''El Víbora'' ( Spanish: ''The Viper'') was a Spanish language monthly alternative comics magazine published 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 ...

, Spain, between 1979 and 2005, with a peak monthly circulation of 80,000 copies. The magazine was subtitled "Comix for Survivors".

History and profile

''El Víbora'' was established in December 1979. The founders were a group of Spanish cartoonists led by Josep Maria Berenguer. Catalan comics publisher Josep Toutain financed the establishment of the magazine which was published by La Cúpula. Josep Maria Berenguer wanted to name the magazine as GOMA 3, a reference to Goma-2, an explosive notoriously used by the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

terrorist/nationalist organization

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

during the 1970s. However, the name was rejected by the Spanish authorities. ''El Víbora'' was published monthly and had its headquarters in Barcelona. The contributors included not only Spanish but also French and American authors, including Peter Bagge,

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American artist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American c ...

and Charles Burns. Native contributors were Max, Nazario, Mariscal, Pons, and Laura Pérez Vernetti. Of them, Max created the characters of Gustavo, Peter Pank, Gallardo and Mediavilla. Hernán Migoya served as the editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1992 to 1998. The last editor was Sergi Puertas. ''El Víbora'' sold 45,000 copies in 1983. Its circulation was 6,000 copies in 2004 just before its last issue in January 2005. The magazine ran over 300 issues during its existence. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the magazine was revived online, free of charge, as ''El Víbora para supervivientes'' (~ for survivors) for the duration of the lockdown in Spain. It contained mostly material from the original issues plus articles about coronavirus, with a cover about COVID-19. This revival lasted for six weekly issues.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vibora 1979 comics debuts 2005 comics endings 1979 establishments in Spain 2005 disestablishments in Spain Alternative magazines Comics magazines published in Spain Defunct magazines published in Spain Magazines established in 1979 Magazines disestablished in 2005 Magazines published in Barcelona Monthly magazines published in Spain Spanish-language magazines

History and profile

See also

References