Quino, creator of Argentina's Mafalda comics, dies aged 88

The Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, who created the character Mafalda, has died aged 88 in Mendoza - the city where he was born.

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, nicknamed Quino, wrote and drew the comics between 1964 and 1973 but they are still being reprinted to this day.

The comic, which first appeared in the Argentine weekly Primera Plana ('Front Page') 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.

Her friends likewise reflected typically Argentine personalities as Quino saw them: the self-absorbed society girl (Susanita); the greedy shopkeeper's son (Manolito); the idealist (Felipe); and the everyman and woman struggling with the country's recurring crises (Mafalda's parents).

He said that the changing political landscape in Latin America influenced his decision to stop drawing Mafalda.

"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.

At: https://news.yahoo.com/quino-creator-mafalda-comic-character-165420657.html

Renowned Argentine cartoonist Quino with his best-known creation, the wise-cracking Mafalda, unveiling her likeness in Buenos Aires' cartoon walk in 2014.