Héctor German Oesterheld
A brief literary biography
Héctor Germán Oesterheld (often referred to as H.G.O.) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 23, 1919. Héctor was the fourth of five siblings. His parents were Fernando Adolfo Oesterheld and Elvira Ana Puyol. His paternal grandfather, Ferdinand Kurt Oesterheld, the scion of a German aristocratic family, had come from Bremen and settled in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, a rural area in the Province of Buenos Aires. There, he owned several farming estates, which Héctor visited during his childhood.
Oesterheld learned to read at a very early age. His older brothers were already avid readers and had assembled quite a large collection of books as young but voracious readers; Héctor took advantage of the availability of so much literary material to read Salgari, Defoe, Stevenson, and Verne, “the latter continuously.” Later, he would recall reading his first detective novel at the age of five. By the time he was six, “he already knew Treasure Island, The Pirates of Malaysia, and Robinson Crusoe almost by heart.”
Because of his roots, his father sent him to the Goethe Schule, the local "elite school of the German community" (T: 94). The crisis of 1930 hit his family's finances and assets hard, and they lost most of their wealth. His parents moved to Rosario, where Héctor attended sixth grade. Back in Buenos Aires, he began his studies at the Manuel Belgrano school. Oesterheld added English, French, and Italian to his knowledge of German, languages he learned to speak perfectly and which allowed him to expand his readings.
When the time came to choose a university major, memories of his childhood in the countryside led him to study natural sciences, focusing on geology. He enrolled in a Doctorate in Natural Sciences (equivalent to a modern-day bachelor's degree) at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. While studying, he worked as an intern at the state-owned Argentine oil company Y.P.F., which led him to participate in several prospection trips as a budding geologist to: Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut), Tupungato (Mendoza), and Zapla (Jujuy), among other places (O1:8). Later on, he would switch to working in a mining laboratory.
He did not do as well at university as one could have expected: he had so many interests that he could not help being distracted by them. In his own words: “I wanted to keep reading, I wanted to go to the theater, I wanted to watch movies, I wanted to change the world,” and “with so many loves at once, I couldn’t pay due attention to any of them” (O1:8). He received one failing grade after another and finally dropped out of college. “Dark days, very dark days...” followed.
Around that time, however, he met his girlfriend and future wife, Elsa Sánchez. “SHE IS THE LIGHT,” he would later write. This relationship filled Héctor with happiness; Elsa encouraged him to resume his studies, and he duly completed the courses he needed “at machine-gun speed.”
Around this time, another fortunate event occurred: Héctor had written a story whose main characters were two elves called “Trulia and Miltar” and given it to a friend and classmate, José Santos Gollán, for him to read. This friend of Héctor liked the story so much that he in turn gave it to his father, who at the time was the editor-in-chief of the literary supplement of the Argentine newspaper La Prensa. As a result, Oesterheld's story was published in the literary supplement on January 3, 1943. It was his first publication.
In May 1946, Héctor completed the last course of his degree and the following year he married Elsa. From then on, he devoted himself to writing popular science books for children for two important publishing houses: Codex and Abril. In 1948, the latter offered him the position of editor for its comic book magazine Misterix. Oesterheld accepted, and that sealed his vocation: he decided to become a comic book writer. A few years later, he started publishing several of his best-known characters in that magazine: the space adventurer Bull Rocket (1952) and the wandering Wild West hero, Sargent Kirk (1953).
During those years, the four daughters of the Oesterheld-Sánchez couple were born: Estela (born in 1952), Diana (1953), Beatriz (1955), and Marina (1957). Héctor always had a very warm and close relationship with them; Elsa would refer to him time and again as “an exemplary father.”
In 1956, Oesterheld decided to found his own publishing house, Frontera, which published several comic magazines. Among these was Hora Cero Semanal, whose first issue (dated September 4, 1957) featured the first installment of El Eternauta. On that very same year, Oesterheld began publishing the adventures of Ernie Pike, a war correspondent who narrated stories and anecdotes from the front. The stories told by this correspondent emphasized the human side of the combatants, something unusual in comics of this genre.
In 1958-1959, Oesterheld developed another great character with drawings by Alberto Breccia: Sherlock Time. This was a kind of investigator of strange phenomena, historical enigmas, and scientific paradoxes.
In 1961, Editorial Frontera went bankrupt and was dissolved for various financial and administrative reasons. Oesterheld had to cede his characters to Editorial Ramírez. Subsequently, the latter transferred them to Vea y Lea, which continued to publish Frontera comics until 1963.
In 1962, Oesterheld began developing a new character, with drawings by Alberto Breccia: Mort Cinder. The latter is an eternal character, though not immortal: he is a kind of “phoenix man,” one who dies and is reborn time and again. He thus participates in various adventures, some of which coincide with well-known historical episodes.
During the following years, Oesterheld wrote successive stories of alien invasions, several of them directly related to El Eternauta.
Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, Oesterheld underwent a fundamental shift in his outlook that led him to question many of his convictions. Until then, he had never had any political involvement. However, he began to increasingly participate in local politics and eventually joined the Montoneros guerrilla organization. Within that group, he seems to have continued performing the typical tasks of his profession: he acted as the editorial director of the organization’s newspaper and wrote the scripts for comics published in that newspaper. In 1977, he was kidnapped by the self-proclaimed National Reorganization Process. He has since remained “disappeared,” the euphemism used by the military to cover up the kidnappings and murders it carried out.
But those who tried to silence him did not succeed. On the contrary, El Eternauta continues to thrill each new generation, and the number of readers—as well as translations into other languages—continues to grow. Many other works by him have also been reissued, including the aforementioned Mort Cinder and Sherlock Time. And yet more remain to be researched, explored, and eventually reprinted.
Oesterheld learned to read at a very early age. His older brothers were already avid readers and had assembled quite a large collection of books as young but voracious readers; Héctor took advantage of the availability of so much literary material to read Salgari, Defoe, Stevenson, and Verne, “the latter continuously.” Later, he would recall reading his first detective novel at the age of five. By the time he was six, “he already knew Treasure Island, The Pirates of Malaysia, and Robinson Crusoe almost by heart.”
Because of his roots, his father sent him to the Goethe Schule, the local "elite school of the German community" (T: 94). The crisis of 1930 hit his family's finances and assets hard, and they lost most of their wealth. His parents moved to Rosario, where Héctor attended sixth grade. Back in Buenos Aires, he began his studies at the Manuel Belgrano school. Oesterheld added English, French, and Italian to his knowledge of German, languages he learned to speak perfectly and which allowed him to expand his readings.
When the time came to choose a university major, memories of his childhood in the countryside led him to study natural sciences, focusing on geology. He enrolled in a Doctorate in Natural Sciences (equivalent to a modern-day bachelor's degree) at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. While studying, he worked as an intern at the state-owned Argentine oil company Y.P.F., which led him to participate in several prospection trips as a budding geologist to: Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut), Tupungato (Mendoza), and Zapla (Jujuy), among other places (O1:8). Later on, he would switch to working in a mining laboratory.
He did not do as well at university as one could have expected: he had so many interests that he could not help being distracted by them. In his own words: “I wanted to keep reading, I wanted to go to the theater, I wanted to watch movies, I wanted to change the world,” and “with so many loves at once, I couldn’t pay due attention to any of them” (O1:8). He received one failing grade after another and finally dropped out of college. “Dark days, very dark days...” followed.
Around that time, however, he met his girlfriend and future wife, Elsa Sánchez. “SHE IS THE LIGHT,” he would later write. This relationship filled Héctor with happiness; Elsa encouraged him to resume his studies, and he duly completed the courses he needed “at machine-gun speed.”
Around this time, another fortunate event occurred: Héctor had written a story whose main characters were two elves called “Trulia and Miltar” and given it to a friend and classmate, José Santos Gollán, for him to read. This friend of Héctor liked the story so much that he in turn gave it to his father, who at the time was the editor-in-chief of the literary supplement of the Argentine newspaper La Prensa. As a result, Oesterheld's story was published in the literary supplement on January 3, 1943. It was his first publication.
In May 1946, Héctor completed the last course of his degree and the following year he married Elsa. From then on, he devoted himself to writing popular science books for children for two important publishing houses: Codex and Abril. In 1948, the latter offered him the position of editor for its comic book magazine Misterix. Oesterheld accepted, and that sealed his vocation: he decided to become a comic book writer. A few years later, he started publishing several of his best-known characters in that magazine: the space adventurer Bull Rocket (1952) and the wandering Wild West hero, Sargent Kirk (1953).
During those years, the four daughters of the Oesterheld-Sánchez couple were born: Estela (born in 1952), Diana (1953), Beatriz (1955), and Marina (1957). Héctor always had a very warm and close relationship with them; Elsa would refer to him time and again as “an exemplary father.”
In 1956, Oesterheld decided to found his own publishing house, Frontera, which published several comic magazines. Among these was Hora Cero Semanal, whose first issue (dated September 4, 1957) featured the first installment of El Eternauta. On that very same year, Oesterheld began publishing the adventures of Ernie Pike, a war correspondent who narrated stories and anecdotes from the front. The stories told by this correspondent emphasized the human side of the combatants, something unusual in comics of this genre.
In 1958-1959, Oesterheld developed another great character with drawings by Alberto Breccia: Sherlock Time. This was a kind of investigator of strange phenomena, historical enigmas, and scientific paradoxes.
In 1961, Editorial Frontera went bankrupt and was dissolved for various financial and administrative reasons. Oesterheld had to cede his characters to Editorial Ramírez. Subsequently, the latter transferred them to Vea y Lea, which continued to publish Frontera comics until 1963.
In 1962, Oesterheld began developing a new character, with drawings by Alberto Breccia: Mort Cinder. The latter is an eternal character, though not immortal: he is a kind of “phoenix man,” one who dies and is reborn time and again. He thus participates in various adventures, some of which coincide with well-known historical episodes.
During the following years, Oesterheld wrote successive stories of alien invasions, several of them directly related to El Eternauta.
Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, Oesterheld underwent a fundamental shift in his outlook that led him to question many of his convictions. Until then, he had never had any political involvement. However, he began to increasingly participate in local politics and eventually joined the Montoneros guerrilla organization. Within that group, he seems to have continued performing the typical tasks of his profession: he acted as the editorial director of the organization’s newspaper and wrote the scripts for comics published in that newspaper. In 1977, he was kidnapped by the self-proclaimed National Reorganization Process. He has since remained “disappeared,” the euphemism used by the military to cover up the kidnappings and murders it carried out.
But those who tried to silence him did not succeed. On the contrary, El Eternauta continues to thrill each new generation, and the number of readers—as well as translations into other languages—continues to grow. Many other works by him have also been reissued, including the aforementioned Mort Cinder and Sherlock Time. And yet more remain to be researched, explored, and eventually reprinted.