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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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