By MIKE PETERS

Argentine's female-centric funnies making their way to the U.S.

Ever catch yourself checking out your butt in the reflection of a store window? Such moments feed the humor and art of Maitena, the Argentine cartoonist who goes by one name and who has become the darling of international book fairs and Latin periodicals.

Her work in progress is called Curvas Peligrosas, or "Dangerous Curves" -- but those curves are nothing new to Maitena (pronounced my-TAY-na). She married young, and "by 19, I already had two wonderful kids, three lousy jobs, all sorts of problems -- and gray hair," she said in a recent interview. She hung on to the kids and went to work on everything else, separating from her husband and enlivening her hair with red henna. One thing that didn't change was a lifelong eagerness to draw.

She was 17 when her cartoons were first published "in waiting-room magazines," and several years later she was reaching in two new directions: erotic comics and children's books. "I lived in fear of delivering the wrong envelope," she said. In 1992 a woman's magazine invited her to create a comic strip. She called it "Altered Women" -- the artist was blond by this point -- and a star was born.

Typical panels assess aspirations, expectations of both men and women and such advice as "Six Attitudes to Adopt at the Beach to Avoid Feeling Like a Dumpling." "Lucid, smart, vital," raved El Periodico of Spain. "Through her eyes humanity evolves beyond the battle of the sexes." The German edition of Elle said: "Her stories remind us of Woody Allen's little tragedies and comedies and Bridget Jones' subtle and sarcastic sense of humor." Collections of her comics have become international best sellers -- most popular with young women but getting notice from men hunting for clues to the feminine psyche. U.S. publisher Penguin's Riverhead Books subsidiary is translating five volumes of her "Women on the Edge" into English. The third of five paperbacks reached stores in January. Despite their frank feminist character, her comics run in conservative newspapers such as Buenos Aires' La Nación as well as more progressive magazines.

Her humor is often physical, sometimes sensual; a bare breast may appear if it helps make a point. "I like humor that presents challenges, like the discomfort one feels when there is a stone inside one's shoe," she said in Spanish as husband Daniel Kon translates. Does she worry about revealing too many female secrets? "As I do not believe that women are incomprehensible and mysterious, it seems to me that it is good for us to show how we are, with our greatness and our miseries alike," she said." Her shock of white-blond hair has become a trademark.

"I have lots of gray hair, and there is not a color that endures the growth of the roots better than white. And I say this from experience because I've had all of the colors," said the cartoonist -- full name is Maitena Burundarena. So what's the best thing about being a woman? "Being a mother, without a doubt," said the cartoonist, who had her last child 20 years after the first one ("with another husband, of course"). But if reincarnation gives another life to this woman who's made an art form of the female psyche, she'd like to come back as a man -- "in order to have a marvelous wife that loves to cook, be in charge of the house, take the children to the dentist and go speak with the teacher.

The Dallas Morning News
MIKE PETERS mpeters@dallasnews.com
Saturday, January 29, 2005