Cuno Affolter

Cuno no arquivo de quadrinhos da Biblioteca de Lausanne — Cuno in his labyrinth: in the annex building of Lausanne Municipal Library, Cuno Affolter has a whole bunker with empty shelves to organize the thousands of books stored in dozens of boxes, waiting to be cataloged. Ester Unterfinger/swissinfo.ch

Box with old comics — Pierre-Yves Lador, director of Lausanne City Library, started the comics collection in 1979. In 1999, when Cuno Affolter was appointed chief-curator of the collection, it counted already 40.000 volumes. But Cuno also brought his own, practically doubling this figure, and adding a valuable number of original drafts and rare editions. But private collectors from all over the country have also donated considerable quantities of books, many still kept in boxes. swissinfo.ch

Cuno Affolter speaking — When asked about an estimate of how many volumes the Library has right now, Cuno is very objective: "I have no idea at all". Ester Unterfinger/swissinfo.ch

Toys with comics themes — The universe of comics transcends the pages: toys, dolls, curios, cards and a vast range of comics-related objects are also part of the collection. Ester Unterfinger/swissinfo.ch

Cuno speaking — Cuno Affolter was born in Olten in 1958, and is an active observer of the comics scene, in Switzerland and abroad, since the early 1980s. Journalist, curator, consultant, Cuno is not the usual 'nerd' collector. His passionate interest for the arts in general - and counter-cultural arts in particular - enables him to always consider the social, economic and cultural perspectives of the comics universe. Ester Unterfinger/swissinfo.ch

First edition of Tintin in Congo — One of the jewels of the crown: first edition of "Tintin au Congo", 1931. swissinfo.ch

Pop-up book of Mickey Mouse — In 1936 Mickey Mouse gained a Swiss version, published in Zurich, but it didn't last long. The books were craftily made, like this pop-up sample, but they were also too expensive for the average Swiss of that time. swissinfo.ch

Cuno closing the bunker — Closing the bunker. In spite of the helpful aid of assistants and the support of the City Library, Cuno Affolter estimates that cataloging the collection is the work of a lifetime. swissinfo.ch

This content was published on April 13, 2018 - 13:44

As an online editor at the Portuguese department who is in charge of SWI swissinfo.ch's culture coverage, I work as reporter, editor, art & film critic, while also coordinating freelance collaborations. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, I studied Film and Economics but made a career in journalism in several capacities (reporter, editor, international correspondent) before moving to documentary films, as developer and producer, and then to visual arts (in art publishing and as a curator). I joined SWI swissinfo.ch in 2017, where I could bring all this broad experience to the coordination of our cultural section.

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Ester Unterfinger (Images), Eduardo Simantob (Text)

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