Mafalda

Mafalda(Spanish:[maˈfalda]) is anArgentinecomic stripwritten and drawn bycartoonistQuino. The strip features a six-year-old girl named Mafalda, who reflects the Argentinemiddle classand progressive youth, is concerned about humanity and world peace, and has an innocent but serious attitude toward problems. The comic strip ran from 1964 to 1973 and was very popular in Latin America, Europe, Quebec and Asia. Its popularity led to books and two animated cartoon series.Mafaldahas been praised as masterful satire.
The comic strip artistQuinocreatedMafaldain 1963.He had received a proposal by fellow artistMiguel Brascó, and the comic strip would be a covert advertisement for the "Mansfield" line of products of theSiam Di Tellacompany. The characters would use their products, and all of them would have names starting with "M". The name "Mafalda" was selected as an homage to one of the characters of the 1962 Argentine filmDar la cara. The comic strip was conceived as a blend ofPeanutsandBlondie. Quino and Brascó offered the comic strip to the newspaperClarín, but they noticed the advertisement nature and did not publish it. The covert advertising campaign was never carried out, but Brascó published portions of those comics at the magazineLeoplán.
Julián Delgado, senior editor of the magazinePrimera Plana, proposed Quino to publish the comic strip, if he removed the advertisements. It was first published in the magazine on 29 September 1964.Initially, it featured only Mafalda and her parents.Felipe was introduced in January. Quino left the magazine in 1965, and the comic strip moved to the newspaperEl Mundo.Quino introduced new kids: Manolito, Susanita, and Miguelito; and Mafalda's mother became pregnant. The newspaper was closed in December 1967.
Publication resumed six months later, on 2 June 1968, in the weeklySiete Días Ilustrados. Since the cartoons now had to be delivered two weeks before publication, Quino was not able to comment on the news to the same extent. After creating the characters of Mafalda's little brother Guille and her new friend Libertad, he definitively ceased publication of the strip on 25 June 1973.
After 1973, Quino still drewMafaldaa few times, mostly to promotehuman rights. In 1976, he reproduced Mafalda for theUNICEFillustrating theConvention on the Rights of the Child.
The comic strip is composed of the main character Mafalda, her parents and a group of other children. However, the group was not created on purpose, but was instead a result of the development of the comic strip. The other children were created one at a time, and worked by countering specific aspects of Mafalda. The exception was Guille, Mafalda's brother, who was introduced during a period when the author did not have other ideas.
The characters aged at about half the real time-scale while the script ran. They also went through minor changes largely due to the evolution of Quino's drawing style.
Most strips that were not too closely tied to then-current events were chronologically republished in ten small books simply namedMafaldaand numbered from one to ten, with two strips on each page. This excludes the very first ones, published inPrimera Plana,but never reprinted until 1989.
The Argentine editionsare as follows, published byEdiciones de la Flor(except for the first five books, which were first published by Editorial Jorge Álvarez)
The editions differ in other countries: in Spain, the small books are numbered from 0 to 10 and the full compilation is calledTodo Mafalda, all published by Editorial Lumen;in Mexico, the small books go from 1 to 12 and are currently published by Tusquets Editores.
Mafalda has been translated into around twenty languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Guarani, Hebrew, and Armenian. There is also a Spanish Braille version.In theUnited States of America, his only published work isThe World of Quino(1986); an English version of Mafalda for the Anglophone market, translated byFrank Wynne, is scheduled to be released in 2025 byElsewhere Editions.
Beginning in 2004, Quino's publisher in Argentina, Ediciones de la Flor, started publishing English-language collections ofMafaldastrips under the series titleMafalda & Friends.
Quino has opposed adaptingMafaldafor cinema or theater; however, two series of animated shorts featuring Mafalda have been produced. The first, a series of 260 90-second films, was produced by Daniel Mallo for Argentine television starting in 1972. These were adapted into a full-length movie by Carlos Márquez in 1979 and released in 1981.It remains relatively unknown. In 1993CubanfilmmakerJuan Padrón, a close friend of Quino, directed 104 short animatedMafaldafilms, backed bySpanishproducers.
In 2024, aNetflix-exclusiveMafaldaanimated series was announced; it will be written by directorJuan José Campanella.
Mafaldahas occasionally been pointed out as being influenced byCharles Schulz'sPeanuts, most notably byUmberto Eco, in 1968, who contrasted the two characters. While Eco thought ofMafaldaandCharlie Brownas the unheard voices of children in the northern and southern hemispheres, Quino sawMafaldaas a socio-political strip, firmly rooted on family values. This is one of the reasons adults play a starring role in the strip, while they are never seen in theCharlie Brownuniverse. Quino does, however, acknowledge the influence of Schulz's work on his, in that Quino extensively studied Schulz's books in preparation for an advertising campaign he was working on in 1963. The advertising campaign was scrapped but he reused some of the material for theMafaldaseries a year later.
The appearance ofMafalda's character resembles that of the main character in the U.S. comic stripNancy(known asPeriquitain Latin America). There is also a reference in a strip whereMiguelitobuys a magazine that hasNancyon the cover, and asksMafaldawhom she looks like. In the next panel is implied thatMafaldareplied,"¡Tu abuela!"("Your granny!"), a phrase similar to "Your mama!" in English, asMiguelitostares at the magazine wondering, "Mygranny?"
In 2009, a life-sized statue of Mafalda was installed in front of Quino's old home in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
In 2010, it was announced that the city ofGatineau,Quebec, Canada, had sought and obtained permission to name or rename a street after Mafalda, as part of a project to establish a neighbourhood named after famous comic strips andbande dessinéecharacters.
In 2014, a life-sized statue of Mafalda was installed in Campo de San Francisco, a park located inOviedo,Principality of Asturias' capital (northernSpain), after thePrincess of Asturias Awardswas conferred to Quino, for the creation of Mafalda, in the category of Communications and Humanities.