Hansel and Gretel by Alberto Breccia

A case could easily be made for Alberto Breccia being the most innovative comic creator of all time and easily in the top 5 most important creators of all time. Sadly, not well known in North America, in Europe and South America it is whispered with a reverence reserved for a god. I knew the name but really fell down the Breccia rabbit hole over a decade ago. It was really after my first visit to Lucca comic festival and my introduction to the Italian comic art collecting community. Now among my best friends in the world, they have opened my eyes up to many great artists but foremost is Breccia. I did a deep dive early on and wrote an article about him for the APA. There is a link to it at the bottom of this short write up if you are so inclined. Please keep in mind it is years old and I know a lot more now then I did back then.

Since discovering the world of Breccia, I have added and let go of probably 2 dozen pieces. I needed to experience them in person but as I upgraded and streamlined, some pieces moved on to others. One of the things that Breccia did mid to later career is to use collage in his work to create texture and design elements. I have a few pages that demonstrate this in my gallery. He also did a limited number of color pieces like this. These have been exceedingly rare and tightly held and so I was pleased to get a chance at one of these. Then came a second one. In 15-20 years, I don't think I have seen one come up for sale and so I was not going to pass up on this rare opportunity. I only really want one example but this hobby teaches you to grab things when you can.

So, here are the 2 pages. One from Hanzel y Gretel and one from Snow White. It is from an album published in 1981 called Chi Ha Paura delle Fiabe?, Who's Afraid of Fairy Tales? In this work, Breccia adds lots of elements that suggest a much deeper criticism of his world in Argentina during the Dirty War. The political undertones were often not subtle and drew attention to him and his work by authorities. It was not the first time he had been in trouble and one of this co-creators/publishers was "disappeared" by the regime. Interesting times in which he lived and unfortunately we seem to be living in similar times now. How sad that history is repeating itself so quickly.

I really liked this page as it reminded me so much of Bill Sienkiewicz breakthrough work on the Daredevil Graphic novel Love and War in 1986.

http://www.art4comics.com/CFA-APA%20103%20Breccia.pdf