Panama.
Panama
1997
Panama's best-documented comics creators have built their careers abroad: Roser Oduber made comics in Barcelona in the 1980s, while Cornnell Clarke and Jorge Cham, author of the webcomic Piled Higher and Deeper (1997 to 2021), work in the United States.
At home, Mexican comics such as Memín Pinguín and Samurái John Barry were sold from the 1980s. The newspaper La Prensa carried editorial cartoons by Julio Briceño (Rac), who in 2001 faced criminal defamation charges over a cartoon of a former vice president.
4
4
1997
2000s
Artists from Panama in the archive.
Comics from Panama in the archive.
Piled Higher and Deeper, the earliest comic from Panama in the archive.
The decade when the most new comics from Panama began.
historieta
Panama in 3 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Panama.
3 chapters
1981
to 2001
Chapter 01
La Prensa and the editorial cartoon
La Prensa, founded in 1980 to oppose military rule, published its first issue on 4 August 1981. In 2001 former vice president Ricardo Arias Calderón brought criminal defamation charges against its editorial cartoonist Julio Briceño, who signs as Rac, over a cartoon of 30 December 2000 that showed Arias with the Grim Reaper.
1983
to 1989
Chapter 02
Imported comics and early work abroad
From 1983 the publisher Editora Cinco distributed its edition of the Mexican comic Memín Pinguín in Panama and other Latin American countries, and the Mexican sepia adventure Samurái John Barry was also published weekly in Panama. In the same decade the Panamanian-born artist Roser Oduber made comics for the alternative review Rambla in Barcelona.
1997
to today
Chapter 03
Webcomics and graphic novels in the United States
Jorge Cham, born and raised in Panama, began Piled Higher and Deeper in 1997 as a graduate student at Stanford and became a full-time cartoonist in 2005. Cornnell Clarke, born in Bocas del Toro in 1972, published the erotic graphic novel series The Diary of Molly Fredrickson with NBM from 2003 and self-published Urban Jointz in 2009.
The comics to know
- Piled Higher and Deeper1997 · webcomicJorge Cham. Newspaper and web comic strip about graduate students, produced until 2021.
- The Diary of Molly Fredrickson: Peanut Butter2003 · graphic novelCornnell Clarke. Erotic graphic novel published by NBM, followed by seven more volumes.
- Urban Jointz Vol. 12009 · graphic novelCornnell Clarke. Self-published graphic novelette.
- Big Apple Shortsgraphic novelCornnell Clarke. Book that followed the Peanut Butter volumes.
The people to know
- Jorge ChamBorn 1976Panamanian-born creator of the webcomic Piled Higher and Deeper.
- Julio BriceñoEditorial cartoonist of La Prensa, known as Rac, tried for defamation over a 2000 cartoon.
- Cornnell ClarkeBorn 1972Born in Bocas del Toro; author of The Diary of Molly Fredrickson graphic novels.
- Roser OduberBorn 1957Panamanian-born artist who made comics for the Barcelona review Rambla in the 1980s.