Themo Lobos
Encyclopedia
Themístocles Nazario Lobos Aguirre (born 1928), better known as Themo Lobos, is a Chile
an comic strip, comic book
writer and artist. He is the creator of characters such as Máximo Chambónez, Ferrilo, Nick Obre, and Alaraco, but his most famous work is Mampato, a character
first developed, briefly, by Eduardo Armstrong and Óscar Vega; Lobos then wrote and illustrated his episodes from 1968 to 1978. He is also known as the publisher of the comic-book Cucalón
, which collected all his characters and their classic adventures.
s at the age of 7, mostly copying other drawings, but at 12 he realised that he needed "to be original and begin work on his own things". Themo Lobos' first inspirations and influences came from the children's magazine
El Peneca of which he was a strong fan – especially the comic strip Quintín el Aventurero (Quintín The Adventurer). His first drawing studies were at the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts, but he quit because the academy was not what he had expected. He later studied at the Chilean School of Applied Arts, where in his free time he created his first original characters, Ferrilo the Robot and Homero the Pilot. His first professional work was published in La Nación (of Chile) newspaper
in 1949, with his characters serving to promote advertising.
The following year, he finally got to work in El Peneca. He was later signed on to work as one of the assistants to Guido Vallejos on the famous Chilean comic-book Barrabases, were he created the characters Cicleto, Cucufato and Ñeclito. In the mid-50's, he was signed on to work on the humor publication El Pingüino (The Penguin
); this magazine saw the creation of his first truly famous work: Alaraco, a comic strip
about an over-concerned and over-reacting man (modeled on Themo Lobos' own personality). The same decade saw his works appearing in the magazines Pobre Diablo, Flash, Humor de Hoy and Humanoide.
In 1968, Chilean artist Eduardo Armstrong founded the children's magazine Mampato, a biweekly publication with science and history illustrative laminae, as well as prose stories and a number of American and Chilean comic strips. Its publisher was Lord Cochrane editions. The first unnamed episode of the featured Mampato comic series was initially written by Armstrong and illustrated by Óscar Vega, a veteran Chilean comics artist, telling the story of a typical young Chilean boy who uses a "space-time belt" to travel through time
, seeking to experience the greatest adventures in the world. The character of Mampato was partly inspired by both Dennis the Menace
by Hank Ketcham
, and Goscinny and Uderzo's Astérix
. Vega had just read an Astérix comic-book, at the time little known in Latin America
, and he was very impressed with the work; he tried to merge Dennis the Menace's physical appearance and Astérix' style into a single character. Themo Lobos was by then very busy with his work for El Peneca, but still Armstrong offered him the chance to illustrate the Mampato comic. At first Lobos didn't take the offer, but after a while he accepted – quickly becoming close friends with Armstrong. He then began drawing the series starting with the third chapter of Mampato's first adventure. While doing the illustrations he noted to Armstrong that he "didn't like to work with a script he hadn't written", thus Armstrong decided to give Lobos free reins for the creation of characters and stories in all future installments of Mampato's saga. For the remainder of the story and in full capacity beginning with the second Mampato adventure, known as "Kilikilis and Golagolas", the strip was written and illustrated solely by Themo Lobos and the magazine was well on its way to becoming extremely popular and successful with the local youth; eventually it sold around 100,000 copies per issue and changed its schedule to weekly on April 1971.
The works in Mampato and the Chilean comics circuit as a whole were affected by the coup d'état
in the country in 1973 against Salvador Allende
's government
, headed by Augusto Pinochet
on September 11. After this, many comic books ceased their publications and also, in November of the same year Eduardo Armstrong died, afflicted by cancer at age 41.
Since 1973, Themo Lobos had to deal with a problem in publishing the Mampato strip: some people taking notice of certain stories, such as Los Tres aka El Árbol Gigante (The Giant Tree
), where Mampato fights mutants
ruled by a character called "Ferjus", the leader of a tyrannical dictatorship
. Lobos has commented on this particular episode explaining that he came up with it before the coup, thus he wasn't trying to satirize the then-current government with the story's themes. And above all, that children's comics shouldn't be used as a political outlet.
Amid the country's tense situation, Mampato magazine ceased publication on January 1978.
During the 1968–1978 period, Themo Lobos produced 25 complete Mampato stories and the magazine was the main publication venue for other Chilean comic artists and several other Lobos works, including Máximo Chambónez, a comic strip originally seen in Barrabases but much more popular when appearing on Mampato magazine.
With Mampato ending its run abruptly in 1978, Themo Lobos left some stories and illustrations incomplete. Around this time most of his colleagues, assistants and friends were exile
d or left the country, but he decided to stay. Until 1986 Lobos worked with very small or foreign publishers, most notably working as illustrator for some special Smurfs and Super Friends
material.
In 1983 the Chilean TV show Jappening Con Ja staged a live-action sketch
of his comic strip, Alaraco, performed by comedian Fernando Alarcón. The recurring sketch became very popular across the country and raised interest in Themo Lobos' work again.
In 1986, Themo Lobos finally gathered the funds and rights to create a new publication called Cucalón. This comic-book was a collection of all of Lobos' output from all the magazines that he had worked along his career, joined by new and previously unpublished material. Cucalón was very well liked in Chile, and lasted 48 issues until 1993 with most of Lobos' material being covered during the run.
was released, an animated motion picture by Chilean animation studio Cine Animadores
, based on the episode now known as
"Mata-ki-te-rangui".
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an comic strip, comic book
Comic book creator
A comic book creator is someone who creates a comic book or graphic novel.The production of a comic book by one of the major comic book companies in the U.S...
writer and artist. He is the creator of characters such as Máximo Chambónez, Ferrilo, Nick Obre, and Alaraco, but his most famous work is Mampato, a character
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
first developed, briefly, by Eduardo Armstrong and Óscar Vega; Lobos then wrote and illustrated his episodes from 1968 to 1978. He is also known as the publisher of the comic-book Cucalón
Cucalón (comic strip)
Cucalón is a Chilean comic book created by Themo Lobos, containing complete Mampato adventures , as well as other characters and stories....
, which collected all his characters and their classic adventures.
Childhood and early career
Themístocles Lobos was born in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1928. He started as a child drawing cartoonCartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s at the age of 7, mostly copying other drawings, but at 12 he realised that he needed "to be original and begin work on his own things". Themo Lobos' first inspirations and influences came from the children's magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
El Peneca of which he was a strong fan – especially the comic strip Quintín el Aventurero (Quintín The Adventurer). His first drawing studies were at the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts, but he quit because the academy was not what he had expected. He later studied at the Chilean School of Applied Arts, where in his free time he created his first original characters, Ferrilo the Robot and Homero the Pilot. His first professional work was published in La Nación (of Chile) newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in 1949, with his characters serving to promote advertising.
The following year, he finally got to work in El Peneca. He was later signed on to work as one of the assistants to Guido Vallejos on the famous Chilean comic-book Barrabases, were he created the characters Cicleto, Cucufato and Ñeclito. In the mid-50's, he was signed on to work on the humor publication El Pingüino (The Penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
); this magazine saw the creation of his first truly famous work: Alaraco, a comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
about an over-concerned and over-reacting man (modeled on Themo Lobos' own personality). The same decade saw his works appearing in the magazines Pobre Diablo, Flash, Humor de Hoy and Humanoide.
Mampato magazine years
Time travel in fiction
Time travel is a common theme in science fiction and is depicted in a variety of media. It simply means either going forward in time or backward, to experience the future, or the past.-Literature:...
, seeking to experience the greatest adventures in the world. The character of Mampato was partly inspired by both Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace (U.S.)
Dennis the Menace is a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created, written and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. It debuted on March 12, 1951 in 16 newspapers and was originally distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate...
by Hank Ketcham
Hank Ketcham
Henry King "Hank" Ketcham was an American cartoonist who created the Dennis the Menace comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994, when he retired from drawing the daily page and took up painting full time in his studio at his home. He received the Reuben Award for the strip in 1953...
, and Goscinny and Uderzo's Astérix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
. Vega had just read an Astérix comic-book, at the time little known in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, and he was very impressed with the work; he tried to merge Dennis the Menace's physical appearance and Astérix' style into a single character. Themo Lobos was by then very busy with his work for El Peneca, but still Armstrong offered him the chance to illustrate the Mampato comic. At first Lobos didn't take the offer, but after a while he accepted – quickly becoming close friends with Armstrong. He then began drawing the series starting with the third chapter of Mampato's first adventure. While doing the illustrations he noted to Armstrong that he "didn't like to work with a script he hadn't written", thus Armstrong decided to give Lobos free reins for the creation of characters and stories in all future installments of Mampato's saga. For the remainder of the story and in full capacity beginning with the second Mampato adventure, known as "Kilikilis and Golagolas", the strip was written and illustrated solely by Themo Lobos and the magazine was well on its way to becoming extremely popular and successful with the local youth; eventually it sold around 100,000 copies per issue and changed its schedule to weekly on April 1971.
The works in Mampato and the Chilean comics circuit as a whole were affected by the coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in the country in 1973 against Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
's government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, headed by Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
on September 11. After this, many comic books ceased their publications and also, in November of the same year Eduardo Armstrong died, afflicted by cancer at age 41.
Since 1973, Themo Lobos had to deal with a problem in publishing the Mampato strip: some people taking notice of certain stories, such as Los Tres aka El Árbol Gigante (The Giant Tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
), where Mampato fights mutants
Mutant (fictional)
The concept of a mutant is a common trope in comic books and science fiction. The new phenotypes that appear in fictional mutations generally go far beyond what is typically seen in biological mutants, and often result in the mutated life form exhibiting superhuman abilities or qualities.-Marvel...
ruled by a character called "Ferjus", the leader of a tyrannical dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
. Lobos has commented on this particular episode explaining that he came up with it before the coup, thus he wasn't trying to satirize the then-current government with the story's themes. And above all, that children's comics shouldn't be used as a political outlet.
Amid the country's tense situation, Mampato magazine ceased publication on January 1978.
During the 1968–1978 period, Themo Lobos produced 25 complete Mampato stories and the magazine was the main publication venue for other Chilean comic artists and several other Lobos works, including Máximo Chambónez, a comic strip originally seen in Barrabases but much more popular when appearing on Mampato magazine.
Hiatus and Cucalón years
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d or left the country, but he decided to stay. Until 1986 Lobos worked with very small or foreign publishers, most notably working as illustrator for some special Smurfs and Super Friends
Super Friends
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
material.
In 1983 the Chilean TV show Jappening Con Ja staged a live-action sketch
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
of his comic strip, Alaraco, performed by comedian Fernando Alarcón. The recurring sketch became very popular across the country and raised interest in Themo Lobos' work again.
In 1986, Themo Lobos finally gathered the funds and rights to create a new publication called Cucalón. This comic-book was a collection of all of Lobos' output from all the magazines that he had worked along his career, joined by new and previously unpublished material. Cucalón was very well liked in Chile, and lasted 48 issues until 1993 with most of Lobos' material being covered during the run.
After Cucalón
In 1996, Ediciones Dolmen began publishing Mampato's adventures in a deluxe comic album format, with recolored pages and new cover art, which have been sold in South America and Europe. In 2002, the movie Ogu and Mampato in Rapa NuiOgu and Mampato in Rapa Nui
Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui , also known as Mampato: The Movie is a feature-length Chilean animated film, created by Cine Animadores and executive produced by Elastic Studios, released June 27, 2002...
was released, an animated motion picture by Chilean animation studio Cine Animadores
Cine Animadores
Cine Animadores is a Chilean animation film studio. One of the few full-based animation studios in the country and Latin America, Cine Animadores worked in his first years with TV commercials and later in the final years of the 90's they started to work on music videos, animated TV series, Flash...
, based on the episode now known as
"Mata-ki-te-rangui".