Talk:Quino

Untitled
This article was well put-together; hats off. However, a bit of how the actual target audience of the strip (which simply has a different worldview and therefore different tastes for humor) viewed it can shed some light on some of the humorist's methods and 'pessimistic' world-view.
 * Agreed. The section on Quino's Universe read more like an editorial review, although I really liked it. I took that section out and tried to rework it. The section I removed was the following: Mvblair (talk) 15:08, 8 June 2009 (UTC)



Quino's strips and cartoons mainly feature ordinary people with ordinary feelings. If the situations are often surreal or allegorical (like the operating room with Errare humanum est written over the door, or the riot police throwing valium into protesters' open mouths), the personalities and reactions are very real and familiar &mdash; only magnified to caricatural proportions. Thus, although the conception of his Mafalda strip superficially resembles those of other child-centered strips, such as Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts &mdash; including the kids' incongruous concern for adult topics like world politics &mdash; Quino's characters can still be seen by readers as real children, with real (if caricatured) children's minds and real parents, rather than the stylized "adults in children's bodies" of Schulz's world. In that respect, Mafalda is closer to Bill Watterson's Calvin (with the exception that, instead of Calvin's easy and frequent escapism into his fantasy world, Mafalda and friends prefer to satirize an inescapable reality).

Quino's humor is characteristically bitter or even cynical, often dwelling on the misery and absurdity of human existence &mdash; independently of one's station in life &mdash; in face of stupid authorities, decrepit institutions, confining dogmas, and the narrow-mindedness of fellow humans. In Quino's world there is no promise of redemption, no sign that life will ever get better. Misery, which is portrayed without euphemisms, is essential and eternal; and each cartoon is just an eye-opening snapshot that misery, caught in a particularly funny moment &mdash; which is funny only for its absurdity, or its profound irony. His cartoons seem to say, let's have a laugh at life, and forget &mdash; just for a moment &mdash; how harsh it is.

On the other hand, Quino's focus on how grim life is betrays an inner conviction that it ought to be good, and a deep sympathy for life's mostly innocent victims &mdash; employees, children, housewives, pensioners, obscure artists, unrecognized heroes &mdash; in spite of their very human failings and limitations. Even in his caricatures of oppressive bosses and unfeeling bureaucrats one can see some sympathy: for they too are, after all, only victims of their own stupidity. Quino's world view is easy to explain in light of Argentina's vicissitudes over the last forty years. Indeed, his mixture of pessimism and humanism, and his ability to make the readers laugh at their collective tragedy, could be the reasons of his immense popularity in among Europeans and Latin Americans.

Additions
I added the sections Early Life & Work, Mafalda, Quinos Later Works, and Personal. I think these sections accurately describe the stages of his career, although obviously the emphasis is on Mafalda, which has a seperate, dedicated article. I also added references and some information in the prizes and honors section. There are still some formatting issues, which I will clean up now. In the next few days, I'll try to flesh out some of the sections. Mvblair (talk) 15:08, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Merge List of Works?
Would anyone object if I merged the article on Quino's works into this article? I think it would be more appropriate to include it here in this article. Mvblair (talk) 15:20, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Cleaning up Guernica
My favorite Quino cartoon shows a tough and formidable cleaning lady who cleans up a very messy living room, including a reproduction of Picasso's painting of Guernica or Gernika. She restores that town, destroyed by the Nazis, back to life, peace, order and tranquility. Sheer genius. Das Baz, aka Erudil 18:57, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Dangerous consequences of Mafalda strips
I'd like to humbly find a channel to introduce the arguable danger that Quino's Mafalda strips represent to young naive people who may be atracted by the innocent childish appearance of the strip in contrast with the political seriousness and danger of the messages, as a temptation to a subversive attitude in societies controlled by brutal authoritarian regimes which use torture, assassination and other damages against these young people, justified by labelling them as subversives, communists, leftists, public enemies etc and even using them as the regime legitimation and propaganda? I'd propose a comparison of Mafalda strips to a subtle version of recruitment and exposure of youth by regimes such as Nazism, Stalinism and Jihadist terrorism, which convince young people to fight for a cause and use them as 'cannon fodder'. Isn't it perhaps convenient, simplistic and irresponsible? I'd propose the question, isn't it easy to convey simplistic ideological messages and meanings to these young people, instead of conveying constructive messages of human spiritual beauty and thus instead of creating conflict, contributing to a more humane social environment? Like for example maybe Peanuts strips? HM7Me (talk) 01:32, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Also I'd like to suggest that the treatment and style with which Quino presents these deep political/ideological issues tend to banalize the issues instead of reflecting their seriousness, reducing their importance and somehow transforming them into small talk HM7Me (talk) 12:45, 8 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Is this WP:Original research? (CC) Tb hotch ™ 18:04, 8 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Agree with Tbhotch. Sounds like the making of a potentially interesting essay somewhere, but doesn't belong in Wikipedia. -- Infrogmation (talk) 05:04, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

I understand and agree. Thank you for taking my text into consideration. I'll find the appropriate channel and perhaps later suggests to include it in the article as a legitimately referenced material, because I value Wikipedia. And your work. Any misconduct I've committed was with the aim of suggesting a widening of Wikipedia's role, not to harm the article, I apologyse for the method I used, I found no other means at that moment. 'Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well.' HM7Me (talk) 19:19, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

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 * Mafalda paseohist.jpg