Argentine comics
Encyclopedia
Argentine comics refers to comic strips, comic books and graphic novels created in Argentina
. There is a rich history of comics in Argentina, where they are referred to as historietas.
In the 1900s, comics continued to be largely political satire and commentary, but strips about normal life, called cuentos 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 the United States
, such as Cocoliche (Happy Hooligan
) by Frederick 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, with speech balloon
s and recurring characters, Las aventuras de Viruta y Chicharrón, by Manuel Redondo, began being published in Caras y Caretas. Later comics, such as Aventuras de un matrimonio aun sin bautizar (later known as Aventuras 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 newspaper La Nación
started publishing comics daily in 1920, and comics, both foreign and domestic, were a big reason for the popularity of the newspaper Crítica. In 1928, the first publication containing solely comics, the magazine El 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 1930s superhero
es from the United States, such as Superman
and Batman
, began appearing in local magazines such as Pif Paf (1939), giving a place to action comics.
.
José Antonio Guillermo Divito's magazine Rico Tipo
, launched on 16 November 1944, contained many comic strips and was published until 1972. It included Adolfo Mazzone
's classic Piantadino
strip, Oscar Conti
's Amarroto and many others.
The 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 included Mario Faustinelli
, Hugo Pratt
, Ivo Pavone, and Dino Battaglia
, who were known as the Venice Group. Some Argentines, notably Alberto Breccia
and Solano López were considered honorary members of the Venice Group. A number of new publications appeared, such as D'Artagnan and Fantasía. During this decade, Héctor Oesterheld
, one of the most prolific writers, and Solano López also created the Hora Cero magazine. Between the mid 1950s and mid 1960s some of the most important Argentine comics were created, such as Héctor Oesterheld
's El Eternauta
(1957), Héctor Oesterheld
and Breccia's Mort Cinder
(1962) in the action genre, and Quino
's Mafalda
(1964) and Mordillo (1966) in the humor genre, and García Ferré
's (1962)Anteojito y Antifaz for children.
Around 1960, of the 6 best selling publications, only one was foreign (The 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's Ediciones Frontera, had to close or be sold, which forced several artists and writers to go abroad.
by Oesterheld
and Breccia
was removed from circulation by the government and the originals destroyed. Nevertheless, action comic magazines such as El Tony and D'Artagnan continued to publish both foreign and local creations. In 1967 Robin Wood
's Nippur de Lagash
debuted in D'Artagnan, and in 1969 a sequel to the Eternauta was published.
In 1971 Fontanarrosa
's Inodoro Pereyra premiered, in the Córdobean
Hortensia magazine, one of the few successful Argentine magazines from outside Buenos Aires
. In 1972 satirical humor magazine Satiricón was first published, which later had problems with government censors. Also that year, Caloi
created Clemente as a secondary character to his Bartolo. In 1973, Quino decided to put an end to Mafalda, and moved to Italy.
From their exile in Europe, Muñoz
and Sampayo
created Alack Sinner in 1974, which was later published in Argentine magazines such as Super Humor and Fierro. In 1975 Trillo and Altuna
started one of the longest lived newspaper strips, El loco Chávez, published in Clarín
.
In 1976, while working on a politicized sequel of the Eternauta that was being published in Skorpio, Héctor Oesterheld
was kidnapped and disappeared
by forces
of the military government. A year later his four daughters, all leftist students, disappeared as well.
1978 saw the birth of satirical humor magazine Humor by Ediciones de la Urraca. One of the first attempts of erotic comic was the 1979 Las puertitas del Sr. López by Altuna-Trillo, later published in Humor and Fierro (1984).
and Pilote
, Argentine creators began publishing Fierro; The magazine had a 100 issue run, from 1984 until 1991. In 2006, the newspaper publisher Página/12
initiated a second volume of the magazine.
or Ultra. 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 of personal 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 90's, 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 80’s 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.
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 the Asociación de Historietistas Independientes
(Association of Independent Comic Creators, AHI), at the 1996 Fantabaires
convension, from which later the group La Productora
split. 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.
More recently, self-publishers have been increasingly displaying comics on the web in addition to printed formats.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. There is a rich history of comics in Argentina, where they are referred to as historietas.
Early years
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, called cuentos 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 the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, such as Cocoliche (Happy Hooligan
Happy Hooligan
Happy Hooligan was a popular and influential early American comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper.Happy Hooligan, the first major comic strip by already celebrated cartoonist Opper, debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first...
) by Frederick Burr Opper
Frederick Burr Opper
Frederick Burr Opper is regarded as one of the pioneers of American newspaper comic strips, best known for his comic strip Happy Hooligan...
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, with speech balloon
Speech balloon
Speech balloons are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comic strips and cartoons to allow words to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic...
s and recurring characters, Las aventuras de Viruta y Chicharrón, by Manuel Redondo, began being published in Caras y Caretas. Later comics, such as Aventuras de un matrimonio aun sin bautizar (later known as Aventuras 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
Billiken (magazine)
Billiken is a weekly children's magazine in Argentina, the oldest Spanish language magazine for young people. The magazine was founded in 1919 by Constancio C...
, 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 newspaper La Nación
La Nación
La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
started publishing comics daily in 1920, and comics, both foreign and domestic, were a big reason for the popularity of the newspaper Crítica. In 1928, the first publication containing solely comics, the magazine El 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
Patoruzú
Patoruzú is a comic character created in 1928 by Dante Quinterno and is considered the most popular hero of Argentine comics. Patoruzú is a wealthy Tehuelche cacique with great state properties in Patagonia, and is possessed of both superhuman physical strength and a charitable yet naive heart...
, 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 1930s superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es from the United States, such as Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
and Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
, began appearing in local magazines such as Pif Paf (1939), giving a place to action comics.
Golden era
The Argentine comic had its golden age between the mid 1940s and the 1960s, when a number of foreign artists, including many Italians, arrived in Argentina following World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
José Antonio Guillermo Divito's magazine Rico Tipo
Rico Tipo
Rico Tipo was a weekly Argentine comic magazine that appeared from late 1944 until 1972, founded and directed by Guillermo Divito. It was among the main comic magazines in Argentina, others being Patoruzú and Satiricón...
, launched on 16 November 1944, contained many comic strips and was published until 1972. It included Adolfo Mazzone
Adolfo Mazzone
Adolfo Mazzone was a prolific Argentine comics artist and humorist. His characters included the convict Piantadino, who became the subject of a 1950 film, and Mi Sobrino Capicúa , whose adventures were published for almost forty years.-Career:Mazzone was born on 6 June 1914 in the neighborhood of...
's classic Piantadino
Piantadino
Piantadino is a 1950 Argentine Spanish language comedy film directed by Francisco Múgica.The film is based on the cartoon character of the same name created by Adolfo Mazzone.-Comic strip character:...
strip, Oscar Conti
Oscar Conti (Oski)
Oscar "Oski" Conti was a prominent Argentine cartoonist and humorist.-Life and work:Oscar Esteban Conti was born in Buenos Aires in 1914. Enrolling at the National Fine Arts School, he helped finance his studies by creating caricatures for local advertisers...
's Amarroto and many others.
The 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 included Mario Faustinelli
Mario Faustinelli
Mario Faustinelli was an Italian comic book artist and editor.Faustinelli was born in Venice in 1924. After the end of World War II, Faustinelli, along with artists Hugo Pratt, Ivo Pavone, and Dino Battaglia, moved to Argentina in search of work; they became known as the "Venice Group." In 1945...
, Hugo Pratt
Hugo Pratt
Hugo Eugenio Pratt was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese...
, Ivo Pavone, and Dino Battaglia
Dino Battaglia
Dino Battaglia was an Italian comic artist, noted for a distinctive and expressive style, best known for his visual adaptations of classic novels.-Biography:...
, who were known as the Venice Group. Some Argentines, notably Alberto Breccia
Alberto Breccia
Alberto Breccia was an Uruguay-born Argentine comics artist and writer.-Biography:Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Breccia moved with his parents to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was three years old...
and Solano López were considered honorary members of the Venice Group. A number of new publications appeared, such as D'Artagnan and Fantasía. During this decade, Héctor Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....
, one of the most prolific writers, and Solano López also created the Hora Cero magazine. Between the mid 1950s and mid 1960s some of the most important Argentine comics were created, such as Héctor Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....
's El Eternauta
El Eternauta
El Eternauta is a science fiction comic created by Argentine comic strip writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld with artwork by Francisco Solano López. It was first published in Hora Cero Semanal from 1957 to 1959....
(1957), Héctor Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....
and Breccia's Mort Cinder
Mort Cinder
Mort Cinder is an Argentine comic book horror-science fiction series featuring an eponymous character, created in 1962 by the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and artist Alberto Breccia...
(1962) in the action genre, and Quino
Quino
Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino is an Argentine cartoonist. His comic strip Mafalda is very popular in Latin America and many parts of Europe.-Early life and work:...
's Mafalda
Mafalda
Mafalda is a comic strip written and drawn by Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino. The strip features a 6-year-old girl named Mafalda, who is deeply concerned about humanity and world peace and rebels against the current state of the world...
(1964) and Mordillo (1966) in the humor genre, and García Ferré
Manuel García Ferré
Manuel García Ferré is a Spanish Argentine animation director and cartoonist.-Biography :García Ferré was born in Almería, Spain, in 1929. He arrived in Argentina in 1947, and worked for advertising agencies while studying Architecture. In 1952 his character Pi Pío was accepted and published by...
's (1962)Anteojito y Antifaz for children.
Around 1960, of the 6 best selling publications, only one was foreign (The Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
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's Ediciones Frontera, had to close or be sold, which forced several artists and writers to go abroad.
Political instability
After the coup d'état of 1966, the comics industry suffered from both some censorship and from the economic depression. The 1968 biographic graphic novel of Che GuevaraChe Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
by Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....
and Breccia
Alberto Breccia
Alberto Breccia was an Uruguay-born Argentine comics artist and writer.-Biography:Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Breccia moved with his parents to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was three years old...
was removed from circulation by the government and the originals destroyed. Nevertheless, action comic magazines such as El Tony and D'Artagnan continued to publish both foreign and local creations. In 1967 Robin Wood
Robin Wood (comics)
-Biography:Of Paraguayan-Australian origins, Wood spent his childhood between Paraguay and Argentina with his mother, before leaving to do various jobs, such as dishwasher, truck driver, salesman, wood chopper, journalist and factory worker in those two countries as well as in Brazil...
's Nippur de Lagash
Nippur de Lagash
Nippur de Lagash is an Argentine historic comic series set on the XXIII century BC , about a fictional homonym warrior of Sumer, created by comic scriptwriter Robin Wood and illustrated by Lucho Olivera...
debuted in D'Artagnan, and in 1969 a sequel to the Eternauta was published.
In 1971 Fontanarrosa
Roberto Fontanarrosa
Roberto Alfredo Fontanarrosa was an Argentine cartoonist and writer. He created the characters Inodoro Pereyra, a fictional gaucho, and Boogie, el aceitoso, a fictional serial killer.-Early life:...
's Inodoro Pereyra premiered, in the Córdobean
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
Hortensia magazine, one of the few successful Argentine magazines from outside Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. In 1972 satirical humor magazine Satiricón was first published, which later had problems with government censors. Also that year, Caloi
Caloi
CALOI is a major Brazilian manufacturer of bicycles and bicycle equipment, along with motorized cycles like the past Mobilette models, based in São Paulo. Caloi was founded in 1898 by Italian immigrant Luigi Caloi and his brother-in-law, Agenor Poletti. In the 1960s, Caloi achieved some popularity...
created Clemente as a secondary character to his Bartolo. In 1973, Quino decided to put an end to Mafalda, and moved to Italy.
From their exile in Europe, Muñoz
José Antonio Muñoz
José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork...
and Sampayo
Carlos Sampayo
Carlos Sampayo is a writer best known for his work in comics, particularly in collaboration with artist José Muñoz...
created Alack Sinner in 1974, which was later published in Argentine magazines such as Super Humor and Fierro. In 1975 Trillo and Altuna
Horacio Altuna
Horacio Altuna is an Argentine comics artist.-Biography:Born in Córdoba, Altuna made his debut in the comics world in 1965 for publisher Editorial Columbia...
started one of the longest lived newspaper strips, El loco Chávez, published in Clarín
Clarín (newspaper)
Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
.
In 1976, while working on a politicized sequel of the Eternauta that was being published in Skorpio, Héctor Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Héctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....
was kidnapped and disappeared
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
by forces
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
of the military government. A year later his four daughters, all leftist students, disappeared as well.
1978 saw the birth of satirical humor magazine Humor by Ediciones de la Urraca. One of the first attempts of erotic comic was the 1979 Las puertitas del Sr. López by Altuna-Trillo, later published in Humor and Fierro (1984).
Renaissance
The return of democracy in late 1983 ended years of military censorship. A new cultural wave started in several arts. Applying the specialized anthology format in the tradition of magazines like the French Metal HurlantMétal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant is a French comics anthology of science fiction and horror comics stories, created in December 1974 by comics artists Jean Giraud and Philippe Druillet together with journalist-writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and financial director Bernard Farkas.The four were collectively known as "Les...
and Pilote
Pilote
thumb|Cover of the first Pilote teaser issue, #0.Pilote was a French comics periodical published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as Astérix le Gaulois, Blueberry, Achille Talon, and Valérian et...
, Argentine creators began publishing Fierro; The magazine had a 100 issue run, from 1984 until 1991. In 2006, the newspaper publisher Página/12
Página/12
Página/12 is a newspaper based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Página/12 was founded on May 25, 1987, by journalist Jorge Lanata in association with writer Osvaldo Soriano and investigative journalist Horacio Verbitsky...
initiated a second volume of the magazine.
The Rise of Self-Publishing
Argentine creators started producing self-published zines in the 1980s. This trend intensified during the 90's with magazines such as El CazadorEl Cazador de Aventuras
Cazador is an Argentine comic that was published since 1992, during different time periods. It is famous for initiating a new age of adult comics in Argentina. It was written and drawn by Ariel Olivetti, Jorge Lucas, Mauro Cascioli and Claudio Ramirez...
or Ultra. 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 of personal 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 90's, 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 80’s 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.
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 the Asociación de Historietistas Independientes
Asociación de Historietistas Independientes
Argentine comics creators formed the Asociación de Historietistas Independientes at Buenos Aires convention Fantabaires in 1996, to collectively address the challenges of independent publishing. Soon, more than 100 magazines throughout Argentina sported the AHI logo...
(Association of Independent Comic Creators, AHI), at the 1996 Fantabaires
Fantabaires
Fantabaires is a comics convention in Buenos Aires that started in 1996. Unlike salons in Europe, which are typically organized by major publishers, this convention was organized by a local comic shop and a couple local comic magazines. At the first convention, creators formed the Asociación de...
convension, from which later the group La Productora
La Productora
La Productora is an independent collective publishing group based in Morón, Argentina in Gran Buenos Aires. The organization emerged from the Asociación de Historietistas Independientes , as a result of irreconcilable differences between constituents...
split. 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.
More recently, self-publishers have been increasingly displaying comics on the web in addition to printed formats.
Notable Artists and Writers
- Horacio AltunaHoracio AltunaHoracio Altuna is an Argentine comics artist.-Biography:Born in Córdoba, Altuna made his debut in the comics world in 1965 for publisher Editorial Columbia...
- Daniel BrancaDaniel BrancaDaniel Branca was an Argentine comic artist.Born in Buenos Aires, Branca got interested in comics and arts at an early age, and started his career working for a children's magazine at 14. At 16, Branca found employment as assistant animator for an advertising company...
- Alberto BrecciaAlberto BrecciaAlberto Breccia was an Uruguay-born Argentine comics artist and writer.-Biography:Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Breccia moved with his parents to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was three years old...
- Pier Brito
- Caloi (Carlos Loiseau)
- El Tomi
- Lito Fernández
- Roberto FontanarrosaRoberto FontanarrosaRoberto Alfredo Fontanarrosa was an Argentine cartoonist and writer. He created the characters Inodoro Pereyra, a fictional gaucho, and Boogie, el aceitoso, a fictional serial killer.-Early life:...
- Juan GiménezJuan GimenezJuan Antonio Giménez López is an Argentine comic book artist.-Biography:Giménez López was born in Mendoza, Argentina...
- Waccio SkaterManuel GutiérrezManuel Gutiérrez is a Mexican football defender who played for Mexico in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He also played for Club América.-External links:*...
(Manuel Gutiérrez) - LiniersRicardo SiriRicardo Siri Liniers , better known by the name Liniers, is an Argentine cartoonist.- Personal :Liniers began drawing from a very early age; he has remarked that he began to draw in order to enjoy movies in his home. "I wanted to have Star Wars and the only way to have it was to draw it...
(Ricardo Siri) - Jorge LucasJorge LucasJorge Lucas is an Uruguayan/Argentinan comic book artist and penciller. He was born in Salto, Uruguay, where he lived till the age of 10, then moved to Argentina and acquired the Argentinan nationality.-Biography:...
(Uruguayan, but lived and worked in Argentina since 1972) - Maitena (Maitena Burundarena)
- Domingo Mandrafina
- Carlos MegliaCarlos MegliaCarlos Meglia was a comic book artist and penciller born in Argentina. One of his best-known creations is the Cybersix series, done in partnership with Carlos Trillo...
- Sergio MulkoSergio MulkoSergio Mulko is an Argentine comic artist.At a young age, he moved to Mar del Plata, from where he began publishing for the Columba Publishing house of Buenos Aires. He alternated the drawing of Nippur de Lagash with his creator, Lucho Olivera...
- José Antonio MuñozJosé Antonio MuñozJosé Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork...
- Mariano Navarro
- Néstor BarronNéstor BarronNéstor Barron was born in Buenos Aires, Argentine. He is a writer, poet and musician. He began his artistic activity very early, with his first classical guitar concerts when he was 12 years old...
- NikCristian DzwonikCristian Dzwonik , better known as Nik is a cartoonist from Argentina, creator of Gaturro, and current cartoonist in the paper La Nación. He received the 2002 Konex Platinum Award for Best cartoonist, and four times the prize SIP...
(Cristian Dzwonik) - Carlos Nine
- Héctor Germán OesterheldHéctor Germán OesterheldHéctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....
- Lucho Olivera
- Ariel OlivettiAriel OlivettiAriel Olivetti is an Argentine comic book penciller best known for his work on American comic book titles such as Daredevil, X-Man, Space Ghost and Punisher War Journal.-Career:...
- Hugo PrattHugo PrattHugo Eugenio Pratt was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese...
(Italian, but lived and worked in Argentina for over a decade) - QuinoQuinoJoaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino is an Argentine cartoonist. His comic strip Mafalda is very popular in Latin America and many parts of Europe.-Early life and work:...
(Joaquín Salvador Lavado) - Rep (Miguel Repiso)
- Carlos SampayoCarlos SampayoCarlos Sampayo is a writer best known for his work in comics, particularly in collaboration with artist José Muñoz...
- Salvador Sanz
- José Luis Salinas
- Carlos Trillo
- Robin WoodRobin Wood (comics)-Biography:Of Paraguayan-Australian origins, Wood spent his childhood between Paraguay and Argentina with his mother, before leaving to do various jobs, such as dishwasher, truck driver, salesman, wood chopper, journalist and factory worker in those two countries as well as in Brazil...
(Paraguayan, but lived and worked in Argentina for several decades)
Notable comics
- Boogie, el aceitosoBoogie, el aceitosoBoogie, the oily is a character from comic strips in Argentina, created by Roberto Fontanarrosa. He is a fictional Vietnam veteran, soldier and bounty hunter, and is used to make parody of racism, violence, nationalism, sexism, which are included as exaggerated character traits.His comic strips...
, by Fontanarrosa - El Cazador de AventurasEl Cazador de AventurasCazador is an Argentine comic that was published since 1992, during different time periods. It is famous for initiating a new age of adult comics in Argentina. It was written and drawn by Ariel Olivetti, Jorge Lucas, Mauro Cascioli and Claudio Ramirez...
, an adult humor comic. - Clemente, by Caloi, currently published in the newspaper ClarínClarín (newspaper)Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
- CybersixCybersixCybersix is a series of Argentine comic books created by writers Carlos Meglia and Carlos Trillo. The series first appeared in Spanish in November 1993....
, by Carlos Meglia, also adapted into a live-action and animatedAnimationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
television programTelevision programA television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series... - El EternautaEl EternautaEl Eternauta is a science fiction comic created by Argentine comic strip writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld with artwork by Francisco Solano López. It was first published in Hora Cero Semanal from 1957 to 1959....
, a science-fiction tale about an alien invasion, by Oesterheld - GaturroGaturroGaturro is the title of a famous Argentine comic strip created by cartoonist Cristian Dzwonik . The comic has been published in more than 30 books, magazines and comic volumes. A 3D computer-animated film Gaturro: The Movie was released theatrically in Argentina on September 9, 2010...
, by Nik - Inodoro Pereyra, the Renegau, a gauchoGauchoGaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil...
, the most famous creation of Fontanarrosa - MacanudoMacanudoMacanudo is an Argentine daily comic strip by the cartoonist Liniers. It is published in the newspaper La Nación. It appears on the last page of the paper. Just like Liniers' previous strip, Bonjour, Macanudo is very experimental and deals with meta humor...
, by Liniers. Currently published in La NaciónLa NaciónLa Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:... - MafaldaMafaldaMafalda is a comic strip written and drawn by Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino. The strip features a 6-year-old girl named Mafalda, who is deeply concerned about humanity and world peace and rebels against the current state of the world...
, the most famous Argentine comic strip, by Quino - Mort CinderMort CinderMort Cinder is an Argentine comic book horror-science fiction series featuring an eponymous character, created in 1962 by the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and artist Alberto Breccia...
, by Oesterheld and Breccia - Nippur de LagashNippur de LagashNippur de Lagash is an Argentine historic comic series set on the XXIII century BC , about a fictional homonym warrior of Sumer, created by comic scriptwriter Robin Wood and illustrated by Lucho Olivera...
, by Robin WoodRobin Wood (comics)-Biography:Of Paraguayan-Australian origins, Wood spent his childhood between Paraguay and Argentina with his mother, before leaving to do various jobs, such as dishwasher, truck driver, salesman, wood chopper, journalist and factory worker in those two countries as well as in Brazil...
and Lucho Olivera - PatoruzúPatoruzúPatoruzú is a comic character created in 1928 by Dante Quinterno and is considered the most popular hero of Argentine comics. Patoruzú is a wealthy Tehuelche cacique with great state properties in Patagonia, and is possessed of both superhuman physical strength and a charitable yet naive heart...
, about a native Patagonian cacique with superhuman strength, by Quinterno - Yo, MatíasYo, MatíasYo, Matías is an Argentine comic strip, created by the cartoonist Fernando Sendra in 1993. It currently appears in the Clarín newspaper.- Characters :...
, by Sendra. Currently published in Clarín
Conventions
- LeyendasLeyendasLeyendas is a fantasy and science fiction convention focusing on all kinds of comics, cartoons, anime/manga and other popular forms of art, as well as card, strategy and role-playing games, held annually in Rosario, Argentina, since 1999...
is a science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, fantasyFantasyFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and comic convention held annually in RosarioRosarioRosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
. - FantabairesFantabairesFantabaires is a comics convention in Buenos Aires that started in 1996. Unlike salons in Europe, which are typically organized by major publishers, this convention was organized by a local comic shop and a couple local comic magazines. At the first convention, creators formed the Asociación de...
was an annual comic convention held in Buenos Aires.