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Originally released in RedCrow#5 (in Spanish)
TORPEDO 1936 is
simply put the best Spanish comic-book ever made. In a country where envy
is considered the national sin par excelence, and where too many people
are utterly unable to admit their neighbours' virtues, only international
success, endless hours of hard work and the absolute determination of
Torpedo's creators of not kneeling before any form of censorship, have
finally lead this comic to the important place in the comic-book
international scene where it rightfully belongs to. A real blockbuster, as the Americans would
say, a giant masterpiece beyond those mediocre European comic creators
whose audience is a bunch of self-righteous snobs or those American comic
creators who treat their readers as primates seeking
Leefeld-like-big-explosion-&-big-boobs-crap. How many art pieces have enough personality
and power so that unique filmmakers such as Federico Fellini and Quentin
Tarantino, and legendary comic-book creators as Will Eisner and Joe Kubert
all agree to be included in the same list of admirers? Only one: the story
of Luca Torelli, a.k.a. Torpedo. Who is Torpedo, the man? Here's his police
file: | real name | Luca Torelli |
| aliases | Torpedo |
| age | 32 yrs |
| hight | 5'8'' (1.77m) |
| eye colour | blue |
| hair colour | dark |
| constitution | normal |
| nationality | US citizen |
| profession | murderer for hire. |
| address | some dark alley in N.Y.C. |
| personality | worst s.o.b. you can think of. Machoist, violent and mercyless killer. |
| born in | Italy. |
| social behaviour | extremely dangerous. |
| clothes | wears bone-colour suits, Stetson felt hats, black silk shirts, white ties and kid-skin gloves. |
| other characteristics | smokes filter-less American cigarrettes. |
| ideological adscription | sex and money, survival and stepping on anyone standing in his way. |
What should be said about a character like this one? Seen from the
distance, Torpedo isn't much more than a metaphore of the human condition,
from the most pessimistic perspective. Taking Luca Torelli seriously as a
role model would be such a stupidity as taking seriously Judge Dredd's
stories --something only an @$$#01e as Steel Vestar Stalown would do--:
besides showing very little intelligence by not understanding the
character's inherent irony, it could become pretty dangerous. Torpedo 1936
is a comic-book for people who can laugh at Humankind and its most
pathetic miseries, no matter how dark both its scenery and humour can
become. Torpedo's creators, Jordi Bernet (artist) and Enrique Sánchez
Abulí (writer) are provokers by the form and core of the stories they
tell. What about Torpedo, the
comic-book? After all these years it isn't too clear who had the original
idea. According to sources of Glčnat (the firm that edits the book in its
original market nowadays), the eminent Spanish editor Josep Toutain had
the original concept and passed it onto Enrique Sánchez Abulí. Other
sources assure that it was Sánchez Abulí the only man behind the original
idea. Either one way or the other, both the editor and the writer were
essential to the creation of the character back in 1981. It was the famous
American artist Alex Toth who first drew Torpedo. His style fitted
perfectly in Torpedo's world of dark alleys and gangsters, but apparently
Mr Toth's conscience didn't fit in as well. Scared or outraged by the
series' high content of sex and violence, the artist quitted in a very
early stage of the book. Only one year afterwards, in 1982, Torpedo found
in the fabulous and experienced comic-book artist Jordi Bernet the other
parent he had been looking for. Pun-filled and provocative scripts and
top-quality black and white art, it was very clear from the beginning that
this was a match made in Heaven (or somewhere else, who knows) for a book
soon to become an outstanding reference in the whole continent. And
elsewhere, as time went by.
Torpedo started off in the Spanish edition of Creepy and then moved on to
Totem magazine. Step by step the character made his own place in the
international market. Only five years after Alex Toth's first approach at
this murderer for hire, in 1986, the comic-book began to gather an
increasing number of awards and a wide European-scale acknowledgement. In
the prestigious annual Angouleme Convention (France), Torpedo received the
award for best foreign comic-book. These were the steps that eventually
would lead to the road of success and admiration that the creators of
Torpedo have enjoyed to this very day. Torpedo has been published in many
countries and translated to a dozen languages. In Spain, the process for
the release of new materials of the character was always quite similar.
First, the new pages were published in some comic-book magazine in small
monthly contributions to the publication. Then, all these pages were
collected in a hardcover. Nevertheless, the edition of Torpedo that we
have been most fond of has been the American-style edition. This one, run
by the firm Glčnat, began in 1994. A comprehensive compilation of all the
Torpedo stories from its very first to the latest one released to the
date, was delivered in thirty monthly b&w 24-page comic-books.
A new Torpedo hardcover has
been being released with an acceptable degree of regularity in the most
recent years.
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