El Eternauta, Daytripper, and Beyond

El Eternauta, Daytripper, and Beyond examines the graphic narrative tradition in the two South American countries that have produced the mediums most significant and copious output. Argentine graphic narrative emerged in the 1980s, awakened by Hctor Oesterhelds groundbreaking 1950s serial El Eternauta. After Oesterheld was disappeared under the military dictatorship, El Eternauta became one of the most important cultural texts of turbulent mid-twentieth-century Argentina. Today its story, set in motion by an extraterrestrial invasion of Buenos Aires, is read as a parable foretelling the invasion of Argentine society by a murderous tyranny. Because of El Eternauta, graphic narrative became a major platform for the countrys cultural redemocratization. In contrast, Brazil, which returned to democracy in 1985 after decades of dictatorship, produced considerably less analysis of the period of repression in its graphic narratives. In Brazil, serious graphic narratives such as Fbio Moon and Gabriel Bs Daytripper, which explores issues of modernity, globalization, and cross-cultural identity, developed only in recent decades, reflecting Brazilian societys current and ongoing challenges. Besides discussing El Eternauta and Daytripper, David William Foster utilizes case studies of influential workssuch as Alberto Breccia and Juan Sasturains Perramus series, Anglica Freitas and Odyr Bernardis Guadalupe, and othersto compare the role of graphic narratives in the cultures of both countries, highlighting the importance of Argentina and Brazil as anchors of the production of world-class graphic narrative.