doll the magazine sold
Billiken was founded by
Constancio C. Vigil, a
Uruguayan-born journalist who also founded
El Gráfico. Its current director is Euhen Matarozzo. The first edition of the magazine appeared on November 17, 1919. One of the cartoonists that worked for
Billiken was
Manuel García Ferré, with his character Pi Pío. The name
Billiken is taken from a popular charm doll of the time, a smiling character created in 1908 by the American art teacher and illustrator
Florence Pretz. To Constancio C. Vigil, who was looking for a title for his unpublished children's magazine, it seemed like a good idea to use the name of a doll that Argentine children believed could bring you good luck. The cover of issue No. 1 had a boy with a
football under his right arm, and a bandage on his head that covered his left eye. This image of the disheveled "neighborhood child" was the emblem of the magazine for several decades. The illustration was taken from a cover of
The Saturday Evening Post, published five years earlier, by J. C. Leyendecker.
Billiken has its headquarters in
Buenos Aires. The weekly circulation of
Billiken was 58,816 copies in 2010, 54,373 copies in 2011 and 54,064 copies in 2012. == Controversy ==