Consequential Art: Comics Culture in Contemporary Spain

276 Pages·2019·22.886 MB·English

by  Samuel Amago (editor), Matthew J. Marr (editor)

CONSEQUENTIAL ART
Comics Culture in Contemporary Spain

Consequential Art
Comics Culture in Contemporary Spain
Edited by
SAMUEL AMAGO AND MATTHEW J. MARR
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2019
Toronto Buffalo London
utorontopress.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4875-0503-5
Printed on acid-free paper with vegetable-based inks.
Toronto Iberic
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Consequential art : comics culture in contemporary Spain / edited by
Samuel Amago and Matthew J. Marr.
Names: Amago, Samuel, 1974–, editor. | Marr, Matthew J., editor.
Series: Toronto Iberic.
Description: Series statement: Toronto Iberic | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana 20190084073 | ISBN 9781487505035 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Comic books, strips, etc. – Spain – History and criticism. |
LCSH: Comic books, strips, etc. – Social aspects – Spain.
Classification: LCC PN6775 .C66 2019 | DDC 741.5/946 – dc23
This book has been published with the assistance of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Pennsylvania State University, and the University
of Virginia.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts
Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments xi
1 Comics in Contemporary Spain 3
samuel amago and matthew j. marr
Part One: Comics and Historical Memory
2 Drawing (on) Spanish History 31
samuel amago
3 Comics, History, and Memory in the ’90s: Las memorias
de Amorós 65
pedro pérez del solar
4 “Shadows Have No Voice”: Democratic Memory in Felipe
Hernández Cava and Federico del Barrio’s El artefacto
perverso (1996) and Francisco and Miguel Gallardo’s
Un largo silencio (1997) 100
xavier dapena
Part Two: Comics and Economic Crisis
5 Building a Home for Crisis Narrative: Intermediality
and Comic(s) Pedagogy in Aleix Saló’s Españistán Project 137
matthew j. marr
vi Contents
6 Urban Ecology and Comics Journalism in Jorge Carrión
and Sagar Forniés’s Barcelona: Los vagabundos
de la chatarra (2015) 164
christine m. martínez
Part Three: Comics and Personhood
7 Post-op in the Real World: Cancer and Queer Resistance
in Isabel Franc and Susanna Martín’s Alicia en un
mundo real (2011) 195
emily difilippo
8 How to Explain Comics to a Dead Hare: Intertextuality
and Crisis in Rosana Antolí’s Neo-surrealist Graphic Novel
Pareidolia (2014) 220
eduardo ledesma
List of Contributors 253
Index 255
Figures
1.1 “Mañana comienza la gira por EE.UU. de varios de los autores
de ‘Panorama’” [Tomorrow various authors of the “Panorama”
begin their US tour] 12
2.1 Past and present, technology and testimony in Cuerda de presas 36
2.2 Representing traumatic memory in Cuerda de presas 37
2.3 Family history in Un largo silencio 40
2.4 Hero-creation in Un largo silencio 41
2.5 Drawing the archive into the personal narrative in Un largo
silencio 43
2.6 Facsimile archival images in Un largo silencio 44
2.7 Antonio Machado on the road to France in Los surcos del azar 46
2.8 Reflexivity and memory in Los surcos del azar 47
2.9 Family history and memory in Las guerras silenciosas 48
2.10 Author/artist as a character in Las guerras silenciosas 49
2.11 Captain America inspires Spanish historiography in Las guerras
silenciosas 50
2.12 Getting the story straight in Las guerras silenciosas 51
2.13 Visualizing emotion in Paseo de los canadienses 54
2.14 Memory, tears, emotion in Jamás tendré 20 años 56
3.1 Amorós and the young interviewer in Firmado: Mister Foo 69
3.2 Guillermo Jaratá and Amorós in Ars profética 72
3.3 Concha, the lady in charge of the opium den, in Las alas calmas 73
3.4 Contrasts between black and white in Doña Toda’s bar in Las
alas calmas 76
3.5 Ángel Amorós in Ars profética 77
3.6 Representing extreme experiences from a disturbed narrator’s
point of view in Las alas calmas 80
3.7 E xample of page composition in La luz de un siglo muerto 85
3.8 Creating an impression of movement by body positions and
frame composition in La luz de un siglo muerto 86
viii Figures
3.9 Stylized face in backlight in Ars profética 87
4.1 Enrique Montero talking with Josita in El artefacto
perverso 103
4.2 Pedro Guzmán is held captive by Belial in the machine
of forgetting in El artefacto perverso 105
4.3a A Franco-era concentration camp in Un largo
silencio 108
4.3b Francisco Gallardo Sarmiento becomes a silent shadow
during the dictatorship in Un largo silencio 109
4.3c Franco’s face in graffiti in Un largo silencio 110
4.3d Francisco Gallardo Sarmiento as a Republican soldier
in Un largo silencio 111
4.4 Prisoners of war at Reus in Un largo silencio 113
4.5 Pedro Guzmán fighting with criminals in El artefacto
perverso 117
4.6 A shadow that asks Enrique Montero about his
creation in El artefacto perverso 120
4.7a Distorted face of Jordi in El artefacto perverso 121
4.7b A train heading to Francoist Spain, transporting
paintings from the Museo del Prado, in El artefacto
perverso 122
4.7c A blank panel codifying the representational
impossibility of “unmemory” and the traumatic past in
El artefacto perverso 123
4.8a Francisco Gallardo Sarmiento reunites with Ginés
Campos Godoy in Un largo silencio 124
4.8b Picture of Escuela Industrial de Linares Group in Un
largo silencio 125
4.8c Francisco Gallardo Sarmiento’s release papers in Un
largo silencio 126
5.1 Making a case for comics in Hijos de los 80 140
5.2a and 5.2b Españistán: De la burbuja inmobiliaria a la crisis (animated
short) 145
5.3 Españistán: Este país se va a la mierda 147
5.4 Down and out between the gutters in Saló’s
Españistán 148
5.5 Unmasking the ostensible wizard in Saló’s
Españistán 149
5.6a and 5.6b Charting comic(s) pedagogy in Saló’s animated short,
Españistán 151
6.1 Unflattening depicts an understanding of ecosystems 171
6.2 Scrap metal in transport in Barcelona 173
Figures ix
6.3 Interview at Puigcerdà Street nave in Barcelona 174
6.4 “El cómic será en color” in Barcelona 177
7.1 “An arm would be worse!” in Alicia en un mundo real 199
7.2 Diverse solutions for post-mastectomy in Alicia en un
mundo real 206
7.3 A lost year in Alicia en un mundo real 208
7.4 “Challenge complete!” in Alicia en un mundo real 213
7.5 “Without a tit and in paradise” in Alicia en un mundo real 216
8.1 The protagonist’s surreal encounter with Beuys in Pareidolia 226
8.2 Joseph Beuys performs Coyote: I Like America and America
Likes Me 227
8.3 The protagonist sings “Ghost Rider” as an escape from the news
in Pareidolia 231
8.4 The protagonist being self-critical in Pareidolia 234
8.5 Antolí’s rendition of Bas Jan Ader’s 1970 falling performance,
Fall 2, in Pareidolia 237
8.6 “Magic dance” in Pareidolia 243