Ten forbidden cmics that did not want you to read - The Province

In the history of humanity there have always been banned books, works that have been censored by the authorities, for different reasons, with the aim that their message does not reach the population.

Neither the comics they have got rid of the censoring magnifying glass. Although this literary genre has millions of followers, others consider him a younger brother of literature. But, precisely, because a image is worth a thousand words, the message that hides a comic is a lot more forceful and graphic than that of a novel and for that reason, many comics or part of them were forbidden to the readers.

Thus, we find that books as apparently innocent as 'Tintin in the Congo' they had detractors with powerful arguments against them.

The Catalan writer and librarian Montse Vile Gutarra created a list in 2016 for the Fira del Llibre Prohibit (celebrated in Llagostera) in which included a series of comics prohibited throughout history. Here are some of them.

Asterix in Hispania (Goscinny & Uderzo), Spain

The censorship of the dictatorship altered the dialogues in which they made jokes and mocks about the Spaniards. They even changed the colors of the Roman uniforms that were beaten, so that they were dressed in red. In subsequent reeditions, and in democracy, they continued to maintain the alterations, both dialogue and colors, a few years more.

El Capitán Trueno (Mora & Ambrós), Spain

The censors and editors of the Franco dictatorship mutilated the comics for eliminate signs of violence and challenges to the authority, Besides of humor own of these cartoons.

Due to the socialist ideas of Víctor Mora, author of the comic, the Franco regime even put the prisoner in Barcelona, ​​but he was not the only one to suffer the consequences of repression: the stories he created were sold in the kiosks mutilated by the censors.

13 Rue del Percebe (Francisco Ibáñez), Spain

As he explains journalist Vicent Sanchis in his book, 'Mutilated Comics' (Ediciones B), the home of '13 Rue del Percebe 'by Francisco Ibáñez was a kind of Doctor Frankenstein with his own monster. "Only God can give life ", ruled the censor and the creator of Mortadelo and Philemon had to bend his neck and invent a ridiculous excuse for the landlord with divine aspirations to leave the forum, leave the story and replace it with a simple tailor.

The anecdote illustrates to what extent the Francoist censorship came with the comic, a product that anyone would consider innocuous but that revealed the regime.

Esther and her world (Douglas & Campos), Spain

In order to lower the sensual content and dialogues between its characters, some vignettes the texts were redrawn and changed.

The comic artist, the Barcelonan Purita Campos explains in an interview in Jot Down: "Yes, well, I had to touch up something, I was told that Esther was very low-cut, if the skirt was too short ...".

The Cebolleta Family (Vázquez), Spain

The Cebolleta family also had to undergo the magnifying glass of the Catholic moral of the time. Any publication for children and young people had to go through the censorship of the General Directorate of the Press. Acidic family perspective of Vázquez and his sour vision of labor exploitation, disappeared little by little from the pages of his comics.

Franco's censorship ended with the beautiful daughter and the different boyfriends that walked through the vignettes.

Blueberry: El Hierro Horse / the Steel Fist Man (Charlier & Giraud), Spain

All the scenes in which they came out were cut out in the first Spanish edition with the aim of not hurting sensibilities.

The Eternauta (Oesterheld & Solano López), Argentina

El Eternauta, by H. G. Oesterheld and F. Solano López, originally published between 1957 and 1959 in weekly installments, is the most important Argentine comic book in the history of the country.

A comic that has been reissued multiple times, and whose protagonist has become in a symbol of struggle and resistance to dictatorships like the Argentine military during which Oesterheld and his four daughters disappeared.

The Black Smurfs (Delporte & Peyo), USA

In the American edition, these characters turned purple since they considered the original to be racist.

Bone (Jeff Smith), USA

It is one of the most banned works in recent years in American schools and institutes, by the will of the parents of students because of their political point of view and because It is considered racist and violent. "The point is that they are trying to remove the ability of another person to choose what they want to read, and you can not do that," says the author, Jeff Smith, in an interview with The Guardian.

Cybercafé adrift (Shuzo Oshimi), Tokyo

Due to its high "extreme sexual content " the sale of the comic was banned in Tokyo in 2011.

The best illustrated children's books

One way to bring children to literature and also guarantee their enjoyment are illustrated albums. They are passionate and help them become familiar with the books, which is sure to be very important in their development.