Cartoonist Quino, BCE*

October 12, 2020 9:33 AM

Popular in South America, Europe, and Quebec, Argentine-Spanish cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón (July 17, 1932 - September 30, 2020) — better known as Quino — drew his comic strip Mafalda (a politically/socially aware six year old girl) from 1964 to 1973. There’s an English fan website, and a large gallery of Tejón’s later wordless political cartoons on Imgur [H/T Macwhiskey]. *Before the Calvin Era.
posted by cenoxo (13 comments total)

Wow, these are great! Thank you.
posted by notsnot at 11:54 AM on October 12, 2020

Grew up thinking Mafalda more ubiquitous than Charlie Brown, and better. Thank you for this post, have been melancholy for days.
posted by riverlife at 11:55 AM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

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posted by Tom-B at 1:21 PM on October 12, 2020

When Quino died I went looking for the cartoon that I remembered seeing in the mid-1980s, of a sad man who makes perfume out of money, sprays it on, and goes for a walk through the crowded city, and the people who smell it start smiling. He makes it home again and ... is still sad.

I couldn't find it, not in the couple of Quino books I have, not in the mostly-linkrot-infested world of Quino online. But I did find a lot of cartoons that made me smile, and some that left me bittersweet. He had a way of capturing the little man in every man, the petty tyrant. This is a great example.

He was remarkable talent, and I say that having mostly ignored Mafalda, which is for many his masterwork.
posted by chavenet at 1:24 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Aj, that's sad. I always loved his stuff (actually his "ordinary" cartoons more than Mafalda). And what a draftsman!
Well

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posted by Namlit at 1:27 PM on October 12, 2020

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posted by 1970s Antihero at 1:42 PM on October 12, 2020

Mafalda is huge in the southern tip of Latin America. We have the complete works and the completer works, and there's hardly any situation in life that can not be commented on or exemplified by a Mafalda strip.
posted by signal at 2:06 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Aw, my Colombian wife loves Mafalda. She always claims to have been one of the first people to get a picture with her on the bench in San Telmo on the day it was installed when she was working in Buenos Aires.
posted by jontyjago at 2:20 PM on October 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

Quino is one of the top comics creators anywhere, and this is a big loss. He'd deserve the honors for Mafalda alone, which more or less holds the position of both Peanuts and Doonesbury in Latin American comics; but his standalone comics are amazing too. He knew just how to use a bit of surrealism to focus on the human condition.

BTW, according to Spanish naming conventions, he is Sr. Lavado, not Sr. Tejón.
posted by zompist at 2:27 PM on October 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

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He'll be so missed. I've always felt like such a Mafalda, too. And most of my classmates were Susanitas.
posted by ipsative at 3:44 PM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

I think Mafalda stuck with a lot of people who read it as kids. I know I laughed hysterically with Mafalda 5, which I got maybe around the time I was 8 or 9. Mafalda 5 is the one where Guille appears. Her little brother, a yuppie and a fan of Brigitte Bardot.
posted by ipsative at 3:47 PM on October 12, 2020

zompist: " he is Sr. Lavado, not Sr. Tejón."

I've never heard him called anything but Quino, tbh. Didn't even know he had any other name.
posted by signal at 5:27 PM on October 12, 2020

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posted by valdesm at 1:38 AM on October 13, 2020