Titles and Publications
While comics were becoming very more popular in the 1960s, it was the 1970s and 1980s where they truly became mainstream. Many of the most well known titles opened in these two decades, only to be shuttered in the 1990s due to shortages in ink, paper, and other supplies. These shortages came about because of an economic downturn during that period caused by repeated embargoes leveled at the country by the United States and others.
The Special Period in Time of Peace (Spanish: Período especial) in Cuba was an extended period of economic crisis that began in 1991[1] primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Comecon commercial agreement.
While many of the Cuban comics feature artistic styles similar to comics universally, multiple factors led to distinctive and unique graphic art. Cuba’s revolutionary government strongly and actively supported the arts. The nation was small and highly literate, with granular, if sometimes forced, participation in building a revolutionary society. Opposition to the United States and the embargo remained high among those artists who stayed in Cuba, especially in the first decade. Finally, artists had to be creative and inventive simply due to lack of materials like paint and paper, resulting from the embargo. All of these factors set Cuban graphic art apart from contemporary trends elsewhere the world. This collection encapsulates and documents these uniquely Cuban trends from the 1960s onward.
The Latin American economic downturn of the early 1990s particularly impacted Cuba, severely hurting newspaper publishing and decimating comics production in the island into the new millennium. There were very few outlets for carttonists. Palante held production, finally printing again at a monthly, rather a weekly rate. Dedete became a weekly page in the Juventud Rebelde newpaper rather than being a standalone title.
Most of these titles did not only have comics, but also included activities and puzzles that provided lessons on geography, anthropology, and politics. they dealt with the theme of our wars of independence, pre-Columbian life, science fiction, adventures and fantasies and educational themes according to the campaigns we proposed
The second was the discourse of actively creating a national Cuban comics industry, serving the Revolution; this could mean using the medium to satirize the enemy (as with Virgilio Martı´nez and Marcos Behemaras in several historietas for Mella, with some of the wittiest comics ever produced in Cuba, such as ‘Supertin˜osa’, ‘John Despiste investigador senatorial’, or ‘Pucho y sus perrerı´as’), to teach good habits at work (as with Rene´ Cordero in ‘Las aventuras de Abejı´n’),8 to instill a revolutionary consciousness (as with Rider in CDR), or to entertain children and youngsters, as the publisher Ediciones en Colores did with their four monthlies from 1965 to 1968. In fact, ¡Aventuras!, Mun˜equitos, Din Don, and Fanta´sticos soon came to satisfy the market demand for comics, a demand wisely understood by the Comisio´n de Orientacio´n Revolucionaria, when it launched this publishing house, exploiting the didactic potentialities of comics. More controversially, comics could also be used to identify, mock and reorient counterrevolutionary attitudes, as in the historieta ‘Florito Volandero’ created by Virgilio Martı´nez,
Palante, was first
published in 1961 as a
weekly humor magazine.
Cuban humorous weekly. It is today the oldest of the satirical newspapers that are published in Cuba and throughout Latin America . Palante, whose first issue comes out on October 16, 1961. I mention this publication because it clearly illustrates the blow inflicted on Cuban political satire from that date. The name of the weekly is derived from the slogan then in vogue: “We are socialists, pa’lante y pa’lante[going forward].” The name alone demonstrates the publication’s political affiliation and commitment to the government in power, banishing in advance the intrinsic quality that had thus far characterized Cuban political satire, as an arm of popular sentiment against the abuses of the government in power.
El Pionero, Juan Padron
Blanco's "Elpidio Valdes"
was first published in
Pionero in 1970. Founded 25 as November as 1961 , the Journal Pioneer, already in the year 2011 celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Several generations have been formed by reading the pages of this magazine, in which they have found, along with entertainment, valuable knowledge and information about our homeland history , our heroes and martyrs as well as the anti-imperialist and internationalist traditions of our people . Many characters known to Cuban girls and boys such as Elpidio Valdés , Cecilín and Coti , among others, who have contributed to the knowledge of the History of Cuba, and the fight against crime and social indisciplines, were born in the pages of this publication. Pioneer has contributed to instilling in the younger generations the values of socialism among which the love of country and the willingness to defend it even with one's own life, if necessary, stand out. He has shown the participation of our children in the tasks of the Revolution and the performance of the Pioneer Organization in its different stages; including relations with the pioneer organizations of the missing socialist countries.
C-Línea, launched in 1973,
was a journal dedicated to
the study of comic art, the
first attempt to do so.
It only published 14 issues. -Lı´nea lasted until 1977, publishing only 14 issues (Mogno 2005: 231; Merino 2010: 98).11 The creators of C-Lı´nea, guided by Fidel Morales, had among their main goals the study and analysis of Latin American comics while, at the same time, promoting new authors. It was a very modest publication (similar to a fanzine), but it succeded in breaking down some missconceptions about comics, focusing on the formal and ideological possibilities of such mass media in Latin America. C-Lı´nea tried somewhat to bring prestige to comics and promote a national comics industry.
Dedeté started as a bi-monthly
humor magazine in February
of 1979. It was edited by cartoonist Migue (Miguelito). It included work by both established and novice cartoonists and won numerous international awards. It closed down
November 1990.
Zunzún, was first
published in
October 1980. Still published today. On October 10, 1980, just the day that commemorated the 112th anniversary of the start of our first War of Independence, Zunzun magazine, the name given to our colibri in Cuba, went out to the streets. It was intended for children aged 9-10. Zunzun had comic strips, stories, articles of information, but written not with the urgency of circumstantial journalism, but investigating thoroughly, summarizing and achieving a journalism that we call literary. As for the comic strips - by then we already had good comic strip cartoonists - they dealt with the theme of our wars of independence, pre-Columbian life, science fiction, adventures and fantasies and educational themes according to the campaigns we proposed. Although there was a director, editor, draftsmen and journalists, each Zunzun issue was planned by everyone; everyone brought their ideas, they were discussed and approved or not by the majority: we were a team in everything, because journalists suggested illustrations and the cartoonists commented with them their interpretations and nothing went to the printing press without everyone having seen what we were to send; and in the press we checked the revisions because something could have escaped and because we had to see what inks we could have for the paper not exactly optimal that we had: in this way the graphic workers were also part of our team.
Bijirita, began as a quarterly
Magazine in February 1985. While Zunzún was meant for older children and teens, Bijirita was meant for those aged 2-4 It was difficult to write because the articles had to be short and easy to understand regardless of the complexity of the topics. It was another victim of the economic downturn of the country and the blockades it was subjected to.
El Muñe, was first
published in 1985
as a weekly tabloid. It was intended more for adults.
Cómicos was first published
in December 1985, as a
monthly comic book. It was intended more for adults.
Mi Barrio, was first published
September 1996 despite the
paper shortages. It is supported
economically by
the Comite´s de Defensa
de la Revolucio´n (CDR) and
the Unio´n de Escritores y
Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC)
Pásalo 1972
¡Aventuras!
Mella One of the most important anti-Batista strips was Pucho y Sus Perrerías, by Marcos Behemaras and Virgilio Martínez Gaínza, published in the clandestine political magazine Mella (1955-59). After 1959, Mella and Revolución published comic strips and weekly comics supplements. But, as Ana Merino pointed out, nothing is said about the influence of Mad in Cuban comics during the 1960s in Mella, although a large part of Virgilio Martı´nez’s production in Mella is formally influenced by Mad (Merino 2003: 157).Virgilio Martı´nez took up the challenge of creating successful comics for Mella in Mad’s style, making parody and satire its hallmark. Martı´nez (pencils) and Marcos Behemaras (script) collaborated in Mella during the insurgency against Batista, when Mella operated as a clandestine magazine (1955–1958). They produced two long-running comics, ‘Pucho y sus perrerı´as’ and ‘Luis y sus amigos’, the former featuring a dog in a bitter mockery of the dictatorship and the latter focused on social issues, emphasizing the collectivity which would be problematized in the early 1960s with Che´ Guevara’s ideas about revolutionary consciousness. With the revolution in power, Martı´nez (1931–2008) and Behemaras (1926–1966) created some of the best comics ever produced in Cuba, most of them humour satires, such as ‘John Despiste investigador senatorial’ (figure 4) a mockery of US intelligence against communism; ‘¿Co´mo se fabrica un anticomunista?’ (‘How to create an anti-communist?’) about early education to US citizens against communist values (figure 5); parodies of US comics, like the long running ‘Supertin˜osa’, mocking ‘Superman’, starting in n. 165 (1 August, 1959); a version of Mandrake the Magician in which Lotario learns how to hypnotize and reverse the roles of master and servant, in n. 180 (20 September, 1960); a rather different Dick Tracy who does not see (or better does not want to see) multiple crimes comitted by KKK members in n. 178 (July 1960). Some comics also appeared signed by Virgilio alone, such as the controversial
Zig Zag started in 1938, initially supported the revolution but ran afoul of the government.El Loquito becomes a regular in Zig-Zag, whose political satire comes into open contradiction with the revolution of 1959, resulting in its definitive closure on January 31, 1960. Dictators have never endured humor, let alone humorists. That is part of the history of the Cuban Weekly Zig Zag, which the old Cuban dictator will liquidate in 1960.
La Picua
Pablo It was intended more for adults.
