The Argentinean cartoonist creator of the feisty and popular cartoon character "Mafalda," Joaquin Salvador Lavado, better known as Quino, passed away in the city of Mendoza. He was 88.
Although the comic strip ran for just under a decade, from 1964 - 1973, Mafalda became a cultural icon, with reprint books selling in 25 languages.
"'Quino has died. All good people in the country and in the world will mourn him,' Daniel Divinsky, head of Buenos Aires publisher Ediciones de la Flor, wrote on Twitter.
"His death was mourned in an avalanche of farewell messages and tweets that quickly began trending under #Quino in Argentina.
"Calling the cartoonist one of the country's greatest artists, President Alberto Fernandez said Quino had 'made us laugh, he made us think and he always called on us to reflect on Argentina, to which he was committed like few others.'
"People left flowers in tribute to the cartoonist at a sculpture of Mafalda and her cartoon companions on a bench in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo."
Photo via FloatingIslands
From BBC News:
"Mafalda, the cartoon about the adventures of a six-year-old girl of the same name, is immensely popular in the Spanish-speaking world.
"Lavado wrote and drew the comics between 1964 and 1973 but they are still being reprinted to this day.
"Mafalda is so popular she even has her own statues in Argentina and in Spain.
"The comic, which first appeared in the Argentine weekly Primera Plana in 1964, features the daily life of Mafalda, the daughter of a typical middle-class Argentine couple, whom she often baffles with her insightful questions.
"Mafalda hates soup and wants world peace.
"Mafalda's wit and her sharp observations of the adult world ensured the comic's popularity, which was translated into 26 languages."
Quino drew Mafalda for about nine years, from 1964 to 1973.
"'After the coup d'etat in Chile, the situation in Latin America became very bloody,' he said about the 1973 ousting from power of Salvador Allende by Gen August Pinochet in the neighbouring country.
"'If I had continued drawing her [Mafalda], they would have shot me once, or four times,' he said referring to the attacks on artists and intellectuals who opposed right-wing military regimes in Latin America.
When democracy returned to Argentina, Quino came home, splitting his time between Buenos Aires, Milan and Madrid.
Via Lambiek:
"Quino and [Peanuts creator Charles M.] Schulz had a mutual admiration for each other's work. Schulz
once said: 'His ideas in his comics are quite complex and I'm amazed at
their variety and depth. He knows how to draw and how to do it in a
funny away. I think he's a giant.'"
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