Creation
The name of the protagonist was reminiscent of that of Ernie Pyle, a well known real life war correspondent of the era. Unlike Ernie Pyle, Ernie Pike survives the war and is referenced as a veteran in other stories by Pratt. The face of Ernie Pike resembles that of Oesterheld himself. This was caused by a misunderstanding during the period of designing of the character: when Oesterheld was describing to Pratt the positive traits of the new character, he ended saying "Make him like me!". However, Pratt did not realize that Oesterheld was joking, and used his face. By the time Oesterheld realized the mistake, Pratt's work was already advanced, so he let it stay that way.
Oesterheld was influenced by anti-war authors, such as Erich Maria Remarque, Stephen Crane or Leo Tolstoy; as well as by the career of the mentioned Ernie Pyle. Pratt also revealed that he stole more than four hundred of war photos from the staff of Il Gazzettino di Venezia, which were used by the artist as inspiration for the comic strip. Oesterheld was also influenced by those photos, and many stories were inspired by specific photos that led the author to develop a story about them.
Read more about this topic: Ernie Pike
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