'Donald Duck'. French-language version.
Víctor Arriagada Ríos, better known as Vicar, was one of the most productive artists of present-day Disney comics, but he started his career in his native country Chile. Born in Santiago in 1934, he was trained as an electronics engineer at the Technical State University of Chile. He began his career drawing the title comic for the Mampato supplement of the daily El Mercurio. He then joined the magazine Barrabases, for which he created the series 'Locutín' and 'Hipólito y Camilo' in the 1950s.
'Ramón'.
Vicar was also present in El Pingüino with the blind character 'Quevedo', and 'Frasecitas', and later 'Paquita' and 'Mitigueso'. One of his best known characters from his Chilean period was 'Huaso Ramón'. He was also present in the magazine Topaze with 'El Paleta', a satirical series about president Jorge Alessandri. From 1959, he made several independent strips without a main character in the magazine El Saquero, el Deporte en Chunga, published by Pepo. In the early 1970s, Vicar made the title comic for Guido Vallejos' magazine Viejo Verde, which was also popular in Germany.
'Hipólito y Camilo'.
Between 1960 and 1965, Vicar lived in Barcelona. He was affiliated with the Bardon Art studios from 1960 to 1966, doing artwork for several foreign publishers, such as the Danish PIB agency ('Petzi'). Through Bardon, he also made the humorous comic strip 'Mitigüeso Pistolero', that appeared in France as 'Bang Bang Sam' in Aventures & Voyages between 1973 and 1976. He was also associated with Josep Toutain's Selecciones Ilustradas. His long and famous career as a Disney comic artist took off in 1971.
'Por un Portillo'.
Vicar drew his first 'Duck' comics for the Danish publisher Egmont. Later on, he assembled several artists around him, and founded the Vic-Art studios in Santiago. The style of the studios, employing artists like Héctor Flores and Raúl Bratesko, was pretty consistent and close to Carl Barks. Vicar and his assistants were highly productive, creating up to 200 pages a year.
Uncle Scrooge (D 5198, 1980)
While working on Disney comics, Vicar additionally contributed to the humorous magazine Ganso in late 1973. In the early 1980s, his old series 'El Huaso Ramón', 'Quevedo' and 'Paquita' reappeared in the supplements of La Tercera. 'El Huaso Ramón' was also collected in two albums as simply 'Ramón' in 1989.
'Crimebustin' Donald' (D 95029, 1997).
Victor Arriagada Rios passed away on 3 January 2012, after a long battle with leukemia. He continued to draw 'Donald Duck' stories until the very end, in the final two years of his life for Sanoma in the Netherlands.
Vicar was a strong influence on Kari Korhonen.
'Donald Duck' - 'Heavy Traffic' (D 99295).
Vicar, signing in Erlangen (Photo courtesy of Henrik Bernd).