Out of the Gutter: The Politics of Dissent in Visual Print Media from the Spanish Transition to the Present

Abstract

Abstract This monographic issue examines cultural and political dissent from late Francoism to the global financial crash of 2008 and the ensuing crisis years in Spain. The issue’s focal lens of ‘visual print media’ (VPM)—a capacious term comprising comics, tebeos, cartoons, zines and graphic novels—represents a holistic approach to form, social impact and the creative and collective practices involved in production. Out of the Gutter engages these publications in their role as vehicles for cultural resistance, which test the boundaries of censorship, political expression and personal freedom as well as the cracks in the foundations of civil society in contemporary Spain. The ‘gutter’, that liminal space between comic panels, is representative of VPM’s unique visual-verbal interplay and the way in which this formal feature can be mobilized as a tool for mapping genealogies of dissent.