Friday, October 28, 2016

Restoring Sgt. Kirk

Besides being extremely honored by the presence at my crib of one of the greatest comics artists of all time, José Muñoz, it's obvious that I'm neglecting this blog. This is so because I've been busy restoring the "El Sargento Kirk" series  by Oesterheld and Pratt to its orginal glory. Unfortunately I'm no Manuel Caldas, so, what follows is painfully amateurish, I'm afraid...

The truth is that I shouldn't need to do this. Film libraries and museums spend millions to restore films, paintings and sculptures... Government presses publish, at the tax payers expense, of course, what each country considers to be their best authors' oeuvre. Millions are spent to maintain national orchestras and theatre houses, etc... etc... Only comics are completely neglected by governments. "El Sargento Kirk," as it was published in Misterix, is an important work of art or literature or whatever... It should be preserved before the brittle pages that were published sixty years ago crumble into nothingness. That's what I'm clumsily trying to do pro bono and for my own enjoyment.

Below are some of the pages that cost me several work hours already. Keep also in mind that this is true pulp, with the lowest production values imaginable.


Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Cerco de muerte" [death siege], Misterix # 310, August 28, 1954.


Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Cerco de muerte" [death siege], Misterix # 310, August 28, 1954.


 Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Cerco de muerte" [death siege], Misterix # 312, September 10, 1954.


Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Tierra enemiga" [enemy country], Misterix # 322, November 19, 1954.


Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Tierra enemiga" [enemy country], Misterix # 340, April 1, 1955.


Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Tierra enemiga" [enemy country], Misterix # 345, May 6, 1955.


Héctor Germán Oesterheld (w), Hugo Pratt (a), Stefan Strocen (c), "El Sargento Kirk: Tierra enemiga" [enemy country], Misterix # 345, May 6, 1955.


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4 comments:

  1. Mario LucioniMay 7, 2021 at 2:53 AM

    Hi, Domingos! Have you thought about sharing your Sgt. Kirk argentine scans on emule or something like that? I'd love to see to them, besides the examples you've posted on the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. IsabelinhoMay 7, 2021 at 3:31 AM

    Hi:
    I have the awful habit of starting things which I then neglect letting them unfinished. My original idea was to restore "Cerco de muerte" and I almost did, but some pages are still waiting to be cleaned (that's what I did, I just cleaned the smudge). What I planned to do next was to publish a few book on POD. I posted most of the color pages here, but the bulk of the story was published in b & w.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mario LucioniMay 7, 2021 at 3:41 AM

    I can offer my help in cleaning them, if you want.

    ReplyDelete
  4. IsabelinhoMay 7, 2021 at 8:57 AM

    That's very generous of you, thanks, but, well, you know: who is unknown?

    ReplyDelete