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Anuario de "Pimpinela"
1956. Publicaciones Universales S.R.L. This is the annual issue of a magazine
which really marked an epoch in Argentinian comics... Its regular issues
appeared monthly (which was uncommon among Argentinian mags, usually published
on a weekly schedule), the size was rather small, but they had 64 pages
in all. All strictly B & W, except for covers, which were full collored
and always over a yellow background, drawn by Enrique Vieytes, veteran
illustrator and teacher (who, incidentally, was yours truly's mail teacher
also for some months). The issues were mainly devoted to adapt famous novels,
much in the "Classic Illustrated" way; but the complement were very fine
American and/or Argentinian comics, all complete. Three of them (the magazine
main assets, besides the classics's adaptations) were the
popular American series of
"Crimebuster" (here called "Justy"), by Charles Biro, Dan Barry, Joe Kubert
and other talented artists and writers; "Lorna, Reina de la Jungla" ("Lorna,
Queen of the Jungle"), by Russ Heath and Jay Scott Pike among others; and,
above all, the magnificent "Piguí y su Pandilla" (a Spanish version
of "The Little Wise Guys", by Charles Biro and assorted artists, always
with script above average and excellent art). Other good comics were also
published, of detective, science fiction or war genres, always sellected
among the best available.
Some times the
main story was not a novel adaptation (such as "Tom Sawyer", "Tale of Two
Cities" or "The Man who Laughs"), but, instead, long Italian comics which
received the treatment of novels, without really being so; but superb stuff
anyway most of the times. I sellected this Annual, instead of one of the
regular mags, for it has the peculiarity of sporting an all-star contents,
in which NOT A SINGLE STORY CAN BE JUDGED LESS THAN "VERY(VERY)GOOD"(!)
Bob Powell has an excellent
"I'm a Cop" episode, while "The Saint", by Leslie Charteris and John Spranger
is at its best, both in script and art. The Italian stuff ("El manto de
Siena" ["The Cloak of Siena"] and "Sobre la pista de los Elefantes" ["On
the trail of elephants"]) is indeed absolutelly
first-class. A real collector's
item... for Spanish readers, of course. |
