Carme Barbará Geniés (born 3 July 1933), known professionally as Carmen Barbará, is a Spanish comics artist and illustrator. Her most famous character is the reporter , who revolutionized the image of women in Spanish cartoons, breaking from their traditional romantic roles.
Biography
Carme Barbará Geniés was born in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
into a family whose members were very fond of drawing and painting.
Before becoming a cartoonist, her favorite comic was ''
Tim Tyler's Luck
''Tim Tyler's Luck'' is an adventure comic strip created by Lyman Young, elder brother of ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie'' creator Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip ran from August 13, 1928, until August 24, 1996.
...
'' (translated into Spanish as ''Jorge y Fernando''), and she also bought the magazines ', ', ', and ''El Hombre Enmascarado'' (''
The Phantom
''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The char ...
'').
At age 14 she began drawing for a publication set up by a schoolmate. Then in the mid-1950s, she went on to publish fairy tales for Ediciones Alberto Geniés, owned by her cousin.
[
Her next creation was the character of Luisa in the magazine ' for Editorial Plaza.
She drew for and their comics ''Mis Cuentos'', ''Alicia'', ''Cuentos de la Abuelita'', and '. For Editorial Bruguera she drew ''Sissi'' and ''Cuentos Rositas'' in their women's publications, and ''Cuentos'' for girls.]illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
.Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, and Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.[
]
''Mary Noticias''
Carmen Barbará's most famous comic is ', published from 1962 to 1971 for Ibero Mundial.[ Its title character revolutionized the image of women in cartoons, breaking from their traditional romantic roles. Mary works as a television reporter. Her freedom of movement was of some concern to censors of the day.][
The strip began on 21 June 1962 and 484 issues were published.
]
Style
Barbará's style evolved from the "sappy softness" of the "marvelous comic" to the harder realism of romance comics
Romance comics are a genre of comic book, comic books that were most popular during the Golden Age of Comics. The market for comics, which had been growing rapidly throughout the 1940s, began to plummet after the end of World War II when military ...
.
Personal life
Married with two sons, Barbará worked at home for years while taking care of them. She retired at age 65 in 1998.[
]
Work
References
External links
Carmen Barbará
at Lambiek
Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum
Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the prov ...
''Comiclopedia''
List of works
at Tebeosfera
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbara, Carmen
1933 births
Living people
20th-century Spanish women artists
Artists from Barcelona
Spanish editorial cartoonists
Spanish comic strip cartoonists
Spanish women comic strip cartoonists
Spanish comics artists
Women artists from Catalonia
Spanish women editorial cartoonists
Spanish women illustrators
Spanish female comics artists