Cazador (initially "El Cazador de Aventuras", then just "Cazador") was an Argentine comic book published in the 1990s and early 2000s, about a bulky, stupid and smelly anti-hero that lives in an abandoned church. Every adventure starts with Cazador minding his own business and then being dragged into some kind of mess involving demons, corrupt politicians, martian invaders, cosmic abominations, etc, and ends up destroying everything, insulting everyone, killing everybody and drinking mate. It is a classic example of The Dark Age of Comic Books, taken to such gory and over the top extremes that it actually became funny. Very funny.
Not to be confused with El Cazador.
Cazador contains examples of:
- Alternative Character Interpretation/Character Exaggeration: Whenever a 'guest' character appears, more often than not it is twisted in some way in line with the comic book's irreverent tone. Cartoon characters become Darker and Edgier and/or take several levels in jerkass, heroes are turned into villains, badasses are turned into wimps, etc. The lucky few characters who remain unchanged usually end up becoming comically serious Only Sane Men.
- Amusing Injuries:
- In each page of each comic book.
- Cazador himself suffers these all the time, but since he's an undead abomination he doesn't mind much (unless the injury is minor enough).
- Anyone Can Die: Even the famous guest characters. Cazador does too, but he always gets better.
- Art Shift: The art alternates between a gritty style and a more chaotic and cartoony one from time to time.
- The Boxing Episode: Cazador had to take on a cybernetics-enhanced zombie Mike Tyson in one issue, as a homage to Superman vs Muhammad Ali.
- Captain Ersatz: Averted. Cazador didn't use characters resembling Superman, Batman, Goku or Sailor Moon: it directly used the characters, in varying degrees of lawyer friendliness. The authors either didn't care about copyright violations, or trusted in the protection afforded by the parodic context of their usage.
- Character Title
- Corrupt Church: It literally made a Deal with the Devil to get rid of homosexuals, though it didn't come to pass. If individual members of the clergy appear, you can bet they aren't saintly at all.
- Crapsack World: Everyone is corrupt, stupid or both, eldritch abominations run rampant, and the only ones out there to defend the populace are either incompetent buffoons or Cazador himself, who isn't much better.
- Deadly Prank: Cazador has been caught in more than one Candid Camera Prank, and they all turned out to be deadly... for the pranksters. In another parody of candid camera shows, a man is Driven to Suicide on live television by a very cruel and elaborate 'prank'.
- Deus ex Machina: Many a storyline has ended with this; it never goes without a lampshade of some sort.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first black and white comics, Cazador was a religious Knight Templar, hence why he lived in a church. In contrast, later comics have him as a simple squatter whose attitude towards religion is quite contemptuous; he is mostly ignorant of the doctrine and when he once had to tell Biblical stories to children, he did so in Fractured Fairy Tale fashion (God made the Earth out of boogers, Moses Kent was secretly Supermoses, and so on).
Even earlier still, Cazador appeared in an obscure comic under a completely different characterization and setting. Here, he lived in the United States and had an actual name, Robert Howard. He was a NASA scientist out to avenge the death of his family, who was killed because of his refusal to work on an experimental explosive device. His symbol was a five-point star instead of an inverted cross. This version of Cazador eventually crossed over to the retooled comic, as "The Hunter". - Everything's Deader with Zombies: Patoruzú, in the first story arc. Later, zombies begin appearing everywhere.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink/World of Weirdness: Deities from many religions and mythologies, including constructed ones like Lovecraft's or Tolkien's, coexist with characters from any popular franchise you can care to name.
- Gorn: Appears in copious amounts.
- The Greys: They come from a planet called Juno and they are avid football fans, singing stadium chants as they invade the Earth.
- He's Back!: Each time the comic book was cancelled and then started again, it included a story of this type. In-Universe, the Moral Guardians were never happy about it.
- Mood Whiplash: Despite the overall silliness of the comic, some plots were actually quite tragic and practically devoid of comedy, such as the drama of a man driven murderously insane by a traumatic encounter with Cazador at a young age, or Cazador's very own Origin Story.
- Ms. Fanservice: Practically any woman that isn't butt-ugly instead.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted. Several celebrities appeared in the comic book, identified by name... and they WERE harmed.
- One-Word Title: Protagonist Title.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The Pekingese Werewolf.
- Parody Episode: Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Mad Max are among the many films that have been spoofed in the comic.
- Police Are Useless: Not to mention incredibly corrupt, as are all other institutions in the setting.
- Protagonist Title
- Rated M for Manly: Sometimes crossing over to Testosterone Poisoning.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning/Glowing Eyes of Doom: These are common for a lot of characters, Cazador included.
- Sentai: Parodied with the Powerful Galactic Defenders: CosmoPatagonian Hare, CosmoArmadillo, CosmoCavy, and CosmoTatou. They had a fifth member, CosmoPlatypus, but he died in battle; Cazador was invited to replace him, but gave up because he couldn't pronounce the animal's name to power up (that, and he didn't really want to join them to begin with). Their Humongous Mecha looks like a humanoid rabbit.
- Spin-Off: El Dié, starring this comic's version of Diego Maradona; Cazador himself eventually becomes a recurring character in it.
- Take That!: The comic throws jabs at censors, politicians, celebrities, its authors, and even its own fans. In other words, pretty much everyone gets called out at some point.
- Time Travel Episode: There have been a couple; Cazador has visited the Wild West and ancient Ireland.
- Toilet Humor: Many of the comic's Funny Background Events involve feces, people emptying their bowels in fear or passing gas during very dramatic moments. There's even a character made entirely of feces.
- Top-Heavy Guy: It is common for the artists to give this body type to muscular characters, Cazador himself being the prime example.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Children seldom appear, but when they do they're often mean and foul-mouthed, not to mention ugly. Let's just say that the comic's setting leaves little place for such a silly trope as Children Are Innocent.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: At a time when Buenos Aires was being overrun by zombies, the people and the press kept dismissing them as "hobos".
- Who Writes This Crap?!: Cazador often complains about the ridiculous situations he's put in by the writers, and sometimes other characters voice their opinions of the plot as well.
