Las Aventuras de Ogú, Mampato y Rena ("The Adventures of Ogú, Mampato and Rena"), also known as Las Aventuras de Mampato or simply Mampato, is a Chilean Comic Book series originally created by Eduardo Armstrong and Óscar Vega (also known as "Oskar"), but quickly passed over to Themo Lobos, who would write and draw it for the great majority of its run, giving it its signature style. It's one of the two most well-known and acclaimed Chilean works of the medium, the other being Condorito.
The basic premise goes like this: Mampato is a normal, middle-class, Chilean boy. One day, he saves an alien stranded on Earth named Xseturlzzn (or simply "Xsé"), who takes him to Xsé's home planet, Xagus. After Mampato helps him stop the evil Mong's plan to conquer the planet, Xsé and the people of Xagus give Mong's "space-time belt" to Mampato as a thank-you present.
And thus, lots of Time Travel happens.
Mampato, who has a great interest in history, uses the belt to travel to various places and time periods, which include the prehistoric era, the Middle Ages, the Chilean Independence War period, and even the far-off future, with the ability to return to the exact time and period he came from allowing him to avoid suspicions from his family. Since it's more of an Edutainment series (though it doesn't mean it's realistic or 100% accurate), less focus is given to the effects of Time Travel and more is given to the places, and characters Mampato meets along the way (which range from historical figures to original characters, with characters from myth here and there, such as King Arthur).
Recurrent characters include:
- Ogú, a caveman (or, as he indentifies himself, a "Golagola") with a love for food and fights who meets and befriends Mampato in the first issue made by Themo Lobos, Kilikilis and Golagolas. Mampato would often travel to the prehistoric era first to pick Ogú up before going with him to the time period of the story, much to the caveman's joy.
- Rena, a 9-year-old mutant girl from the 40th century with mind-reading powers, and Mampato's love interest.
The comic ran for the entire duration of the Chilean magazine Mampato; that is, from 1968 to 1978; political tensions in the country affected the comics industry, forcing the magazine to be Cut Short. Lobos would fund a new magazine in 1986 called Cucalón, which collected all the works made by him until that moment (including Mampato), finishing its run in 1993.
While the comic will likely never be recontinued (as all the creators involved have passed away), it has been republished several times. In 2002, it received an animated film adaptation, Ogú and Mampato in Rapa Nui (based on the seventh book Mata-ki-te-rangui note ). The movie is considered the first "modern" Chilean animated film (the first being La Transmisión del Mando Presidencial, made in 1921).
An animated series titled Las Aventuras de Ogú, Mampato y Rena was produced by Animenta (with support from Ada Lobos, Themo Lobos's daughter), premiering on the Chilean channel Chilevisión in December 2018.
Compare with Mitos y Leyendas, another popular Chilean work that heavily features world history and mythology for artistic and educational purposes.
Mampato contains examples of:
- After the End: The 40th century. Nuclear war has turned major cities such as New York into wastelands. The remaining inhabitants mutated and segregated to form separate tribes with a particular mutation as a characteristic. It turns out that South America and Australia aren't as affected, with the humans there mutating in a more positive way, even managing to build a futuristic utopia.
- All Myths Are True: Magic, as well as mythical creatures of various origins, can make an appearance depending of the setting. For example, Bromisnar de Bagdad features genii, while La Corte del Rey Arturo and Morgana la Hechicera (both set in King Arthur's time) features giants, wizards, and fairies, among other things.
- Ancient Astronauts: The gods from Ancient Greece are aliens. Mampato's first clue is a temple... it's a very obvious flying saucer.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite the fact that Mampato has encountered magic before (when in King Arthur's court) and has a freaking time-traveling belt, he still seems skeptic about things like flying carpets, djinns, centaurs, men making moais float with their minds, etc.
- Art Evolution: Before Themo Lobos took over and gave him his iconic design, Mampato looked a lot like Dennis the Menace (US).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: In the first book, cavemen are shown alongside prehistoric megafauna and dinosaurs. In any other volume set in prehistory, however, the dinosaurs are absent.
- Artistic License – History: Many, many examples to mention them all, just for presenting one, in Mampato and Ogu in the court of King Arthur not only presents dubiously historical figures such as Merlin or King Arthur, but also shows England of the fifth century with a medieval type culture that only existed centuries later.
- Atlantis: In one of the stories he visited this mythical island, curiously its civilization was clearly Greek, but its inhabitants were black Africans.
- Bad Future: The 40th century (see After the End above). Mampato breaks down in tears.
- Battle Cry: "AKARRRRRRÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚÚ!!!"
- Big Eater: Ogú.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Evil Sorceress Morgana tries to kill Mampato by doing this to Ogú.
- Canis Major: Sirio and Procyon, Rena's giant dogs.
- Carry a Big Stick: Ogú's weapon of choice. Only a couple of times he changes it to another weapon.
- Casting Gag: In the animated movie, Ogú was voiced by the late Mexican voice actor Maynardo Zavala, who previously voiced another caveman.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: At the end of La Rebelión de los Mutantes, Rena agrees to marry Mampato in her century once they're both older. Mampato is overjoyed.
- Contemporary Caveman: Ogú. While he still lives in his original time period, he often accompanies Mampato in his travels.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Rena en el Siglo 40 has Mampato trying to help Rena find her people, who are sending her telepathic messages, by travelling through North America to the south. After they finally get there, the people point out that he could have used his space-time belt all along, the stupidity of which is Lampshaded by Mampato himself. Turns out he had forgotten about it.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: After spending a long time inside a large tunnel, Mampato and Rena find the exit and are blinded by the light outside. Rena tells Mampato she doesn't sense any menace with her Mind Reading, so they run ahead. Instead they fall down a cliff.
- Deathby Racism: Jones in Mampato in the Congo
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Very common, where in his multiple trips in time and space our heroes have encountered things like slavery, racism, sexism, disproportionate punishments (Twenty lashes for stealing an apple!) , Human Sacrifice, etc, etc, in addition to a fairly anti-ecological treatment of wildlife, such as when Chilean farmers use traps to kill condors, because they steal the young of the cattle, something that real life condors, which feed on dead animals, never do.
- Doting Parent: Ferjus just 'loves' his son Sicalipto. He drools for him even if five seconds before was hitting or insulting him.
- Elephant Graveyard: Smith and Weston try to find one after kidnapping a local chief's son.
- Evil Colonialist: On a trip to the Belgian Congo in 1880, one of the villains is Jones, the owner of a tobacco plantation who brutally mistreats his workers and uses racist insults. Mampato and his caveman friend Ogu humiliate him, and that gives his workers courage to later reveal themselves and kill Jones by throwing him to the crocodiles.
- Evil Overlord: Ferjus.
- Evil Poacher: Smith and Weston.
- Exact Words: When fighting The Trojan War, a seer warns Mampato that both he and Ogú will "disappear from this world soon". Mampato sulks throughout the whole volume until after he takes Ogú to his time and returns to his own. Only then he realizes the seer was right: they "disappeared" from Ancient Greece, because they had returned to their respective times.
- Field Trip to the Past: The premise.
Themo Lobos's intention was always to let kids learn about history in a fun way. - Grievous Harm with a Body:
- At one point, when Mampato and Ogú travel to The Middle Ages, Ogú (who was drunk at the time) knocks out an enemy soldier, then drags him around like a weapon, and uses him as such. Later, after he sobers up, he realizes what he's been carrying and simply tosses him into the air as he leaves.
- One book later, he wacks a druid on the head with the dead rabbit he just hunted.
- Horse of a Different Color: On a journey to the XL century, Mampato and Rena ride mutant dogs the size of horses (the dogs are named after Sirius and Procyon, which are the names of stars in the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor)
- Hulk Speak/You No Take Candle: Ogú learns just enough Spanish to be able to communicate with Mampato as possible for a caveman, and so he talks with a variation of this (for example, he calls Mampato "Mampatú" note ). Word of God describes the way Ogú's speech is written as a mix between child speak (containing frequent grammar mistakes) and phonetic writing (all consonants that make the same sounds in Spanish are written the same note ).
- Human Sacrifice: A rival tribe of Ogu's sacrifices their prisoners to their god: a plesiosaur. It is also mentioned as part of the druid rituals.
- Kid Hero: Mampato.
- Limited Wardrobe: Mampato sure has a lot of red T-shirts. Pretty convenient to hide suspicions from his family, as he has returned more than once with his clothes dirtied or torn-up.
- Little Green Men: Xse and the rest of their race are basically this, except that they're white and have a head shaped like a laid-down egg.
- Mundane Utility: After winning some olympic games, Ogú wins a female slave, with a very obvious suggestion of what he is supposed to do with her. Instead, he asks her to cook his meal and mend his clothes.
- Mysterious/Mystical Waif: Rena, complete with Mystical White Hair.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: The protagonist and his friends travel through time and space, but that does not explain how the main character is still a 9-year-old boy, although we have seen at least two different summers go by. A partial dislike is Rena, her best friend / girlfriend albina mutant telepata, who has the appearance of a 9-year-old girl in her first appearance, but in the later stories she looks somewhat older, like a 13/14 teenager years.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In the episode of La Reconquista, when Casimiro Marco del Pont is referred to by his actual full and overly long title by Captain San Bruno (whose speech bubble is partially covered by Casimiro himself to emphasize its length), a footnote (added on the 2001 book version) states that it is "verbatim."
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Mampato's name is actually Patricio. "Mampato" comes from a pun on his short stature, with "Pato" is the nickname usually given to the name Patricio, and "mampato" being Chilean slang for ponies.
- Open Sesame: Ali Baba's cave. Turns out it's an old guy the one who opens and closes the door.
- Overlord Jr.: Sicalipto.
- Power Trio: Take a guess. However, most of Mampato's adventures only involved Mampato and Ogú (to the point that the series is referred sometimes as Ogú y Mampato), and some only involved Mampato and Rena. Rena and Ogú wouldn't actually meet until El Árbol Gigante/La Rebelión de los Mutantes (the book version being a two-parter).
- Screaming Warrior: Ogú. See Battle Cry above.
- Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: "Fantastic".
- Stable Time Loop: While Mampato meets and befriends several historical figures from the past, Mampato's actions don't seem to cause changes in current history, so this seems to be the case for this trope.
- Sword Fight: There's a lot of this when Mampato and Ogú meet the musketeers.
- Telepathy: Rena. However, she has learned enough manners to not read other people's private thoughts (much to Mampato's relief).
- Time Travel
- Tin-Can Robot: An aspiring tyrant in La amenaza cibernética build a giant version of this.
- Tree Top Town: Ferjus' kingdom. However, it's not in several tree tops, but rather in just one big tree.
- The Wild West: Mampato en el Far-West.
- World Tree: Ferjus' kingdom is in a giant tree.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Both Ogú and Mampato. Plays against them when they traveling through Ancient Greece and find some amazons.
