Sunday, October 12, 2008

What's a Comics Fake? - Coda

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Images:
1. a "Mort Cinder" page (by two South American greats: Argentinian writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Uruguaian artist Alberto Breccia) as it was published in Misterix magazine # 749 (March 22, 1963); verdict: genuine;
2. the same page as it was reprinted in Mort Cinder (Colihue edition, 1997): the logo disappeared and, in order to fill the blank, a "brilliant" editor decided to blow up a detail from the page's first panel; verdict: fake;
3. said page as reprinted in Mort Cinder's Planeta DeAgostini's edition (2002): the logo remained, but it's a different one; the hand lettering was substituted by computer fonts (god knows why); verdict: fake;
4. another "Mort Cinder" page as printed in Misterix # 719 (August 24, 1962): verdict: genuine;
5. the same page as it was reprinted in the aforementioned Colihue edition: many reprints disrespect page layouts (don't let me start on colors), this is just one example among thousands; notice also how the editor butchered panel two (editors also used to pay hacks in order for them to add details in drawings if the panel was too small to fit the new hyperframe); the last "panel" is another blow up; verdict: fake.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Domingos! I was dying to see that Planeta edition when I knew it existed, also because esentially I agree with the fact that Mort Cinder drawings were done thinking in a black and white printing (unlike the Rackham edition). When I saw the font used, the volume literally fell of my hand. I asked Planeta's editor why they did it, and he told me he truly hated argentine lettering of the fifties.

Other times they do it because they get the scans or films from France, so they re-translate Oesterheld from French to Spanish, which is idiotic.

Isabelinho said...

Hi Mario! The main problem that I see in what you say is that editors don't respect comics artists and comics readers. Can you imagine a Picasso exhibition curator changing the color of a painting because "he didn't like it?"