The Crib is one year old, but, unfortunately, I'm not in the mood to celebrate because, according to Mariano Chinelli at the Eternautas discussion list, Carlos Roume passed away last week. I'm very sorry because another of the greats has disappeared. I love his work (I think that he's highly underrated - almost no one cared enough to talk about his passing), but I never met him... Now I never will...
Images:
Another great comics artist (a writer: Héctor Germán Oesterheld, I bet...) says goodbye to Carlos Roume when he left Argentina to work for Fleetway in England (Frontera Extra # 11, September, 1959). He says, among other things: "He's going away, but "his" Old Homeland [Oesterheld plays with the title of one of their series: "Patria Vieja"] goes with him. He wants to turn our gaucho themes famous in Europe. We are sure that he will succeed. He has more than enough talent to do it."
It seems to me that Oesterheld was wrong though: as far as I know Carlos Roume never found another writer like him. As many others during most of the 20th century he may very well have wasted his talent doing mediocre genre comics for children...
A more recent portrait of the maestro, found here: http://tinyurl.com/yb96z8b (photo by Rubén Pinella, Tandil, October, 2007).
A more recent portrait of the maestro, found here: http://tinyurl.com/yb96z8b (photo by Rubén Pinella, Tandil, October, 2007).
Sad to know of Roume's passing. He was truly a great artist.
ReplyDeleteThose of us (like you or me) that are lucky to own original art of Roume have the pleasure in a double
dosis. He was a great portrayer of people, nature and animals - especially horses.
A belated happy birthday anyway, and I'm sad too to hear of the death of Carlos Roume, who I was only just begining to find out about. Probably not so strange for a 'gringo' living in New Zealand, but I always it seems just begin to discover someone and they pass away. I very much appreciate your gathered information on him and the English translations of passages from his pages.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you are right about his sojourn in Europe, but I'm sure he knew what he was up to and did his vey best with whatever came his way.I hope to learn a lot more about him-I don't think it's ever too late to become a fan and I thank you for showing me this little 'window' on some marvellous art.
I'm a little sad too for losing another artist on Sunday, Mercedes Sosa, another wonderful person from Argentina.
Greetings from my litle place in the South Pacific and keep up your fine work.
Salud!
Hi Alberto and Ernesto:
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from both of you and thank you for your comments and best wishes!
Ernesto:
I tried to be cautious when I said that Carlos Roume did just "mediocre genre comics for children" in the U.K. because I didn't read every Fleetway comic by him. I read just one or two, in fact...
I've been reading a few war comics lately (I'm reading Yoshihiro Tatsumi's massive autobio _A Drifting Life_ right now, though...) and I'm surprised to discover, against my expectations, that some of the Fleetway stories are quite good. Western Fleetway stories, even if drawn by great Argentinian (and Uruguayan: Breccia; or Chilean: Castillo) artists let me a lot more cold though (they're formulaic, with an infallible - not to mention immortal - hero, etc...).
Anyway here's a list of Western comics drawn by Carlos Roume for _Cowboy Picture Library_ (I'm not sure if it's a complete list though): 358, 391, 398, 404, 405, 432, 434, 451, 466. Here's also a brief biographical note: http://www.dandare.info/artists/roume.htm