Dick The Gunner
Dick The Gunner (or Dick, el artillero) was an American daily strip about soccer, created by Argentine artists Alfredo Grassi and José Luis Salinas. It was originally published in 1973 in the United States by the King Features Syndicate. It was later licenced to Argentina, Portugal and Brazil (known in portuguese world as Dico, O Artilheiro).
“Dick, the Gunner” was the last comic book project developed by José Luis Salinas – and, when Salinas left the series, the comic book continued, for a brief period, under the pen of another great Argentine illustrator, Lucho Olivera.
In Brazil it enjoyed its own collection, from 1975 until 1980.
History
The strip was drawn by Argentine artist José Luis Salinas -who, in 1976, received the Yellow Kid award. In January 1973, still at King Features Syndicate publication, Salinas came up with "Dico, the Gunner", without the same success as "Cisco", because the football theme ("soccer") was never very successful in comics, especially in the United States. Despite that, "Dico" was very popular among readers in the 70s.
But the roots of "Dico" date back to 1971, when King Features Syndicate commissioned the Argentine artist to create a new series with soccer as its theme. Taking advantage of the great repercussion of the 1970 World Cup, King's idea was to attract the American public to the sport.
The strip debuted in 1973 and was licensed to several newspapers in the United States and also in Argentina ahead of the 1974 World Cup. The comic strip had a script by fellow Argentine Alfredo Grassi and achieved good repercussion, being featured in some 1974 editions of the "Menomonee Falls Gazette", a weekly American tabloid specializing in reprinting comics published in American newspapers.
Still in 1974, "Dico" gained fame in Europe in the pages of the magazine "Mundo de Aventuras", a Portuguese comic book publication that remodeled the series, redesigning the strips into full pages, to publish complete adventures. Restarted with the name of the strip's main character, "Dick, the Center-Forward", it debuted in issue 57 of the magazine.
"Dick" reached the Brazilian public in 1975, under the name "Dico" - probably to remember the player "Zico" - in RGE's own magazine. The Artilheiro, as he was called by his teammates Jeff, Poli and the entire Estrela Futebol Clube team, was presented in complete comics, accompanied by reports on football.
In the States
It was originally published between 01/08/1973 and 05/16/1973.[1]
In Argentina
It was published in Argentina starting in 1971 in the Argentine newspaper La Prensa. The fact that the aforementioned newspaper was in full decline explains the limited impact the aforementioned character had in the country.
By the early 1970s, adventure comics (though not humorous ones) had almost completely disappeared from American newspapers. It was under these circumstances that Jerry Sinkovec and Mike Tiefenbacher, both fans of the genre, decided to publish a newspaper to keep it alive. Thus, in 1971, The Menomonee Falls Gazette was born (American comic weekly publication), a title named after the city in Wisconsin where they lived. The Gazette was published between 1971 and 1978 with 232 issues in total.
The first episode of this series was reprinted in 1980 in Argentine Gunga Din magazine. After Salinas's work, the comic was drawn by Lucho Olivera and later by Carlos Pedrazzini.
In other countries
The series' fate was very different in other countries where it continued to appear for more than a decade and a half, including the United States, various European countries (among them Italy where it was known as "Gunner il cannonieri") and Brazil, where it had its own magazine and was renamed "Dico" taking advantage of the similarity with the name of Zico, a famous Flamengo player.
Argentina, Portugal, England, Italy, Mexico and Brazil were the countries where the strip was most well-received among readers.
In Brazil
“Dico, o Artilheiro” hit Brazilian news stands in 1975, published by the now-defunct RGE – Rio Gráfica e Editora (now Editora Globo). It was a huge success with young audiences. Its origins date back to 1971, when King Features Syndicate (a powerful distributor of comic strips for newspapers around the world) commissioned renowned Argentine cartoonist José Luis Salinas to create a series that would feature the noble British sport as its theme, in an attempt to attract the American public to soccer, taking advantage of the then strong media impact of the 1970 World Cup, held in Mexico. Veteran Salinas (one of the greatest names in Argentine comics of all time) really showed that he was the right choice to develop “Dick the Gunner”, the original name of the series.
The no1 issue in Brazil had 132 pages in 1975, while the last (no17) in March/April 1980, had only 52. The list of the monthly books:
- No 1 (1975): 132 pages
- No 2 (1976): 100 pages
- No 3 (1976): 84 pages
- No 4 (December 1977): 64 pages
- No 5 (February 1978): 68 pages
- No 6 (April 1978): 68 pages
- No 7 (June 1978): 68 pages
- No 8 (August 1978): 68 pages
- No 9 (October 1978): 68 pages
- No 10 (December 1978): 52 pages
- No 11 (February 1979): 52 pages
- No 12 (April 1979): 52 pages
- No 13 (June 1979): 52 pages
- No 14 (August 1979): 52 pages
- No 15 (October 1979): 52 pages
- No 16 (December 1979): 52 pages
- No 17 (March/April 1980): 52 pages
- Almanaque no 1 (June/July 1980): 100 pages
Dico, Poli and Jeff, the stars of Estrela Clube.
Today, it is wrongly speculated that the choice of the name “Dico” in Brazil had some connection with Zico, a star player for Flamengo and the Brazilian national team in the 70s and 80s. No. “Dico” simply comes from an adaptation of “Dick”, the character’s original name.
Another interesting fact is that Poli, Dico’s attacking partner at Estrela, was a character developed by Salinas to pay homage to Pelé, the greatest soccer player of all time – who coincidentally was about to leave Santos to end his brilliant career with the NY Cosmos, in the North American soccer league.
In Portugal
The Portuguese magazine “Mundo de Aventuras” was responsible for framing the series in a new format, more suitable for magazine publication, adapting the newspaper strips to new full-page layouts, with the aim of publishing each complete story in the saga in a separate and organized manner.
In Italy
The strip was known as Dick, Dinamite, published by Guerin Sportivo from 1976 until 1977.[2]
The titular character
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Dick | ||
| Date of birth | Missing required parameter 1=month! Expression error: Unexpected > operator. | ||
| Place of birth | ? , Argentina | ||
| Date of death | Missing required parameter 1=month! Expression error: Unexpected > operator. | ||
| Height | [convert: needs a number] | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Number | 8 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1973-1980 | Estrela Futebol Clube (or Spartans) | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only | |||
Search Dick The Gunner on Amazon.
It's worth noting that Dick is assumed to be Argentine, although the scripts never specify which American country he's from, hence the quotation marks we use in the title. It's also worth noting that, as was the case in similar series such as "El Indio Suárez" or "Tucho, de canillita a campeón," over time, the sports theme gave way to more action-packed topics, such as police cases or adventures in exotic lands. [3]
Dick's shirt number was 8.
Dick
The storyline
Dick along with teammates Jeff, Poli[lower-alpha 1] are talented young soccer players who are known as ';'The three musketeers of soccer';'. They lead the Spartans (in other countries its is known as Estrela Futebol Clube) under tough coach Flimarolo to the America's Cup in 1974, and they soon getting ready for the 1974 World Cup to be held in Europe.
In the Argentine version the three friends lead Estrella to the Copa Libertadores thriumph.
In their own magazine (Brazil), Dico and his teammates Jeff, Poli and the entire Estrela Futebol Clube team appeared alongside reports on football and many gifts, such as stickers and figurines for button teams, for example, which made the kids happy: the first copies of the magazine, in particular, were fought over fiercely at newsstands, quickly selling out.
Julio Salinas
The artist began his career as an illustrator in the 1930s, but it was in 1949 that the big turning point in his career occurred, with Cisco Kid, a character that would accompany him for almost 20 years. He won every possible award in Argentina. He was also honored in 1976 at the Lucca festival (Italy) with the Yellow Kid trophy, known as the ‘Oscar of comics’, that is, the highest distinction for cartoonists from all over the world.
References
Notes
Sources
- Dico, O Artilheiro
- “Dico, o Artilheiro”. Um gibi que entrou para a história - futpopclube.com
- 10 craques fictícios do futebol mundial -verminososporfutebol.com
