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| "Hora Cero" Semanal Nº14, 4 December 1957. The most successful of the magazines published by Editorial Frontera of Buenos Aires, this weekly magazine began with just three stories in a very thin volume, which was printed in rotogravure, black and white interiors (sometimes with shades of grey) and a bi-colored cover, with the non-black tint changing monthly from orange to blue, then to green, etc. This one was made by the excellent artist Solano López, reflecting again the loneliness and tragedy of war in the face of a common soldier, lost among the chaos of death and mayhem that was WWII (the magazine was published after Corea but well before Viet Nam).In the former issues the stories sported all the "to be continued" line, and the continuities sort of fascinated the readers of the time, making the magazine one of the biggest sellers in years. Regretfully, its run was only of two years, and the quality dropped notably in 1959, for causes never well defined. The characters, some of the very best ever seen in the story of Argentinian comics, were: "Ernie Pike, War corresponsal", drawn by Hugo Pratt; "Randall, The Killer", a Western-for-those-who-don't-care-about-Westerns, superbly drawn by the late Chilean artist Arturo del Castillo, and, above all, "El Eternauta", a long science fiction story about an alien invasion in Buenos Aires, which made the strongest impression in readers of yore, who still remember it fondly (artist: Solano López). The prolific Héctor Germán Oesterheld wrote all the stories (in addition to the ones of the monthly magazines) and did his most remarkable work in these long-continuity yarns. By Nº14 another character had been added, "Nahuel Barros", a gaucho of the XIX century, drawn by Carlos Roume, and also a complete story (there would be one in each issue with diverse themes), in this case a crime tale. In the second year, other two famous characters would enrich the magazine: "Sgt.Kirk", a western by Hugo Pratt, and "Cayena", a lonesome, strange character, escaped from the famous Guyana prison, and devoted to fight criminals in the most peculiar ways. All were enthousiastically received, and were kept long in the memory of old fans (I'm one of those, just in case you haven't noticed it!) | ||
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