After his elderly father jumped out of a window to his death, haunted by memories of Spain’s civil war and its aftermath, Antonio Altarriba made a graphic novel out of the old man’s life, in a bid to lay his demons posthumously to rest.
Published in 2009, The Art of Flying became a best-selling comic in Spain — part of a trend in the country’s renascent industry of remembering a conflict that had long been brushed under the carpet.
“Towards the end, my father made a very short, but tragic assessment of his life,” lamenting that it had “all [been] for nothing,” Altarriba said.
Photo: AFP
“I can now tell my father that all was not for nothing,” he said.
The graphic novel follows Antonio senior through the bloody 1936-1939 Civil War, Spanish General Francisco Franco’s subsequent dictatorship and the fragile transition to democracy after his death in 1975.
At the time, authorities opted to draw a veil over the past, and this dark period of Spain’s history remains suppressed to this day, for fear of reviving once-bloody divisions, despite growing calls to heal still-open wounds.
However, fiction has attempted to plug this hole and the theme of the war has abounded in films, novels and in comic books.
Michel Matly, who has published a thesis on the conflict’s portrayal in comics at France’s Blaise Pascal University, said the comic-book format has a long history. Both sides of the civil war — Republicans and Nationalists — used comics for propaganda.
COMMON VOICE
“This was a time when people sometimes had trouble reading or were illiterate, and comics were a good way to relay messages,” he said.
However, under Franco’s dictatorship the theme was largely stifled. It was only in the early days of democracy that it came back to life in comic books, albeit in a watered-down mode in keeping with the general policy of appeasement.
Then in the 1990s, the industry went through a crisis during which many comic magazines shut down, Matly said.
At the turn of the century, the industry took off again, fueled by an economic bonanza and the arrival of graphic novels — a longer book format.
At the same time, more and more people were clamoring for the civil war to be addressed — culminating in a 2007 “historical memory law” that finally recognized victims of the conflict and Franco’s dictatorship.
“People talked more about the issue... Many books were written, and the same thing happened in comics,” said Paco Roca, who created several acclaimed graphic novels on the conflict.
This time round, though, the comic books were more raw.
Carlos Gimenez’s 36-39 Malos Tiempos (36-39 Bad Times”) about the siege of Madrid by nationalist forces is a case in point.
Based on the testimony of a man who experienced the war, it graphically recounts harrowing stories: from a mother’s decision to give away her son’s beloved cat, to a starving neighbor or a man’s terror at seeing someone decapitated in a bombing.
However, whereas people reached saturation point with books and films on the issue, graphic novels continued to appeal with their powerful, accessible mix of text and drawings, even if the industry remains small.
Matly says that more than 120 comics were published between 2001 and last year in Spain on the subject, and they keep coming.
For instance, historian Paul Preston’s definitive book on the conflict has been adapted into a graphic novel this year.
POWERFUL MEDIUM
Sarah Harris, a US specialist in narratives of trauma in Spanish fiction, said that the nature of comics — where people can pause and reflect on a page — makes them a powerful medium for remembrance.
“It’s become a way to testify,” Altarriba said.
“I speak a lot with readers who are the great-grandchildren of people who experienced the war... and it’s clear that there is a strong will to fill the gaps,” he said.
Roca experienced this first hand when he created Los Surcos del Azar (Furrows of Fate) about Miguel Campos, who fled the war to north Africa and went on to fight the Nazis in France.
Campos genuinely existed although he disappeared in France, prompting Roca to fictionalize the latter part of the story.
However, Campos’ granddaughter read it and contacted Roca, thinking he may have traced him down.
“I had to say it was fiction... But I put the family in touch with the historian Robert Coale and they are now piecing together his life,” he said.
Summing up the malaise surrounding the civil war, late author Ramiro Pinilla wrote in a forward to Gimenez’s “36-39 Malos Tiempos that Spain wanted nothing more than to put the past behind.
“We want to turn the page ... but not before reading it,” he said. “Because there was a war, I saw it.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number