Alberto Breccia: Conclusion

Breccia Introduction
Breccia Part 1: Mort Cinder
Breccia Part 2: El Eternauta to Lovecraft
Breccia Part 3: Perramus

From Perramus by Juan Sasturain and Alberto Breccia

Alberto Breccia’s work is desperately under-appreciated in the English speaking world. This article can only scratch the surface - I haven’t touched on his adaptations of Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson, or any of his wonderful colour work, including arguably his last great work, Dracula, Dracul, Vlad? Bah! a comical take on Dracula executed in a fully painted cartoon style different again from anything shown here. (For a fuller overview of his work, try the website Historieta Argentina.)
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I rate Alberto Breccia so highly because, for the last thirty years of his life, he never stopped experimenting. He was always trying new techniques, new storytelling methods, new drawing styles. I don’t like everything he did, and not all of it is a success, but that's what happens when you constantly dare to try something new. What's remarkable is to see such a pioneering spirit in someone approaching the end of his career.
Breccia’s work was always fresh and always bold - and brave, too. I don’t mean "bravery" in some namby-pamby artistic “the fans won’t like it and I’ll get bad reviews” sense. I mean that he lived at a time and in a place where his work could have put him literally in danger of his life, yet he continued anyway.

Recommended Works

The website Historieta Argentina gives a comprehensive overview of Breccia's career, with samples.

Mort Cinder (1962) - 2 volumes. black & white
Breccia-Lovecraft: Mitos de Cthulu (1975) - 1 volume, black & white
Perramus - (1986) - 3 volumes (but, confusingly, 4 books; Books 1 & 2 are published as volume 1, Book 3 as volume 2, Book 4 as volume 3), black & white
Dracula, Dracul, Vlad? Bah! - (?date), 1 volume, colour.


Availability

Very little of Breccia's work has ever been translated into English - Fantagraphics started publishing Perramus in comic-book format in the 1990's, but sales were poor and only four issues (covering part of book one) came out. The only volume currently in print is the Alberto Breccia Sketchbook, actually an album of page layout sketches with text in both Spanish and English.
In France, Les Humanöides Associes published reprints of Mort Cinder (2 volumes), L'Eternaut, Le Couer Revelateur (Poe adaptations) and Dracula, Dracul, Vlad? Bah! in the early 2000's while Casterman published the whole of Perramus as three deluxe albums in the 1990's.
In German, there are translations of Mort Cinder (2 volumes), and Perramus (3 volumes) , both published by Carlsen Verlag in the 1990's.

To the best of my knowledge all of the above are currently out of print.

Spanish offer the best crop of titles, naturally, and a number of titles have come back into print in the last few years; my copy of Breccia-Lovecraft: Los Mitos de Ctulu was bought new in Spain only a couple of years ago. Titles seem to have been reprinted by a number of publishers, so your best bet is to google "Alberto Breccia" and look for Spanish language retail sites.

Most of my own collection has come via www.abebooks.com, a clearing house for second-hand bookshops around the world; it's an excellent source, reliable and cheap; I usually pay about £10 per volume including international postage. The only drawback is that shipments from the states can take a couple of months if you're not willing to pay a premium.

Breccia Introduction
Breccia Part 1: Mort Cinder
Breccia Part 2: El Eternauta to Lovecraft
Breccia Part 3: Perramus