Francisco Solano López (October 26, 1928 – August 12, 2011) was an Argentine

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary a ...

. He was the co-creator of '' El Eternauta''.

Career

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Solano López began his career in 1953 working for the publishing house Columba where he illustrated the series ''Perico y Guillerma''. Working for Editorial Abril he met Héctor Germán Oesterheld, assigned to illustrate his series ''Bull Rocket'' for the magazine ''Misterix''. They collaborated on the series ''Pablo Maran'' and ''Uma-Uma'', before joining to start Oesterheld's publishing house

Editorial Frontera Editorial Frontera was an Argentine publisher of comic books, which lasted from 1956 to 1961. It was established by the author Héctor Germán Oesterheld. History Héctor Germán Oesterheld created two popular characters for the '' Misterix'' maga ...

. For the Frontera first publication of the monthly ''Hora Cero'', the team produced the series ''Rolo el marciano adoptivo'' and ''El Héroe''. López also alternated as artist on the '' Ernie Pike'' series with

Hugo Pratt Ugo Eugenio Prat, better known as Hugo Pratt (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as ''Corto Maltese''. He was ind ...

, Jorge Moliterni and

José Antonio Muñoz José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz (born July 10, 1942) is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork. His hardboiled graphic novels series ''Alack Sinner'' (with writer Carlos Sampayo) is a noted sourc ...

. On September 4, 1957 in the publication of ''Hora Cero Suplemento Semanal'', the

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

series ''El Eternauta'' made its first appearance. A success, ''El Eternauta'' came to the attention of the authorities as the series featured commentary of the political situation of Argentina and neighbouring

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, prompting Solano López to flee for Spain to avoid possible arrest. In 1959 Solano López began working for

Fleetway Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies that merg ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

and later London, producing artwork for a host of series, including ''Galaxus: The Thing from Outer Space'', ''Pete's Pocket Army'', ''The Drowned World'', ''

Janus Stark ''Janus Stark'', or ''The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark'', is a British comic strip series, originally written by Tom Tully and drawn by Francisco Solano López. It is about an escapologist in Victorian London who appears to be simply an ...

'', and '' Kelly's Eye''. Having returned to Argentina, Solano López resumed collaboration with Oesterheld on ''El Eternauta II'' in 1968 with a new publishing house, Editorial Records. He also started work on science-fiction saga ''Slot-Barr'' with writer Ricardo Barreiro, and the police series ''Evaristo'' with Carlos Sampayo. In the late 1970s Solano López again fled Argentina following persecution from the authorities, and from Madrid he arranged the publication of both ''El Eternauta'' and ''Slot-Barr'' with the Italian magazines '' LancioStory'' and '' Skorpio''. In the 1990s, Solano López produced work in the

erotic comics Erotic comics are adult comics which focus substantially on nudity and sexual activity, either for their own sake or as a major story element. As such they are usually not permitted to be sold to legal minors. Like other genres of comics, they ca ...

genre, achieving hits with ''El Prostíbulo del Terror'', from a story by Barreiro, and ''Silly Symphony'', made for the magazine ''Kiss Comix''. Solano López died on August 12, 2011 from a cerebral hemorrhage.Murió Francisco Solano López, dibujante de El Eternauta

References

External links

on Lambiek Comiclopedia

on Dan Dare

Dan Dare {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Francisco Solano 1928 births 2011 deaths Argentine comics artists Argentine erotic artists