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 comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literar ...

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

Career

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

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

Hugo Pratt Ugo Eugenio Prat (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), better known as Hugo Pratt, 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 indu ...

, Jorge Moliterni and

José Antonio Muñoz José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz (born July 10, 1942) is an Argentine comics 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 no ...

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

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

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 western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, 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. History 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 t ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

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'', 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 c ...

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 Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

.Murió Francisco Solano López, dibujante de El Eternauta

References

External links

on Lambiek Comiclopedia
Francisco Solano López biography and interviews
on Martin Hadis´ site.

on Dan Dare

Dan Dare - site dead {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Francisco Solano 1928 births 2011 deaths Argentine comics artists Argentine erotic artists Argentine science fiction artists