Man, myth and sacrifice: graphic biographies of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara

Abstract

This article reads graphic biographies of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in the light of the cultural readings of Che that describe themselves as works that ‘get to know the man behind the myth’. Framing this desire within the shifting, postmodern nature of the well-known Che icon – Alberto Korda's ‘Guerrillero heroico’ – the article looks at comics by Spain Rodriguez, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, Sergio Sinay, and Héctor Oesterheld and Alberto and Enrique Breccia. With specific reference to the ways these works depict Che's death in Bolivia, the article shows how they all fail to engage with the local specificities of his failed Bolivian campaign; rather than deal with Che's inability to attract local peasants, they choose to show the campaign as an act of heroic sacrifice. In so doing they forget how those selfsame peasants participated in the globalization of the Che icon.