Mort Cinder is an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 comic book horror-science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 series featuring an eponymous character, created in 1962 by the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld

Héctor Germán Oesterheld

Héctor Germán Oesterheld , also known as his common abbreviation HGO, was an Argentine journalist and writer of graphic novels and comics who has come to be celebrated as a master in his field....

 and artist Alberto Breccia

Alberto Breccia

Alberto Breccia was an Uruguay-born Argentine comics artist and writer.-Biography:Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Breccia moved with his parents to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was three years old...

. It is considered one of the best comic strips ever produced in Argentina.

Publication history

The character Mort Cinder appeared for the first time on August 17, 1962, in Nº 718 of the Argentinian magazine Misterix, although the series previously made its debut on July 20, 1962, in the prologue story Ezra Winston el anticuario featuring only the antiques dealer Ezra Winston

Ezra Winston

Ezra Winston is an Argentine comic book character created in 1962 by the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and artist Alberto Breccia.Ezra Winston appeared for the first time on July 20, 1962 in the magazine Misterix...

. The Mort Cinder series run ended in N° 798 of Misterix, on February 28, 1964. It has been translated and published in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and former Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

.

Synopsis

Cinder is an enigmatic man that comes back from the grave each time he dies. In his very first appearance, Cinder was presented as an assassin who has been just executed. Some mysterious lead-eyed men are awaiting his resurrection from the grave, planning to use his brain for a horrifying experiment. Winston, called by supernatural messages, comes to save him. Cinder has lived since ancient times, and took part in many famous historical episodes including the building of the Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...

, World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and the Battle of Thermopylae

Battle of Thermopylae

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...

. His origin, as well as his unearthly skills, were never explained by the authors. He has been described as "an unquiet conscience of humanity, a witness, sometimes sorrowfully torpid, of the great and small events of the Man, though often a rebellious one who never surrendered to those trying to silence him" (Alessio Lega).

Inspiration

Cinder's face is the one of Breccia's friend and assistant, Horacio Lalia, while that of Ezra Winston

Ezra Winston

Ezra Winston is an Argentine comic book character created in 1962 by the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and artist Alberto Breccia.Ezra Winston appeared for the first time on July 20, 1962 in the magazine Misterix...

is actually Alberto Breccia's own as an old man.

External links

• Mort Cinder Historieteca
• Mort Cinder: Memorias en conflicto Tebeosfera