Oscar "Oski" Conti (191430 October 1979) was a prominent Argentine cartoonist and humorist.

Life and work

Oscar Esteban Conti was 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 ...

in 1914. Enrolling at the National Fine Arts School, he helped finance his studies by creating caricatures for local advertisers. Following graduation, he studied

scenography Scenography (inclusive of scenic design, lighting design, sound design, costume design) is a practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography is the combination of technological and material ...

at the Buenos Aires Academy for Higher Studies. Despite his distaste for the medium, Conti was hired by ''

Cascabel Cascabel may refer to: * Cascabel (artillery), a subassembly of a muzzle-loading cannon * Cascabel chili, a small, round chili pepper * Cascabel, a Shuttle Loop roller coaster at Chapultepec Park in Mexico City * Spanish common name for ''Crotalu ...

'' magazine as a cartoonist in 1942; at ''Cascabel'', he first began signing his work as "Oski." Creating his only comic strip character, "Amarroto" (loosely translated as "Miser") for '' Rico Tipo'' in 1944 (one of the best-selling satirical weeklies in Argentina at the time), he was enlisted by humorist Carlos Warnes ("César Bruto") to illustrate his irreverent , a weekly satire of current events in which photos of the news were replaced by Oski's mocking caricatures. His work was in growing demand during subsequent years, and his elongated human characters and featherless birds fixtures in a number of popular mainstream magazines and in '' Clarín'', the most-widely circulated news daily in Argentina and Latin America. His work brought him to the attention of French writer

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...

, who had Oski create the backdrop for the Buenos Aires performance of his play, '' The Polite Prostitute'' in 1947. Irish writer

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

also turned to him for the Argentine premiere of his play, '' Androcles and the Lion'', which played in 1953. Oski had an anthology of his work published in 1952, as well as an animated film, ''The First Foundation of Buenos Aires'', in 1959. Made in an era in which such historical events were treated as sacrosanct epics by the State and much of the media, ''First Foundation'' was a slapstick look at the imposing Spanish Conquistadores and their conflict with retaliating indigenous peoples. A similar theme prevailed is his satirical

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

, ''The True History of the Indies'', in 1968. He also illustrated unconventional editions of Argentine literary epics, such a

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

edition of Estanislao del Campo's ''Fausto'' (an adaptation of the traditional tale - with a

gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the south of Chilean Patagonia. Gauchos became greatly admired and ...

as the protagonist). Sought internationally, he relocated to Santiago, Chile in 1970, partly out of support for President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

. There, he illustrated ''Cabrochico'' Magazine until returning to Argentina in 1972. Oski contributed to the left-wing ''Satiricón'' magazine in Buenos Aires. He illustrated the best-selling ''True History of Sports'' in 1973 and published another anthology, ''Oski in His Own Ink''. ''Satiricóns closure by executive order in 1974, however, led Oski to begin eschewing political subject matter, instead working with César Bruto in ''The Brutoski Medicinal Handbook'' (a would-be Medical school textbook) and their unique version of the seminal

Salerno School of Medicine The Schola Medica Salernitana ( it, Scuola Medica Salernitana) was a Medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose ...

's medieval compendium. The worsening climate of political violence and repression in Argentina during 1975 led Oski to move to Barcelona, Spain late that year, where he briefly worked for Lumen Publishing. Relocating to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1976, he illustrated a number of left-leaning periodicals such as Italy's ''

L'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian language, Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, ...

'', though his declining health and a certain loosening of restrictions by Argentina's

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...

in 1979 led him to return. Contributing a segment in a

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

of the 1978 FIFA World Cup (won by Argentina), Oski died on October 30, 1979, at 65. Numerous posthumous anthologies of his work have been published since, notably ''El Maestroski'' in 1989.

External links

A biography of Oski
]
Taringa.net
había una véz un dibujante (a sampling of his work)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090222143611/http://www.elcontrolpublico.com.ar/ecp104/pag093.htm Análisis de la labor de Oski en El Control Público Digitalbr>Miguel Rep habla de Oski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conti, Oscar (Oski) 1914 births 1979 deaths Argentine cartoonists Argentine comics artists Argentine animators Argentine animated film directors Argentine people of Italian descent People from Buenos Aires