Women on the Edge Comic Strips

Women Through the Eyes of Argentinean Comic Artist Maitena

Oct 21, 2008

Maitena's comic strips are honest, funny, biting and satirical, yet tender and subtle stories about the tragedies and comedies in the lives of women.

A woman sits on a bed, phone in one hand, talking to her best friend: “He’s a sincere, direct, no-nonsense kind of guy, super intuitive and has a great sense of humor… And you should see how he treats me – like he’s from another era…!" On the other side of the bed is a neanderthal-looking guy, club in hand, saying “ugh.” Title: Love is blind (Vol. 4, p. 35).

This is Maitena (pronounced My-TAY-na), Argentinean comic artist whose Women on the Edge series (1-5, Riverhead, 2004, 2005) has been translated into many European languages and sold more than one million copies in Spanish alone. In an introduction to one of her books, fellow Argentinean cartoonist Quino, creator of Mafalda, wrote about her: “Maitena doesn´t aspire to be a mirror reflecting reality. Instead, she grabs reality, mirror and all, and throws it at our heads.”

Other Women Cartoonists

In the tradition of French cartoonist Claire Bretecher and her cartoon series Les Frustres and German Emma-cartoonist Franziska Becker, Maitena also portrays women in everyday situations and the way they are: contradictory, sometimes frustrated, chasing love, and yes, sometimes on the edge given the many roles they play: daughter, mother, sister, lover, wife, friend, colleague and many others.

Topics of her cartoon panels in the fourth volume include “Thirty-Something and Other Anxiety Disorders,” “Relatives on the Brink of Extinction,” “Tell Me How Old You Are, and I’ll Tell You What to Expect from a Man,” “Things Couples Discover When Building a House” and “Reflections on the Subject of Boobs.” In one comic strip, the reader follows different women while doing their shopping. Based on the following list, what could its title be?

Right - “Brown Bag Requests”! Maitena’s comics make women go: “It’s so true!” or “That always happens to me!” Maitena touches a nerve with her readers because she’s been there, done that with them. She’s not making fun of them or showing them self-depreciatingly like so many chick lit novels. In an 11th April, 2006 Los Angeles Times interview with Reed Johnson she said: “Women are not all the same but the same things happen to us.”

Maitena’s Life

Maitena was born the sixth of seven children of a mother with Polish heritage and a Basque father (Maitena roughly translates as “the most beloved” in Basque). She devoured comic books and started drawing at a young age. At 17, she already got published and had her first child and by 19, her second. She got divorced by 24 and earned a living illustrating – erotic magazines and children’s books, living in constant fear of delivering the wrong art.

Her big breakthrough came in 1992 at age 30, when national women’s magazine Para Ti asked her to do a comic strip page and Women on the Edge (Mujeres Alteradas in Spanish) was born, which was an instant hit. In 1999, the series got published in Spain and then internationally. Other well-know work includes her daily strip Striving Women (Superadas) and her two comic books Dangerous Curves (Curvas Peligrosas).

After reading one of Maitena’s graphic novels, one is left wanting more. Though it’s not the same without her sharp and witty drawings, here’s one more, “Six Nasty Things to Step On”:

The copyright of the article Women on the Edge Comic Strips in Graphic Novels/Comics is owned by Simone Preuss. Permission to republish Women on the Edge Comic Strips in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.