July 11th, 2013 
Justin Proper 
Movie: The Comic King Of Guatemala
Director: George Clipp, Jonathan Barnes
Genre: Documentary (Short)
The Comic King Of Guatemala is a short documentary with feature length entertainment value.
It should come as no surprise that quite a few members of the UTG staff love comic books. Living here in the U.S. we do not have to worry about finding comics, there are comic shops littered throughout the cities in most states and even those that live out in the country can just get subscriptions and have fresh new graphic goodness delivered to their door as often as once a week. This is not the case all around the world, however, as a young couple that moved to Guatemala soon learned. The Comic King Of Guatemala is the story of how they brought comics to a place that had none, and it is wonderful.
Looking for a fresh start in a new place Dan and Sarah moved to Guatemala in hopes of opening up a self-sustaining business in an area that gave them a chance to live how they wanted. Once there they soon realized that there were no comic books anywhere to be found so they opened Guatemala’s first comic shop. It was not easy at first, as comic distributers would not ship to them so they had to travel to the U.S. and bring back comics one car load at a time, but they soon realized that the people of Guatemala quickly fell in love with comics and the business started to flourish.
The Comic King Of Guatemala clocks in at ten minutes in length so you only get a small, almost introduction-like story. Even with the short runtime, however, it is a very engaging and visually interesting documentary, blending interviews and B-roll with comic style animations. The story is so intriguing that by the end of it you will want more, and really, what more could you look for in a short?
Hopefully someday in the future this short is expanded into a full length documentary because there is more than enough material and potential for a full length film here.
You can see The Comic King Of Guatemala at San Diego Comic Con on Saturday, July 20th at 5:55pm. Otherwise, look for it to make appearance at festivals around the world in the near future.
Score: B+
Review written by: Justin Proper
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