The serious cartoonist who depicted the Spanish political transition.

It is amazing to learn about the quality and historical value of some of the original drawings that one can find in a flea market for a handful of coins. To catch a good piece all you need is a little patience and attention, and probably a certain artistic eye. The drawing I show below was acquired at the Tetuán street market in Madrid on October 24, 2021, and was produced by the great cartoonist Máximo San Juan Arranz (Máximo) in 1977.

Graphic humour, by Máximo. Indian ink on Marca Mayor paper. Size: 285 x 225 mm.

This drawing was published full-page in the fortnightly magazine Telva in mid-March 1977 (No. 324, SARPE, Madrid, p. 30). In the author's unmistakable style, this original sketch by Máximo is of great interest as it is representative of those uncertain years of the Spanish political transition to democracy, in the year prior to the approval of the Spanish Constitution. Stylistically, it presents a parallelism with the schematic and linear drawings that its author made for El País newspaper. Máximo's is a cultivated, minimalist, sometimes metaphysical humour. José Antonio Llera defined the cartoonist as "the James Joyce of graphic humour". Máximo is a satirist who confers significance to each object he portrays, and this requires a certain degree of culture and intelligence from the reader. It could be said that his is a sober and minority humour. The researcher Iván Tubau speaks of "a visual and thematic code of his own", while defining Máximo as an author who is not suitable for the mentally lazy.

Telva magazine, nº 324, March 1977.

The subject matter portrayed in this drawing is related to the political concerns of its author at that particular time in Spanish political and social life. And although the keys to reading Máximo's humour are not usually simple, the stone monolith, like something immutable and timeless, probably depicts the political situation in 1977 described with a certain pessimistic air. Beside two obelisk-shaped stone masses, tiny citizens advance, alone or in pairs, towards a distant, leafy horizon under a rising sun, which casts its shadows behind them. The archetypical depiction of these characters makes them insignificant compared to the magnitude of the two obelisks. One of them undoubtedly symbolizes the established power that limits their movements and freedoms, perhaps the political, religious and economic power in Spain at the time. This monolith represents the interference of this immutable power in the life of the citizens, who hope to achieve democracy. One of the two obelisks, with its back to the sun, closes its eyes as in a deep sleep, in a dream from which it does not want to wake up. We assume that the other one does look towards the horizon.

In Spanish political life, Adolfo Suarez had replaced Arias Navarro as President of the Government, and the Parliament had passed the Law for Political Reform, which would allow the legal structures of the dictatorship to be dismantled, giving way to a democratic system. But the long-awaited reforms promised to the democratic opposition groups were not forthcoming because of strong opposition from Franco's immobilist sector, the so-called Bunker. The regime, from the organs of power it still controlled, offered stiff resistance to any political change. Law 1/1977, of 4 January 1977, for Political Reform, allowed the general elections of 15 June 1977. In May 1977, two months after the appearance of our drawing, Telva magazine published another graphic joke by Máximo in which the obelisk rose from the ground like a rocket in propulsion. Spanish democracy had begun to take off.

Graphic humour, by Máximo. Telva magazine, nº 327, May 1977.

The draughtsman and writer Máximo San Juan (1932-2014) began to publish his graphic humour in the satirical magazine Don José, directed by cartoonist Antonio Mingote, in the early 1960s. During that decade he collaborated as a cartoonist in the newspapers Arriba and Pueblo, and occasionally in the Informaciones journal. In 1965 he was awarded the Paleta Agroman prize for graphic humour. After a brief period at El Correo Catalán and La Vanguardia, Máximo joined El País daily newspaper in May 1976, where he remained for 29 years. At the same time, he worked for other periodicals, such as La Codorniz, Por Favor, ABC and Telva, among other newspapers and magazines. All these contributions allowed the cartoonist to devote himself exclusively to graphic humour and writing.

Máximo's drawings are closer to an opinion article than to the graphic humour genre of the time. In fact, his collaborations for El País were published in the Opinion section. Throughout his life Máximo published nearly thirty thousand cartoons and graphic jokes. In 1981 he received the Mingote Prize, in 1985 the Joaquín Costa Prize for Journalism and the Pro-Human Rights Association Prize, in 1988 the González Ruano Prize for Journalism, in 2005 the Antonio de Lara, Tono, Graphic Humour Prize, in 2007 the Rodríguez Santamaría Prize, in 2008 he received the Gato Perich International Humour Prize of Honour, and in 2010 the Quevedo Ibero-American Graphic Humour Prize. In addition to graphic humour, he published articles and several books: Historias Impávidas (1971), Este país (1972), Carta abierta a la censura (1974), Diario Apócrifo y Animales Políticos (1976), No a la OTAN y otros incordios (1982), El poder y viceversa (1987) and Hipótesis (1995). The Writers and Cartoonists Syndicate of New York published his drawings in the United States. His death in December 2014 was widely reported in the national press and on Spanish television. Most of his graphic art is preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (National Library of Spain). The numerous bibliographical references, the solo and group exhibitions in which he took part, and the prizes and awards he received throughout his professional career are a good testimony to the significance of his work.

References:

Tubau, Iván, "Guerra y paz en el país de Máximo", El humor gráfico en la prensa del franquismo, Mitre, Barcelona, 1987, pp. 259-269.

Meléndez Malavé, Natalia. "Máximo, opinador diario e independiente de la mañana", en El humor gráfico en el diario El País durante la transición política española (1976-1978), capítulo 9, pp. 271-1974. Tesis doctoral en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación de la Universidad de Málaga (2004).

Llera, José Antonio, El humor verbal y visual de La Codorniz. Instituto de la Lengua Española, Madrid, 2003, pp. 378-383.

"Muere a los 82 años el dibujante y viñetista Máximo". ABC, Madrid, 2014.

García, Rocío. "Muere Máximo, el dibujante que marcó una época en la prensa". El País, Madrid, 2014.

"La familia del viñetista Máximo dona a la BNE un total de 12.000 dibujos del autor". La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 2019.