"What does a few lives matter?": Notes on two comic-book invasions of Héctor Oesterheld (1974-1977)

GAGO, SEBASTIAN HORACIO

International Journal of Comic Art

John Lent

Lugar: Filadelfia; Año: 2020 vol. 22

1531-6793

éctor Germán Oesterheld occupies a central place in the Argentine comic tradition. Outstanding scriptwriter and editor, Oesterheld knew how to elaborate in his works an original adventure model in which there is no shortage of readings, references and allusions to the reality of his time. In addition to his literary quality, he was an intellectual committed with the problems and social and political needs of the country where he lived.In an Argentina convulsed by socio-political conflicts, the co-author of the mythical El Eternauta generated a new poetics for comics. During the 1970s, in the heat of his militancy in the left-wing of the Peronist movement, Oesterheld turned comics into a pedagogical and political action tool (Fernández, 2010).Our corpus of study and reflection are two science fiction titles of extraterrestrial invasion, guided by the author in the last stage of his life: La Guerra de los Antartes, with drawings by Gustavo Trigo, was serialized, with an unfinished endin