At the start of this year, I had never heard of Mafalda – but I am glad I now have. She’s a little girl who was the star of a newspaper comic strip in Argentina and her antics are hilarious. I’m in the process of trying to learn Spanish, and so a friend of mine bought me a collection of Mafalda comics translated by Frank Wynn in the hopes that it would both entertain me and help with my education. I am happy to say that it did both. Although I didn’t find the Spanish originals, occasional strips retained the original Spanish in some illustrations (e.g. in newspapers) which gave me a chance to learn and revise.
The strips in these comics are only a few panels long, but there are a few mini story arcs which continue across multiple strips (they’re pretty simple though). In some of them, she’s getting into chess, for example. Usually, she latches onto some aspect of the world or of politics that doesn’t make any sense to her, and ends up driving her parents to distraction. To some extent, its rooted in the period of history in which it was written (e.g. you’ll find criticisms of communism, which are very much tied into the political landscape of the day) but for the most part, I feel that the strips are pretty timeless. Perhaps, in part, because the world is just as ridiculous now as when these strips were written (if not more). I love the slices of history anyway.
Besides her parents, Mafalda hangs out with a few friends of hers, like Manolito, the son of a local shopkeeper, who is kind of dumb, Susanita, a gossipy girly girl who is usually at odds with Mafalda, and Felipe, who actually feels like a pretty normal little boy. All the characters are quite endearing, but it’s Mafalda herself who stands out the most to me, because she really is written quite authentically. She’s very much like a real six year old – she’s got that confidence of youth which leads her to question conventions without fear of controversy, but also a lack of experience and knowledge of the world, which gives her some funny perspectives. Sometimes, of course, in her childhood innocence, she sees through the nonsense of our society and leaves adults speechless – on the other hand sometimes she thinks having to eat soup is a human rights issue.
They’re such great little strips and I’m very pleased to have been introduced to them. I’d usually plan to read just one page of them before bed each night, but almost always ended up reading more than that because they were so moreish. If you enjoy historic comics with a political angle, I definitely recommend this collection. It left me wanting to read more.
Rating: 8.2/10
