Paracuellos

Paracuellos is a work of great courage, created at a time when telling the truth about Spain's political past could get one killed. It is arguably the most important graphic memoir ever created in comics. With a preface by Will Eisner.

Carlos Gim nez's autobiographical account of the plight of children in post-World War II Fascist Spain has won virtually every comics award in Europe, including Best Album at the 1981 Angoul me Festival, and the Heritage Award at Angoul me in 2010.

In the late 1930s when Spanish fascists led by Franco, and aided by Hitler and Mussolini, overthrew the elected government, almost 200,000 men and women fell in battle, were executed, or died in prison. Their orphaned children--and others ripped from the homes of the defeated--were shuttled from Church-run home to home and fed a steady diet of torture and disinformation by a totalitarian state bent on making them productive citizens.

Carlos Gim nez was one of those children. In 1975, after Franco's death, Carlos began to tell his story. Breaking the code of silence proved to be a milestone, both for the comics medium and for a country coming to terms with its past.

An illustrated essay by Carmen Moreno-Nu o, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky, places the comics in historical perspective.

The stories transcend just being about a historical moment in Spain. Their humanity will speak to everyone. The stories are heartbreakers, but Carlos never loses his sense of humor.--William Stout

Author: Carlos Gimenez
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Published: 03/22/2016
Pages: 136
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 10.90h x 8.30w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781631404689
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/11/2016
Voice of Youth Advocates 08/01/2016 - Recommended - Better Than Most

About the Author
CARLOS GIMÉNEZ was born in Madrid in 1941. His first series in comics was Drake & Drake, followed by the popular Gringo, Delta 99, and Dani Futuro. It was with the publication of his powerful and moving tales of childhood in Franco's Spain--Paracuellos in 1977 and Paracuellos 2 in 1982-- that Giménez made the transition from craftsman to artist. His other non-fiction works include the trilogy Spain United, Great, and Free (a chronicle of the political transition after Franco's death), Barrio (tales of his teenaged years after leaving the orphanage), and The Professionals (his much lauded inside story of the Spanish comics world in the 1960s).


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