Variations on El Eternauta

Analogies, primary scenes and a poetics for the myth in the first version of El Eternauta.

Abstract

The present article aims to critically analyze the comic strip El Eternauta by referring to some sociopolitical, economic and urban events from the time it was originally published. As Laura Vázquez (2010) notes, some of these events had influence on editorial policies -which sought to make their publications profitable in a context of economic adversity and which had even had an impact on Oesterheld himself, who had had to close his Frontera publishing project-  in the publication formats, conditions and means of circulation, -many were changed to be published every fortnight or monthly- "as well as in the themes of these comics and in the ways of approaching them in response to a certain situation" (Vázquez, 2010: 63). These socio-economic conditions marked certain policies and actions in relation to the mode of production of anything urban, and this new configuration of the metropolitan structured new social dynamics and functioned as a stage for new urban actors as a result of the possibilities of ascending in the social hierarchy. The emergence of the popular classes in the city can be read critically in various texts written during this period and El Eternauta is not exempt. Sasturain (1995) marks the importance of the change of address for the development of the adventure in Oesterheld's work, a transformation that achieves, complemented with the graphic poetics of Solano López, to configure a primary scene (Berman, 1991) that acquires the capacity to resonate with the reader in a deeply original way that makes El Eternauta a classic of the comic with multiple interpretations. Here, we will analyze some of the various possible analogies with which it can be interpreted based on the authors before named.