Wednesday, 5 August 2020

Chilean Tarzan clones! Part 2

The nationalization and ideologization of the comic strip.

The election of Salvador Allende and the extreme ideologization of the country even reached the comics, with the famous book To read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfmann and Armand Matelart. In this historical context, the great Editorial Zig Zag is expropriated and transformed into Editorial Quimantú, changing the content of the comics in a process that did not always give good results.

The scheme of Editorial Quimantú, the new state entity, transforms the individual work maintained by Zig Zag, in a collective, with discussion of the issues in assemblies and the political decision of the magazines and the content to publish, nationalising the production and content. A good example was seen in the jungle adventures.

The magazine El Intocable is transformed into a political tool for ideological revision, attacking the African colonial system, supporting the revolts for independence, gradually transforming itself into a leader of the blacks who fight for decolonisation, changing their leopard skin clothing for pants and boots. At the same time, the quality of the drawings decreases and Mizomba takes a second place in the limelight, presenting the comic strip by Manuel Rodríguez, the Guerrilla fighter and one by fishermen, "The Five of La Aurora". The loss of the market ends with its transformation into a Guerilla Magazine. in 1972.

In "Jungle", Mawa's luck is similar, although it is not manipulated to the extremes of Mizomba. It happens to occupy a secondary plane, but it is still present in the covers, which maintain a more daring style, coming to show her bathing naked in a river. He continues his tour of India, along with the faithful Damayanti, in a permanent fight with Diavolo, a criminal genius, almost removed from the subject of jungle adventures. Its cartoonists are R. Poblete, Lincoln Fuentes, who also makes the covers, C. Mora and Roberto Tapia (Tom).

In the Jungle, already transferred from Zig Zag to Quimantú, a series called Hombres en la Jungla (Men in the Jungle) is presented, which takes center stage and even subtitles the magazine at some point. They are the adventures of a group of revolutionaries from some South American country whose plane has fallen in the jungle. The struggle for survival, with limited means, the contact and friendship of the indigenous people, plus the constant danger of being attacked by the forces of the "Dictator", not identified but identifiable, are the constants. In addition, the emergence of love conflicts and the existence of white groups that seek the exploitation of indigenous people and jungle resources. The scripts are by Ventura Marín and the drawings by Lincoln Fuentes, Julio Berrios and a woman, María Cristina Jorquera. In addition, as a complementary series, of short duration, it appears that Man and nature, which with a didactic nature presents the relations of man with the environment and ecology. Drawings by H. Jofre.

Post-coup comics of 1973

At the end of the Popular Unity period, with the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, Editorial Quimantú changed its name to Editorial Gabriela Mistral, keeping only some of the existing magazines, mainly from the west and its jungle obsession.

In Jungla after a time when Mawa is no longer a cartoon of the jungle, but of adventures in a land called Kismet, she is taken away to another dimension and at No. 173, they present a heroine who moves between science fiction and sword and witchcraft. She is a blonde Amazon, inhabitant of a fourth-dimensional world called Kismet, accompanied by two former Mawa companions. The script is by José Zamorano and the drawings by Mario Igor. Also collaborating are Fernando Vergara, Lincoln Fuentes and Julio Berrios.

The aforementioned series is complemented with self-concluding episodes referring to Africa, with stories of black tribes and Arabs of the desert. The scripts are by Jorge Yañez and the drawings by Hildegardo and Mario Igor, Santiago Peñailillo, and Ernesto López. In addition, an educational series by María Cristina Jorquera, La Maravillosa Naturaleza.

The same publishing house, in 1974, presented a new magazine of El Intocable, with a new numbering, which, following the jungle theme, ventures more strongly into the theme of lost or unknown areas. Mizomba continues with the leading role, hand in hand with a mestizo son, with mental power. Drawings by Hildegardo Igor and Mario Igor, with scripts by José Zamorano. It does not achieve the success of its predecessor and ends after a score of numbers. The main comic is complemented by series in concert with continuity, especially related to the African desert and the Arabs. The scripts are by Jorge Yañez and the drawings by Hernán Contreras and Ernesto López.

In 1975, Editorial Pinsel - Dilapsa announced, without specifying, a magazine called Adventures in the Jungle. Editorial Publisa publishes magazines such as Winchester, Red Lightning and Pif Paf, in which there are occasionally adventures in the jungle. In Rayo Rojo, the Masai Master series from Kenya is presented, a script by Leonardo S. and drawings by Carlos Mora.

From Mampato magazine we will mention the following series with jungle adventure content: In 1974 a magnificent story in the jungle, with black protagonists, two hunters: The man-eater of Manuel Cardenas. In 1975 a great series by Máximo Carvajal - Dina and Nino in the lost land of Mu - with two children in a land where different civilizations mix. Also in the Inca civilisation, there is a young Tantan from Oskar (Oscar Vega).

Lincoln Fuentes in the drawings and Ventura Marín in the scripts present between 1975 and 1976 the notes of Emilio Basset of a didactic nature, which would also have comics of this hunter set in the Amazon. In 1977, Mario Igor in the drawing and Adrián Rocca in the script, Mampato presents the story of Kio, a young white man in the Amazon jungle fighting with ambitious explorers. Santiago Peñailillo ventures into the subject with Kouma the white queen (la reina blanca), defender of the weak from some remote part of the African jungle.

Decline of traditional adventure

After years of no fuss in jungle adventure comics, we have a return in grand style. On January 6, 1980 the great comic project of La Tercera arises, a Sunday supplement, in color, with a predominance of Chilean material, in full page and in a folletin or continued style. A character born in the magazine, from Themo Lobos, Pimpín, the Adventurer, set in the early twentieth century, in his third story, starting with No. 40 of the supplement, of October 5, 1980, begins an African adventure with his friend O’Tully and a phlegmatic English military man.

It would take more than 6 years for a return on the subject in the youth magazine Dos Puntos, a creation of the National Foundation of Culture, Chile Films and Diario de la Nación, in 1987, it has Waco, a sailor in the Amazon, populated by lost peoples, drawn by Enrique Espinosa.

It is 1988 the great year of comics, Acido, Trauko, Bandido, Matucana magazines and others appear, most of them fanzines style, without showing more interest in the subject. In Trauko, Nos. 3 and 4, an adventure classic Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt is presented in an episode called Leopards set in the Congo.

At the end of the 1980s, in 1989, Editorial Condel S.A. launches in black and white and with 64 pages a great adventure comic magazine: Alacrán. Their material was preferably English and Spanish, but Chilean authors also collaborate. Worth mentioning are the adventures of two children in Africa, Ann and Dan, by the Italian Hugo Pratt, carried out during their stay in Argentina. They reveal a greater realism than the average of these comics. In addition, the adventures of a photographer, Johny Focus, in various places, especially jungle areas, by Attilio Micheluzzi.

In 1989, reviving Mampato's scheme a bit, Cachipún was published by the Sociedad de Ediciones Molino Ltda, format 16 x 23 centimeters, with 28 pages, in black white, for color exceptions. The magazine is directed by Maximo Carvajal, who is replacing his series Dina and Nino in the lost land of Mu, about two young people in a mysterious area of ​​the Amazon jungle, their first part already published in the Mampato magazine and without being finished the second part, originally censored in Mampato.

In 1991 the magazine Plop! by Pepo Producciones, in which a series called Gorigo and Orangloton is presented, along the lines of humanized animals, of a humorous nature, by Mico.

In the decade of the 90s, a boom in national comic books has continued for a few years, but it declined due to the flood of international comic books at a low price, these are the years of American superheroes (some even published in Chile), the Spanish author's comic or French, the manga phenomenon in comics and television and the excess of picaresque or pornographic magazines. There is no current Chilean jungle adventure cartoon.

January 2003.

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