I apologize for the EXTREME lateness of this blog post… This is the last entry of this blog, in which I explain my reaction to the last readings of the term. This time, these were comics from Latin American authors: El Eternauta by by Héctor G. Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, and Mafalda by Quino.

Both were episodic but each belongs to a different kind of comics: El Eternauta is a linear narrative with realistic drawings, obviously targeting a older public, which makes it quite similar to the Graphic Novel genre, while Mafalda is a daily newspaper strip, without chronological order, with much more cartoony designs. Yet the strength of Mafalda is to sometimes address, if briefly and humorously, deep subjects that you would not expect from this kind of medium.

El Eternauta is the work of Argentinian comic makers, published between 1957 and 1959. From the extract, we understand that an Argentinian town is suddenly covered in a dead snow, leading the few survivors to plan an exploration of the area. I initially though it was the result of a nuclear testing by the USA (which is explicitly discussed in the extract right before the events). But we learnt from the course that the story is actually about an alien invasion and time travel, which seems a bit uncalled for, perhaps. The commentary written on the website of the extract implies that the main goal of the writer, Oesterheld, was to depict heroism in the form of normal people, working together despite a apocalyptic situation. Yet references to more concrete realities can be found: Argentina is worried by the nuclear tests of the USA near its shores and the inescapable alien invasion, starting with a deadly fallout, appears to represent the feeling of a country completely overwhelmed by much bigger powerhouses escalating into the Cold War. Oesterheld was eventually arrested, tortured and presumably killed during the period of unrest of the 1960s in Argentina, another proof that the artist wanted to convey more than just universal and vague messages.

I already studied Mafalda five years ago so it was pleasant to see a familiar “face”. Mafalda is a daily comic strip centered around the eponymous character, a young girl with rather unusual points of view on society: the main asset of the comic, I suppose, is this contrast between the appearance of the protagonist and her words that catch adults by surprise. Mafalda’s author, Quino, did escape the executions in the Dirty War, emigrating to Italy just before the start of the events. He worked on Mafalda between 1964 and 1973 but, even without new comic strips the character remains very popular, even used by the UNICEF for communication campaigns, with Quino producing new drawings.