| Argentine comics | |
|---|---|
| Earliest publications | Late 19th century |
| Publishers | Ediciones Frontera Ediciones de la Urraca Ediciones Record |
| Publications | Patoruzú Rico Tipo El Eternauta Nippur de Lagash Fierro |
| Creators | Adolfo Mazzone Quino Héctor Germán Oesterheld Alberto Breccia Roberto Fontanarrosa |
| Series | "Patoruzú" "Mafalda" "Inodoro Pereyra" "Gaturro" "Cybersix" |
| Languages | Spanish |
| Related articles | |
| Italian comics Spanish comics Comics in Mexico | |
Argentine comics (Spanish:historietas orcómics) are one of the most important comic traditions internationally, and the most important withinLatin America,[1] living its "Golden Age" between the 1940s and the 1960s, extending into the 1980s. In 1970, the theoristOscar Masotta synthesized its contributions in the development of their own models ofaction comics (Oesterheld,Hugo Pratt), humor comics (Divito,Quino) and folkloric comics (Walter Ciocca) and the presence of other artists (Hugo Pratt andAlberto Breccia).[2]
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The first cartoons to appear in Argentina were editorial cartoons in political satire magazines at the end of the 19th century. These cartoons, originally single panels, quickly evolved to multiple panel constructions with sequential action. Many used methods such as text indicating dialogue emanating from the speaker's mouth, or text below the drawings for dialogue and explanation.
In the 1900s, comics continued to be largely political satire and commentary, but strips about normal life, calledcuentos vivos (lively tales) began to appear. Text still frequently appeared below each drawing with dialogue or explanation. Comics continued to be published exclusively in magazines. Also during this time, translations of comics from theUnited States, such asCocoliche (Happy Hooligan) byFrederick Burr Opper, showed up in Argentina.
During the 1910s, the amount of comics made in Argentina grew by leaps and bounds. In 1912, the first Argentine comic strip proper, withspeech balloons and recurring characters,Las aventuras de Viruta y Chicharrón, by Manuel Redondo, began being published inCaras y Caretas. Later comics, such asAventuras de un matrimonio aun sin bautizar (later known asAventuras de Don Tallarín y Doña), followed, and by 1917,Las diabluras de Tijereta was one of the lone strips that still put text at the bottom of each picture.Billiken, a children's magazine started in 1919, already included some cartoons.
The popularity of comics grew in the 1920s, and children's comics gained popularity. The newspaperLa Nación started publishing comics daily in 1920, and comics, both foreign and domestic, were a big reason for the popularity of the newspaperCrítica. In 1928, the first publication containing solely comics, the magazineEl Tony, began its run of more than 70 years. The '20s also saw the first characters created (Andanzas y desventuras de Manolo Quaranta) and drawn (Panitruco) by Dante Quinterno. Also in 1928 Quinterno's most important character,Patoruzú, first appeared.
The 1930s saw most important newspapers featuring comic strips. Patoruzú had its own magazine, which began publication in November 1936. It became one of the most important humor magazines of the 1940s, with a record of over 300,000 copies printed for one edition. Also during the late 1930ssuperheroes from the United States, such asSuperman andBatman, began appearing in local magazines such asPif Paf (1939), giving a place to action comics.
The Argentine comic had its golden age between the mid-1940s and the 1960s, the so-calledGolden Age of Argentine Comics[3] (la "Epoca de Oro" de la historieta argentina), when a number of foreign artists, including manyItalians, arrived in Argentina followingWorld War II.
José Antonio Guillermo Divito's magazineRico Tipo, launched on 16 November 1944, contained many comic strips and was published until 1972. It includedAdolfo Mazzone's classicPiantadino strip,Oscar Conti'sAmarroto and many others.Intervalo magazine appeared in 1945, containing longer dialogs and text in comparison with comics edited in other houses.Patoruzito magazine also appeared in 1945, containing a number of children's comics in addition to the adventures of young Paturuzú. In 1948, local superhero Misterix got his own magazine, which also included other action comics, and which would become one of the most important the time period. Initially, it contained several Italian comics translated into Spanish, but later that gave way to local creations.
The late 1940s saw the arrival to Argentina of a circle of Italian writers and artists, which further improved the quantity and quality of the comics in Argentina. These includedMario Faustinelli,Hugo Pratt, Ivo Pavone, andDino Battaglia, who were known as theVenice Group.[4] Some Argentines, notablyAlberto Breccia andSolano López, were considered honorary members of the Venice Group. A number of new publications appeared, such asD'Artagnan andFantasía. During this decade,Héctor Oesterheld, one of the most prolific writers, and Solano López also created theHora Cero magazine.
Between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, some of the most important Argentine comics were created, such asHéctor Oesterheld'sEl Eternauta (1957);Héctor Oesterheld and Breccia'sMort Cinder (1962) in the action genre;Quino'sMafalda (1964) andMordillo (1966) in the humor genre; andGarcía Ferré's (1962)Anteojito y Antifaz for children. Another illustrator,Landrú, launchedTía Vicenta in 1957. Prominently featuring his ownpolitical cartoons and those of colleagues such as Oski,Caloi, andHermenegildo Sábat, its circulation grew to nearly half a million and became the most widely read magazine in Argentina before its banning order by themilitary government installed in 1966.[5]
Around 1960, of the 6 best selling publications, only one was foreign (Donald Duck magazine). Nevertheless, the arrival of foreign publications, mainly from Mexico, with better paper and ink quality and lower prices, started a financial crisis in the Argentine comic industry, and several publishers, including Oesterheld'sEdiciones Frontera, had to close or be sold, which forced several artists and writers to go abroad.
After the 1966 coup d'état, the comics industry suffered from both some censorship and from recurring economic downturns. The 1968 biographic graphic novel ofChe Guevara byOesterheld andBreccia was removed from circulation by the government and the originals destroyed. Nevertheless, action comic magazines such asEl Tony andD'Artagnan continued to publish both foreign and local creations. In 1967Robin Wood'sNippur de Lagash debuted inD'Artagnan, and in 1969 a sequel to the Eternauta was published.
Fontanarrosa'sInodoro Pereyra premiered in 1971 inCórdoba'sHortensia magazine, which became one of the few successful Argentine magazines from outsideBuenos Aires. The satirical humor magazineSatyricón was launched in 1972, though tightening government censorship led to its closure in 1974. The same problem led Quino to put an end to Mafalda in 1973, after which he moved to Italy. Caloi createdClemente in 1973 as a secondary character in a comic strip centered onBartolo thetram conductor; Clemente would however soon overshadow the conductor and became a fixture on theClarín back page until his own death in 2012.
From their exile in Europe,Muñoz andSampayo createdAlack Sinner in 1974, which was later published in Argentine magazines such asSuper Humor andFierro. In 1975Trillo andAltuna started one of the longest lived newspaper strips,El loco Chávez, published inClarín.
In 1976 while working on a politicized sequel of the Eternauta that was being published inSkorpio, Oesterheld waskidnapped and disappeared bymilitary governmentforces. A year later his four daughters, all leftist students, disappeared as well.
1978 saw the birth of satirical current events magazineHumo® by Andrés Cascioli andEdiciones de la Urraca. One of the first attempts of erotic comic was the 1979Las puertitas del Sr. López by Altuna-Trillo, later published inHumor andFierro (1984).
The return of democracy in late 1983 ended years of military censorship. A new cultural wave started in several arts. In 1978 still under the dictatorship the satirical magazineHum® (short forHumor Registrado or "Trademark Humor") had been created, which would growingly feature artwork and comics by notable artists, running monthly until 1999.[6][7][8] Applying the specialized anthology format in the tradition of magazines like the FrenchMétal Hurlant andPilote, Argentine creators began publishingFierro;[9] The magazine had a 100 issue run, from 1984 until 1991. In 2006, the newspaper publisherPágina/12 initiated a second volume of the magazine.
Argentine creators started producing self-publishedzines in the 1980s.[10] This trend intensified during the 1990s with magazines such asEl Cazador orUltra. Participants in this trend attribute the boom to both economic and cultural factors.
On the economic side, technological developments and national crisis facilitated the dissemination of new methods. Increased availability ofpersonal computers enabled creators to format, edit and print their own work. Other factors that contributed to the boom resulted from a crisis in traditional methods of production and distribution. In the 1990s, pro-trade reforms made it more difficult for local products to compete. Suffering a similar fate to many sectors of the Argentine media and industry in general, the comic magazines still working during the 1980s slowly decreased in quality and died off (e.g. Fierro, D'Artagnan, Nippur). While many creators found work in other countries or changed professions, others continued to reach local audiences by publishing and distributing their own work. Another side-effect of the crisis was that many creators started offering workshops for children and teens because job markets were tight. Passing on their own methods, creators armed a new generation of creators with self-publishing techniques.
Cultural factors that creators cite as shaping the self-publishing boom include a desire to read and produce stories that deal with local issues by local authors, a strong sense of autonomy matched by a tradition of collaboration and a commitment to free creative expression.[11]
Competing in a difficult market, Argentine creators have experimented with various formats and forms of collective self-help. At first, self-published works remained in dark corners of the comic shops and (less so) news stands and most of them failed to survive past the 2nd or 3rd issue (i.e. Ultra). To collectively address the challenges of independent publishing, creators formed theAsociación de Historietistas Independientes (Association of Independent Comic Creators, AHI), at the 1996Fantabaires convention, from which later the groupLa Productora split.[12] Costs are sometimes shared, as in the case of publishing house Ex Abrupto, which co-publishes Suda Mery K!, a biannual anthology, with Viñetas con Altura of Bolivia and Feroces Editores of Chile.[13]
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