On sale date: November 24, 2015
Now a TV series available on Netflix — the seminal Argentine science fiction graphic novel whose main character is still viewed as a symbol of resistance in Latin America.
WINNER 2016 Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips
A gathering of neighbors in suburban Buenos Aires is interrupted by an eerie, phosphorescent snowfall. When those outside exposed to the "snow" start dropping dead, it becomes clear that the harmless-looking "snow" reflects the vanguard of an alien invasion, and a story of survival, cunning, and armed struggle against them unfurls. Written by the Argentine author Héctor Germán Oesterheld — who opposed the military junta in the late '70s, and was disappeared, along with his daughters, in 1977 — and drawn by Francisco Solano López in an appropriately pulpy, representational style. The story, originally serialized from 1957 to 1959, holds a mirror to Argentine politics, reflecting an era of paranoia, military juntas, and Cold War geopolitics. Encounter the gripping tale that remains a symbol of resistance in Latin America to this day.
Praise
"A sense of paranoia is palpable on every page." — The New Yorker
"In Argentina, The Eternaut is a cultural milestone ... López draws the massive adventure in a sharp-edged, high-contrast, varyingly detailed manner... [A] fascinating and exciting work." — Booklist
"A sense of hope underlies the series, and it can be read as the struggle of the everyman to shirk off the yoke of oppression and to circumvent the cycle of slavery that war begets." — Paste
"...The Eternaut is a particularly compelling work, and it occupies an interesting point in Latin American literature. ... In much the same way that Tarantino spins poetry from trash cinema, Oesterheld constructs a political allegory out of sci-fi serials and adventure novels. ...[I]ts apocalyptic lens facilitates its argument that anything can be overcome by unity, by refusing to accept oppression; it is, at the end of the day, a paean to the human spirit." — The A.V. Club
"Oesterheld and López's Argentinian classic from the 1950s [is] newly translated by Mena with a deftness and energy befitting the Borgesian, literary quality of the narrative... Elsewhere, López's vigorous and occasionally terrifying drawings bring us from one hair-raising moment to the next, one part R. Crumb, one part Goya, one part Edvard Munch. ... These two stories, of course, point to a larger one: that of how we deal with the daily catastrophes and pitfalls of human existence, with or without extraterrestrials." — The Boston Globe
Specs
- Pages
- 368
- Format
- Hardback
- Color
- Black and white
- Dimensions
- 11.9" × 8.9"
- ISBN-13
- 9781606998502
