IN LA CORUÑA — comics and cartoon stories

Historietas del tebeo 1917-1977 is an exhibition produced by Museo ABC that can be
visited in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC) of the Fundación Naturgy in La
Coruña.

Starting from 300 works (180 original drawings and 120 magazines), the history of the
comics is exposed, its appearance, its consolidation as a literary genre, how children
were interested in the comics (from the adventures of the west, to the love novels or
the comics of heroes) and the meaning of a comic. It is an exhibition about spanish
comics, and more specifically, about those published between 1917 and 1977. Why
these dates? Because in 1917 began the magazine TBO, which will deeply mark the
terminology of the medium, and because in 1977 appears the magazine Totem, a
comic for adults, which had published European and Latin American comics that
marked the maturity of comics in the 60’s and 70’s.

A historical tour that serves to remember the adventures and characters with which
several generations of Spanish children grew and laughed and are now key in our
culture and graphic heritage, from Pulgarcito and Mickey to El Capitan Trueno or
Mortadelo and Filemón.

This broad and complex history has been structured in three distinct sections. A
chronology where the origins of these comics are revealed, and where the progression
of the industry and its surroundings are located. The section "Genres, characters and
authors" reviews the genres of Spanish comics: humorous, adventurous, romantic,
official comics (edited by political and religious institutions), comics for adults … The
third part "Privacy of the comic" is dedicated to the preparation and formats of comics;
we will review the almanacs, the Spanish editions of foreign comics, the graphic
novels, the boom of the comic for adults and those comics that we have described as
rare, basically because they are singular, minority and short-lived editions.