a bit ago Tororo made reference to the writer/ artist duo of Munoz/Sampayo of whom I wasn't familiar with, but I looked them up on the internet. almost all the info I came across was in either in German or Italian.
the following is a very lightly edited Italian description, translated by my machine, which I thought rather poetic:
Title: IN THE CAFE
Author: Jos Munoz-Carlos Sampayo
Necklace: Black mask
Fully grown: bound in paperback binding
Price: European
To enter "In the Cafe" of Joe means to become part of a reality built on suffered faces,
I smiled sour and daily bleakness.
Every life, assumes an authentic meaning
among its absorbed tavolinis in the smoke,
loads of bottles of whiskey.
Every feeling,
every emotion goes beyond the barriers of the
medium comic strip to become
example, teaching
or simply testimony of
esistenza
that has the right to be ;.
The cafe is not a confessional anymore
whether to tell his/her own defeats but an unadorned stage
a crumbling set on which all dress the cloths of protagonist
putting in scene a play
that calls life.
; Pepe,
foreigner without residence-
permit that has found job
in the cafe of Joe
but
he/she doesn't
succeed in shaking
himself/herself/themselves of
the fear to be open and to abdicate, so,
to his (deceptive) liberty.
Wilcox,
refined and implacable killer
to forced payment
to bring defeasible his/her contract
also when it understands that
the designate victim could be
amico
always looked for.
Moses,
ex champion of the fallen
square in misfortune after a ruinous match
and a blonde love that has left scars in the heart.
Her, introverted girl that happiness dreams
but
she succeeds in conceiving
her/it alone
istante
frozen
of a photographic release
in which, curiously, she never appears, and
Chico,
remained to the point upset
by the crab
that his father is killing
not to succeed in surviving anymore.
Sad heroes,
unsuitable, defective riders
challenged by the destiny
and irremediably defeated.
But of forehead
ineluttabilit
of their condition
emerges a dignity,
bitter
and aware,
that makes them stronger:
if to know also means and above all
to suffer,
accettazione
is never passive,
but combative,
hot tempered.
The secret is the intimate disenchantment,
only salvation
in the sea magnum
of the pain.
the following is a very lightly edited Italian description, translated by my machine, which I thought rather poetic:
Title: IN THE CAFE
Author: Jos Munoz-Carlos Sampayo
Necklace: Black mask
Fully grown: bound in paperback binding
Price: European
To enter "In the Cafe" of Joe means to become part of a reality built on suffered faces,
I smiled sour and daily bleakness.
Every life, assumes an authentic meaning
among its absorbed tavolinis in the smoke,
loads of bottles of whiskey.
Every feeling,
every emotion goes beyond the barriers of the
medium comic strip to become
example, teaching
or simply testimony of
esistenza
that has the right to be ;.
The cafe is not a confessional anymore
whether to tell his/her own defeats but an unadorned stage
a crumbling set on which all dress the cloths of protagonist
putting in scene a play
that calls life.
; Pepe,
foreigner without residence-
permit that has found job
in the cafe of Joe
but
he/she doesn't
succeed in shaking
himself/herself/themselves of
the fear to be open and to abdicate, so,
to his (deceptive) liberty.
Wilcox,
refined and implacable killer
to forced payment
to bring defeasible his/her contract
also when it understands that
the designate victim could be
amico
always looked for.
Moses,
ex champion of the fallen
square in misfortune after a ruinous match
and a blonde love that has left scars in the heart.
Her, introverted girl that happiness dreams
but
she succeeds in conceiving
her/it alone
istante
frozen
of a photographic release
in which, curiously, she never appears, and
Chico,
remained to the point upset
by the crab
that his father is killing
not to succeed in surviving anymore.
Sad heroes,
unsuitable, defective riders
challenged by the destiny
and irremediably defeated.
But of forehead
ineluttabilit
of their condition
emerges a dignity,
bitter
and aware,
that makes them stronger:
if to know also means and above all
to suffer,
accettazione
is never passive,
but combative,
hot tempered.
The secret is the intimate disenchantment,
only salvation
in the sea magnum
of the pain.
..especially the lines "a coffee machine that needs some fixing..."
mmm.... machines....
So, you're interested in Munoz and Sampayo?... They are Argentinians, they both lived for some time in Italy, Munoz now lives part-time in France, Munoz is amazing at line drawing, he masters perfectly B&W techniques. I personnally think Frank Miller owes much to Munoz's very personal interpretation of the B&W comics tradition, as initiated by Sickles, Caniff, continued by Toth, etc.... They did several graphic novels, most of them are still available in French (and probably also Italian) editions (they started translating them in the 7O-80s)...
In conclusion of the story I was thinking of, drawn in the late 70s (shortly after the portuguese April revolution), the protagonist meets a man he knows is a CIA operative, and that has spent years in Chile, taking a plane to Lisbon...