The Argentinian cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón (1932-2020), who published as Quino, introduced the brilliantly insightful, refreshingly unfiltered six-year-old Mafalda in 1964. Quino ended his internationally renowned black-and-white comic strip, available in 26 languages, in 1973. Now Elsewhere Editions, the children's imprint of Archipelago Books, is releasing Mafalda: Book One--with four additional volumes planned, all translated by lauded Frank Wynne--and the delightfully precocious Mafalda deserves prominent space on anyone's shelves.
Mafalda is self-admittedly "only little," although she's already worrying about college. Her mother cooks too much soup. Her suit-wearing father is a phytophile. When the family's new TV arrives and Papa schemes to limit Mafalda's access by placing a drooping plant over the screen, she deems him "a little naive." She astutely comments, "You'll never finish a big book like that if you keep reading it in little snatches," referring to Papa's repeated dictionary consultations. Her relentlessly probing questions either cause Papa a nervous attack--"I need you to explain the war in Vietnam"--or leave him utterly defeated--"Papa? Can you explain why humanity is a disaster?"
And then there are Mafalda's friends: Manolito, son of the neighborhood grocery store owner, already "has plans for satellite stores," pays attention to "commercial possibilities," and role-plays John D. Rockefeller. Felipe, with his distinctive haircut, excels at avoiding homework, is comics-obsessed, and knows to flee Mafalda as necessary. Susanita, who's already declared her future maternal goals, remains indifferent to Mafalda's insistence that "a woman can be more than a mother, she can contribute to society, do important things." When Mafalda isn't righting the globe (literally), making herself president and staging red carpet moments with unrolled toilet paper, or exploring soda bottle space suits, yoyos, and chess, she plots world peace, wishes for "more advanced worlds," and "clearly and logically" plans her entire life.
Originally created for a failed advertising campaign, Mafalda has aged well, perfectly situated between youthful innocence (a fork in her hairbow to encourage "wireless telepathy") and impressive sophistication (responding to Papa's boast about his childhood invincibility at games with "Do parents say things like that so we'll admire them retrospectively?"). Quino draws plenty of visual humor throughout, particularly engaging in capturing the children's vibrant expressions and their constant in-motion energy with minimal pen strokes. Most notably, Mafalda's quick-witted, bitingly sharp observations, created more than a half a century ago, prove even more relevant amid contemporary chaos. Once again, Mafalda and friends are ready for their well-deserved close-ups. --Terry Hong
Shelf Talker: Argentinian cartoonist Quino's insightfully precocious, perennially six-year-old Mafalda will challenge, educate, and, most of all, delight a new generation of English-language audiences.