Clara de noche
Spanish comic series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clara de noche ("Clara at night") is a series of comic strips created in 1992 by comic book writers Carlos Trillo, Eduardo Maicas, and the cartoonist Jordi Bernet.[1] It was published weekly in the Spanish magazine El Jueves, starting from number 772. After 1243 consecutive weeks of circulation, the series ended in 2015 in Spain.[2] It had stopped the year before in Argentina (September 2014), where it was simultaneously published in a young persons supplement called No in the newspaper Página/12.[3][4] Over 1,000 episodes of the comic strip[5] were also published in the Italian magazine Skorpio.[6] French, German, Greek[6] and Croatian translations were also made.[7] The series has been compiled periodically into albums,[8] and is considered one of the most important works of the three creators.[9]
| Clara de noche | |
|---|---|
Life-size figure of Clara de Noche, at the Barcelona International Comic Fair | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | El Jueves (Spain) Página/12 (Argentina) |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 1992 – 2015 |
| No. of issues | 1243 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Carlos Trillo Eduardo Maicas |
| Artist | Jordi Bernet |
| Collected editions | |
| Haciendo la calle (2000) | ISBN 84-88403-81-X |
| Todo por la pasta (2005) | ISBN 84-9741569--8 |
| Puta pero honrada (2009) | ISBN 978-84-9741578--1 |
| La historieta de la puta madre (2010) | ISBN 978-84-9741608--5 |
The central character is the prostitute Clara, and the cartoon reflects her amusing adventures and misadventures as a sex worker, along with the peculiar characters that get involved with her and her son Pablito.[10]
Description
Clara de noche was a humorous series of erotic cartoons. Initially it was produced in black and white but later in color, and covered two pages.[1] It recounts the adventures of a prostitute called Clara Fernandez, and her relationship with clients.[11] Other characters include her very clever son Pablito and her friend Virtudes.[10]
Clara's physical appearance is clearly inspired by the famous American bondage model and pin-up, Bettie Page.[12]
Controversy
Clara became one of the most popular characters of El Jueves, with a large following of fans who saw in her the idealisation of a woman; a libertine, independent and attractive.Despite this success in both in the Spanish and Argentine press, the comic had been the target of strong criticism and denunciations for alleged sexist and degrading content.[13][14]
However, in recent years, the comic's has been republished in new editions, keeping the character alive within both Spanish and Argentinian pop culture.