistant–a 6,000 year old demon named Pazuul, who appears as a chain-smoking blonde girl who never speaks out loud. They’ve saved the world more times than anyone can count, and are pretty blasé about it.
We reviewed the first volume in the series, The Incredible Adventures of Dog Mendonça and Pizza Boy, here at borg.com back in November 2012. In the first book the reader becomes a character walking along with the duo as Melo breaks the “third and fourth walls” in a funny and beautifully drawn story. Mendonça told the reader his own comic book creation story. In flashback we saw Mendonça’s tumultuous past. We learned that Mendonça’s father and six sisters were killed during World War II so that bad guys led by a Nazi could capture Mendonça and use his beastly werewolf powers for his owns ends– a tale full of bad circumstances, an epic journey in a small package, and revenge.
