cartoonists

   Cartoonists, like other media professionals, laboured during the Franco period under the restrictions imposed by censorship. The principal satirical weekly, La Codorniz (The Quail), which was the main outlet for political cartoons, suffered frequent periods of suppression. With the greater press freedom under democracy, cartoonists like Forges came into their own. In the 1970s, his distinctive style, with its boldly defined outline figures and its use of oblique but barbed comment, appealed greatly to the liberal intellectual readers of Cambio 16, who were broadly supportive of the new institutions, but wary of giving them uncritical approval. Subsequently, Forges moved to the associated daily newspaper, Diario 16, but left to join the staff of El Mundo when that paper was established in 1989. Since 1995, his work has been appearing regularly on the editorial page of El País, displacing the more stylized and enigmatic Máximo, who nevertheless continues to contribute elsewhere in the paper. El País also features regularly the work of Peridis, whose spidery but instantly recognizable caricatures of leading political figures engage in quasi-surreal dialogue across a four- to six-frame comic strip. The main contributor of cartoons to Cambio 16 is Juan Ballesta, whose vigorous, broad-brush drawings deliberately seek to present contemporary issues with dramatic impact.

   See also: comics

   EAMONN RODGERS