The Eternaut

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El Eternauta
Special edition cover
Publication information
PublisherEditorial Frontera
Genre
Publication date1957 – 1959
Creative team
Written byHéctor Germán Oesterheld
Penciller(s)Francisco Solano López

The Eternaut (Spanish: El Eternauta) is a science fiction Argentine comic created by Héctor Germán Oesterheld with artwork by Francisco Solano López. It was first published in Hora Cero Semanal between 1957 and 1959. Since its original release it has been hailed as a universal masterpiece of its genre, especially in South America.

Oesterheld returned to El Eternauta with a remake published in 1969 (illustrated by Alberto Breccia and left unfinished), and a sequel, El Eternauta II, published in 1976 (working again with Solano López). Both works featured a more overtly political subtext and story, as Oesterheld was increasingly concerned and disturbed by the political conditions of his country and region. By the time HGO (as he's popularly known in Argentina) published El Eternauta II in 1976, he and his daughters had already joined the leftist guerrilla group Montoneros, and one year later he was disappeared —along with almost all of his family— by Argentina's last military dictatorship (1976-1983).

Since the restoration of democracy in the country in 1983, El Eternauta has been continued in a string of different sequels and versions by a variety of writers and artists, while the original work is now considered as the most important and influential historieta/comic of Argentina.

Publication history

Héctor Germán Oesterheld with the magazine Hora Cero.

The Eternauta was first published in the first issue of the comic book anthology Hora Cero by Editorial Frontera, on September 4, 1957.[1] It was written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, author of all the comics in the anthology, and had arts of Francisco Solano López. Solano López had been working in the comic "Rolo, el marciano adoptivo", and although he was still interested in science fiction, he asked for a story with less fantasy.[2] The series became a success, and ran until 1959. However, Solano López said that, although the comic was selling well, they had no way to measure the popularity of each specific comic, and were not aware of the Eternaut's popularity at the time.[2] Hora Cero was closed shortly after the story's conclusion, as artists found it more lucrative to work abroad than in Frontera, Oesterheld knew little of finances, and interest in serial comics declined. Editorial Frontera was then absorbed by Editorial Emilio Ramírez.[1] The closure of Frontera and the emigration of Solano López to Europe forced Oesterheld to cancel his plans for a sequel.[3] Emilio Ramírez then sold the titles to the magazine "Vea y lea" in 1961, which republished the story up to 1963.[4]

In 1969, Oesterheld rebooted El Eternauta with more political references. It became an open critique of dictatorial regimes and advanced anti-imperialist ideas. This version featured artwork by Alberto Breccia, who drew the story in an experimental and unique style diverging from the original expression. It was first published on May 29, 1969 in the weekly Gente. The story was cancelled, so the ending was rushed to avoid leaving it unfinished.[4] The following years the series was also published in several European magazines, such as Linus, El Globo, Alter Alter, Il Mago, Charlie Mensuel and Metal Hurlant.[5]

In December 1975, Ediciones Record started a sequel in Skorpio, by Ediciones Record. Oesterheld resumed the story, with artwork once again by Solano López. Solano López had returned to Argentina, seeking to retrieve his original artworks from Emilio Ramírez.[2] Oesterheld joined the leftist organization Montoneros and became their spokesman, and went into hiding when the organization was banned during the Dirty War. To keep writing the comic he delivered the plots in secrecy or using intermediaries. Solano López only saw him in person a couple of times.[2] The plot of the comic was in line with the political agenda of Montoneros. Solano López did not like it because he rejected both the military government and the Montoneros, and felt that the characterization of Juan Salvo was out-of-character in relation to the first entry.[2]

Oesterheld was victim of an enforced disappearance in 1977,[4] and his only surviving relatives were his widow Elsa and two grandsons. This led to a lengthy copyright dispute, as Elsa sold the rights of the character to Ediciones Record. Solano López had left the country again and had told Elsa that she could use the character as she saw fit. Solano López later clarified that this was not a formal and legal transfer of rights, and that Elsa ignored the rights of Oesterheld's grandsons, who were also heirs even if still minors. He also pointed that the document made between Ediciones Record and Elsa Oesterheld described The Eternaut as a literary work, created solely by Héctor Oesterheld, with no mention of Solano López.[2]

Other authors have continued the saga. A third part, El Eternauta, Tercera Parte (1983), published after the restoration of democracy, met with moderate success. It was criticized for being just another science fiction comic instead of a continuation of the series' political content. Later chapters, "El mundo arrepentido" and "El Eternauta, El regreso", again feature artwork by Solano López.

In 2015, Fantagraphics Books published the first translation of the work into English, under the title The Eternaut. It was translated by Erica Mena.[6] The publication won the 2016 Eisner Award of the category, "Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips".

Italian comics magazine L'Eternauta, started in 1982, took its title from the lead character. It initially featured Ongaro's 1983 work on the series.

By Oesterheld

  • El Eternauta (1957) (script) and F. Solano López (art)
  • El Eternauta, segunda parte (1976) (script) and F. Solano López (art)
  • El Eternauta, remake (1969) (script) and A. Breccia (art)

By others

  • El Eternauta, tercera parte (1983) by Alberto Ongaro (script), Mario Morhain and Oswal (art)
  • Eternauta, el mundo arrepentido (1997–1998) by Pablo Maiztegui (script) and Solano López (art)
  • El Eternauta, el odio cosmico (1999) by Pablo Muñoz, Ricardo Barreiro (script), Walther Taborda and Gabriel Rearte (art)
  • El Eternauta, el Regreso (2003–2006) Pablo Maiztegui (script) and F. Solano López (art)
  • El Eternauta, 50 aniversario (2007)
  • El Eternauta, Odio Cósmico Libro (2008)

Plot

Héctor Germán Oesterheld, the author of the comic, appears as a character at the beginning of the story. He is writing late at night when a man suddenly appears out of thin air in his room. He introduces himself as Juan Salvo, and narrates his story. All the comic is thus narrated by Salvo, in first-person narrative. According to Salvo, mysterious deadly snowfall suddenly covers Buenos Aires and his neighborhood in the nearby Vicente López, wiping out all life upon touch. Juan Salvo survived because his home was completely closed. He was playing truco with his friends, Favalli, Lucas, and Polski, and lived with his wife Elena and his daughter Martita. Polski tried to return to his home and died moments after leaving, once in contact with the snowflakes. The others prepared insulated suits to be able to leave the house and gather supplies. A small kid, Pablo, joins them, and Lucas is killed by a deranged survivor. Realizing that the catastrophe generated a violent state of anarchy they try to escape from Buenos Aires, but before doing so they are recruited by an improvised army.

It turns out that the snowfall was part of an ongoing alien invasion. The army first attacks a group of giant insects similar to beetles, armed with giant lightthrowers, at the General Paz highway. All beetles have devices on their necks that reveal that the real invaders control them from afar. The army sets its base inside the River Plate stadium, as its enormous walls could serve as a trench against the lightthrowers. Salvo and Franco, a metal worker recruited by the army, leave the stadium during the night to gather intelligence. They discover that the beetles, and other survivors turned into automatons by a similar device, were controlled by an alien known as "Hand", because of their hands with several fingers. The alien is in turn also controlled by aliens that he did not name; later referred to as just "Them". The army is then lured into a trap at Plaza Italia. They are decimated by giant beasts known as "Gurbos", and only Salvo, Favalli and Franco survive. They seek further intelligence and find the main invasion at the Plaza del Congreso. They blew up the dome with "them" and escape; they find Pablo and the historian Mosca, who survived the attack at Plaza Italia but got separated from them, and leave just before Buenos Aires is nuked.

The aliens continue the invasion and lure the pockets of survivors to fake "snow-free zones". Favalli, Pablo and Mosca allow themselves to be captured and turned into automatons so that Salvo and his family can escape, they seize a spaceship and Salvo accidentally turns on a time machine while randomly pressing buttons. He ends up in a pocket universe, with Elena and Martita stranded somewhere else. He eventually learns to travel between universes and timelines, which is why he appeared at Oesterheld's house. After finishing his narration Salvo realizes that he is in Buenos Aires, only a few years before the invasion. He runs back home, reunites with his family in a stable time loop, and forgets about it all. Oesterheld, unable to do anything else about the future invasion, decides to write a comic about it.

Reception

Numerous comic book artists and members of the specialized press have remarked on Oesterheld's amplitude of subtle interpretations, veiled references and double readings. Oesterheld indicated that the protagonists were always a group of people - sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller - something he terms a "group hero" or "hero-in-group." He believed this was a more valuable concept than the traditional individual hero who appears to triumph without help from others.[7]

Critics have frequently likened the invaders and their methods as veiled references to the various military-led coups which occurred at the time in the country.[8] The three versions written by Oesterheld (the first part, its remake and the second part) were contemporaneous with the de facto governments of Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, Juan Carlos Onganía and the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, respectively.

It has also been noted that, except for the "Ellos", none of the invaders is truly evil; they are noble beings forced to carry out the orders of others. Critics believe Oesterheld was writing an anti-war comic,[9] or an allegory of class struggle.[10]

Adaptation

Main article: The Eternaut (TV series)

Directors such as Adolfo Aristarain, Fernando Solanas or Gustavo Mosquera expressed interest in a film adaptation,[11] but could not manage reasonable production costs.[12]

In 2008, under supervision by Elsa Oesterheld, the writer's widow, an Italian production company worked on a film adaptation of the original comic. The story would be set in Buenos Aires and the possibility of co-producing the film with INCAA was discussed.[11] Lucrecia Martel was reported as slated to direct the film and said that production was already past the "embryonic stages."[13] In 2009, however, Martel was dropped due to conceptual differences with the producers.[14]

On September 4, 2017, on the 60th anniversary of the comic's release, a group of independent artists from Argentina presented an animated short film called “60 seconds of darkness”, an adaptation of a small fragment of the original comic.

In February 2020, it was announced that The Eternaut would be adapted into a TV series for Netflix. The series will be directed by Bruno Stagnaro and will be contextualized in the present.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Alex Leibovich (April 10, 2024). "La historia de Hora Cero, la revista que dio origen a El Eternauta" [The history of Hora Cero, the magazine that gave birth to The Eternaut] (in Spanish). Clarín. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Solano López, Francisco (1995). "Solano López" (Interview). Interviewed by Andrés Accorsi. Argentina: Comiqueando #12.
  3. ^ García, Fernando (1997). "La verdadera historia de El Eternauta" [The true history of the Eternaut]. Comiqueando #30 (in Spanish). Argentina: Comiqueando Press.
  4. ^ a b c Gustavo Torres Roggerone (April 27, 2020). "El Eternauta" [The Eternaut] (in Spanish). FM Agora. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
  5. ^ "Fleetway artist - Alberto Breccia". www.dandare.info.
  6. ^ Cooke, Rachel (December 15, 2015). "The Eternaut review – hero in a homemade diving suit". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
  7. ^ Oesterheld, Héctor Germán (2007), El Eternauta, 50 años, Buenos Aires: Doedytores, ISBN 978-987-9085-26-4,

    "Now that I think about it, I believe that perhaps it is because of that lack of a central hero, that El Eternauta is one of my stories which brings me more pleasure to remember. The true hero of El Eternauta is a collective hero, a human group. And so it reflects, even if it wasn't my intention, my inner feelings: the only valid hero is the hero "in group", never the individual hero, the lone hero."
  8. ^ Trillo, Carlos (20 April 2007), "Eterno resplandor.", Diario Clarín, you didn't have to be an exhaustive metaphor seeker to associate the military junta with the Ellos
  9. ^ "Este sensible Mano que dirige ocasionalmente las operaciones de limpieza en un confín de la Tierra y el Universo llamado Barrio de Belgrano, en Buenos Aires, no tiene nada, particularmente, en contra de Juan Salvo o Franco. Y sin embargo trata - y debe hacerlo- de aniquilarlos. No es diferente a cualquier situación de las historias de Ernie Pike" - Sasturain, Juan (1985), "Oesterheld y el héroe nuevo", El libro de Fierro / Especial Oesterheld, vol. Annual supplement, no. 1
  10. ^ "La explotación de unos seres vivos para el exclusivo beneficio de otros, como impuesto sustento de un determinado orden político y social es, a priori, el gran tema que El Eternauta debate, denunciando claramente una herramienta de sometimiento: El enfrentamiento de oprimidos contra oprimidos (¿pobres contra pobres?)" - García, Fernando (2007), El Eternauta, 50 años, Buenos Aires: Doedytores, ISBN 978-987-9085-26-4
  11. ^ a b Vazquez, Cristian (3 May 2011). "El largo camino de "El Eternauta" para llegar al cine". Clarín. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011.
  12. ^ "Página/12 :: radar". Página/12.
  13. ^ "Lucrecia Martel filmará "El Eternauta"". Perfil (in Spanish). 13 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  14. ^ Makovsky, Pablo (23 February 2012). "Historias de crímenes de clase". La Capital. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012.
  15. ^ Lisica, Federico (19 February 2020). "Netflix confirmó que hará una serie de "El Eternauta" y otras producciones argentinas". Página/12 (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.

External links

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