Alberto Breccia was born in Uruguay, and moved to Buenos Aires when he was three years old. At the age of seventeen, Breccia had already published illustrations in several magazines, including El Resero, Phenomene and Berretin. Assigned by the publisher Lainez, he took on a realistic drawing style and created 'Kid del Rio Grande', 'El Vengador' and 'Mariquita Terremoto' for the magazines Tit-Bits, El Gorrion and Rataplan.
In 1957, he met the writer Héctor German Oesterheld, and became a member of the so-called "Group of Venice", a team of ex-patriot Italian artists and writers like Hugo Pratt, Ivo Pavone, Horacio Lala, Mario Faustinelli and Alberto Ongaro, that all published at Oesterheld's Frontiera Editorial. With scripts by Oesterheld, Breccia illustrated several episodes in the series 'Ernie Pike', and created the series 'Sherlock Time' in Hora Cero Extra and 'Doctor Morgue' in Frontera Extra.
In 1962, Breccia and Oesterheld created the 'Mort Cinder' series, considered by many Breccia's masterpiece.