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Rating: The genius of Quino (real name Joaquín Salvador Lavado, born 1932!), his being "so universal" in addressing existential and ethical themes, beyond fashions, countries, and contingent situations... everything has been said about it - or almost everything.
The creator of the indomitable Mafalda has always dabbled in political and social satire and denunciation, going well beyond words. His recognizable style, his sublime art of attentive screenwriting, and the finesse of certain graphic details have gifted us, in over 40 years of an honored career, one of the most fervent and sharp minds of International Satire.
It is therefore incredible to review the work contained in this book "Tutti nella stessa barca" (Bompiani-1990) and discover how the actuality of certain "unconfessable truths" is tremendously current and that certain malpractices and contradictions (of Armies, Media, common living, and Power, wherever it lurks) have fundamentally always been the same for years (and perhaps even centuries!).
It is wonderful then to smile wryly (and with a bit of inevitable cynicism) at the refined black and white boards, celebrating subjugation by bureaucracy (see HERE), religion (HERE), Death (HERE), transgression of the rules (HERE), the falsity of interpersonal relationships (HERE), or those of love (HERE)... just to name a few.
There is truly so much intelligence and sensitivity in the drawings of this Pen Artist, in the way he manages to craft the boards, in the expression he can impart to the faces of his characters and in the small revealing details that often provide us with the solution or key to understanding the joke.
Because to be clear, words are used sparingly here: a few jokes, a few words here and there but 90% of the meaning must be found in the drawing, the only and true protagonist of this book (a different story with Mafalda's strip, where the balance is clearly tipped in favor of the Word).
A tangible sign of the eclecticism of this Author, who is and will always be indisputably a Great of World Literature (you read that correctly)... a "silent" Author if you will, but no less incisive and sharp than some literary authors who express a concept by wrapping pages with thousands of tortuous and complex words, in the unconditional quest for intellectual sophistication.
Long live the Simplicity of Presentation and the Intelligence of Synthesis. Wherever it is found.
Long live the Great Quino!! :-)
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