List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Foreword: My Barcelona, el seny i la rauxa in the Comic
Pere Joan
Introduction: La ciutat dels tebeos
Part I: The Right to the City
1. The Housing Question: Anti-urbanistic Salvos from Butifarra!
2. A Space of Her Own: Montse Clavé's Feminist Urban Revolution
3. A la calle: Martí, Pepichek, and the Underground Style of El
Rrollo
Part II: On the Move
4. A Comix Jailbreak: Fuga en la Modelo by Miguel Gallardo and Juan
Mediavilla
5. Out of Place in the Eixample: Tilting at Windmills with Antonio
Pamies
6. Mobile Societies: Space, Place, and Nonplace in Pere Joan's
Passatger en transit
Part III: Design Aesthetics and Architecture
7. Spectacular Modernity: The Urban Visions of Victoria Bermejo and
Juan Linares
8. Branding Bar Cel Ona: Mariscal's Design Aesthetics and the
Business of Comics
9. Architecture, Antoni Gaudí, and the Global Urban Imagination
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
Benjamin Fraser is Professor of Iberian Studies at the University of Arizona. He is the author of many books, including The Art of Pere Joan: Space, Landscape, and Comics Form and Visible Cities, Global Comics: Urban Images and Spatial Form.
"This book bears a special appeal for urban studies and
city-planning courses. On one hand, its portrayal of a city's
culture in transition registers the potential for social
transformation in the creation of urban space. On the other, it
invites readers to revisit Barcelona and view its many spatial
innovations—like the xamfrà, the truncated corners ever-present in
the Eixample—with new eyes." — Journal of Urban Affairs
"By virtue of bringing together and mobilizing the relations
between different fields (comics studies, cultural studies,
transitional studies, urban studies), Barcelona, City of Comics is
testimony to the power of interdisciplinary work and of thinking at
the intersection of disciplines. All in all, it is an excellent
contribution." — H-Net Reviews (H-Urban)
"Barcelona, City of Comics is a must-read for anyone in comics
studies and in urban cultural studies—and for any reader curious
about comics, Spain, cities, and architecture. Fascinating,
elegantly structured, and compellingly written, Fraser deftly
weaves together urban history, politics, and close attention to
aesthetics, offering readers snapshots of dynamic artists who
exploded the myth of unification and homogeneity after the
Francoist dictatorship. A lively, significant contribution that
will resonate across fields." — Hillary Chute, author of Why
Comics? From Underground to Everywhere
"A superb dialogue between the creative voices of unique comic
artists and the way the urban territoriality of Barcelona inspired
their multicultural work." — Ana Merino, author of El cómic
hispánico and Chris Ware: La secuencia circular
"This is an amazing book. As a scholar of peninsular culture and
avid reader of comics, I find Barcelona, City of Comics highly
informative for experts and non-experts alike, cohesive,
entertaining, well-researched, and refreshing in the agility of its
prose. Fraser's writing is unencumbered by heavy theoretical
entanglements but includes just enough engagement—with comics
theory, urbanism, Marxism, and cultural studies—to undergird his
assertions. The strongest point of the book, without a doubt, is
the richness of the individual close readings of comics and comics
panels, and their strong historical contextualization." — Eduardo
Ledesma, author of Radical Poetry: Aesthetics, Politics,
Technology, and the Ibero-American Avant-Gardes, 1900-2015
"A deep dive into the ways that comics intersect with the social,
cultural, and political life of a great city, Barcelona, City of
Comics brings together urban studies and comics studies in entirely
unexpected ways. Nimbly skipping across topics and works from
dozens of creators, this book shines a spotlight on a creative
scene far too little understood." — Bart Beaty, University of
Calgary, author of Unpopular Culture: Transforming the European
Comic Book in the 1990s
"Barcelona, City of Comics tells a compelling story of Spanish
graphic narratives in the wake of Franco, one that deserves to be
more widely known. Across its several chapters, anti-fascist
resistance interlocks with the emergence of new radical
subcultures, feminist practices, and speculative urban worlds.
Fraser moves deftly between material context and the comics page to
show us the history and politics of artistic form, and to
contribute to the growing awareness of comics' ability to narrate
our cities anew." — Dom Davies, author of Urban Comics
Ask a Question About this Product More... |