An Intellectual of the Margins: Oski’s Comics in the Newspaper Noticias of Montoneros (1974)

Abstract

We analyze a series of one-panel comics created by the Argentinian cartoonist Oski [Oscar Conti] published in 1974 in the newspaper Noticias,  published by the Peronist leftwing guerrilla group Montoneros. Oski drew “El Créase o No del Sudor (Ajeno)” [Believe It or Not of (Other People’s) Sweat], which denounced and caustically criticized the historical exploitation of Latin America and the Caribbean by the Spanish, Portuguese, British and American. We consider Oski through the lens of the “intellectual”: we inquire if we can characterize some cartoonists as intellectuals, and compare Oski to other intellectual figures of Latin America. Finally, we reconstruct the history of Noticias and take a close look at the comics Oski created for the newspaper and its political and humorous message.