Editor’s Note: Below, we are delighted to share a selection of strips from the new English-language edition Mafalda: Book One by Quino, translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne and published by Archipelago Books in June 2025. We thank Archipelago Books for granting us permission to share these excerpts with our readers.
From Mafalda: Book One by Quino,
translated by Frank Wynne (Archipelago Books, 2025)
Quino (Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón) was an Argentine cartoonist whose beloved Mafalda comic strips were first published in 1964 and ran until 1973. Quino created the utterly original, inquisitive, intelligent, ironic, non-conformist Mafalda, whose greatest concerns are peace and human rights (one day, she plans to be a UN ambassador). The stories of his rebellious character have been translated into twenty-six languages and published in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Quino’s awards include the Cartoonist of the Year Award at the International Salon of Montreal (1982), two Konex Platinum Awards for Visual Arts-Graphic Humour (1982 and 1992), the Quevedos Latin American Prize for Graphic Humour (2000), and the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities (2014). Life-size statues of Mafalda dot park benches and gardens throughout Latin America. “I don’t believe humor can alter anything. But sometimes it can be the little grain of sand that acts as a catalyst to change.” - Quino (Bio courtesy of Archipelago Books)
Frank Wynne is a literary translator from the French and Spanish whose authors include Virginie Despentes, Amin Maalouf, Patrick Modiano, Tomás González, Isabel Allende, Ahmadou Kourouma, and Michelle Houellebecq. He won the Scott Moncrieff prize in 2008 for Holiday in a Coma & Love Lasts Three Years and in 2016 for Harraga. He was awarded the Premio Valle Inclán for Kamchatka in 2012 and again in 2014 for The Blue Hour. In 2022, his translation of Alice Zeniter’s The Art of Losing won the Dublin Literary Award. (Bio courtesy of Archipelago Books)
Idea Vilariño is an essential figure in South American poetry. She was part of the Uruguayan writers group, the Generation of ’45, whose legacy still casts a long shadow…
Queuing up at the bank,
customers watch the abyss of a blue sea
on a television suspended from the ceiling
to relieve themselves of the wait and silence:
It was the first time that she had visited Ecuador. She called me but wrote again later: “I’m the Argentine writer, Hebe Uhart, I can’t hear you very well over…
