Mort Cinder
Mort Cinder
By Alberto Breccia & Héctor Germán Oesterheld. Published by Fantagraphics.
Hardcover, 224 pages, B&W, 2018 (originally published 1962-1964)
This serial follows the wanderings through time, space, and the darkest corners of humanity—from ancient Greece to the mid-20th century—of a man who rises from the grave each time he is killed.
Alberto Breccia is recognized as one of the greatest international cartoonists in the history of comics and Mort Cinder is considered one of his finest achievements. Created in collaboration with the Argentine writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld, best known in the U.S. for his politically incendiary sci-fi masterpiece, the Eisner Award-winning The Eternaut, Mort Cinder is a horror story with political overtones. This episodic serial, written and drawn between 1962–1964, is drawn by Breccia in moody chiaroscuro. The artist's rubbery, expressionistic faces capture every glint in the eyes of the grave robbers, sailors, and slaves that populate these stories; while the slash of stripes of prisoners' uniforms, the trapeziums of Babylon, and more create distinct and evocative milieus.
"Breccia's art just about demands cliche descriptors. It really is eye-popping." — The Comics Journal
"Mort Cinder is a pioneer of the macabre. ... Breccia's ready to match any genre [writer] Oesterheld throws at him — suspense, historical adventure, horror, even science fiction — with a sincere and unpretentious mastery." — Comics Beat
"Mort Cinder combines horror, adventure, science fiction, and history to offer the perfect showcase for Breccia's visual versatility." — Rain Taxi
"Great news for fans of the astonishingly brilliant South American comic artist Alberto Breccia." — Down the Tubes
"The Mort Cinder stories are moody genre fiction parables written with great intelligence by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and evocatively illustrated by Alberto Breccia, who employs lines that seem placed with both careful precision and fervid instinct." — Craig Zahler, director, Dragged Across Concrete, Bone Tomahawk