El Eternauta, Daytripper, and Beyond

David William Foster (1940–2020) was Regents’ Professor of Spanish and Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University, where he also led the Brazilian Studies Program. He wrote numerous books, including including Argentine, Mexican, and Guatemalan Photography: Feminist, Queer, and Post-Masculinist Perspectives, Queer Issues in Contemporary Latin American Cinema, Mexico City in Contemporary Mexican Cinema, and Gay and Lesbian Themes in Latin American Writing.

• PrefaceI. Argentina and the Forging of a Tradition of Graphic Narrative: Military Tyranny and Redemocratization 1. Masculinity as Privileged Human Agency in H. G. Oesterheld’s El Eternauta2. The Bar as Theatrical Heterotopia: JosÉ MuÑoz and Carlos Sampayo’s El Bar de Joe3. Resisting Tyranny: The Perramus Figure of Alberto Breccia and Juan Sasturain4. The Lion in Winter: Carlos Sampayo and Francisco Solano LÓpez’s Police Commissioner Evaristo5. News Bulletins from the Gender Wars: Patricia Breccia’s Sin novedad en el frenteII. Brazil: Graphic Narrative as Postmodern and Globalized Consciousness 6. Of Death and the Road: Rafael GrampÁ’s Mesmo Delivery7. The Unbearable Weight of Being: Daniel Galera and Rafael Coutinho’s Cachalote8. Copacabana and Other Hellish Fantasies: Sandro Lobo and Odyr Berdardi’s Copacabana9. Days of Death: FÁbio Moon and Gabriel BÁ’s Daytripper as Existential Journey10. Women’s Wondrous Powers versus the Telluric Gods in AngÉlica Freitas and Odyr Bernardi’s GuadalupeNotesWorks CitedIndex

Foster demonstrates how graphic narratives, through a combination of graphic visuals and literary texts, are the medium for the telling of human stories, for they succeed in transforming everyday situations into visual works of art. (Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Literature) It is always a joy to consume criticism by a comics aficionado and scholar like Foster, who does not lose his edge with time; if anything, his work has become more sophisticated, evidencing a protracted view of Latin America's comics industry. (Hispanic Review) El Eternauta, Daytripper, and Beyond is successful in exposing readers to a body of graphic narrative that is often ignored by U.S. readers. Foster has provided a useful foundation from which scholars can begin to build more detailed and developed histories of graphic naratives in Argentina and Brazil. (Luso-Brazilian Review) [El Eternauta, Daytripper, and Beyond] is written in clear language and it is an enjoyable read which proves to be entirely accessible to specialist and non-specialist readers alike. (Hispanic Research Journal) El Eternauta, Daytipper, and Beyond constitutes an important contribution to the English-language bibliography on comic-book production in Latin America…This book is a valuable ally for scholars who want...further research into Latin American contemporary cultural production, and specifically for those working on Latin American or Global graphic narrative. (Popular Culture Studies Journal)