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142 7 CAPITALISM’S HERO Las aventuras del Dr. Simi Dr. Simi is short, and his round bald head, snow-white eyebrows, and handlebar mustache indicate that he is elderly as well. His demeanor is generally pleasant , and understandably so, since he lives a life without personal adversity. He has access to unlimited means of travel—late-model cars and trucks, helicopters , and even airplanes—and is always accompanied by beautiful women, who form his “Team Simi.” He is worldly and well-read, travels constantly, revels in competition as an end in itself, and celebrates “cultured” knowledge (for example , Shakespeare, Gandhi). His style of dress is modestly formal, except on special occasions, when he dons an all-white suit and a black tie. A man of constant ethical reflection, he is quick to recognize injustice or social need. Like many comic book heroes, he is a man of action, though he mostly relies on moral suasion to turn the will of others to the side of justice; when a display of power is needed, he calls upon allies in the business world, chief among them the Mexican entrepreneur Víctor González Torres, who heads the generic drugs pharmacy chain Farmacias de Similares. Dr. Simi believes in teamwork, and is not averse to speaking directly to the comic book reader about his values and social vision: “One of our missions is to help those who have least,” he declares, looking out from the comic book panel directly at the reader. “And you too can do it! We have to make of this world a more just place for everyone” (#59, 10). In sum, Dr. Simi is a compassionate globalist and free-marketeer, a social reformer who promotes competition and private sector investment for the betterment of humankind. Las aventuras del Dr. Simi 143 Dr. Simi is the protagonist of Las aventuras del Dr. Simi, a comic book series created in 2003 as a commercial marketing tool, and eventually electoral campaign propaganda as well, for Víctor González Torres, founder and president of the pharmaceutical chain Farmacias de Similares and 2006 minor party Mexican presidential candidate. The monthly installments of the glossy, full-color Las aventuras are produced for the pharmaceutical company by Art & Talent International Media, with a segmented division of creative labor common to the comic book industry: Sixto Valencia in charge of drawing, Francisco Reyes Hernández responsible for graphic design and color, and Benito Taibo and Arturo Martínez managing the storyline. Las aventuras is a conventional comic in that it comprises a twenty-two-page-long comic book narrative displayed in standard rectangular panels, arranged five or six to a page. But the cover design and inside front and back pages include photographs of people who appear as drawn characters in the comic book narrative—making the series a hybrid species of graphic narrative and photographic and hand-drawn visuals combining to project an image unique to the Dr. Simi construct. With a print distribution of 100,000 copies per month, and occasional issues published online, the comic book’s peculiar combination of photos and cartoons presents to the Mexican public the philanthropic exploits of Dr. Simi, who serves as the avuncular, mustachioed mascot for the pharmaceutical chain, and pseudonym for González Torres himself. The extensive network of Farmacias de Similares in Mexico provides lowcost generic drugs and basic medical treatment to Mexicans who cannot afford brand name pharmaceuticals and adequate health care. González Torres campaigned for the presidency in 2006, primarily as an antagonist to the leftof -center candidacy of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His public discourse combined attacks on the mayor of Mexico City; rejection of “populist” politics ; allegations of corruption and incompetence leveled against the Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social (IMSS), which operates the government health care system; and promotion of the private sector as an answer to the country’s problems . His political agenda, which he has called, bizarrely in the context of his policy positions, “moderate socialism,” is backed by the Grupo Por Un País Mejor (Group for a Better Country), an alliance of his pharmacy chain and philanthropic organizations founded by him. In this context, Las aventuras del Dr. Simi fuses the marketing function of an advertising tool with the personalized public relations maneuvering of a political campaign. Gónzalez Torres’s Farmacias de Similares has a long family lineage. Víctor and his older brother Javier inherited the family’s pharmacy chain...

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