Was issued on Mafalda postage stamp, belonging to the "Italian excellence of the show"As already i stamps by Rino Gaetano, Ezio Bosso and several other icons of Italian culture. The circulation? Only 300 thousand copies.

The Mafalda postage stamp

The Mafalda postage stamp is printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato SpA It costs 1,10 € like all the B rate stamps, and reproduces the iconic comic book character in three of his typical expressions. Translated in 26 languages, and elected among the most influential Argentines of the twentieth century, Mafalda is one of the most popular characters in the history of Argentine comics. And perhaps the whole world, so much so that generations of Italian children remember it. On the stamps, her unmistakable black hair and grainy hair. And then a giant ballpoint pen, a globe, or a comic screaming: "Enough!". To get them, you need to go to the post offices with a philatelic counter and the Philatelic Spaces in Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Rome, Rome1, Turin, Trieste, Venice and Verona. Or, you can buy them on the poste.it website.

Fruit of the imagination of the Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Lavado, aka Quino, Mafalda was published between 1964 and 1973, achieving immense fame in South America and Europe. For years he populated the pages of newspapers, magazines and books, gave birth to dozens of merchandising lines and - in 1982 - even to an animated film. To create it, Lavado was inspired by the novel by David Viñas “Dar la cara”. He didn't have a cartoon character in mind, though, but the mascot of an appliance company. Then the project fell through, and he recycled it for the strip of a well-known Argentine newspaper. The rest is a story that, today, culminates in the creation of the Mafalda postage stamp.

Mafalda, the biography

In the imagination of its author, Mafalda is one 6-year-old girl with acute intelligence and great curiosity. He hates soup, and is interested in the problems of the world. She asks puzzling questions to adults, receiving answers that never satisfy her. Thus, it causes them to have nervous breakdowns which he then calms down with Nervocalm. He has a mum and a dad that he often puts to the test, a dreamer best friend (Felipe) and a naive little brother in love with Brigitte Bardot. She is always worried about the fate of the world and her reflections put the grown-ups in front of their difficulties and contradictions.

Stamp of Mafalda - A strip of Mafalda
A strip of Mafalda - photo taken from Wikipedia (Joaquín S. Lavado - Copyrighted)

There are few times that Quino has drawn Mafalda outside of comics. He did it for UNICEF, to illustrate the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. And to celebrate Universal Human Rights Day in Argentina. On October 23, 2009, Mafalda reappeared in Italy. He did so in La Repubblica, with the phrase "I am not a woman at your disposal", the slogan of a campaign against the submissive role of women.

Photo taken from Poste Italiane's Faceboom page

The limited edition Mafalda stamp last edit: 2021-10-01T12:30:00+02:00 da Laura Alberti

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