Two of more than twenty A1 panels designed by Peter Stanbury for the Comica Argentina Exhibition. On the left the work of Guillermo Divito, on the right a panel devoted to José Muñoz & Carlos Sampayo.

Guillermo Divito
By the age of only 15, Guillermo (Willy) Divito (1914-1969) was already a professional cartoonist for newspapers, first for Noticias Gráficas, and then for La Razón. In 1931 he joined Paginas de Columba and later worked with Dante Quinterno producing such characters as Oscar Dientes de Leche published in the comic magazine Patoruzu. In 1944, Divito founded the humor magazine Rico Tipo. His creations included Bombolo, Pochita Morfoni, Fulmine and his most popular works Fallutelli and El Doctor Merengue. He owes most of his fame to the grace and style with which he depicted the female figure. His famous “Chicas,” tall and luscious beauties with narrow waists and generous bosoms found fame beyond Argentina’s borders. In 1947, Time magazine reported that ‘for women workers in Buenos Aires, Willy Divito is still more of a style authority that Christian Dior’. At its peak, Rico Tipo reached a circulation of 200,000 copies and published the best in Argentine humour, notably the talented Oscar Conti or Oski. Divito was a popular, refined bachelor, a bon vivant and an astute editor.

José Muñoz & Carlos Sampayo
After studying at the Escuela Panamericana de Arte under Pratt and Breccia, the artist José Muñoz (b. 1942) worked as an assistant to Solano Lopez. The writer Carlos Sampayo (b. 1943) first earned a living from his reviews of literature and music, especially jazz, and the advertising industry. Through their mutual friend Oscar Zarate, the two were introduced in Buenos Aires in 1971, but they would not meet again until 1974, after they had both left Argentina, Muñoz moving to London and Sampayo to Spain. The rapport was instant and their extraordinarily close and fertile collaboration brought international acclaim. A year later, Alack Sinner, a principled ex-cop-turned-detective, debuted in France and Italy. Muñoz & Sampayo captured the gritty intensity of New York, though they had never visited the city at the time. They soon broke away from the classic crime genre to address Sinner’s personal troubles and social and political issues, from Viet Nam to Nicaragua. Among their other co-creations are the poignant vignettes of lost souls in Joe’s Bar, short tales about Latin America in Sudor Sudaca, and graphic biographies of jazz singer-songwriter Billie Holliday and tango legend Carlos Gardel. Muñoz has worked with other authors, including American novelist Jerome Charyn, and won the 2007 Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Peter Stanbury designed Comica Argentina, an exhibition of more than twenty A1 panels, featuring some of the comic artists and cartoonists famous in Argentina, displayed at Canning House in London, as part of the celebrations of 200 years of the country’s independence.

For more in-depth information about the Comica Argentina exhibition at Canning House in London, please take a look at Paul Gravett’s feature.

The Comica Argentina Persona.

There will be some talks at King’s Place in Euston London, on 2, 3 and 4 July 2010.

Peter Stanbury designed this persona for Comica Argentina, an exhibition of the comics of Argentina, to be shown at Canning House and King’s Place in London. There will be an exhibition and a series of related events between June 7 and July 4 2010, to tie in with celebrations of the bicentennial of independence. The persona contrasts the cool blue modernism of Comica—light blue being a colour of the national flag— with the extravagance of vibrant orange Argentina.

Comica Argentina exhibition Panel designs.

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What colours mean to us: Colour in Context?

Using the Persona house colour from the Comica Festival site, Peter Stanbury designed this informal badge for the Comica Social Club, emphasising the Graphic Novels enthusiasms of its members by signalled use of word balloons and the rounded friendly font of Cooper Black. Noise was added to further soften the background, but the COMICA logo was not included as it would not be readable at a small size. The club aims to add a social aspect to the Comica Festival allowing informal contact between readers, cartoonists and comics creators, every month.

For details join the Comica Social Club group on Facebook.

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PERSONA: Comica Social Club Badges.

The new badges designed by Peter Stanbury for the Comica Social Club

Using the Persona house colour from the Comica Festival site, Peter Stanbury designed these badges for the Comica Social Club and they are given to guests on arrival to ease social recogniton at the event. The club aims to informally bring together readers, cartoonists and comics creators, focused on comics, graphic novels and events in the Comica Festival. It is to be a monthly event.

For details join the Comica Social Club group on Facebook.

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PERSONA: Comica Festival.

Such was the success of Nick Scott’s fashion videography that he was invited to exhibit a selection of videos at the Milan Design Week. It was an image from this, by Tina Scott, that made it onto the front cover of Content Creation Europe with a photograph of Honor Fraser wearing a hat by Philip Treacy.

Computer Graphics attack the brand of Captain Scarlet more than forty years after his debut on the front cover of Content Creation Europe. Spectrum was red as our hero was hurled back to the future one more time.

The front cover of Content Creation Europe with its distopian science fiction CGI by Electric Image

Peter Stanbury chose a single panel from the story “Joe’s Bar”—by the Argentinian illustrator José Muñoz—blown up hugely for the first black and white cover for Escape magazine. “I wanted to show everyone just how dark and dramatic comics could be without using the American comic-book style of drawing.” The complete twenty-page story “Joe’s Bar” written by Carlos Sampayo and drawn by José Muñoz appeared inside. It was the longest complete story ever published in the magazine.

When José Muñoz was the Grande Prix Winner the Angouleme Comics Festival in 2007, Paul Gravett reprinted articles 20 years after their first appearance in Escape 10 in 1987. First is a biography by Paul Gravett documenting how José Muñoz met his writing collaborator Carlos Sampayo. This is followed by an appreciation of the work of Muñoz and Sampayo by friend and cartoonist Oscar Zarate.

With Issue ten the panel behind the Escape logo was removed and the logo made larger and a drop shadow was added.

Magazine: 210mm wide by 280mm high. 64 black and white pages.

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For more about Escape Magazine its development and history.

Issue Nine of Escape Magazine had a large feature on Spanish comics, “Especial Espana” with a cover by Spanish illustrator, Fernando Vicente, taken from a silk-screen print, with an inset of the Tempter in Glenn Dakin‘s Temptation—perfectly in keeping with the greed and lust of the main image.

“Here come the Young Bloods!” With issue eight, Escape Magazine leapt to a larger, 210mm by 280mm format allowing the editors to include larger comic-strip artwork from Europe. The painted full-colour cover is by John Bagnall from his story “The Kennedy Girl”. The new logo by Peter Stanbury was inspired by American artist Bob Zoell. Inside is a translated short story by French master, Jacques Tardi. Comics of Style and Vision!