Héctor Germán Oesterheld’s El Eternauta II: Comics of Resistance to Argentina’s Military Dictatorship, Published Across His 1977 Abduction and Disappearance — Thirteen Original Skorpio Serialization Issues, 1976–1978

El Eternauta Héctor Germán Oesterheld Argentinean Comic

Periodical

Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López’s El Eternauta II serialization in thirteen issues of Skorpio, 1976 to 1978, preserving installments of the sequel as it appeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship and across Oesterheld’s abduction and disappearance in April 1977. Ediciones Record began publishing the sequel in Skorpio Libro de Oro No. 2 in December 1976, nearly two decades after Oesterheld and Solano López created the original El Eternauta, and continued it through 1978. The political circumstances of the second series were radically different from those of its predecessor. Oesterheld, by then associated with the revolutionary Peronist organization Montoneros and working clandestinely, recast the science fiction narrative around organized resistance, collective struggle, and political violence. His torture and disappearance while the series remained in publication gives the original magazine appearances a chronology inseparable from the repression under which their author was writing. El Eternauta II returned Oesterheld to the characters he and Solano López had created for the original 1957 to 1959 serial, but its publication coincided with the most violent phase of Argentina’s state repression after the March 1976 military coup. The sequel made resistance more overtly political and placed “Germán,” Oesterheld’s fictional counterpart, within the action alongside Juan Salvo. Oesterheld was abducted by state forces on April 27, 1977 and subsequently disappeared; his four daughters were also killed during the dictatorship.
Skorpio and Skorpio Gran Color. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Record S.C.A., 1976 to 1978. Thirteen issues, magazine format, illustrated throughout in black and white and color. Alfredo Scutti, director. The group comprises issues containing installments from the original serialization of El Eternauta II, with the contents pages identifying Oesterheld as scriptwriter and Francisco Solano López as artist:

[1] Skorpio Libro de Oro No. 2, December 1976, containing El Eternauta (2ª parte), “primer episodio,” guión H. G. Oesterheld, dibujos Solano Lopez, alongside Oesterheld and Horacio Lalia’s Nekrodamus, Mario Leocata and Enrique Breccia’s Cazadores de Indios, Carlos Trillo and Pérez D’Elías’s Bobo Conrad, and other features.
[2] Skorpio No. 28, Año 3, February 1977, containing El Eternauta (II), “3er. episodio,” with Loco Sexton, Odysea 2000, Nekrodamus, Detectives’ Studio, Hor, and Precinto 56.
[3] Skorpio No. 29, Año 3, March 1977, containing El Eternauta (II), “4º episodio,” with Saccomanno and Arturo del Castillo’s Loco Sexton: Hombre Fuerte, Ray Collins and Víctor H. Arias’s Odysea 2000: El Regreso de Korva, and Nekrodamus: Oro, Cobre, Plata y Sangre.
[4] Skorpio No. 30, Año 3, April 1977, containing El Eternauta (II), “5º episodio,” with Loco Sexton: El juego del destino, Odysea 2000: Encuentro en las Cícladas, Nekrodamus: Por un amigo muerto, Trillo and Pérez D’Elías’s Detectives’ Studio: El joven Frankenstein, Hor, and Precinto 56.
[5] Skorpio No. 31, Año 3, May 1977, containing El Eternauta (II), “6º episodio,” alongside Loco Sexton: El que vino a morir, Odysea 2000: La ciudad de los hombres de oro, Oesterheld and Lalia’s Nekrodamus: Peste, Trillo and Pérez D’Elías’s Detectives’ Studio: Cantando bajo la lluvia, and Juan Zanotto’s artwork for Hor.
[6] Skorpio No. 33, Año 3, July 1977, containing El Eternauta, “8º episodio,” with Loco Sexton: El noveno Mandamiento, Odysea 2000: Apenas una alondra, Oesterheld and Lalia’s Nekrodamus: La marca del verdugo, Detectives’ Studio: La princesa que quería vivir, Hor, and Precinto 56.
[7] Skorpio No. 36, Año 3, October 1977, containing El Eternauta (II), “XI episodio,” with Saccomanno and del Castillo’s Loco Sexton presenta: Mississippi sangriento, Collins and Arias’s Odysea 2000: La isla del adiós, Trillo and Lalia’s Nekrodamus: El gran héroe de Pavesa, Trillo and Pérez D’Elías’s Detectives’ Studio: El doctor Jeckyll, Trillo and Enrique Breccia’s Alvar Mayor: La leyenda de El Dorado, and Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas.
[8] Skorpio Libro de Oro No. 3, November 1977, containing El Eternauta (II), “XII episodio,” with Alvar Mayor: La plantación, Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas, Sangaree O’Ryan, Montez, Sobreviviente, Halmar, Satan street, El Omega, and Jungla de Asfalto.
[9] Skorpio Gran Color No. 37, Año 4, containing El Eternauta (II), “XIII episodio,” with Trillo and Enrique Breccia’s Alvar Mayor: La ciudad perdida de los incas, Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas, Jorge Moliterni’s Los Profesionales: El duelo, Odysea 2000: Desirée, El Condenado: La antesala del infierno, As de Pique, Hor, and Precinto 56.
[10] Skorpio Gran Color No. 38, Año 4, containing El Eternauta (II), “XIV episodio,” with Alvar Mayor: Un tesoro inalcanzable, Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas, Moliterni’s Los Profesionales: El tanque, Odysea 2000: La leyenda del Paititi, El Condenado: La fuga, As de Pique, Henga, and Precinto 56.
[11] Skorpio Gran Color No. 39, Año 4, containing El Eternauta (II), “XV episodio,” with Alvar Mayor: Una profecía, Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas, Moliterni’s Los Profesionales: San Ignacio, Saccomanno and Mandrafina’s El Condenado: Los primeros pasos, Lord Jim, As de Pique, Hor, and Precinto 56.
[12] Skorpio Gran Color No. 40, Año 4, containing El Eternauta (II), “XVI episodio,” with Alvar Mayor: El agua de los sueños, Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas, Moliterni’s Los Profesionales: La decisión, Saccomanno and Mandrafina’s El Condenado: El jíbaro francés, Lord Jim, Detectives’ Studio, As de Pique, Henga, and Precinto 56.
[13] Skorpio Gran Color No. 41, Año 4, containing El Eternauta (II), “XVII episodio,” with Alvar Mayor: Juana, Pratt’s Corto Maltés: Las linternas rojas, Moliterni’s Los Profesionales: El regreso a casa, Saccomanno and Mandrafina’s El Condenado: La muchacha del ron, Lord Jim, As de Pique, Hor, and Precinto 56.

The magazines simultaneously preserve the editorial environment in which the work reached Argentine readers. *Skorpio* placed the serial among Trillo and Enrique Breccia’s *Alvar Mayor*, Saccomanno’s collaborations with Lalia and Mandrafina, Zanotto’s *Hor*, Collins and Fernández’s *Precinto 56*, and, in the later *Gran Color* numbers, Hugo Pratt’s *Corto Maltés*. Trillo and Saccomanno’s recurring “Club de la Historieta” further situated comics criticism inside the magazine itself, treating the historieta as a medium with its own history, authors, and aesthetic vocabulary. Some covers worn, issue 30 covers and first two pages disbound. No loss to pages. Overall good condition. Thirteen original periodical issues preserving the publication history of *El Eternauta II* across Oesterheld’s disappearance and the transformation of Argentine historieta under dictatorship, while documenting the dense network of writers and artists gathered around Ediciones Record in the late 1970s.

Item #23774

Price: $2,800.00