¡Vamos! Let's go read Raúl The Third's El Toro & Friends series!

Do you like art? Comics? Wrestling? Superheroes and villains? Monsters? Then you're probably going to like writer/artist Raúl The Third's early reader books from his "El Toro & Friends" series, which, if you're a comics reader, will look like something of a hybrid of a picture book and a comic in terms of format.

Short bursts of prose appear over an image on each page, which, like those of most picture books, can be read like "splash" pages in a comic, while some pages are broken into two panels. Additionally, while the narration is in prose, dialogue usually appears in comics-like dialogue balloons. In fact, if Raúl drew boxes around that narration, each entry in the series would read exactly like a comic book, albeit one for kids.

In 2019, Raúl The Third published ¡Vamos! Let's Go to Market, a picture book that was similarly comic book-y. In it, anthropomorphic wolf Little Lobo and his normal dog Bernabe make deliveries to the market in a bustling, Richard Scarry-like world of similarly anthropomorphic animals*. Various things are labeled throughout in Spanish, which appears in red cursive, and the signs and characters' dialogue feature Spanish as well. The setting of the book would eventually be referred to and branded as "The World of ¡Vamos!"

¡Vamos! was successful enough of a book that it led to a whole series, the title of each of which begins with the words ¡Vamos! Let's Go.... These include Let's Go Eat, Let's Cross the Bridge, Let's Go Read and Let's Celebrate Halloween and Día de los Muertos.

Meanwhile, El Toro, a bull man luchadore who appears in ¡Vamos!, got his own spin-off series, "El Toro & Friends," also from "The World of ¡Vamos!". While both of Raúl The Third's series are charming, and both are set in border towns where Mexican and American cultures blend (and both sprinkle Spanish into their stories), it is the El Toro books that I think will be most appealing to comics readers, especially fans of superhero comics, as there is, obviously, more than a touch of the superhero comic book to professional wrestling in general, and especially to luchadores, who occasionally starred in movies as heroes and crimefighters. 

I'd definite recommend looking for them during your next trip to the library. 

In the meantime, here's what's in the series so far...

Training Day (2021) El Toro, the humanoid bull and luchador hero of the "El Toro & Friends" series, wants to become Champion of the World ("¡El Campeón del Mundo!") and number one ("¡Numero uno!"). But to do so, he has to break through the wall in his career. 

And by "the wall" I mean "The Wall", the undefeated champion of the world who, like so many of the wrestling characters in the colorful world of Raúl the Third's hybrid picture book/comics, looks like he could have stepped out of a superhero comic: He is a huge, anthropomorphic brick wall.

(Are you thinking about The Fantstic Four's Thing right now...? Maybe the villain Brick from Judd Winick's Green Arrow comics...?) 

El Toro will have to train hard to do it, and that's where El Toro's trainer, a humanoid rooster named Kooky Dooky comes in. (Like El Toro, Kooky Dooky first appeared in the first ¡Vamos! book).

We see Kooky Dooky approach El Toro's house—a perfectly square building that says "Casa Toro" on it, with a "Beware of Luchador" sign on the fence and a wrestling ring with three ropes the colors of the Mexican flag on the roof.

El Toro is feeling lazy and doesn't want to get out of bed, but Kooky expresses the necessity of training—"This guy is made out of bricks!"—and he has a whole long list of, well, kooky forms of training, ranging from swinging at pinatas to train his senses, to crushing cars over his head to make his arms strong to helping abuelas cross the teach him patience. 

El Toro has objections to each, which Raul draws in big, two-page spreads that appear within thought clouds emanating from the prone wrestler's head, but eventually he is prevailed upon to start training, and once he's out, jogging in the streets, and sees his many adoring fans cheering for him, he feels inspired to train harder and harder.

The book ends with El Toro facing The Wall in the ring, and while it's not clear who wins the match, the advantage seems to be El Toro's, as the book ends with a two-page spread of him drop-kicking The Wall, sending bricks flying in every direction as he drives his opponent into the turnbuckle with a "POW!" 

On the last page of the book, where the small print that you usually see on the first page appears, there's a little image of El Toro holding a frightened looking Wall aloft in one hand and winding up the fist of his other hand, while bricks continue to drop from the (former?) champion's body.  

Tag Team (2021) The wrestling action in the second book is only a prelude to the real conflict facing El Toro and La Oink Oink, a humanoid pig woman.

In the first pages, the pair took on Donny Dollars and Bald Aguila at El Coliseo, a big building shaped a bit like a sombrero. Bald Aguila looks more vulture than eagle, and the bald top of his head, the long blonde hair on the sides and back and the headband suggested Hulk Hogan to me.

Meanwhile, Donny Dollars is a little guy with green suit, diamond-tipped cane and a money bag for a head. His "rich guy" theme reminded me of Ted DiBiase, The Million Dollar Man, from back when I was a little kid with some interest in professional wrestling. Is "rich guy" a common theme for a heel...?

"The match lasted for hours," the narration tells us, over a spectacular image of La Oink Oink airplane-spinning The Bald Aquila above her head, one of his long, curving limbs stretching out to tag his partner outside the ropes.

The next day, we see El Toro on his knees in the middle of a busted-up looking ring, crying to the heavens, "I cannot believe my eyes! ¡No puedo creer mis ojos!". El Coliseo is a mess, and some eight pages are devoted to detailing the mess. 

El Toro calls Mal Burro and Peeky Pequeno, who are apparently responsible for cleaning up, but the latter speaks into the receiver of a red phone marked "Beach Phone," saying, "We are not feeling well." This despite the fact that they are at the beach. El Toro, speaking into "El Toro Telefono Watch-o" on his wrist, is dismayed by the news, and calls his partner, La Oink Oink.

She speeds to the coliseum in big fancy car decorated by a smiling pig head on the bumper and which seems to go "oink oink oink" as she drives, while El Toro details the nature of the mess to the readers.

"And to top it all off, the training chickens got loose," the narration says. Training chickens, you ask? Well, these seem to be chicken-sized chicken men, far smaller than Kooky Dooky (who we see surfing at the beach on one page). They have the heads of chickens, bare featherless human-looking torsos and arms and wear pants. They were introduced in the first book, when Kooky Dooky told El Toro that, "To keep you quick on your feet, you will chase the chickens." 

Once she arrives, La Oink Oink is able to cheer El Toro up. She points out their teamwork from the night before, and they apply the same principle to cleaning up. Together, the pair manage to get the coliseum back in shape. (The hardest part, which takes four pages, a cartoon fight cloud and a "2 hours later!" tag, is catching the training chickens.)

The lesson is, of course, that even the most daunting tasks are doable when you have help and practice good teamwork. 

That, and that listening to music helps make cleaning less tedious. 

Team Up (2022) This is the first of the El Toro & Friends books set in the past, when El Toro and La Oink Oink were still little kids, just training to be luchadores. As you can see, they look pretty much the same, but smaller; El Toro's head is very round and he hasn't yet developed a bull-like snout, and he had floppy little ears below his horns, while La Oink Oink similarly has a rounder head and...well, that's about the only difference between aside from her size, really.

The story begins and ends in the present, where the kids are all "¡Un equipo fabuloso!", but flashes back to show how they got that way. As ninos, they all trained at Ricky Raton's School of Lucha, chasing chickens, training to be strong and patient and acquire various other virtues.

Each of the half-dozen little wrestlers develops a signature move, from Lizarda's whip-like tongue attack to Jack A. Lopze's super-speed. La Oink Oink and El Toro, who seem to be the least "super" of the group, have "over the top kicks" that "never missed their mark" and a "Super Charge!" attack, respectively.

When it comes time for their final test, it would seem that the kids are faced with the impossible: To defeat Ricky Raton himself!

The great wrestler, who were previously told was "THE BEST!" and "THE BIG CHEESE!" is able to defeat all six of them one-on-one, countering each of their special moves. 

Does that mean the young heroes will never graduate to become professional luchadores? Obviously not. But how can they defeat Ricky Raton? Well, it's right there in the title, isn't it? Joining forces, they layer one attack upon another and manage to counter his counters, ultimately knocking him out of the ring, into a tree with a big, yellow, block-lettered "BONK" and forcing him to wave a white flag. 

As in Tag Team, Team Up champions the efficacy of teamwork, and demonstrates that what may be impossible to do alone becomes possible when everyone works together.

A valuable lesson, taught in the most entertaining fashion: Battles full of super wrestling attacks.

Tacos Today (2023)  Another story set when El Toro and La Oink Oink were little kids studying at Ricky Raton's School of Lucha, among a student body that are so colorful and diverse looking that they looks as much like a kid superhero team as a bunch of wrestlers in training (Not least of all because most of them seem to have some sort of power or super ability).

(I get a real Captain Carrot vibe from this panel, personally.)

We met all of these guys, and learned their various abilities, in the last book, and they are here gradually reintroduced. In addition to El Toro and La Oink Oink, they are Armor Dillo, Jack A. Lopez, Lizarda and Croak (And there's a training chicken in the background of the image above).

When they get let out of school for lunch, they quickly decide what they want: Tacos, as there is a variety for each taste, including tongue tacos ("That's a food that can taste you back!" Croak tells El Toro). (As a vegetarian who leans vegan, all of those mentioned here sound awful to me...also, is it...right for anthropomorphic bull El Toro to eat a tacos made with cow tongues...?)

Unfortunately, the kids realize that they don't actually have enough money for tacos. But fortunately, they are picked up by The Party Bus, where all of the passengers dance in their seats. Their fellow pasajeros are so impressed by Armor Dillo and La Oink Oink's dance moves that they throw coins at them.

This gives La Oink Oink an idea and, once they all arrive at Taco Square, the kids demonstrate the wrestling skills they have learned from Ricky Raton. The crowd goes wild and tosses money at them...paper money, this time. They would now easily have enough to buy all the tacos they wanted...if they had to. But, because the taco vendors are so happy that the impromptu wrestling demo brought so many customers, they give the kids free tacos!

As with the previous books, there's a little, last-page "stinger" cartoon. In this one, Ricky Raton looks at his watch and remarks to a training chicken, which I see here has nipples, "Those ninos sure are taking a long lunch!"

The last page of each book also contains a little dedication from Raúl and Elaine Bay, who colors the books. Here, Raul's dedication is, "To J. Wellington Wimpy," who the late, great Tom Spurgeon has eloquently argued is "The Greatest Comics Character of All Time."

Tough Times (2026) Finally, there's Tough Times, the latest entry in the series (At least for now). I recently reviewed this one for Good Comics for Kids (you can read my review here), and this is the one that made me think I should probably write about the series here, as the gauntlet of colorful opponents that El Toro faces in this book all seem like crosses between monsters and supervillains as much as wrestlers. 

If one likes superhero comics, I realized while reading Tough Times, one is going to like this series. 

This is another one that starts in the present with the adult El Toro and then flashes back to his childhood. Still a rookie, he keeps losing his matches, against opponents Al "The Crane" Scorpio, Thunderbird Mountain, Burrobot, El Desierto and Huevo Ranchero. Honestly, the book is worth picking up just to check out the designs of these characters. Some are pretty silly, and some of them are very cool; it's not hard to imagine some of these guys chasing Scooby and Shaggy around or fighting Spider-Man in New York City. I had to resist the temptation to just scan an image of each and point at the image and say, "Look! Look how cool this is!"

Down in the dumps at always losing, Kid Toro gets a pep talk from Ricky Raton, and after a training montage, he has a rematch with The Crane, and this time he wins.

If you pick up only one of these books at my recommendation, I would make it this one.

Now, vamos! Let's go read Raúl The Third books...!

*I especially like the snakes. There's one in the El Toro & Friends book Tag Team wearing a shirt and jeans, both of which are just tubes of fabric, with turquoise jewelry and belt-buckle, a cowboy hat on his head and a single cowboy boot on the tip of his tail.