The Comic Diary

At the ARA newspaper, we have believed for many years that comics are an art and also a journalistic genre in which there is opinion, information, reflection, and humor. For this reason, coinciding with Comic Barcelona, we are replacing photographs with drawings by cartoonists who give their vision of current events.

Furthermore, one of the topics we are committed to is explained in comic format. This year, the Topic of the Day has been handled by Valencians Paco Roca, cartoonist, and Rodrigo Terrasa, screenwriter, who address the controversial issue of the labyrinth that immigrant regularization entails. The rest of the newspaper, what is properly current affairs, we have illustrated with history, that is, with drawings from the National Collection of the Generalitat of Catalonia, with which we collaborate in this special newspaper to disseminate this important collection.

 The exercise allows us to see, as happens in all works of art, to what extent, beyond the context in which they were created, they speak to us today. To achieve this, we have had the collaboration of the Service of Museums of the Generalitat, which manages the acquisition program of the heritage collection of the National Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), and especially its Head of Communication, Charo Canal; the Museum of Art Morera of Lleida, and, above all, the team of the Library of Catalonia, especially its director, Eugènia Serra, and the director of its graphic unit, Sílvia Ferrer.

As always, I greatly appreciate the complicity of both the newspaper team and the readers with these special newspapers. On this occasion, never more aptly said, it is a collector's newspaper that is made of collection