Based on both the graphic and storytelling style developed by comics artists who worked from the 1940s onwards for Editorial Bruguera, the most popular publishing house during classic Spanish comics period, critic Terenci Moix coined this term in 1968 to refer to its general traits. The usual tone was halfway between children’s entertainment and satirical rendering, accompanied by sociopolitical and socioeconomic comments as a hidden reading. Likewise, its starring characters usually got frustrated by their lack of success when they tried to escape poverty, which served as a mirror for the desires of the unlucky contemporary Spanish society. Graphics were simple though meaningful, tending towards a certain geometric abstraction and possessing a high metaphorical value, and the backgrounds were minimalist. This publishing house closed in 1986 but its influence is still evident throughout new generations of creators.
Published in Chapter:
About Some Spanish Graphic Novels in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic: Cathartic Panels for the End of the World
Eduard Baile-López (Universitat d'Alacant, Spain)
Copyright: © 2023
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-4735-2.ch006
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to attend to comics produced during COVID-19 pandemic, especially those referring to the hardest moments of confinement and which may allow to observe the use of comics as a tool to analyze reality, both from a psychological point of view and from a sociopolitical one. Being such a recent phenomenon, corpus selection is introduced as temporary since new items continue to emerge, and furthermore, it is still early to assess its significance. As a pragmatic criterion, two vectors will be used: on the one hand, focus will be stressed on works belonging to the Spanish comics market in order to portray a particular cultural environment; on the other hand, four items will be selected to establish a coherent story which may adapt the stages of the hero's journey into a new paradigm (1. Fear, 2. Anger, 3. Humor, and 4. Healing).