Argentine Graphic Narrative

Fantagraphics publication of the English translation of Héctor Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López's El Eternauta is a watershed. While it has been translated into many other languages, with Fantagraphics this is a first—and a significant retrospective gesture to recognize its significant place in Argentine graphic fiction. Indeed, El Eternauta is customarily considered the capo lavoro of Argentine graphic fiction. First published between 1957 and 1959 in the Argentine magazine Hora Cero Semanal, El Eternauta in retrospect may be seen to have been a watershed in the transition from comic book production to narratives with mature sociopolitical content not necessarily directed at puerile readers, allowing for serious contestational readings vis-à-vis the historical record being represented.

Cartoon art in Argentina has a long history with enormous commercial success, and it would be inaccurate to say there were no sustained narratives prior to El Eternauta and unfair to say that they were strictly puerile in nature. Many, in fact, are read today as important windows on the complex evolution of Argentine society in the twentieth century. However, it is El Eternauta that definitively inaugurates a cultural production that vies for attention with the most valued texts of Argentine narrative.

One of the most distinctive features of El Eternauta concerns the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Oesterheld during the early years of the 1976-83 neofascist military regime in Argentina. Although Oesterheld had never been involved in political activism, his four daughters were, and it is apparent that they drew their father into the orbit of their left-wing militancy. Two of his daughters disappeared in 1976 at the beginning of what the military called the Dirty War against subversion, and in 1977 Oesterheld disappeared along with his other two daughters (partners of the daughters also disappeared). Although it is unlikely that Oesterheld's disappearance had anything to do with El Eternauta, it did serve to highlight certain aspects of the narrative, and his presumed death, likely accompanied by torture, at the hands of the military made him one of the most iconic figures of the many writers, artists, and intellectuals to fall victims to the Dirty War.

El Eternauta tells the story of a heroic resistance to the invasion of Buenos Aires by an alien force, whose snow-like ash descends on the city, destroying all life that comes in contact with it. The main character, Juan Salvo, who lives with his wife and young daughter in one of the many middle-class suburbs of Buenos Aires, is playing cards one night with some of his friends. Apparently, the house is well-sealed, and the fine ash finds no entrance. Juan Salvo (his name evokes an Argentine Everyman, with Salvo related to the verb salvar "to save"; the first-person singular salvo means "I save") is something of an inventor, and he soon fits his family and friends out with improvised isolation gear: His own contains a face mask that looks like scuba diving equipment, and this is the most recognized image for the strip. The men soon form a resistance band and venture forth to discover and vanquish what they discover to be an invading army; in the process, they are joined by other individuals. Some survive and some perish, but the men persevere, and the narrative texture of the strip centers on the recurring encounters with agents of the enemy until they meet their mastermind, whom they discover is, in turn, someone who has been "robotized" by a higher force. Salvo rescues him from his control by the aliens, the "Them," as they are called by their robot agent, but it is clear that the threat of alien destruction remains a distinct likelihood. The original story ends with Salvo returning to his wife and daughter, but Oesterheld undertook remakes and continuations in 1969 and 1975 (the latter in conjunction with another famed artist, Alberto Breccia, who drew a much darker version of the story), while Solano López collaborated with others in further versions. The upshot of the...