Alberto Breccia (April 15, 1919 – November 10, 1993) was a

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

an-born

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

artist and cartoonist. His son Enrique Breccia and daughter Patricia Breccia are also comic book artists. Comic book author Frank Miller considers Breccia as one of his personal mentors, even declaring that (regarding modernity in comics): "it all started with Breccia".Breccia, again recovered
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Juan Sasturain ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philip ...

. Published on 10-31-2011, '' Página/12''

Biography

Born in

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, Uruguay, Breccia moved with his parents to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina, when he was three years old. After leaving school, Breccia worked in a tripe packing plant and in 1938 he got a job for the magazine ''El Resero'', where he wrote articles and drew the covers. He began to work professionally in 1939, when he joined the publishing house Manuel Láinez. He worked on magazines such as ''Tit-Bits'', ''Rataplán'' and ''El Gorrión'' where he created

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s such as '' Mariquita Terremoto'', '' Kid Río Grande'', '' El Vengador'' (based on a popular novel), and other adaptations. During the 1950s he became an "honorary" member of the " Group of Venice" that consisted of expatriate

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

artists such as Hugo Pratt, Ivo Pavone, Horacio Lalia, Faustinelli and Ongaro. Other honorary members were

Francisco Solano López Francisco Solano López Carrillo (24 July 1827 or 1826 – 1 March 1870) was a Paraguay, Paraguayan statesman, Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician who served as President of Paraguay between 1862 and 1870, of which he serve ...

, Carlo Cruz and Arturo Perez del Castillo. With Hugo Pratt, he started the Pan-American School of Art in Buenos Aires. In 1957 he joined publisher Editorial Frontera, under the direction of Héctor Germán Oesterheld, where he created several '' Ernie Pike'' stories. In 1958 Breccia's series '' Sherlock Time'' ran in the comic magazine ''Hora Cero Extra'', with scripts by Oesterheld. In 1960 he began to work for European publishers via a Buenos Aires-based art agency: for

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

publishing house

Fleetway Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. History It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies t ...

he drew a few westerns and war stories. This period did not last long. His son Enrique Breccia would also draw a few war stories for Fleetway in the late 1960s, such as ''Spy 13''. Breccia and Oesterheld collaborated to produce one of the most important comic strips in history, '' Mort Cinder'', in 1962. The face of the immortal Cinder is modeled after Breccia's assistant, Horacio Lalia, and the appearance of his companion, the

antique An antique () is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that i ...

dealer Ezra Winston, is actually Breccia's own. Cinder and Winston's strip began on July 26, 1962, in issue Nº 714 of ''Misterix'' magazine, and ran until 1964 . In 1968 Breccia was joined by his son, Enrique, in a project to draw the comic biography of ''Che'', the life of

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

, again with a script provided by Oesterheld. In 1969 Oesterheld wrote a reboot of '' El Eternauta'', for the Argentinian magazine ''Gente''. Breccia drew the story with a decidedly experimental style, resorting to diverse techniques. The resulting work was anything but conventional and moving away from the commercial. Breccia refused to modify its style, which added to the tone of the script, and was much different from

original. During the seventies, Breccia makes major graphic innovations in black and white and color with series like ''Un tal Daneri'' and ''Chi ha paura delle fiabe?'', written by

Carlos Trillo Carlos Trillo (May 1, 1943 – May 8, 2011) was an Argentine comic book writer, best known worldwide as the co-creator and writer of the '' Cybersix'' comics. With a long and prolific career in the '' Historieta'' medium, he is considered as one ...

. On the last one, a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

based on

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

's tales, he plays with texture, mixing

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

, acrylic and

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

. This technique will be used later in the eighties by American and British authors such as

Bill Sienkiewicz Boleslav William Felix Robert Sienkiewicz ( ; ; born May 3, 1958) is an American artist known for his work in comic books—particularly for Marvel Comics' ''The New Mutants (comic book), The New Mutants'', ''Moon Knight,'' and ''Elektra: Assassi ...

and

Dave McKean David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an England, English artist. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture. McKean has illustrated works by authors such as S. F. Said, S.F. Said, ...

. Other stories include: ''

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'', ''Buscavidas'' (text by Carlos Trillo), a '' Historia grafica del Chile'' and '' Perramus'', inspired by the work of the poet

a pamphlet against the

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

in Argentina. Breccia died in Buenos Aires in 1993.

Partial bibliography

*''Mariquita Terremoto'' *''Kid Río Grande'' *''El Vengador'' *''Jean de Martinica'' *''Vito Nervio'' (1947–1959 and 1974), with stories by Leonardo Wadel *''Mision Thyuraine'' (1961), with stories by Leonardo Wadel *'' Pancho López'' (1956) *'' Ernie Pike'', written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld *'' Sherlock Time'' (1958–1959), written by Oesterheld *'' Mort Cinder'' (1962–1964), written by Oesterheld *''Richard Long'' (1966), written by Oesterheld *'' Vida del Che'' (1968), written by Oesterheld, with additional art by Enrique Breccia *'' The Eternaut 1969'', written by Oesterheld *'' Evita, vida y obra de Eva Perón'' (1970), written by Oesterheld *''Squadra Zenith'' (1972–1974) *''Los Mitos de Cthulhu'' (1973), written by Norberto Buscaglia, from text by

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

*''Un Tal Daneri'' (1974–1978), written by Trillo *''El Corazón Delator'' (1975), based on '' The Tell-Tale Heart'' by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

*'' El Aire ''(1976), written by Guillermo Saccomanno *''Nadie'' (1977), written by Trillo. *''Buscavidas'' (1981), written by Trillo *''Perramus'' (1983), written by

*''Drácula, Dracul, Vlad?, Bah...'' (1984) *''Informe Sobre Ciegos'' (1991), based on a chapter of '' On Heroes and Tombs'' by Ernesto Sábato *''El Dorado, El Delirio de Lope de Aguirre'' (1992), written by Carlos Albiac *''Martín Fierro'', adaptation of the '' Martín Fierro'' poem by José Hernández *''Platos Voladores Al Ataque!!'', written by Oesterheld

References

External links

Muestras de Breccia y Barnes se llevan a cabo en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires
on Ouroboros world (Spanish)

on Lambiek Comiclopedia

on Dan Dare

Alberto Breccia work

on Tebeosfera

FFF {{DEFAULTSORT:Breccia, Alberto Uruguayan comics artists Argentine comics artists Uruguayan comic strip cartoonists Argentine comic strip cartoonists Argentine science fiction artists 1919 births 1993 deaths Argentine people of Italian descent Uruguayan people of Italian descent Uruguayan emigrants to Argentina