I am extremely sorry for being so late this week. I just returned a few hours ago after attending med school interviews in Toronto and Oakland, California (also why I missed the class the on Thursday).

I really loved the comics this week! Especially the little comic strips. I think comics are an excellent way to highlight and incite debates over a wide spectrum of issues: nationalism, feminism, popular culture, politics, etc. They have often served as a forum for biting political and social satire and driver for changes in social roles and landscape. One reason why comic books are such a popular medium for communication political and social ideas is their wide scale consumption among every section of the society – the poor, the middle class, the rich and the powerful. Another reason for their popularity is that they made weighty topics such as politics both palpable and compelling.

I enjoyed reading The Eternonaut. Oesterheld uses the comic series to engage the Southern population with the ongoing events in global politics. It’s interesting to read about the Cold War from the perspective of Latin Americans who find themselves helpless as the threat of global warfare and destruction looms over their heads. I found it especially interesting that the characters describe US’s nuclear testing in the Pacific as a “hobby”. This series was published over the years 1957-1959. But 50+ years later, nothing much seems to have changed about the US and their meddling with other sovereign countries’ issues.

That said, I definitely enjoyed Mafalda comic strips more! If I ever find myself reading a newspaper on the skytrain or the bus, the comic strips are the first thing I read myself. Some of the Mafalda strips were hilarious. But then everything is a lot funnier when read from the perspective of a little child, I guess. My favourites were Mafalda’s call for ‘world peace’ from her chair, Susanita and Mafalda pretending to be ladies like their mothers, Mafalda’s dad buying her chocolate but still ending up disappointing her and her making fun of soap operas. Many of them are very thought provoking and help you see political situations from the perspective of third-parties. Others highlight the everyday Latin American/Argentinian culture – i.e. women seem to be preoccupied with meaningless discussions during the days, possibly about TV shows; or the soap operas/telenovelas being overly dramatic (almost comically dramatic) while making barely any logical sense. They get the point across succinctly, effectively and in a much fun-ner/engaging way than historical books, and that’s amazing!

I am extremely sorry for being so late this week. I just returned a few hours ago after attending med school interviews in Toronto and Oakland, California (also why I missed the class the on Thursday).

I really loved the comics this week! Especially the little comic strips. I think comics are an excellent way to highlight and incite debates over a wide spectrum of issues: nationalism, feminism, popular culture, politics, etc. They have often served as a forum for biting political and social satire and driver for changes in social roles and landscape. One reason why comic books are such a popular medium for communication political and social ideas is their wide scale consumption among every section of the society – the poor, the middle class, the rich and the powerful. Another reason for their popularity is that they made weighty topics such as politics both palpable and compelling.

I enjoyed reading The Eternonaut. Oesterheld uses the comic series to engage the Southern population with the ongoing events in global politics. It’s interesting to read about the Cold War from the perspective of Latin Americans who find themselves helpless as the threat of global warfare and destruction looms over their heads. I found it especially interesting that the characters describe US’s nuclear testing in the Pacific as a “hobby”. This series was published over the years 1957-1959. But 50+ years later, nothing much seems to have changed about the US and their meddling with other sovereign countries’ issues.

That said, I definitely enjoyed Mafalda comic strips more! If I ever find myself reading a newspaper on the skytrain or the bus, the comic strips are the first thing I read myself. Some of the Mafalda strips were hilarious. But then everything is a lot funnier when read from the perspective of a little child, I guess. My favourites were Mafalda’s call for ‘world peace’ from her chair, Susanita and Mafalda pretending to be ladies like their mothers, Mafalda’s dad buying her chocolate but still ending up disappointing her and her making fun of soap operas. Many of them are very thought provoking and help you see political situations from the perspective of third-parties. Others highlight the everyday Latin American/Argentinian culture – i.e. women seem to be preoccupied with meaningless discussions during the days, possibly about TV shows; or the soap operas/telenovelas being overly dramatic (almost comically dramatic) while making barely any logical sense. They get the point across succinctly, effectively and in a much fun-ner/engaging way than historical books, and that’s amazing!

Mafalda depicted the power of the unconditioned eyes of children and the wisdom that comes out of their innocence.  The cartoon of Mafalda reflects the possible simplicity of the human condition and what we are facing as humans; our tendencies and our desires for humour, love, kindness, simplicity etc. Furthermore, through the eyes of a child we are able to highlight the seemingly obvious flaws in society ; Mafalda to her teacher: “Now, please, can you teach us something important?”. Through a more human medium, (art, humour, story telling), the cartoon is able to incite personal reflection regarding the structures we are living in.  It is interesting to see how art taps into a space and core that we  all mutually understand and relate to. The mediums that incite reflection through personal connection are the most effective in creating change and provoking thought.

The Eternaut was in the form of a graphic novel telling a larger story that had me on the tips of my toes! I loved the art work and medium of a comic/graphic novel because, unlike books, the readers are all inserted in the same visual world. It was interesting to see how the spaces of men and women were clear and depicted in common classifications of Latin culture; the woman helping with the sewing of the suit, counting the food and only acknowledged for her ability to be able to stay composed .

In almost every single one of my classes, the end of the year has become a comics convention, reading about 6 over the past two weeks for various classes. And I’m not opposed. The Eternonaut, offered a perspective on the atomic age that wasn’t what you normally think of as the ‘atomic age.’ So much of the focus is on America, Russia, Cuba (tangentially), but its rare that we see the atomic age from the perspective of a country not a big player in the Cold War.

It’s also interesting to see how far from Peronism The Eternonaut lies. It was written (1957-59) right after Peron’s first term in office (1946-55), yet exhibits radically anti-Peronist sentiments, especially in through Favalli. His immediate response to the holocaust is to arm himself against any other survivors, who he sees as competition for limited resources. Were The Eternonaut written with a Peronist agenda, the survivors would seek to grow their little group and re-establish the government from the ground up, by the will of the people. None of that happens here.

Mafalda reminds me a lot of Calvin and Hobbes, a cartoon that I grew up with that follows the similar device of a small child offering incredibly complex insight into the world. Mafalda uses the humor of it to perhaps ask questions you could otherwise not ask in 1964. Women’s liberation from labor and their assumed role as housewife is questioned, the businessman is asked if they pay their taxes. Responsibility is a central focus as well. If the characters physically resemble children yet have the mental capacity of full-grown adults, how do the other characters treat them? The same could be asked of the popular. Raymond Williams proposed that ‘there are in fact no masses, only ways of seeing people as masses.’ And the same could be inferred through a Mafalda-ization of the same quote: there are in fact no children, only ways of seeing people as children. If Quino wants to tap into the feelings of a wide audience (and what audience is wider than ‘the people’), then he must present characters that they can relate to. And if their government treats them like children, why not create a comic about children.

Quino uses this structure to then implore the people to question why they are seen as children, and that is where Mafalda becomes politically powerful. Of course the comic is just as enjoyable without thinking about that. Take it either way.

For some reason I did the readings yesterday night and forgot to post my comment about them sooo, I’m gonna do it now. This will also be the last blogpost! Of the entire course! I’m sorry if I couldn’t keep up with I think one week’s postings and comments but papers and exams were particularily pressing those days as well as my mental health. But now back to comics:

Reading Mafalda just made me think of how genial it is to set up a cominc with one main figure only, and that being a little kid. And not just a kid, but a girl. Looking at Mafalda’s young figure stating things that no-one would expect from her, an 11 years old, is very appealing and sparks in the reader further questions, curiosities and thought about the topic addressed. It’s funny because I grew up knowing about Mafalda but never really red the comic book; I was accustomed to her famous little figure but not with the content of the work – I remember I found it boring to read a black and white comic and gave my attention to the newly-published, colourful comic stories instead. But the comic as a way of learning and questioning reality was very much embedded in my life. Only recently I started noticing how reading a certain type of comic affected the younger me. At the age of 14, I was obsessed with a comic whose plot was about a group of teenage girls that had to save the world from the evil with their natural superpowers. I realized only now how reading certain comics, those that are embedded with political ethics and background, made me think about the world around me, even if at that young age I was not aware of it.

I never heared about The Eternaut. I was surprised how much I enjoyed reading those two short pages yesterday night. I don’t know why but, as I said before, balck and white comics don’t usually attract my attention – this one, however, certainly could keep me interested and filled me with suspense. Sometimes it seemed a little exaggerated as well, for example the scenes where the main character addresses his wife when they get to know that the world is collapsing. But apart from that – the background of the author’s life is what I found the most striking. The way the Human finds different means of artistic expression to talk and narrate about the actual times, problems, issues. A single comic book released at a particular time can cost you your life, and you family’s as well.

I’m writing this post late into the night because I’ve only recently finished my economics paper. I’m suffering from a huge head ache and reading the eternaut on my computer screen is causing me to much pain so I’ll only be able to discuss mafalda. Growing up my mother would always make references to mafalda and though I can’t really remember the exact context I do remember the general theme of the comic strip. Reading over these few sections I quickly realized that the general style of Mafalda consists of a child remarking upon something that is well beyond the childs stage of maturity. This sort of dry ironic humor was pretty funny and I definitely thought about the implications of this style. Specifically, it certainly made me think about the transition between childhood into adulthood and the jaded cynical perspectives an adult usually has compared to a child. Mafalda did a great job of questioning this using the motif of parenthood and school to question positions of authority in the life of I child. I sincerely hope that somewhere out there a parent is regularly showing these strips to their child and indoctrinating them with some real angsty and pessimistic (but humorous) tendencies because it really reminds me of myself when I was around 13. In terms of Latin American pop culture its hard for me to pick up any glaring themes of the comic strips related to latin america as a whole although im sure they’re in there somewhere. The only obvious one I could pick up was the strips critique of telenovelas evading any level of intelligence. This posed a question in my head that made me wonder if a certain level of intelligence was required in order to fully grasp the content of mafalda. Too add to this I wonder how accessible this publication is and whether or not theres a cost to picking up the news paper I believe this would be found in. Similarly, this made me question whether or not children would have different interpretations of each strip compared to adults and how age plays into understanding this form of media. Thanks for tuning in and keep on rocking in the free world doot