'Mosquete y Chupete', drawn for Humor Rebelde #14, 1960.
Miguel Prystupa was a mid-20th century Argentinian comic artist, who signed his work with the pseudonyms "Prys" and "Prys Tupa". He is best-known for his affiliation with the 1970s publishing company Editorial Mo-Pa-Sa, and for the locally produced Argentinian comic books based on Osamu Tezuka's 'Astroboy' and the DC Comics superheroine 'Wonder Woman'.
Life and career
An artist with Ukrainian roots, Miguel Prystupa was born somewhere in the mid-20th century. In the 1960s, he worked as a creator of children's comics for the publisher Lema, who brought out the landscape-format humor magazines Humor Rebelde and El "Che" Bartolo. In Humor Rebelde, he wrote and drew the pirate comic 'Mosquete y Chupete'. His artwork also ran in magazines published by Editorial Quinterno and Editorial Mo-Pa-Sa. Prystupa was also affiliated with Estudio Géminis (AKA La Oficina), a comic art studio and collective in Buenos Aires, founded by Carlos García Lamas, Silvestre Szilagyi (Frank), Gaspar González and Francisco Camet (Pancho).
Editorial Mo-Pa-Sa
In the 1970s, Prystupa was working as cartoonist and art director for Editorial Mo-Pa-Sa. Operated by the enigmatic and shrewd José Alegre Asmar, also known by his nickname "El Turco", Mo-Pa-Sa published several locally produced comic books based on popular TV series, without paying royalties to the right owners. For instance, Miguel Prystypa and scriptwriter Norberto Vecchio worked on a series of comic books starring Osamu Tezuka's classic manga character 'Astroboy', published under the title 'Las Fantásticas Aventuras de Astroboy' (1975). Published by Mo-Pa-Sa, these stories were almost certainly made without permission of Tezuka or his publishing company Kobunsha. This magazine, with an irregular publication rhythm, underwent several format changes, sometimes appearing as a comic strip and other times as a coloring book. One of the other artists of the series was Carlos Paura.
One of the other Mo-Pa-Sa titles edited by Prystupa was the horror magazine Selecciones de Terror. On several occasions, the company changed names to avoid lawsuits for trademark infringement. In 1977, it inaugurated its imprint Vivepry - an acronym of the Mo-Pa-Sa cartoonists Violini, Vecchio and Prystupa - for the launch of 'Mujer Maravilla', a title tying in with the 1975-1979 'Wonder Woman' TV-series starring Lynda Carter. With Prystupa as editor, the book contained locally-produced stories with the DC Comics superheroine 'Wonder Woman', written by Jorge Morhain and drawn by his brother Mario Morhain. Later in its run, the publisher's name was changed to Editorial Olimpo.
'La Fantasticas Aventuras de Astroboy'.