Antonio Segura and José Ortiz are responsible for Hombre, a revolutionary story that mixes western and science fiction, and now ECC Ediciones publishes a new edition of this legendary Spanish comics work.
In addition to rewarding great foreign comic classics with deluxe editions, it’s interesting to see how this treatment is increasingly received by national works. Hombre, the work of Antonio Segura and José Ortiz, is a national comic that represented the revolution in the early 1980s and is now collected in two volumes in a new large format. The first of them was recently published by ECC Ediciones.
Apocalyptic science fiction with a western flair
Today, unfortunately, nuclear fear has been revived in the war in the East, but during the years of the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets, it was possible to talk more about terrorism because of its high probability at that time. As you know, it was a catastrophe that destroyed civilization. Science fiction, reflecting society’s anxieties, has echoed this scenario thousands of times, though not always accurately. Fortunately, Hombre is one of those who got it right.
The imagined situation has been seen in many cases: in the recent past, an environmental disaster (caused by a set of circumstances, today each of them is terribly close) has destroyed the planet and eliminated the human race for hundreds of years. , technologically and socially. Let’s imagine the world of Mad Max but with fewer cars and more guns, more horses, more carts and more saloons.
Just like in the legendary Wild West, the law of the end now prevails and only those willing to bet against themselves will survive. Our main character, the nameless man (like Clint Eastwood’s character in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns) embodies the most pessimistic, cruel and hopeless vision one can have of the society we live in, which he will lead. A plot that takes the reader through situations, each more terrifying from a sociological perspective.
A Spanish taste for history that crosses borders
Between 1981 and 1994, this series was published in Simok and KO Comics magazines. He foretells events that are closer to (or facing) us today, such as wars due to famine, military escalation in the Middle East, commodity crises, the emergence of major epidemics or fascist control of the media. , and all at an apocalyptic level. This was a fad, and those responsible for Hombre arrived at the right time with clear ideas and the knowledge necessary to develop them.
Screenwriter Antonio Segura soon became an inexperienced young writer with a wide range of ideas, constantly mixing science fiction with other genres that didn’t seem appropriate until he got his hands on it. Among his bibliographies, this title has undoubtedly received the most praise over the years, but it is worth noting that he worked professionally in his last years for the Italian publishing house Bonelli (where he reunited with Ortiz). The middle, and again we’re talking about the West, though this time with a more familiar tone: Tex.
As for the graphics department, Hombre here has little to envy other great European comic classics of the time. Valencian cartoonist Jose Ortiz manages to transport us to this grim reality; It adds an oppressive, brutal and rotten atmosphere to the story of the dusty old west.
Ortiz arrives at Hombre with an extensive body of work and honors as a versatile artist. His work with Joseph Tutain led him to collaborate with successful publications such as Creepy, Vampirella or Erie for Warren Publishing, later with tales such as Tarzan and 2000 AD.
The combination of these two talents would result in a body of work that would influence many of his later works, a deeper exploration of the very essence of what makes us human. Hombre is as wonderful as it is harsh and offensive, one of those experiences that can be appreciated from an artistic point of view but can leave the reader with a bad taste in the mouth, the same happens sometimes, for example, in some of the works of Cormac McCarthy. Whatever it is, what is indisputable is that this is the funny story of Spain.
This volume is presented in cardboard format, contains 304 black and white pages and includes the first half of the first work, as well as a preface written by Paco Rocca. The quality of the paper used and the care with which Ortiz’s colors have been restored make this edition an essential product for anyone who enjoyed this work at the time. It has a recommended retail price of €45 and goes on sale in January 2024.
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A gift card to purchase a copy of the first edition at a specialty bookstore. Limited parts. Check availability in store.
On a planet devastated by a series of natural disasters, war conflicts and power crises, one man fights to survive the collapse of civilized society.
Originally serialized in Simok and Keo comic magazines between 1981 and 1994, Hombre became one of the most memorable sagas in the history of national comics thanks to the talent of Antonio Segura and José Ortiz. A novel that seems more prophetic than dystopian as the years pass by a creative team that proposes an irresistible combination of the West and science.
This two-volume edition allows readers to enjoy this classic like never before. Adapted from Ortiz’s original pages, restored for the occasion, it includes the entire saga, a never-before-published story, never-before-published illustrations and sketches, and a foreword by Paco Rocca and Alfonso Font.
Authors: Antonio Segura and Jose Ortiz