La historia en breve

The book studies the relation between the avant-garde and graphic humour in two critical historical periods: the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the early years of the Cuban Revolution (1959-1961). It focuses on the so-called war magazines in Spain on the Republican side (No Veas, Trincheras, and LEsquella de la Torratxa,among others) and the Francoist side (Vértice and La Ametralladora). In the part devoted to Cuba, the analysis covers the newspaper Revolución and the avant-garde humour magazine El Pitirre, which ran simultaneously to the cultural supplement Lunes de Revolución and shared the same fate when Lunes and El Pitirre were closed down in 1961. The book unveils the trajectory of the avant-garde graphic humour in both periods, when the political commitment progressively overshadowed the development of the aesthetic avant-garde. The special socio-political conjuncture posed ideological and aesthetic-conceptual challenges to graphic artists, establishing contact areas and influences between Spain and Cuba.