Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Mafalda

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

You may have been surprised and delighted, as I was, to hear a promo for this Thursday's Here on Earth program broadcast in Spanish in a sweet little girl's voice. That was Constanza Serrani (a.k.a. Liborio - she changed her name), our student producer from Argentina who convinced us to do a program about Mafalda, the influential Argentine comic strip that features a six-year-old wunderkind famous for her witty political quips and ironic observations about life. The comic strip is intended for an adult audience, a little like Peanuts' Charlie Brown, and its popularity has spread throughout Europe and even into China. Isn't it about time we Americans were introduced? I hope you'll be listening tomorrow and let us know what you think.

Also, we're adding a new weekly feature to our programming: A Here on Earth Mailbag. Beginning next Monday, June 2, I'll be reading some listener comments from the previous week's programs. We figure it's one way to keep you listening through the end of the hour, and of letting you know that we really do read them and want more, more more!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the show! It's about time the "Mafalda & Friends" books got a little more publicity in the U.S.

I wanted to say that regarding the question of whether the strip can be sufficiently popular with American kids (and is there really any shortage of comics fans who are adults?) more than one person has compared Aaron McGruder's "The Boondocks" to "Mafalda," and the former strip is quite popular both in print and on TV.

And here's an etiquette columnist who thinks "Mafalda" has an even wider range than that. (I was the one who brought her attention to the strip - you'll see why!)

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/missconduct/2007/10/nosy_kids.html

It's about kids who ask nosy questions - it's a lot funnier if you click to read the "Sunday column" first, once you get there.

Unknown said...

Sorry. To find that website I mentioned, Google on "mafalda" and "miss conduct."