Quino, creator of Mafalda, remembered by Ferruccio Giromini

Ferruccio Giromini, a journalist and critic, recalls his friendship with Argentine cartoonist Quino (Joaquín Salvador Lavado), who died in 2020. Giromini describes Quino as a reserved, timid, and melancholic humorist with a unique perspective on the world. While Quino is best known for his comic strip Mafalda, Giromini argues that his greatest work lies in his wordless single-panel and multi-panel cartoons that capture the existential anxieties of ordinary people. These later works, with a more evolved artistic style, dissect the absurdities of daily life—fears, questions, angers, and bewilderments—with microscopic precision. Giromini met Quino in Milan in the 1970s, after Quino left fascist Argentina, facilitated by his agent Marcelo Ravoni. They met occasionally over the years as Quino moved to Madrid and eventually returned to Mendoza, Argentina. There, his wife Alicia died, and Quino later lost his sight, becoming blind like Homer and Borges. Giromini's fondest memory is of a long evening at the Athens Komiks Festival, where Quino bonded with the young Ultrapop artists, showing a youthful spirit despite his age.