The Eternaut

It all begins with a snowfall in Buenos Aires. But this is no ordinary snow, for it is phosphorescent, and kills on contact. An alien invasion is under way, and it will go on to wipe out much of the world’s population. The survivors are herded into the River Plate Stadium by the military, who attempt to mount a defence. A siege begins, with relentless attacks by insect-like creatures and hallucinations caused by mysterious substances. The Eternaut of the title is the protagonist, Khruner—his name meaning “wanderer of infinity”—a time traveller who tells the story to a comic book writer in an extended flashback. He ultimately escapes by boarding an alien spacecraft, only to become lost in time and in parallel universes. As his story comes to an end, a single question lingers: did it unfold in another dimension, or is it a glimpse of what is about to happen? Written by Héctor Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco López, The Eternaut has become a landmark in comic book history, also for its troubled publishing history. First serialised between 1957 and 1959, the chilling scenes—civilians rounded up in stadiums, and Krol aliens symbolising military oppression—proved disturbingly prophetic. Just two decades later, similar horrors played out in Argentina under the military junta, and before that, in Uruguay and in Chile under Pinochet. Oesterheld himself, along with his daughters, vanished during this dark period, among the roughly 30,000 desaparecidos in Argentina, all trace of whom is lost. Nearly seventy years on, the story has lost none of its narrative power, and remains a symbol of defiance in the face of every dictatorship. It remains a classic, etched in the collective memory, and has recently been adapted by Netflix for an upcoming TV series.

The Eternaut
Hector German Oesterheld, Francisco Solano Lopez;
Fantagraphics Books, 2015