'Tony Destructo'.
Fernando Gabriel Sosa is a comic book artist, editor and animator from Córdoba, Argentina. He is a driving force behind the local Córdoba comics scene and the initiator of Latin-American collaborations like Barricada Comics and Wi-Fi Digital Press. Often working with scriptwriter Pedro Belushi, he co-created the cyberpunk character 'Heroina', the music-themed comic book 'Stardust Battle Bands' and the 'Zombierama' anthology series. Additionally, he has provided artwork to several short-lived US indie comic series and to clients from European countries. Between 2010 and 2019, Sosa was the artist of the webcomic 'Tony Destructo'.
Early life and education
Fernando Gabriel Sosa was born in 1974. While in his teens in 1992, he was already contributing cartoons to Julio Olivera's humor magazine La Cañada. He studied graphic design at the Instituto Superior Mariano Moreno in Córdoba (1991-1992), then continued at the Figueroa Alcorta School of Fine Arts (1995-1997) and learned 2D animation and digital editing at the Center of Computer Sciences (2000). Sosa completed his education at the Film and TV School of the National University of Córdoba (1999-2003), while serving under director Sergio Pedroza at Garabato Animaciones as part of the animation team of the animated series 'Orson' (2000-2001). His short live-action movie '47 El Muerto' (2000), set during the 1970s military dictatorship, was highlighted with a special mention by the National University of Cordoba.
Indie comic scene
Although he first made his mark in animation, Sosa's passion remained comics and cartoons. However, with the professional Argentinian comic book industry at an alltime low in the 1990s, the young artist had to seek refuge in small press publications and fanzines. In 1999, he became a member of the Independent Association of Córdoba cartoonists (A.H.I. Cba), and launched his own fanzine El Mostro Comics. Among his favorite comic artists are Alberto and Enrique Breccia, Hugo Pratt, Francisco Ibañez, Dante Quinterno, Jean Giraud, Joe Madureira, Jorge Zaffino, Ariel Olivetti, Richard Corben, Tanino Liberatore, Simon Bisley, Bruce Timm, Carlos Meglia and Albert Uderzo.
Professional career
Following his formal education, Sosa began working as a professional illustrator, animator, comic artist and graphic designer. His long-term collaboration with the national newspaper La Voz del Interior began in 2002, and for many years he illustrated the paper's juvenile sections Chicos.cor and Zona de Juegos. He additionally made cartoons and drawings for the political daily Diario Alfil and the children's section of the free newspaper El Diario de Bolsillo. Sosa also worked for Listos Para Jugar, an educational children's magazine from Posadas, Misiones. For Editorial Perfil he colorized the reissues of Dante Quinterno's classic comic 'Patoruzú'. In 2007, he illustated a series about the history of the Spanish city Adra for the local newspaper Voces de Adra. In 2008, he ventured into adult erotic art, presented on his own website by the FLAA Nation company. Fernando Sosa also provided the illustrations for 'Néstor, Momentos de un Argentino' ("Nestor, an Argentinian story"), a comic written by Emiliano Mastrolia about the life of former President Nestor Kirchner. Sosa has since then provided illustrations to several party magazines.
'Zombierama' and 'Pulpería'.
Barricada Comics
In 2007, Fernando Sosa initiated the the independent Latin-American comics group Barricada Comics, for which he served as editor, supervisor and contributing artist. The Barricada Comics anthology series collected stories by South American and Spanish authors, and was available as eBooks through DriveThru Comics. Among the many contributing authors were Mariano Abuh, César Acevedo, Juan Alarcón, Sergio Alvarez, Pedro Belushi, Ceasar, DaniZar, Adrian Forni, Alfredo Gerez, Guillo-O, Ruben Davilla, Martin Gimenez, Víctor González, Kewois, Sebastián Lucqué, Sergio Martinez, Gustavo Moriena, Juan Paz, Guillermo Romano, J. Antonio Rubio, Jennifer Rubio, Carlos Scherpa, Sebastián Weis and Pablo Zambrano. Barricada Comics also released the zombie graphic novel 'Mortal Zombie' by Moraneus and Mario C. Carper, the post-apocalyptic 'Heroina' by Pedro Belushi and Guillermo Zerda and the 1940s superhero anthology 'Golden Age World'. The UK publisher Markosia released the group's zombie comic anthology 'Z-Time' (2012) in print format.
'Simbad El Marino' and 'Stardust Battle Bands'.
Wi-Fi Digital Press
Barricada's activities eventually evolved into Wi-Fi Digital Press, established in 2009 by Sosa in cooperation with the Puerto Rican editor Javier Acevedo (AKA Javier Sama) and the Spanish scriptwriter Jaime Collado. Wi-Fi Digital has released horror and zombie anthologies ('Brujas', 'Zombierama') and comic book series like 'Heroina' (by Fernando Sosa, Pedro Belushi and Guillermo Zerda), 'Carla Alba' (by Fyto Manga), 'Mate Cosido' (by Carlos Scherpa, Leandro Romera and M.C. Carper), 'Johnny Caronte, Zombie Detective' (by Javier Collado and Tony Sandoval), 'Rottentail' (by David Hayes and Kurt Belcher), 'James Zomb' (by Nando Vicente) and 'Elven' (by Nando Vicente). Wi-Fi Digtal Press also serves as an agency of American, European and Asian-influenced comic book creators that provides creative services to the entertainment industry.
Some Barricada/Wi-Fi Digital Press productions were published in print by the Cordoba-based publisher Yammal, for instance the 'Zombierama' (2016) and 'Golden Age World' anthologies. With the help of Editorial Ideas Vivas, Sosa managed to get a 'Zombierama' magazine on sale in newspaper kiosks, whereas such publications would usually be only available in specialized shops.
By 2023, Wi-Fi Digital Press/Barricada Comics had resumed its activities by (re-)releasing comics in all sorts of genres, including comics based on modern literature, pulp stories in the 'Pulperia' line, horror classics in the 'El Monstruo' series and retellings of children's books in the series 'El Libro Volador'. All are made available freely in the e-book format on platforms like Lektu (Spain), with the aim of promoting culture and new authors. Also in 2023, Sosa released an e-book of his own music-themed comic book 'Stardust Battle Bands'.
'Koni Konfidential'.
US comics
Between 2005 and 2011, Sosa joined forces with other creatives and operated through Sapienstoonz Producciones. Internationally, he has been represented by agencies and production studios like Glasshouse Graphics, Space Goat Productions and Caricatures Now in the USA, Agence Undergram in France, and since 2018 by Joaquin García's Radebu in Barcelona, Spain. Most of his US comic book work has appeared through smaller indie imprints and digital comic portals. For Arcana Comics, he illustrated 'Koni Konfidential' (2012), a comic book about supernatural mysteries at a Honolulu high school, written by Mark Poulton. He also drew for Freazie White, Jr.'s 'KnightPriest' (2010) at Mega Comics and was co-artist with Merbitt of 'Fleischer' (2012), a 'Superman' parody written by Edward Gross and Leon McKenzie for Bluewater Productions. All these productions were however of short duration, lasting only one or two issues. Sosa's work on the "music infused, action-packed comic book series" 'G.C.D. The Demo Comics' for 125 ink and 'Joe Doogan, Zombie Hunter' for Panday Comics presumably never saw print at all.
'Fleischer' and 'Joe Doogan, Zombie Hunter'.
Between 2010 and 2019, Sosas worked on the webcomic about the criminal 'Tony Destructo' with New Jersey-based scriptwriter Tony DiGeralamo for The Webcomic Factory. In 2019, TidalWave Productions released the martial arts comic 'The Furious Tiger', written by Pedro Belushi and drawn by Fernando Sosa. Since 2017, he works for American Mythology Productions as an artist and colorist on new stories with 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' and 'Wendy the Good Little Witch' for the 'Casper & Wendy' comic book. He also restores the art of older stories with these characters, originally published by Harvey Comics in the 1940s and 1950s. In December 2022, Sosa also contributed stories to American Mythology's horror anthologies 'Dreadful Dreamscapes' and 'Scary Christmas'. In 2023, Sosa's 'Golden Age World' was reprinted in issues #34 and #35 of Exciting Comics by Antarctic Press. For issue #18 of Antarctic's Planet Comics title, Sosa created 'The Murk' (2023), an adaptation of an urban legend.
'Super Sais'.
Other foreign productions
Sosa's art has appeared in Mexican newspapers, in a series of children's books for the Jewish community in Brazil, books by the Icelandic publisher Odinsauga and in kids books for the Dutch market (through Striptekenaars.nl). For a client in Italy, he worked on the humorous online pornographic comic 'Miss Joan' (2009), although most of the online episodes are credited to a certain "SAM". In 2009, Fernando Sosa had collaborated with the Spanish scriptwriter Rodrigo el Lago (a pseudonym of Julio Montesinos) on the superhero comic 'Super Sais'. At the time, they couldn't find a publisher interested, but during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 'Super Sais' ran in the local online newspaper Cordópolis. By funny coincidence, both Sosa and El Lago hail from similar-named towns in different countries:Sosa from the Argentinian Córdoba, El Lago from the Spanish Córdoba.
In 2015 Sosa provided a test page for a new Dutch comic book based on Dick Maas' 1980s 'Flodder' movie franchise, written by Wijo Koek, but he had to turn down the assignment.
Other activities
Fernando Sosa participated in the 2010 Expotoons festival with the animated short 'Aerolito', which was also represented in the documentary 'Todotoons'. He served as editor and graphic designer for the local rock magazine Al Abordaje (2014-2016) and the digital humor magazine Maria Bizca (2013), named after the 1970s comic character by Julio Olivera. Through Barricada Studios, Sosa works as animator and director of music videos, most notably for Nuevo Animal Records. He is also the producer and host of the radio show 'Feed Back' on the Córdoba radio station FM Galaxy 97.3. In 2018, he took part in the TV show 'Entre gallos y Medianoche' for Córdoba's Channel 12. He had a graphic humor segment with live cartooning and animated video about politics and the general news. Since 2022, he has been a storyboard artist for the Netflix animated series 'Booba'.
'Casper & Wendy' by Fernando Sosa.
Cultural management
Fernando Sosa is a driving force behind the Córdoba comic scene, and a promotor of the comics medium in general. He took part in the organization of the city's 2014-2015 Comicazo comics fair, the 2015 "Day of Humor" in the Cultural Center Córdoba and the 2016 Kidcómic festival in that same centre. In 2012, Fernando Sosa was the representative for a bill of protection and promotion of national cartoon art, presented in parliament by Deputy Victoria Donda and widely publicized in local media. One of the results was the traveling exhibition '100 x100 National Cartoon', which gave an overview of 100 years of Argentinian comics its characters and creators. It was exhibited in 2017 at the ComicCon Argentina, the book fair in the city of Carlos Paz (Córdoba) and at the Casa de las Culturas in Chaco.
Since 2014, Sosa is one of the few Argentinean members of the National Cartoonist Society of the United States. He takes part in several international expositions and festivals, like the cartoon exhibition about the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in Urziceni, Romania, the 2017 ExpoComic event in Chile and the Santa Cruz Book Fair. A retrospective show for his 14 years of cartooning for the newspaper La Voz del Interior was held in the National Library of Congress in 2016.
Comic art by Fernando Sosa.