It was a little after mid 2001, when in an informal conversation with a group of young (at that time) drawists - manga and anime fans, it came out the idea of getting to know all those characters and stories that filled the chilhood of those who read comics (or "suplementos2 as we say here in Venezuela) during the 70s and 80s.After refreshing the memory checking out the comic book collection strongly kept in a closet of the house and later on giving me the assigment to design a site with most relevant characters of the Historieta Latinoamericana (Latinamerican comics), following the sole criteriun of a collector, it means the most pure nostalgia, it was the beginning of this work which is already nine years old.
Initially, I calculated that it wouldn't go beyond twenty characters, among them the following would be highlighted: Condorito, Juan sin Miedo, Kaliman, Mafalda, Santo El Enmascarado de Plata, Tamakún El Vengador Errante, El Valiente and a few more. To my own amazement, the result exceed the hundredth and my memoy was refreshed with some of them that I have kept somewhere in my mind, such as Hijitus (although originally it was an animated show, it also had its comic books), and I met characters with a big background but unknown to my remembrances, like El Eternauta, El Cuy, La Familia Burrón, Barrabases, Mampato, El Bulbo and so many others that open my eyes to the big affluence of creators and their respective works in Latin America, without inclunding the brasilian quadrinhos. So the list of characters went to be formed between pieces of nostalgia and the most pure information gotten form other websites and people involved to the world of squares, like my dear friend Sara Harry from Argentina.
A previous web design site experiment, and the consult with people expert in this field and together with the characters that would enter into the site, made the openning of the page take longer that I thought. After four or five months, in January 2002 it was publish on the web by the name of LA HISTORIETA LATINOAMERICANA (Latinamerican Comic Book), not the first one, but perhaps the one with the biggest amount of information about the comic book characters from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The acceptance was bigger than I have ever imagined and immediately messages started to arrived from various points of our region; some of them were congratulations and some others were suggesting characters - as a matter of fact I shoudl make a revision because there are a lot of characters missing, such as El Bulbo, Ogu y Mampato, Barrabases, Gaturro, Cybersix and more, many more.
But the idea was not limited to the website, we have to spread the work of more than a hundred years of latinamerican creators in the comic book area; so it was planned, with the support of my dear friend Manuel Cabesa, an audiovisual show of TV and movie productions based on latinamerican comic books characters. At that time, I only had two Santo El Enmascarado de Plata (The Man in the Silver Mask) video tapes, the second film based on Kalimán El Hombre Increíble (The Incredible Man), a few shorts of Mafalda made in 1973 (which Quino, his creator, didn not like at all) and the pilot of a never made TV series based on the radio show "Martín Valiente" (adapted to the comics in 1977) - a gift made by the people of RCTV to fulfill our objectives. Besides this materilal on VHS tapes (DVD disks were not ruling the market yet), part of my comic book collection was taken to the event that was called "Primera Semana Nacional de la Historieta" (First National Week of the Comic Book). Originally this event was scheduled on April 13 of the same, but the events occurred at the time (coup d'etat for some, presidential quitting for others, tall depends on the eye of the beholder), forced the suspension of the activity until May 10th, being this the starting point of a long walk with its ups and downs.
And so the speeches and conferences arrived in several oficial and private organizations (Casa de la Cultura, Agustín Codazzi Library, Ateneo de Maracay, Technological Institutions and more), comics creation workshops, vídeo forums and the writing of a section dedicated to the historieta in El Periodiquito daily, thanks to the receptivity and support of Alberto Hernández.
Today in the ninth anniversary of my involvement in the world of the ninth art, which was at the very beginning a lonely step is now the effort of many young (and not so young) creators, researchers and promoters of this wonderful form of commerical art which gets more and more strength day after day.
There is still plenty of cohesion among those involved to the historieta, but the griound has been paved to be follow by future generations and keep streghten this titanic work we have taken to those woho love and respect this form of expression. I personally glad that Proyecto Historieta has put its two cents in this difficult but wonderful world of the strips.
Thanks to all who has supported this initiative and also to those who did not believe on it. From both parts we took the strength to arrive hereDe ambas partes sacamos la fortaleza necesaria para llegar hasta aquí. There is still a road to walk, but we keep moving.
Initially, I calculated that it wouldn't go beyond twenty characters, among them the following would be highlighted: Condorito, Juan sin Miedo, Kaliman, Mafalda, Santo El Enmascarado de Plata, Tamakún El Vengador Errante, El Valiente and a few more. To my own amazement, the result exceed the hundredth and my memoy was refreshed with some of them that I have kept somewhere in my mind, such as Hijitus (although originally it was an animated show, it also had its comic books), and I met characters with a big background but unknown to my remembrances, like El Eternauta, El Cuy, La Familia Burrón, Barrabases, Mampato, El Bulbo and so many others that open my eyes to the big affluence of creators and their respective works in Latin America, without inclunding the brasilian quadrinhos. So the list of characters went to be formed between pieces of nostalgia and the most pure information gotten form other websites and people involved to the world of squares, like my dear friend Sara Harry from Argentina.A previous web design site experiment, and the consult with people expert in this field and together with the characters that would enter into the site, made the openning of the page take longer that I thought. After four or five months, in January 2002 it was publish on the web by the name of LA HISTORIETA LATINOAMERICANA (Latinamerican Comic Book), not the first one, but perhaps the one with the biggest amount of information about the comic book characters from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The acceptance was bigger than I have ever imagined and immediately messages started to arrived from various points of our region; some of them were congratulations and some others were suggesting characters - as a matter of fact I shoudl make a revision because there are a lot of characters missing, such as El Bulbo, Ogu y Mampato, Barrabases, Gaturro, Cybersix and more, many more.
But the idea was not limited to the website, we have to spread the work of more than a hundred years of latinamerican creators in the comic book area; so it was planned, with the support of my dear friend Manuel Cabesa, an audiovisual show of TV and movie productions based on latinamerican comic books characters. At that time, I only had two Santo El Enmascarado de Plata (The Man in the Silver Mask) video tapes, the second film based on Kalimán El Hombre Increíble (The Incredible Man), a few shorts of Mafalda made in 1973 (which Quino, his creator, didn not like at all) and the pilot of a never made TV series based on the radio show "Martín Valiente" (adapted to the comics in 1977) - a gift made by the people of RCTV to fulfill our objectives. Besides this materilal on VHS tapes (DVD disks were not ruling the market yet), part of my comic book collection was taken to the event that was called "Primera Semana Nacional de la Historieta" (First National Week of the Comic Book). Originally this event was scheduled on April 13 of the same, but the events occurred at the time (coup d'etat for some, presidential quitting for others, tall depends on the eye of the beholder), forced the suspension of the activity until May 10th, being this the starting point of a long walk with its ups and downs.And so the speeches and conferences arrived in several oficial and private organizations (Casa de la Cultura, Agustín Codazzi Library, Ateneo de Maracay, Technological Institutions and more), comics creation workshops, vídeo forums and the writing of a section dedicated to the historieta in El Periodiquito daily, thanks to the receptivity and support of Alberto Hernández.
Today in the ninth anniversary of my involvement in the world of the ninth art, which was at the very beginning a lonely step is now the effort of many young (and not so young) creators, researchers and promoters of this wonderful form of commerical art which gets more and more strength day after day.
There is still plenty of cohesion among those involved to the historieta, but the griound has been paved to be follow by future generations and keep streghten this titanic work we have taken to those woho love and respect this form of expression. I personally glad that Proyecto Historieta has put its two cents in this difficult but wonderful world of the strips.
Thanks to all who has supported this initiative and also to those who did not believe on it. From both parts we took the strength to arrive hereDe ambas partes sacamos la fortaleza necesaria para llegar hasta aquí. There is still a road to walk, but we keep moving.Thanks, again,
Félix Alexander Romero H.
