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scans_daily2012-06-22 11:23 pm
mrosa) wrote in scans_daily2012-06-22 11:23 pm
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The end of the world
H.G. Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia's El Eternauta is a classic Argentine comic book and very famous in Europe for its excellent artwork and very bleak storyline. It's basically the tale of how the world dies after an alien invasion and of a man, the Eternaut, going back in time to warn Mankind. Oesterheld wrote the first version in 1957 and Francisco Solano López drew it. In 1969 Oesterheld got together with Breccia to create a darker version as a commentary on Argentina's dictatorship.
The story opens with the Eternaut materializing in front of a comic book writer, based on Oesterheld. That somber face on the wall is a neat reference to Mort Cinder, a famous character Osterheld and Breccia created.
The Eternaut starts narrating the story to him to write it down. Now, first of all, these aliens aren't fucking stupid. Being a highly developed civilization, they're not going to do what every race does in fiction, which is to engage in direct combat. They're just going to kill everyone from a safe distance. A deadly snow starts falling on the world, and anyone touched by it dies instantly.
The Eternaut and his friends watch the effects from the window and are obviously terrified. They all want to go back to their families to check on them. One of them can't stand it anymore and runs out of the house into the deadly snow:
And dies in a moving sequence. The snow doesn't stop falling, so they improvise a protection suit, and it's up to the Eternaut to try it out:
In his creepy suit, the Eternaut walks around, looking for survivors, until he arrives home. After he finds his family, he joins a militia to fight back against the aliens. By this point almost everyone is dead, and the aliens have deployed some robots to take out the survivors. One of the creepiest thing about the comic book is that you never see the actual aliens.
The cool thing about Breccia's art is that you can't really understand the shape of the robots.
Things get worse for the Eternaut when he learns that aid is not coming. You see, the richest nations in the world have made a deal with the aliens: in exchange for South America, the aliens will leave the others alone (this was Oesterheld making his point that South America had been sold by its leaders to American interests, which, in the '60s and '70s wasn't exactly incorrect).
After getting his hands in a time machine, he and his family get lost in time and he spends eternities searching for them, until he lands in the past and meets the comic book writer. Shortly afterwards the Eternaut rejuvenates and loses his memory, making the comic book writer the sole witness of the events. But will anyone believe him? Ah, who believes comic book writers? So, yeah, Mankind is so fucked...
El Eternauta is a great comic book, and well ahead of its time. Breccia's art was at its peak. It's just a pity Oesterheld was so fond of words. He loved to write thick paragraphs, as you can see above. He had one of the greatest artists of the medium to work with and just flooded him with text, it's a shame because his imagination was unique.
This was also one of their last collaborations. In 1977 Oesterheld and his four daughters were killed by the military junta, in part because of his political comics. His body was never found.
The story opens with the Eternaut materializing in front of a comic book writer, based on Oesterheld. That somber face on the wall is a neat reference to Mort Cinder, a famous character Osterheld and Breccia created.
The Eternaut starts narrating the story to him to write it down. Now, first of all, these aliens aren't fucking stupid. Being a highly developed civilization, they're not going to do what every race does in fiction, which is to engage in direct combat. They're just going to kill everyone from a safe distance. A deadly snow starts falling on the world, and anyone touched by it dies instantly.
The Eternaut and his friends watch the effects from the window and are obviously terrified. They all want to go back to their families to check on them. One of them can't stand it anymore and runs out of the house into the deadly snow:
And dies in a moving sequence. The snow doesn't stop falling, so they improvise a protection suit, and it's up to the Eternaut to try it out:
In his creepy suit, the Eternaut walks around, looking for survivors, until he arrives home. After he finds his family, he joins a militia to fight back against the aliens. By this point almost everyone is dead, and the aliens have deployed some robots to take out the survivors. One of the creepiest thing about the comic book is that you never see the actual aliens.
The cool thing about Breccia's art is that you can't really understand the shape of the robots.
Things get worse for the Eternaut when he learns that aid is not coming. You see, the richest nations in the world have made a deal with the aliens: in exchange for South America, the aliens will leave the others alone (this was Oesterheld making his point that South America had been sold by its leaders to American interests, which, in the '60s and '70s wasn't exactly incorrect).
After getting his hands in a time machine, he and his family get lost in time and he spends eternities searching for them, until he lands in the past and meets the comic book writer. Shortly afterwards the Eternaut rejuvenates and loses his memory, making the comic book writer the sole witness of the events. But will anyone believe him? Ah, who believes comic book writers? So, yeah, Mankind is so fucked...
El Eternauta is a great comic book, and well ahead of its time. Breccia's art was at its peak. It's just a pity Oesterheld was so fond of words. He loved to write thick paragraphs, as you can see above. He had one of the greatest artists of the medium to work with and just flooded him with text, it's a shame because his imagination was unique.
This was also one of their last collaborations. In 1977 Oesterheld and his four daughters were killed by the military junta, in part because of his political comics. His body was never found.
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