America’s First Anti-Jihadist Comic Book Hero

Much More Than A Comic Book

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Darius LaMonica, the co-author of the Matamoros -- the first comic book focusing on the U.S. military’s fight against radical Islamists.

FP: Darius LaMonica, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

LaMonica: Hi Jamie, and it's great to speak with FrontPage. I'm a reader of the website and have followed David Horowitz's writings for some time so I'm pleased to talk to you.

FP: What made you produce Matamoros ? Tell us exactly what it is about.

LaMonica: My co-writer, Sleet, actually made the decision with an off-hand remark. Last year we were having a discussion about how popular culture has ignored the war with radical Islam and our talk turned to the death of Steve Rogers, Marvel Comics' original Captain America. Sleet was particularly annoyed at this event and said to me "You're a comic book fan. Why don't we write our own comic?" So we wrote a script and I decided to contact the popular political cartoon team of Cox & Forkum for an artist referral since neither Sleet nor I can draw. John Cox read the script and really enjoyed it so he decided to come on board with the project instead of referring us to another artist.

"Matamoros" follows an American NCO, Charles Sobietti, who is wounded in the war, undergoes an experimental medical procedure to recover, returns home to New York to recuperate and then discovers a radical Islamic terror cell in Queens. We put Sobietti in New York because radical Islam has been there for quite a while. The blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman reached New York mosques in 1990 and currently a radical group called the Islamic Thinkers Society is located in Queens. This group is believed to be an offshoot of the UK's al Mahajiroun, the radical group that is now banned by the British government. And of course we all know what radical Islam did to New York in 2001.

FP: Why the title?

LaMonica: As a comic book reader, I think it's an interesting title since it's a Spanish word and the average reader might not know what it means. There's a fun little scene in the book that involves the ranting of a media "talking head" that leads to the book's title and I thought that it was a "realistic" take on how the media might name a real-life vigilante.

When we began the writing process, we wanted a story that would address today's threat of radical Islamism but would also point out that today's jihadists see themselves as the successors to the Islamic armies who rode out from the Arabian desert to establish a Caliphate which stretched from Persia to the Atlantic Ocean. I remembered the Spanish legend of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, and how he appeared before the Spanish forces during their fight against the Umayyads at the battle of Clavijo in the ninth century. After the battle, the Spanish called the saint "Santiago Matamoros," or "St. James the Moor-slayer," and used his cross-the Cross of St. James-as an emblem for an order of Knights, the Order of Santiago, during the reconquista of the Iberian peninsula. I ran the idea by Sleet, and the name stuck.

... continue, real History ahead - very interesting!