Venezuelan comics come in when I was running out of places with stories behind the art form. I mean, I only came across this subject from a Twitter post. So special thanks to UMC Comics for sharing Capitán Venezuela’s achievement. So how exactly does this country function in economy or freedom of speech? More importantly, how do the fans support them?
Venezuelan Comics: Gotta Start Somewhere
I guess that it’s no surprise that one of the earliest Venezuelan comics I can find is a newspaper strip. El Náufrago or The Castaway starts in 1980 about a maroon by sculptor Jorge Blanco. It was a series of the title character trying to survive, find rescue, and entertain himself in bizarre ways. The simplistic art with its lack of colors and backgrounds allow for crazy and memorable scenarios. So popular people try to imitate it in their notebooks, or in my case find strips on Pinterest. I’d tell you to buy the book but people are selling it on eBay for hundreds of bucks! In any case, I think the positive response of The Castaway speaks to Venezuela itself. Within confinement, artists have to find ways to express themselves.
Historical/Political Context
It’s like this, Venezuela’s main source of income is oil. Sure it still has deposits of resources like nickel and iron, but the oil reliance helped cause inflation. Alright, alright, that’s mainly because of recessions in the 80s and 90s. So when President Chávez got elected in the 2000s, he kept using oil to grant loans. Which combining this with his mismanagement and borrowing money for his social programs, the public was kind of screwed. Chávez and his successor Maduro went as far as to silence their critics to try and keep their failed systems running. Yeah for all of two-party systems’ criticisms, compared to this it doesn’t seem as bad.
Since comics need stable economies for distribution and freedom of speech to reach an audience, print was mostly out of the picture; except obviously for news strips. But even that’s a stretch because one newspaper’s buyout by Maduro supporters laid off some artists. Rayma Suprani, a critic of Chávez, had to move to Miami to get away from harassment. Silver lining, she still shares her satire with everyone else on Twitter and her website.
Venezuelan Comics On The Web
That brings us to the real home of Venezuelan comics, the internet! A number of bloggers have started a network full of works to release and distribute. Sure they don’t seem profitable, but they allow people to share an art form without backlash. In fact despite the different ideologies or opinions these fans and artists are united by a cause; a battle for comic’s attention, curiosity, and appreciation. Compare that to the government’s one-party system.
It’s why some of these artists create P.A.N.A. to promote and spread the production of Venezuelan comics. Through training, networking, and securing funding P.A.N.A. has plenty of influence. It’s enough to curate a mural showing the most influential comic characters and creators. Although I have to admit what catches my eye the most is the number of patriotic characters like Captain Venezuela. Apparently another goal of these artists are characters who better represent their country’s hopes than oil or politicians.
But the ink’s not dry yet, there’s probably way more than what I could find. Leave your thoughts in the comments to any sources you think can add to this. Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.