El Cazador de Aventuras

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El cazador

El Cazador de Aventuras (the hunter of adventures) was an Argentine comic that was published from 1992 to 2001. It is famous for initiating a new age of adult comics in Argentina. It was written and drawn by Ariel Olivetti, Jorge Lucas, Mauro Cascioli and Claudio Ramirez. The comic had two editions.

[edit] First edition (1992-1999)

The first issue of Cazador appeared in October of 1992. The star of the title is a big, dumb, murderous, womanizing brute. A homage/parody of DC Comics's character Lobo and Simon Bisley, one of the main artists on Lobo. The stories contained high levels of dark and gross humor focused on parodizing the socio-political environment in Argentina and many elements and personalities of pop-culture (zombies, Quake videogame, Sailor Moon, Diego Maradona, President Menem, Don King, Mike Tyson, etc.) while telling adventures with extreme levels of violence and gore.

A possible origin of the character was revealed in a flashback: His grandfather had been a soldier in Vlad Tepes's service (from whom he had learned the many ways of torture). His father had been a conquistador who came to America and sired him with a native girl whose tribe had cannibalistic tendencies. Finally, the man who'd come to be known as El Cazador de Aventuras became a wanted criminal in America during the times of the Spanish conquest. He formed a band of outlaws and massacred many native villages thus obtaining food. One of his favorite pastimes was to torture natives branding them with red hot irons on their foreheads. The brand was a Christian cross. He claimed to be doing God's work that way. One of the natives claimed he knew where a great mountain of precious metal was and promised to take them in exchange for his life. Believing it to be the famous legend of Eldorado, el Cazador and his men followed their guide only to fall into a trap. Cazador was captured and branded with his own symbol inverted on the forehead. Demons were introduced in his body and he became essentially immortal. After his ordeal, he went insane, killed his own men and devoured them.

He lived in an abandoned church, used the inverted cross as his symbol, and his best friend was a bizarre duende / Italian-American mobster called Tío Pastafrola.

The first seven issues were in black and white, but in 1995 the first color issues appeared. The comic ceased publication because of a great debt that the authors owed to the publisher.

[edit] Second edition (2000-2001)

The comic returned in November of 2000 drawn by Mauro Cascioli. There were no great changes, and aside from more a detailed drawing style and a slightly larger format. The comic kept the same tone as the past edition.

The devaluation of the peso resulting from the Argentine economic crisis brought about the end of the second edition the comic. The final issue appeared on December 22 2001.