Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perà n (The Alberto Breccia Library). This item is unavailable.Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perà n (The Alberto Breccia Library)

Published in 1970, Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perón was daringly intended to be the follow-up to the artists’ successful and controversial 1969 graphic biography Life of Che. Hector Germán Oesterheld plotted the book and the father and son team of Alberto and Enrique Breccia drew the comic ― but journalist Luis Alberto Murray sanitized the text. In 2001, comics publisher Javier Doeyo discovered Oesterheld’s original script (long after the writer’s presumed death at the hand of a military government) and published a restored and revised version; it is translated in English here for the first time.

Beginning with the people rejoicing when Perón’s body was finally laid to rest in Recoleta Cemetery in 1976, this graphic biography then turns to flashbacks as readers learn about her childhood, born in extreme poverty. Still a teen, Eva Duarte went to Buenos Aires and became an actress: especially active on the radio. While fundraising for local relief efforts, she met Colonel Perón and the two became entwined personally, professionally, and politically. They were married by the time he had been imprisoned, freed due to union organization of mass protests, and elected president in 1946. As First Lady, nicknamed Evita, she devoted herself to a foundation for social services, campaigning for women’s right to vote, and representing Argentina abroad. Society hated her: she was popular with the poor and dubbed “The Spiritual Leader of the Nation.” In his afterword, Argentine scholar Pablo Turnes explains how this graphic biography mirrors Perónism: “Perónism has not survived 76 years in spite of its contradictions; its contradictions are what has allowed it to reinvent itself every time it was needed.”

Héctor Germán Oesterheld (HGO) (born July 23, 1919; disappeared by the military and presumed dead 1977), was a pioneering Argentine graphic novel and comics writer. Notable works include his science-fiction series El Eternauta, as well as Life of Che, a biography of Che Guevara.

Alberto Breccia (b. 1919; Montevideo, Uruguay; d. 1993, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an influential, internationally acclaimed comics artist and cartoonist. His career began in the 1940s, during the golden age of Argentine comics. From 1962-1964, he drew Mort Cinder, written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, which is considered a masterpiece of the form. He took a break from comics to teach and co-found the interdisciplinary art school IDA (Instituto de directores de Arte) but returned in 1968 to draw graphic biographies of Che Guevara and Eva Perón, and a reboot of Oesterheld's seminal 1959 graphic novel, The Eternaut. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s -- when Argentina suffered under a series of military dictatorships -- and beyond, Breccia drew serialized comics for the European market, working with and adapting writers such as Poe, Lovecraft, Borges, Trillo, Sasturain, and many others. In 2021, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.

Enrique Breccia (b. 1945, Buenos Aires) is a politically active Argentine cartoonist, best known to American audiences for his Swamp Thing run for DC's Vertigo imprint. In addition to DC, he has worked for Marvel, Fleetway, Delcourt, and many other global comics publishers; he has also adapted literary works by Lovecraft, Melville, and others. His career began in 1968, when he assisted his father, Alberto Breccia, on the bestselling graphic biography Life of Che. Other notable projects include his art for the Alvar Mayor character (written by Carlos Trillo), and The Sentinels series with Xavier Dorison. Breccia currently lives in Italy.

Erica Mena is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and book artist, who holds an MFA in poetry from Brown University and an MFA in literary translation from the University of Iowa. Their English translation of the Argentine graphic novel The Eternaut won a 2016 Eisner Award.