Argentine artist José Muñoz is no stranger to the Angoulême Festival. Before he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Town of Angoulême last January, he and his scriptwriter, Carlos Sampayo, had previously received two awards (which is extremely rare): the Best Foreign Comic Book Award: in 1978 for Alack Sinner published by éditions du Square and in 1983 for Alack Sinner: Flic ou privé published by Casterman. And let us not forget the exhibition dedicated to his work in 1996 in the Hotel Saint-Simon.

 

Immediately after the publication of his first European comic books, three decades ago, the mark and influence of this outstanding author was perceived as decisive, especially by the generation of artists about to carry out the graphic trend to be known as adult comic books. This intuition has been largely confirmed since. The impact of Muñoz - a virtuoso in black and white, an extremely demanding stylist and a radical narrator who defends a committed vision of comic book art, in the ideological sense - has proved to be significant for a number of authors such as Baudoin, Baru, de Crécy, Matsumoto Taiyo and many others, and beyond that for a major part of today's comic books.

This 35^th Festival, chaired by José Muñoz, gives us the opportunity to discover his exceptional career. Instead of only displaying his own drawings, the artist chose to supervise a transversal anthology of Argentinean comic books and their history, which reveals both surprising and fascinating. This is no encyclopaedic process, but rather a subjective account resulting from a sentimental approach which he chose and totally endorses. It is the moving tribute of José Muñoz to his native country, to his roots, mentors and favourite books....

Over two hundred drawings and original drafts are displayed and commented upon by the artist who, not only, brings out the cultural and socio-political context of their publication but also their emotional value to his eyes. This enterprise is both rare and instructive: it literally allows us to return to the "imaginary sources" of his whole work.

The first part of the exhibition enhances the impact of reviews from the 30s to the 60s (Aqui Esta, Patoruzù and Rico Tipo). They were poorly known in Europe though the edition was sometimes over 300,000 issues. They mixed cartoons, adventure strips and stories with social concerns... The French readers will, at last, be able to learn about the Indian Patoruzù in the strips drawn by Quinterno, which Goscinny had read as a kid and which could certainly have been his source of inspiration for some features of Astérix...

The second section focuses on the reviews Patoruzito, Misterix, Hora Cero and Tia Vicenta, published between the 50s and the 70s. This period highlights the strong influence of American comics, but also the changes and innovations brought by young Italian authors who had just arrived in Argentina (notably Hugo Pratt and Alberto Ongaro) as well as the confirmation of young talented Argentinean authors such as Solano Lopez, Vogt, Zoppi, Carlos Cruz and Alberto Breccia, from Uruguay. Not to mention the extraordinary creativity and production of scriptwriter Hector Oesterheld. In addition to rediscovering El Eternauta, a cult comic book in Argentina, the exhibition also includes unpublished watercolours by Hugo Pratt and works by Alberto Breccia never shown before in Europe.

After a third section dedicated to the years of the "survivors" and corresponding to the end of dictatorship in Argentina, José Muñoz insisted on laying the emphasis on later works, focusing on key figures such as Quino and his Mafalda, Copi and La femme assise (the sitting woman), and female artist Maitena who is now translated and published all over the world. The fourth section also gives way to the young generation of Argentinean comic book artists, born between 1975 and 1990: twenty or so outstanding emerging artists, the jewel of the Buenos Aires school. Their work is fascinating and remains unheard-of: neither of them have ever been introduced to the European readership before.

The fifth section of the exhibition comes as a crowning piece as it pays tribute to José Muñoz's fifty years of artistic and literary work. He was only 15 in 1958 when he became Solano Lopez's assistant on El Eternauta. Then he drew episodes of Ernie Pike as well as Precinto 56 and other commissioned works. He exiled in Europe where he met Carlos Sampayo who became his accomplice and main scriptwriter. Together they created their now mythical character Alack Sinner, the hero of a gorgeous and lunar human comedy which intertwines the threads of mystery, political commitment, city life and music.

Throughout his exemplary career, Muñoz, whose work embodies the epitome of what an adult comic book may say and show at its best, designed over twenty books, the Alack Sinner series, Sophie, Billie Holiday, Jeux de Lumières, Panna Maria along with Jerome Charyn, among many others. The Festival will give to the public an opportunity to discover the original drafts of his current book, the biography of the legendary Carlos Gardel.

 

The conception of this great exhibition benefited from the help of writer Juan Sasturain (who wrote Perramus for Alberto Breccia), of cartoonist Lucas Nine and publisher Giusti Zuccato who curated the exhibition.

 

EXHIBITION "ARGENTINEAN COMIC BOOKS ACCORDING TO JOSÉ MUÑOZ - A MULTI-ETHNICAL HISTORY"

 

CNBDI, from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 January 2008,

10am-7pm