'Galoxi'. Translation: "They say here that the heads of state make serious efforts ... to build stations in space, intended for permanent living." - "Yes, I know. We won't be the first who want to abandon this shipwreck."
Oscar Sierra Quintero is a Colombian comic artist and cartoonist, who lives and works in Costa Rica. Mostly active under the pen name Oki, he is best-known for his comics based on Latin American myths and legends which he made for La Nación and The Tico Time. Sierra Quintero also draws the gag comic 'Galoxi', about an extraterrestrial and his robot friend. Quintero is also an avid promoter of local comics in Central America through the non-profit organizations La Pluma Sonriente Internacional (1980) and La Pluma Cómic (2000).
La Pluma Sonriente & La Pluma Cómic
Oscar Sierra was born in 1953 in Barranquilla, the capital of the northern Atlántico department of Colombia. He moved to Costa Rica in 1979, where he founded La Pluma Sonriente Internacional in the following year. The association united local comic artists from Central America with the goal to develop and promote the local graphic humor culture. La Pluma has organized the annual Salón Anual del Humor y la Historieta La Pluma Sonriente in San José, and has also held exhibitions of locally produced comic book art throughout Central and South America, as well as in Spain, Portugal and South Korea. Under Sierra's supervision, the group launched the anthology 'Antología Humorística' (1982) during its first event, and also published the cartoon humor magazines De oreja a Oreja and La Cabra en Patines between 1985 and 1989. The group has participated in international comics and cartoon contests in Bogotá, Havana, Madrid, Quito and Rio de Janeiro. A division aimed specifically at comics was launched in 2000 under the name La Pluma Cómic. Among the other prominent members are artists such as Edmundo Anchietta, Rafael Campos Campos, Ronald Díaz Cabrera (Rodicab) and Ronald Lopez Aguilar.
'Leyendas Costarricenses en Novela Gráfica'.
Comics based on Costa Rican legends and literature
Among Sierra's own output is the series 'Mitos y Leyendas de Costa Rica' (1984-1991, later retitled to 'Mitos y Leyendas de Latinoamérica'). The feature offered comic stories based on local legends from Costa Rica and its surrounding countries. It first ran in the daily newspaper La Nación, and later also in the English-language The Tico Times. It was however canceled by the newspaper's board of directors after a popular run of seven years. Several stories adapted by Oki were later collected in the book 'Leyendas Costarricenses en Novela Gráfica' (2011), which also featured stories based on local folk tales by Rodicab. In 2018 Sierra released the digital and print edition of the comic book 'Salir con Domingo 7', based on one of the stories from the Costa Rican literary classic 'Cuentos de mi tía Panchita' by Carmen Lyra. Sierra also served as graphic artist on 'Uvieta, El Musical', a multimedia project based on Carmen Lyra stories.
'Salir con Domingo 7'.
Other activities
Together with his brothers, Sierra Quintero made a biography in comics format about the Venezuelan military and political leader Simón Bolívar, published in two volumes by Editorial Pluma in Bogotá in 1983. Oki's cartoons and caricatures also appear in several publications from Costa Rica and Colombia, including the newspapers El Espectador, El Heraldo and Diario del Caribe, the magazines Cromos and As Deportes and the humor publication El Ratón. Among his other creations is the gag strip about the extraterrestrial alien 'Galoxi'. His work has also been printed in Cuba, Spain, the USA, France, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua and Portugal. He is a correspondent for the well-known Spanish magazine Año Cero. In the field of space science, Sierra has taught basic astronomy courses at the University of Costa Rica and the UNED. He was director of the radio program 'Cosmo Dimensión, la Aventura del Conocimiento', and has been a special guest on radio and TV programs with regard to conspiracies and mysterious topics not explained by science.
Cartoon by Oki about the space vehicle 'Curiosity', which landed on the planet Mars on 26 November 2011. Translation: "We still haven't lost hope to meet new lifeforms in these other worlds."