Quino, creator of Mafalda comic character, dies aged 88. Mafalda, the cartoon about the adventures of a six-year-old girl of the same name, is immensely popular in the Spanish-speaking world. Lavado wrote and drew the comics between 1964 and 1973 but they are still being reprinted to this day. Mafalda is so popular she even has her own statues in Argentina and in Spain. The comic, which first appeared in the Argentine weekly Primera Plana in 1964, features the daily life of Mafalda, the daughter of a typical middle-class Argentine couple, whom she often baffles with her insightful questions. Mafalda hates soup and wants world peace. Quino drew the comic strips for nine years until in 1973, he decided to stop. Asked about his decision, decades later, the graphic artist said he wanted to avoid repetition. “It’s the same for many artists – for example, I’ve had enough of Botero’s chubby people,” he said referring to the Colombian painter whose paintings feature portly animals and characters. He also said that the changing political landscape in Latin America influenced his decision to stop drawing Mafalda. “After the coup d’etat in Chile, the situation in Latin America became very bloody,” he said about the 1973 ousting from power of Salvador Allende by Gen August Pinochet in the neighboring country.
