The himbo, he who is “thicc of thigh and even thiccer of heart,” has enjoyed something of a cultural moment in recent years. Attention has shifted away from snarky genius characters like Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes and gravitated toward an interest in the types of gentle portrayals of masculinity personified by Chris Hemsworth in Ghostbusters (2016) and Thor Ragnarok (2017). The widely shared love for the classic himbo characters played by Brendan Fraser in George of the Jungle (1997) and The Mummy (1999), as well as more recent himbos portrayed by Channing Tatum in Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Jason Momoa in Aquaman (2016), has inspired thoughtful editorials in publications ranging from Book Riot to The Guardian. Comics website and indie publisher POMEgranate Magazine’s anthology Comrade Himbo rides this wave of appreciation for “big-hearted, socially conscious hunks of all genders,” while directing the strength and kindness of the himbo toward the worthy cause of supporting local communities.
Comrade Himbo
Edited by CC Calanthe, Rachel Weiss, Ashley Gallagher, and Jenny Mott
POMEgranate Magazine
July 1, 2021
Comrade Himbo collects 10 grayscale comics and 10 full-color page illustrations created by 24 artists and writers from a range of nationalities and gender identities. The art styles on display are just as diverse as the creators, and there are just as many femmes and nonbinary characters as there are large and burly lads. The common theme of the anthology’s comics and illustrations is mutual support and solidarity, combined with what poet Lora Mathis has called “radical softness,” the idea that sharing one’s feelings has political value in a society that devalues emotion as unproductive.
Despite the glorious cover by Mengmeng Liu that plays on the stalwart manliness espoused by Soviet propaganda posters, Comrade Himbo’s purpose is to inspire the reader’s imagination, not to impart a specific political philosophy. Jaime Dear’s comic “Goody Takes Knowledge Into Their Own Hands,” for example, is about the process of creating an audio recording of Silvio Lorusso’s 2018 treatise Entreprecariat for a dyslexic friend while looking up definitions and pronunciations of unfamiliar words. In the same way, Comrade Himbo takes the dense theoretical language of academic writing and renders it accessible to a wider audience by demonstrating what this theory might look like in practice.
Like its broad-shouldered but gentle characters, Comrade Himbo’s politics are best described as “soft.” The concept of solidarity is expressed not through violent revolution, but through community gardens and lending libraries. The hero of Mad Sparrow’s comic “Community Gains,” pushes back against corporate gyms by starting a free locally-owned gym supported by donations. The comic is populated by cute and cleverly designed monster characters, and the artist has a field day with the analogy between sweating to lift weights and sweating to lift the community. It’s a lot of hard work, but being willing and able to do this work is one of the many benefits of the himbo’s big strong arms and well-toned legs.
As in “Community Gains,” the comics in Comrade Himbo present aspirational solutions to everyday capitalist problems. Is a corporate coffee store chain moving into your neighborhood? Cover it with graffiti! Are the home furnishings sold in big box stores unaffordable? Learn to make them yourself! Is it difficult to care for a dog in an urban environment? The friendly himbo on your block would be happy to offer his volunteer dog walking services! There’s a strong element of utopian fantasy in these stories, but that’s precisely the point – to envision an alternative to the unnecessary absurdities of capitalism, and to imagine a future that could be possible, given enough strength and kindness.
The comic that closes the anthology, CC Calanthe and Rachel Weiss’s “Service with a Smile,” offers an extremely satisfying expression of this theme. Adrian Carrillo, an employee of SmileMart Store #1624, is unexpectedly honored by corporate headquarters after politely intervening when a rude customer harasses an elderly cashier. When the cashier is fired for crying at the register, however, Adrian takes a stand and calls out the company’s unfair labor practices, an act of courage that goes viral on social media and inspires other workers to come forward and share their stories.
Weiss’s art is clean and expressive, and “Service with a Smile” reminds me a great deal of the charm of Stephen Universe. The character designs and creative paneling convey a great deal of personality and motion, and the comic’s brilliant graphic depiction of a social media montage puts the reader right in the moment. You can almost feel the rush of adrenaline of watching something explode on social media while sharing a brief but meaningful connection to a potential community of like-minded strangers.
The comics in Comrade Himbo collectively shift the emphasis on anti-capitalist storytelling from theory to practice. After all, you don’t need to be a scholar to understand the value of kindness and solidarity. No one in these comics quotes Marx or Lenin or Mao, and the international perspective of the artists ensures that the anthology tacitly acknowledges the reality of people whose families lived in socialist or communist countries and may have complicated opinions about their experiences with real-world governments. There is no preaching in Comrade Himbo, nor is there any glorification of political leaders who use the aesthetics of masculinity to push national agendas.
Thankfully, the body positivity expressed by the anthology’s artists transcends cultural borders. Comrade Himbo celebrates the bodies of larger men, older men, beefcake women, and nonbinary and genderqueer people with a range of gender presentations. Regardless of preference, readers who come to this anthology looking for handsome lads will not leave disappointed. Still, it’s inner strength that makes these himbos attractive, not their muscles. No matter what sexual or political orientation you bring to Comrade Himbo, it’s difficult not to feel inspired and motivated by its feats of kindness. Kendra Wells and Cameron DeOrdio express the anthology’s vibe perfectly in its opening comic, “Shared Strength” — “There’s a better world out there. All we gotta do is grasp it. We’ve got the grip strength.”
