Anges d'Acier
Victor de la Fuente ranks among the greatest realistic Spanish artists of the 20th century. From the early 1940s, De la Fuente was active in the comics field, starting out at the graphic studios of López Rubio. At that time, he cooperated on magazines like Maravillas, Flechas y Palayos and Chicos. He then left to Chile to start an advertising agency. Continuing his comics work, he co-launched the magazine El Peneca and drew for Dell Publishing in New York. He returned to Europe in 1959, where he illustrated numerous war comics for Fleetway in London, as well as DC Thompson.
Les Gringos, by Victor de la Fuente
In 1967 he met scenarist Victor Mora with whom the started the western 'Sunday' the year after. After creating twelve episodes of the series, he briefly returned to the advertising field. For the magazine Trinca, De la Fuente drew 'Mathai-Dor' and 'Haxtur' and for Eerie and Creepy he created several short stories. In the mid-1970s De la Fuente returned to the western genre with 'Amargo', published by Hachette. He also cooperated on several historical series and comics, such as 'L'Histoire de France en Bandes Dessinées' and 'Charles de Gaulle'.
Anges d'Acier
De la Fuente was also active in the heroic-fantasy genre, with the 'Haggarth' series in À Suivre. After some work for Elvifrance and an erotic western ('Mortimer'), the started yet another western in 1979: 'Les Gringos', written by Jean-Michel Charlier. 'Les Gringos' was revived in the 1990s with scenarist Guy Vidal. From 1983, De la Fuente worked with Victor Mora again on 'Les Anges d'Acier', published in Pilote and later Charlier Mensuel. In the 1980s De la Fuente drew albums with scenarist François Corteggiani ('Francis Falko') and some episodes of the 'Tex Willer' series. In the 1990s, Victor de la Fuente worked with scenarists like Alejandro Jodorowsky ('Dieu Jaloux') and Patrick Cothias ('Josué de Nazareth').
He was one of several artists to make a graphic contribution to ‘Pepperland’ (1980), a collective comic book tribute to the store Pepperland, to celebrate its 10th anniversary at the time.
His character Haxtur inspired the annual Haxtur comics award, which was first established in 1975.
Haggarth (À Suivre #4, May 1978)