The reality known as COMIC all over the world has got some problems related to its consideration. On the one hand, the name. Is COMIC the best word to address it? This word, meaning COMICAL, HUMOURISTIC, makes it too simple for some people. We may think it is a mass media only telling comedies, of an inferior level.

 

All those ideas are false, or at least incomplete. May be we should start using some other term, which might refer to a wider reality. And, in spite of using COMIC, we should think that it may not be the best word. What about GRAPHIC NOVEL?

 

Let's play a simple game, by travelling around the world.

And let's see what they call it everywhere else:

 

WOULD YOU DARE SAY THE MEANING OF THESE EXPRESSIONS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES FROM THE WORLD? PUT YOUR MOUSE ON TOP OF THE BUTTONS AND FIND IT OUT!

 

As you may see, most of them refer to only one aspect of this medium: balloons, vignettes, humour, ... But only some talk about an art to tell stories with images in sequence.

 


Maybe the best one is the French version, or even the Chinese one. In english, we would rather say GRAPHIC NOVEL

Now we need to discover how this creative adventure started. To anser these questions, follow the links, in this TREASURE HUNT!

WHEN AND WHERE WAS COMIC BORN?
WHICH WAS THE FIRST CHARACTER?
IN WHAT MEDIUM?

 

SOLUTIONS

Yellow Kid was the first comic character. by Richard Fenton Outcalt. it appeared in the newspaper Nwe York World, in the USA.

When? In 1896.

A bit later, a masterpiece was born in the same country: LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND, by Winsor McCay. At the beginning it appeared in the press, but then it got independent.

Yes, comic was born in the press. The same as today, when we can see comic strips on newspapers, that also happened at the end of the 19th century.

 

COMIC IN SPAIN

At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1915, we have the first comic collection in Spain, DOMINGUÍN.

Later, in 1917, the famous magazine TBO appears, with characters like LA FAMILIA ULISES, or EL PROFESOR FRANZ, and others like PULGARCITO (in 1921) with ZIPI Y ZAPE (today we have a film version of it), MORTADELO Y FILEMÓN (also taken to the cinema), EL REPORTERO TRIBULETE, or LAS HERMANAS GILDA.


Y así, siguieron apareciendo revistas, como PINOCHO (1925), CHICOS (1938, en plena Guerra Civil), JAIMITO (1945), DDT (1951), o EL JUEVES (1977, aún presente en los kioskos).
Además de las revistas, triunfaron las obras en formato apaisado, con títulos tan importantes como

Other magazines appeared, like PINOCHO (1925), CHICOS (1938, in the middle of the Civil War), JAIMITO (1945), DDT (1951), or EL JUEVES (1977. still alive today). And appart from magazines, there came new formats, the wide ones, like EL GUERRERO DEL ANTIFAZ (by Gago, in 1944), EL JABATO (by Mora and Darnís, in 1958), ROBERTO ALCÁZAR Y PEDRÍN (by Vañó, in 1940), and others.

And a lot of characters became famous. Some of them are still sold today: Francisco Ibáñez created Sacarino, Pepe Gotera y Otilio, and Rompetechos. Escobar (Zipi y Zape's father) drew Carpanta. Vázquez created Anacleto, and Jan made Superlópez.

There even was a series, in the Spain of those years, to a feminine public: Esther, by Purita Campos. Today it is still published, with script by the Galician writer Carlos Portela.

 

Today we can still enjoy mortadelo y Filemón, 13 Rúe del percebe, Zipi y Zape. But also new works, by new people. Thus, cartoonists from all over Spain took part in the magazine MISTER K, belonging to El Jueves.

And also adult comic, like the one by Tha, Miguelanxo Prado, Carlos Giménez, Fontdevilla, and many others. And something very important was the outcoming of specialised publishing houses, like Norma, De Ponent, Astiberri, Dibbuks, El Vïbora, El Jueves, Diábolo Ediciones, Sinsentido, Dolmen, BD Banda, El Manglar, etc.

Actualmente seguimos disfrutando de Mortadelo y Filemón, de 13 Rúe del percebe, de Zipi y Zape. Pero también de trabajos nuevos, de nuevos creadores. Así, dibujantes de toda españa participaron en la revista infantil "MISTER K", perteneciente a El Jueves. MISTER K dejó de publicarse, pero EL JUEVES (destinada a público adulto) sigue publicándose. Triunfó notablemente la banda diseñada adulta, con autores como Tha, Miguelanxo Prado, Carlos Giménez, Fontdevilla, y muchos más. Y ocurrió algo realmente importante: el nacimiento de editoriales especializadas en este medio. Algunas de ellas: Norma, De Ponent, Astiberri, Dibbuks, El Vïbora, El Jueves, Diábolo Ediciones, Sinsentido, Dolmen, BD Banda, El Manglar, y otras.

 

A WALK THROUGH EUROPE

When we talk about European comic we mean many things: a deep script, about social issues, everyday people, far from the agile action of superheroes, to talk about normal situations. Even though this is not always like this, there is a general trend to follow this path.

BELGIUM is one of the countries where comic is mostly settled as a cultural product. Who is famous there? TINTIN, created by Georges Rémi (better known as HERGÉ) in 1929. thanks to its style, we talk about the "Belgian style": clean lines, kind drawing, with many vignettes per page. You can visit the official TINTIN website here: http://en.tintin.com.

In 1938 the magazine LE JOURNAL DE SPIROU is born, giving birth to characters like SPIROU, FANTASIO, LUCKY LUKE (transformed into films) or the SMURFS, among others.

Another relevant country related to comic is FRANCE. There we can find the world phenomenon ASTERIS AND OBELIX, by Goscinny and Uderzo. A couple of complementary characters, with a script which combines the real events with fantastic ones (int the everyday life of a village a magic potion changes it all). But the most revolutionary author was, no doubt, MOEBIUS (his real name was jean Giraud), whomade his style famous in science fiction stories.

 

In italy we should mention the adventures of CORTO MALTESSE, by Hugo Pratt. Of a clean trace, this work was a trend because of its elegant style, whic travelled around the world.


 

ARGENTINA

Although comic was present in this country (especially with comic strips in the press) from the beginning of the 20th century, we should mention the great QUINO, to whom we know well for his MAFALDA. This girl was able to make us see the world from a humorous, tender and incissive point of view.

Besides, the author made hundreds of comic strips for newspapers and magazines. Have a look at his website:

http://mafalda.dreamers.com.

 

Did you know that Quino`s favourite character was Manolito?

Did you know that Quino used the Bible to get inspiration for his stories?

Did you know that Quino refused to make a spot in which Mafalda had to say that she loved soup?

 

 

 

 

JAPAN

Already at ehe beginning of the 19th century, one painter, Katsushika Hokusai, drew sequenced stories telling samurais adventures. Going forward to the middle 2oth century, we will meet SAZAESAN, by Hasegawa, a comic strip whose protagonist was a housewife. It was in 1956 that the first magazine appears, GEKKO KAMEN, by Kawauchi and Kuwata.

 

Más tarde, en 1967, tendremos la serie sobre carreras de coches MACH GO GO GO (que en España se conoció como METEORO), de Yoshiday. Pero el manga infantil más reconocido en todo el mundo fue, sin duda, DORAEMON (en 1970), creado por Abiko y Fujimoto. Allá por los años 80 llegaron otras series como "Dr Slump" (de Toriyama), "Akira" (de Katsuhiro Otomo) o Kaikei Shuten (de Sekikawa y Taniguchi).

Later on, in 1967, we have the series about car racing MACH GO GO GO, by Yoshiday. But the children's manga that best fitted everywhere was DORAEMON (1970), created by Abiko and Fujimoto. In the 80s, other series like "Dr Slump" (by Toriyama), "Akira" (by Katsuhiro Otomo) or Kaikei Shuten (by Sekikawa and Taniguchi).

The manga style was successful in the USA, and then everywhere else, not only for its style, but for the stories, combining humanity with a mixtures of reality and fantasy. Then, television helped considerably to make it more popular (ANIME). One goo example of it is DRAGON BALL, by Akira Toriyama

 

USA

We already know that comic was officialy born in the USA. Sine then, by means of different magazines and newspapers, iis popularity grew, till becoming a powerful industry. Today we can mention two very important publishers; MARVEL COMICS, AND CD COMICS. Don't you knowthese books, published by them?:

MARVEL COMICS:
" X-Men (by Claremont and Byrne)
" Thor (by Walt Simonson)

DC COMICS:
" Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (by Frank Miller)
" Watchmen (by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons)
" The Sandman (by Neil Gaiman)
" The Walking Dead (by Robert Kirkman)

INTERESTING COMIC FAIRS:

ANGOULÊME (France) http://www.bdangouleme.com
SALÓ DEL CÓMIC DE BARCELONA http://ficomic.com/inicio.cfm
VIÑETAS DESDE O ATLÁNTICO, A CORUÑA http://www.vinetasdesdeoatlantico.com
ANIMACOMIC: SALÓN DE LA ANIMACIÓN, EL MANGA Y EL CÓMIC DE MÁLAGA http://www.animacomic.es/2015/

 

 

COMIC IN GALICIA

 

Today Galicia is the land of many professionals, who even are famous outside its borders: Miguelanxo Prado, Emma Ríos, José Domingo, Miguel Robledo,David Rubín, Manel Cráneo, and others.

Besides the authors of a great quality and reputation, there is also a professional association, in which

most of them take part. it is called AGPI (Asociación Galega de Profesionais da Ilustración), and it is formed not only by comic authors, but also others working on multimedia, graphic humour, illustration, etc. Visitheir website in http://www.agpi.e. This association is also open to people who are beginning, or are studying Arts at University, or similar studies. It is a good opportunity for them to learn about legal conditions, editors, contests, prizes, etc.

But it was not everything like this in Galicia. There were some beginnings in a individual way, with the works by Castelao, Maside, or Torres, who made graphic humour, narrated with sequenced images, but didn't use balloons for characters to speak.

In 1970 Reimundo Patiño started making comic as we know it today. And in 1971 XAQUÍN MARÍN published the first work in Galician, O EMIGRANTE, in CHAN magazine. Patiño, at that time, was exhibiting his serigraphic work O HOME QUE FALABA VEGLIOTA, of huge dimensions.

 

A collective exhibition appears, and, ater starting in the Escola de Maxisterio de A Coruña in 1973, it moves around Galicia. The authors were: Xosé Díaz, Rosendo Díaz, Chichi Campos, Pepe Barro, Reimundo Patiño, Rosendo Díaz, Luis Esperante, Ricardo Lázaro and Xaquín Marín.

We then have DOUS VIAXES, by Reimundo Patiño, and GASPARIÑO, by Xaquín Marín, in 1978. This will be an icon of the Galician identity, seen through the eyes of an attentive rural child.

 

And also magazines like VAGALUME, in 1975, intended for children, or XOFRE (with Miguelanxo Prado, Xan López Domínguez, Fran Jaraba, etc), in 1979. In the 80s new ones are born: COORDENADAS, FRENTE COMIXARIO E VALIUNDEZ. It was in 2002 that GOLFIÑO magazine (directed by the drawer Fausto Isorna and the writer Miguel Vázquez Freire) came to life, published by Edicións Xerais de Galicia first, and by La Voz de Galicia later on.

In 2008 there was an important exhibition in Santiago de Compostela, called HISTORIETA GALEGA 1973-2008.

Today comic is being published by several editors. Some of them are specialised on it: RETRANCA, KACTOÍA K, EL PATITO EDITORIAL, BDBANDA, DEMO EDITORIAL. Others consider it essential, creating special collections for it: Edicións Xerais de Galicia, Editorial Galaxia, etc.

 

GUESS WHO

WHO ARE THE AUTHORS OF THESE BOOKS? PLACE THE MOUSE ON TOP OF THE BALLOONS AND FIND IT OUT!