Mexico releases controversial comic

MEXICO CITY, July 8 (UPI) -- A Mexican publisher is reissuing a controversial comic book about a black character following a recent row over his depiction in a postage stamp.

The popular Memin Pinguin Mexican comic book from the 1940s is hitting newsstands to popular acclaim, El Universal newspaper reported.

Last week U.S. race activists criticized said the stamps were racially insensitive and demanded they be recalled.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said the U.S. criticism was a sign of a "a total lack of understanding of our culture" and a "total lack of respect for our culture," El Universal newspaper reported Friday.

Memin Pinguin is drawn with exaggerated features used by old cartoonists to depict black characters and is often the target of jokes by his white friends.